About LXV Wine Advisory Ventures Career Let's talk

Entrepreneur  ·  Technologist  ·  Winemaker  ·  Pilot

Kunal
Mittal

I've spent 25 years building things — SaaS companies, engineering teams, a winery, and a few planes-worth of flight hours. These days I advise early-stage founders and serve on boards across tech and fintech.

Former CTO, MINDBODY Co-Founder, LXV Wine Wine Enthusiast Future 40 ~600 hrs instrument-rated pilot 50+ technical books
Schedule 30 minutes Learn more
Kunal Mittal
25+
years in tech

About me

A technologist who
actually built things

I'm an entrepreneur who's been lucky enough to have a few different careers in one. I started as an engineer, grew into a product and technology executive, and eventually ran all of technology at MINDBODY — a $2B wellness SaaS company — as CTO. Along the way I've managed teams from 5 to 400, shipped products with over a million daily active users, and advised startups from their first hire to their first exit.

None of that is the thing I'm most proud of. That would be co-founding LXV Wine with my wife Neeta — a boutique winery in Paso Robles that we built from nothing into a $2M+ business recognized by Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Forbes, and Eater. We did it while both holding full-time careers, which felt impossible until it wasn't.

I'm also an instrument-rated private pilot with nearly 600 hours logged. That one has nothing to do with my career and everything to do with who I am.

1M+ daily active users Achieved in under 90 days post-launch
Teams of 400+ Product, engineering, security, IT
$2M+ wine business Built while holding full-time tech roles
~600 flight hours Instrument-rated private pilot

LXV Wine

A winery born from
curiosity

Neeta and I started LXV Wine in 2011 in Paso Robles — not because we had a business plan, but because we loved wine and believed terroir-driven, Bordeaux-inspired winemaking belonged in the Central Coast. Twelve years later, it's become a $2M+ business with an incredible winemaking team, our own estate vineyard (Armaa.N), and recognition we never expected. Neeta and I were named to Wine Enthusiast's Future 40 Tastemakers list, which still feels surreal. We also launched Maison Mittal — a prestige sub-label whose inaugural 2022 vintage earned four scores between 96 and 98 points from Somm's Journal.

Wine Enthusiast
Future 40 Tastemakers
Neeta & Kunal Mittal
Decanter
Red Wine of the Vintage, Paso Robles
2023 Meso by LXV Cabernet Franc
Somm's Journal
98 · 98 · 97 · 96 pts
Maison Mittal, inaugural 2022 vintage
Wine Enthusiast
Top 100 Cellar Worthy Wines
2023 Sangiovese, Armaa.N Estate
USA Today
Top 7 Tasting Experiences in the US
Also named Top 10 by Wine Enthusiast
Eater · Forbes
Top Places to Eat & Travel 2025
Featured in Forbes — Paso Robles Cab Collective
Visit lxvwine.com
$2M+
Annual revenue
2011
Founded
96–98
Somm's Journal pts

Advisory work

Where I spend
my time

I work with early and growth-stage founders as a fractional CTO or strategic advisor — usually when the product is good but the technology or team needs to catch up to the ambition. I don't just consult; I've done all of it myself.

🗺️

Product Strategy

Figuring out what to build, when, and for whom. Getting to product-market fit without burning the runway.

☁️

Cloud & SaaS Architecture

Designing systems that scale. Cloud migrations, platform strategy, and the decisions that are hard to undo later.

🤖

AI & Data

Separating the hype from what's actually useful. Building AI into product strategy in ways that create real leverage.

👥

Building Teams

Hiring, structuring, and leading engineering teams onshore and off. I've managed 5-person startups and 400-person orgs — both are hard in different ways.

🔒

Security & Compliance

Doing this well — without slowing down the product team — is harder than it sounds. I've built security programs at scale.

🔍

Technical Due Diligence

Evaluating technology, teams, and culture as part of M&A. Finding what the deck doesn't show you.

Ventures & investments

Companies I've been
part of

Beyond LXV Wine, here's where I've put time and money over the years — as a founder, an operator, or an early believer.

