Fractional CTO for startups and growing companies
CTO-level technical leadership, part-time — in exactly the measure your company needs at its stage. I own the technical decisions, architecture, estimates and hiring, without taking a full-time seat.
When companies bring me in
- The founder has no technical background, and decisions have to be made now.
- A contractor quotes timelines and budgets, and there's no one to judge whether they're sound.
- A team or contractor is already in place, but no one owns the architecture, the estimates or the strategy.
- You're preparing for a round or a deal: an investor will look at the technical soundness.
- It's time to hire the first engineers, and there's no one to assess them in an interview.
What you get
- Technical decisions made in the interests of your business, not the contractor's.
- Clear estimates of time and budget — and the ability to check someone else's.
- Architecture and processes that fit your stage, without needless complexity.
- Someone accountable to you for the technical side, not just for the code.
How I work
- We start from the business goal and the stage of the company: what's critical now and what can wait.
- I take on the technical decisions and the architecture, and you understand why each one was made.
- I take part in hiring and setting up processes exactly as much as needed.
- I work to an agreed scope (typically a few days a month or a week), with the rhythm fixed up front.
- If the job is done, or it grows into a full-time CTO role, I help with the handover rather than hold on to the seat.
From practice
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Cloud platform for fitness club chains — from a first version to investment and a team: the same set of decisions a fractional CTO faces.
Read case -
Requests and offers matching platform — the price of early architectural decisions: the platform survived a change of market.
Read case -
Internal corporate portal — bringing a company's processes into one system where IT was being built from scratch.
Read case
FAQ
- How is this different from hiring a CTO?
- A full-time position is expensive and slow to fill, and at an early stage such a person is rarely fully utilized. A fractional CTO gives the same leadership and accountability without the cost of a full salary.
- How is this different from a contractor?
- A contractor solves the task you set. I'm accountable for which task is set and why, and I protect your interests when solutions are chosen.
- How much time do you give it?
- Typically a few days a month or a week, depending on the stage. The scope is agreed up front.
- What if we already have a strong tech lead or CTO?
- Then a second technical leader probably isn't needed. I'll say so plainly.
- What if we’re told "we need to rewrite everything"?
- I don't propose rewriting a system when the problem can be solved another way. First we work out what the problem actually is.
For more, see 'When a startup actually needs a fractional CTO'