Fractional CTO

Fractional CTO for software teams.

Senior technology leadership a few hours a week. Architecture, AI engineering, hiring and someone senior reviewing what ships, without a full-time executive.

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What you get

A technical leader who owns the decisions.

01

Architecture and build-versus-buy

Decide what to build, what to buy and what to leave alone, and get the systems to run it on.

02

AI engineering

Add AI features to your product and set up supervised coding agents your engineers trust.

03

Code and vendor review

Someone senior reads what your team and your agencies ship, before it becomes next year's rewrite.

04

Hiring and team shape

Job specs, interviews and the first senior hire, so the team you build fits the work ahead.

05

Investors and board

Technical due diligence prep and the data room, investor calls on architecture and AI, and a technical update for each board meeting.

06

Security and compliance

SOC 2 readiness, security questionnaires and data-handling policies, owned by someone who can answer an auditor.

07

Enterprise sales support

A senior technical voice on sales calls, security reviews and architecture questions, so bigger deals don't stall on engineering.

Also covered

The rest of the CTO job.

✓Engineering process: CI/CD, code review, on-call and incident response that hold up as the team grows.
✓Supervised AI coding agents through the Code Factory, so engineers ship more without merging unread code.
✓Cloud and AI model costs kept in check as usage grows.
✓A technical roadmap that pays down the debt that slows every feature.
Who it's for

SaaS and AI startups without a CTO yet.

✓A founder-led software company with engineers but no technical leader to report to.
✓An AI startup that needs senior judgment on models, data and cost before it can hire a full-time CTO.
✓A company between CTOs that needs continuity while it runs a search.
✓A startup raising a round, or selling to its first large customers, that needs a technical leader in the room.
Cost

What a fractional CTO costs.

Fractional CTO rates in the market run from about $2,000 to $25,000 a month, depending on hours and seniority. Ours are advisory hours, month to month: 5 hours a week for $3,500, 10 for $6,500, or 20 for $11,500. You can change hours as the work changes.

Common questions

Before you ask.

What does a fractional CTO do?

Owns your technical decisions a few hours a week: architecture, build-versus-buy, hiring, security and the technical story you tell investors. It is the same job as a full-time CTO, at the hours a small team needs.

Can you join investor and board meetings?

Yes. We prepare the technical side of due diligence, join investor calls to answer architecture, security and AI questions, and give the board a short technical update each quarter.

Can you get us ready for SOC 2 or a security review?

Yes. We own the plan: the policies, the controls and the evidence an auditor asks for, and we answer the security questionnaires larger customers send.

Do you write code, or only advise?

Both, depending on what you need. Our advisors review pull requests, fix production issues and build the first version of a system when that is the fastest way forward.

How is this different from a technical advisor?

An advisor weighs in when asked. A fractional CTO owns technical decisions and is accountable for them, the way a full-time CTO would be.

When should we hire a full-time CTO instead?

When technical leadership needs more than about 20 hours a week, or the role needs to own a large team day to day. We help you write the job spec and hire for it.

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