FrontM
ex-CPO & Investor

Digital transformation platform for maritime and remote industries. Served as Chief Product Officer and investor through the early growth stage. The company is now raising its Series A.

frontm.com
True Lark
Investor & Advisor

AI-powered front desk automation for wellness businesses, formerly FrontdeskAI. I was an early investor and strategic advisor. The company was acquired — a good outcome for a team that genuinely earned it.

truelark.com
Green Shores Capital
Investor

UK-based fintech investment fund. I'm an investor in the fund, with a particular interest in how fintech infrastructure is evolving across European and global markets.

Bouju / eCounterfeit
Co-Founder & ex-CTO

Brand protection technology startup. Co-founded and served as consulting CTO and board member from concept through product launch — an education in what early-stage really means.

Career

25 years
in the arena

From the Federal Reserve Bank to Hollywood to a $2B SaaS company. A few highlights below — the full story is in the résumé.

Download résumé →
2018 – Present
Independent — Advisor & Investor
Fractional CTO · Board Member · Investor

Working with early-stage and growth-stage technology companies across AI, fintech, and SaaS. Running LXV Wine as a full-time co-founder alongside advisory work.

2015 – 2018
MINDBODY
Chief Technology Officer

Ran all technology for a $2B SaaS company — product management, engineering, UX, data science, AI, security, infrastructure, and IT. Scaled DAU to 1M+ in under 90 days. Team of ~400.

2003 – 2015
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Executive Director, Enterprise Technologies

Led identity management, content management, and enterprise engineering for one of the world's largest studios. 12 years — long enough to watch the industry move from physical to streaming.

2011 – Present
LXV Wine
Co-Founder

Built a boutique winery from the ground up with my wife Neeta. Now a $2M+ business with national press recognition and wines scoring up to 98 points.

2001 – 2003
iRise
Senior Consultant

Enterprise software consulting. Product visualization tools before anyone called it UX.

1999 – 2001
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago & Nextera
MIS Specialist · Software Engineer

Where it started — financial systems and early web engineering.

Writing & publications

50+ books on
technology

I've been writing about technology since the early 2000s — as an author, co-author, and technical editor. Topics ranging from enterprise Java to cloud architecture to ML in production. Writing helped me become a better thinker.

Browse on Amazon →

Video interviews

▶
Accelerating Partner Onboarding with API Management
MINDBODY
▶
BEA World San Francisco Keynote
Sony Pictures Entertainment

Latest book

Keras to Kubernetes: The Journey of a Machine Learning Model to Production

A practical guide to taking ML models from experimentation all the way through production deployment on Kubernetes. Covers the full lifecycle — training, serving, scaling, and everything in between.

View on Amazon
50+
Books authored / edited
20+
Years writing

What people say

In their own words

"

Kunal belongs to the rare breed of technologists who possess the unique blend of vision and execution. He is a proven leader who builds world-class teams and cares deeply about his people. He has an amazing breadth in security, scalability, enterprise integration, and transactional systems.

Gurvinder SinghVP Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment
"

At MINDBODY I watched Kunal transform the organization into one that truly empowers its team. He's humble and highly accountable — one of the best things about working with him is watching him take responsibility when things go wrong, then give credit everywhere it's due when things go right. That's rare among C-level leaders.

Aaron TaylorDirector, Software Engineering, MINDBODY
"

Kunal presented at Burton Group's annual Catalyst conference. His talk was rated very highly. He demonstrated excellent speaking skills and authoritative technical expertise — both of which are essential to our audience of skeptical senior practitioners.

Mark DiodatiResearch VP, Gartner
"

Kunal is a wonderfully perceptive thinker on new technologies and a remarkably productive writer. It's rare to make imaginative leaps and also communicate original ideas to an audience of skeptical peers. He finishes drafts before I've even completed my edits. His powers are, I conclude, superhuman.

Clay AndresCIO, BiblioMeta
More on LinkedIn →

Get in touch

Working on something
worth talking about?

I'm always happy to spend time with founders building in earnest. If you have a technology challenge, a board seat that needs filling, or just want to talk through a hard decision — reach out.

Schedule 30 minutes Send an email
LinkedIn LXV Wine Résumé +1 805 779 0375