"It's really just helped take a lot of items off my plate. The relationship has met and exceeded all the expectations we laid out."
ZyraTalk is a voice AI platform that processes thousands of AI phone calls every day for local service businesses -- plumbers, electricians, HVAC companies, lawyers, and medical practices. The company had already built a strong foothold in AI chat with a few thousand customers on that product, and the voice AI side was growing fast.
The growth created an infrastructure problem. ZyraTalk was handling roughly 1,000 AI calls a day and needed to scale to 10,000 -- with a long-term target of 100,000. The existing engineering team was large and capable, but infrastructure at that scale required a different kind of expertise. Someone needed to audit what they had, identify what would break under load, and lay the foundation for the next order of magnitude.
Brian Scruggs, ZyraTalk's COO, manages the product team and engineering and operates as the company's technical decision-maker. He was already stretched thin across product scope, API architecture, and enterprise security requirements. Adding infrastructure planning to his plate meant something else would slip.
"We didn't want to hire someone full-time, but we wanted somewhat of a fractional resource to do an audit, an overview, and help lay the foundation for some infrastructure items as we were scaling."-- Brian Scruggs, COO, ZyraTalk
ZyraTalk needed an expert who could hit the ground running, assess infrastructure readiness, and start building -- without the overhead of a full-time hire or a months-long onboarding cycle.
Fraction placed Jeremy, a senior engineer, to work directly with Brian as a fractional technical resource. The engagement started with a focused scope: audit ZyraTalk's existing infrastructure, assess what would hold up at 10x volume, and design the foundation for scaling.
From the start, the communication model was lean. Jeremy reported directly to Brian, and Brian managed the interface with the rest of the product and engineering teams. When deeper technical discussions were needed, Jeremy joined calls with ZyraTalk's engineers to walk through his infrastructure recommendations. But for daily execution, the communication stayed streamlined.
The relationship quickly expanded beyond the original infrastructure audit. Three areas became clear priorities:
"From an infrastructure standpoint, when we were scoping that out, that's definitely not my area of expertise. In terms of product scope, that was completely taken off of my plate."-- Brian Scruggs, COO, ZyraTalk
The most immediate result was operational: Brian got his time back. Infrastructure planning, API architecture, and security documentation -- three workstreams that were consuming his attention -- moved to someone with deeper expertise in each area.
For ZyraTalk, the infrastructure foundation is now built to support their growth trajectory. The audit identified what would hold and what needed to change, and the team began executing against that plan. The API framework and enterprise security documentation moved ZyraTalk closer to being enterprise-ready -- a critical milestone for a company selling into legal, medical, and home services verticals where compliance matters.
The engagement also proved the fractional model for ZyraTalk. This was their first time working with a fractional resource, and Brian described the experience as exceeding expectations.
"This is the first time, and it's pretty much what we expected. I think it's met and exceeded all the expectations that we laid out as we started the relationship. It's been a positive experience for sure."-- Brian Scruggs, COO, ZyraTalk
ZyraTalk plans to continue expanding the relationship as the product evolves. The engagement started as a defined infrastructure project and has become an ongoing technical partnership.
Brian offered a practical recommendation for other companies considering fractional engineering resources: come prepared with a clear internal roadmap.
"Before you take the next step to hire someone fractional, make sure you have an internal roadmap of, okay, we're going to start with this project, move to this project, then move to this project. You don't really want to hire a fractional position and expect them to lay the foundation for what their role is. You really need to be the expert in your own company and have an understanding of why you're hiring that person and what projects are needed."-- Brian Scruggs, COO, ZyraTalk
