Fail-Safe by Design: How Safety-Critical Systems Thinking Can Scale Your SaaS with Kjell Hedstrom
April 7, 2026
Last-mile delivery software, agentic engineering, and safety-critical systems - Onfleet CTO Kjell Hedstrom builds teams and tech that thrive under real-world pressure. Kjell’s career spans commanding tanks in the Swedish army, setting up air traffic control at Heathrow, and building software for brain surgery.
In this episode of SaaS That App, Kjell joins Aaron Marchbanks and Justin Edwards to explain how his background in safety-critical systems shaped his approach to engineering leadership, why he treats AI agents with the same trust-but-verify rigor as human developers, and what it took to overhaul Onfleet’s infrastructure, culture, and release process from the ground up.
This podcast is brought to you by Delta Systems, your one-stop shop for front-end, back-end, and full-stack software development. At Delta, Justin and Aaron share the same philosophy when it comes to clients: they treat people like colleagues, not just customers. Maybe that’s why Delta typically spends years working with the same companies: how many software engineering firms can you say that about? So, if you’ve got a big SaaS project in mind but have no idea where to start, come and get a free scope and estimate from Delta Systems on their website.
Got a burning idea for an episode, or a SaaS question you absolutely must know the answer to? Leave us a voice memo at SaaSThatApp.
Last-mile delivery software, agentic engineering, and safety-critical systems - Onfleet CTO Kjell Hedstrom builds teams and tech that thrive under real-world pressure. Kjell’s career spans commanding tanks in the Swedish army, setting up air traffic control at Heathrow, and building software for brain surgery.
In this episode of SaaS That App, Kjell joins Aaron Marchbanks and Justin Edwards to explain how his background in safety-critical systems shaped his approach to engineering leadership, why he treats AI agents with the same trust-but-verify rigor as human developers, and what it took to overhaul Onfleet’s infrastructure, culture, and release process from the ground up.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to apply safety-critical engineering principles to startup scaling
- Why ‘trust but verify’ works for both human and AI code contributors
- The collaboration-first hiring principle that compounds team performance
- How to balance multiple customer segments without abandoning your base
- Why deploying once per day beats weekly releases for product iteration
Kjell Hedstrom is the CTO of Onfleet, a platform powering last-mile delivery logistics for thousands of businesses worldwide through route optimization and real-time tracking. With a distinguished career spanning air traffic control systems, medical device software, and mission-critical infrastructure, Kjell brings decades of safety-driven engineering expertise to scaling SaaS products in high-stakes, real-world environments.
This podcast is brought to you by Delta Systems, your one-stop shop for front-end, back-end, and full-stack software development. At Delta, Justin and Aaron share the same philosophy when it comes to clients: they treat people like colleagues, not just customers. Maybe that’s why Delta typically spends years working with the same companies: how many software engineering firms can you say that about? So, if you’ve got a big SaaS project in mind but have no idea where to start, come and get a free scope and estimate from Delta Systems on their
website.
Got a burning idea for an episode, or a SaaS question you absolutely must know the answer to? Leave us a voice memo at
SaaSThatApp.
Chapters:
- [00:00] Introduction
- [01:57] From the Arctic to Montana
- [04:25] Air Traffic Control to Medical Tech
- [08:26] How COVID Led to Onfleet
- [10:35] Onfleet’s Hard Lessons
- [11:49] Ad Break
- [12:17] Safety-Critical Thinking Meets Agentic Codings
- [14:53] Trust But Verify, Both Directions
- [16:32] What the Swedish Army Taught Kjell About Leadership
- [18:05] From Weekly Deploys to Daily
- [22:16] Building Teams That Don't Need You
- [25:48] AI-Powered Analytics and Smarter Routing
Episode Resources:
We’d love your feedback. Please take a moment to fill out our audience questionnaire:
https://forms.gle/DN8hWFDcE9jwvNKo6
Your input helps us shape future episodes and continue bringing you practical, real-world insights into building B2B web applications.