About Fowara
Fowara LLC is a Fractional CTO practice led by Tareq Mahmud, a self-taught technology leader with 30 years of programming experience spanning AS/400 COBOL to modern AI-first development. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Fowara has delivered over 100 projects since 2009 — with individual client relationships lasting up to 14 years. Fowara does not advise. Fowara builds.
Meet the Team →Meet Tareq Mahmud
I am a self-taught Fractional CTO with deep programming experience since 1996.
I see things differently. That is not a marketing line — it is the reason clients stay with me for 7, 10, even 14 years. I find patterns where others see chaos. I find gaps where others see complexity. I find workarounds where others see dead ends. And I can come up with solutions for complex problems quickly — most of the time before the meeting is over.
Some might say that debugging code is not a CTO's job. I disagree. Imagine the time wasted when a bug gets reported to a project manager, who schedules a meeting with a sales lead, who writes a ticket for a developer, who misunderstands the problem because the message got lost three times along the way. With me, you explain the problem once. I fix it. Sometimes at 3 AM.
What programming languages do I know? At this point, it does not matter. I started on AS/400 COBOL. I was an early adopter of osCommerce. I became a Magento community leader when the platform launched. I have built on WordPress, DotNetNuke, Shopify, BigCommerce, Umbraco, and .NET across three decades. Today, AI has enhanced my capability to the point where my deep knowledge of how code works — not just how to write it, but how to read it, debug it, and fix it across any language — is the real skill.
Our Clients Stay
| Client | Relationship | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Zenzii | Statement jewelry — osCommerce to Magento, custom wholesale, QuickBooks + ShipWorks integration | 14 years (2012 — present) |
| MedSupply Partners | Medical supply distributor — Magento to BigCommerce, punchout, full technology transformation | 7 years (2019 — present) |
| Baby Braithwaite | Maternity store — full site rebuild, custom registry extension, PCI compliance | 10 years (2012 — 2022) |
| Mercy Robes | Clergy attire — WooCommerce to Magento to Magento 2, grew 1,200% in 7 years | 7 years (2015 — 2022) |
| CoffeeAM | Specialty coffee — platform optimization, custom features, SEO strategy | 3 years (2017 — 2020) |
| NCR Corporation | Enterprise technology — Magento integration with Zuora, Salesforce, Ping Identity SSO | 3 years (2012 — 2015) |
If you work with a client for 14 years and the founder still calls you a friend — that tells you something no portfolio page can. Our clients stay because we do not overload on work and we take deadlines seriously.
100 projects is not a low number. It is the number that happens when your clients do not leave.
What Clients Say
Shawn Li, co-founder of Zenzii, described our work together in a way that captures how we operate: we are an integral part of our clients' operations, not an outside vendor they call when something breaks. After 14 years, Zenzii's co-founder considers us essential to their success.
When Allied Motor Parts came to us, their website was moving almost no product despite strong eBay sales. Within two weeks of launching the redesigned site, their business increased by 500%. The product was never the problem. The technology was.
When Mercy Robes came to us, they were a small husband-and-wife operation. Over 7 years, we grew their business by 1,200% — from WooCommerce to Magento to Magento 2 — transforming them into a multi-million-dollar brand in clergy fashion.
What Makes Us Different
We Are Not Consultants
Most fractional CTOs advise. We do both. When I say 'migrate to BigCommerce and replace your middleware,' I am also the person who builds it. When I find 14,361 broken images, I do not hand you a report. I fix them — with zero errors.
We Are Not Prompt Engineers
We are engineers who use AI. AI is integrated into every workflow — catalog intelligence, code review, SEO automation. But every script is written by engineers with decades of experience. AI makes us faster. It does not replace 30 years of judgment.
I Am a Swiss Knife
I do not stop at technical tasks. I jump into marketing strategy, procurement workflows, sales processes, shipping logistics — wherever I see a problem I can solve. My clients hire me because I can look at their entire operation and find what is broken.
We Do Not Push What You Do Not Need
I pushed MedSupply to leave Magento because it was not the right fit. I evaluated Shopify Plus and rejected it in two weeks. We do not sell platforms. We solve problems. If the solution is 'do nothing and save your money,' we will tell you that too.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has Tareq been coding?
30 years. Tareq started programming in 1996 on AS/400 COBOL, moved through osCommerce, became a Magento community leader, and now builds on .NET, BigCommerce, and Azure with AI-first development using Anthropic Claude.
Is Fowara one person?
No. Fowara has a distributed team of 7-12 specialists across the US, Europe, and South Asia. Every engagement is led directly by Tareq as CTO, with senior engineers, DevOps, security, and QA professionals supporting the work. Meet the team.
What industries does Fowara serve?
Primarily B2B e-commerce, medical supply distribution, wholesale, and specialty retail. Our clients range from $1M to $100M in annual revenue. We have deep experience in punchout catalogs (cXML/OCI), procurement integration, and platform migrations.
How does Fowara use AI?
AI is embedded across every workflow — from architecture reviews and code generation to catalog operations and client-facing product search. We use Anthropic Claude as our primary AI infrastructure. AI makes us faster, but it does not replace 30 years of engineering judgment.
Does Fowara offer free consultations?
Yes. We offer a one-hour free consultation for eligible new clients. No pitch, no pressure. We look at your technology, tell you what we see, and let you decide. Schedule yours.
Free Consultation
We offer a one-hour free consultation for eligible new clients. No pitch. No pressure. We look at your technology, tell you what we see, and let you decide. Most people who take the call become clients — not because we are good at selling, but because when someone with 30 years of experience looks at your stack for an hour, they find things nobody else noticed.