Fractional CTO services for companies that need real technical authority, roadmap ownership, board-level counsel, and team leadership, without the cost, risk, or timeline of an executive hire.
Not an advisor who drops opinions in a monthly call. An acting technical executive who:
Owns the technical roadmap and decisions
Leads and unblocks your engineering team
Translates engineering reality for the CEO and board
Runs your hiring bar for technical roles
Integrates AI into the roadmap where it earns its keep, and nowhere it doesn’t
$300K+ salary, 1–2% equity, 6-month search, and you’re betting the company on one interview process.
Starts in days, senior from day one, scales from 10 to 40 hours as needed, cancel when you outgrow it. Our clients average 60% cost savings vs. a full-time executive.
When engineering passes ~15 people or product complexity demands daily presence. We’ll tell you when you get there, and help you hire them. Our engagements are designed to end well.
Every engagement starts with clarity: a structured look at your systems, people, and delivery before we change anything. From there it runs on a standing rhythm, sized to your stage:
A deep dive into your real challenges, the codebase, the team, the roadmap, and where decisions are actually getting stuck.
We tie the technical roadmap to your business goals so engineering and leadership are rowing in the same direction.
Sprint oversight, architecture decisions, code review, hiring, and board prep. An owner in the work, not an advisor on the sidelines.
We set priorities, unblock the team, and make sure the features that matter ship, scaling hours up or down as the work demands.
Not one niche. The companies that get the most from a fractional CTO tend to share a shape:
Moving fast and needing senior technical authority, but not ready to hand out equity or wait out a six-month executive search.
A strong business but no one senior owning technology, so the hard calls keep landing on someone who shouldn’t have to make them alone.
Pushing into a new vertical, replatforming, paying down technical debt, or getting serious about digital transformation.
Capable engineers who can execute, but no one with the authority for roadmap ownership and board-level communication.
“Their combination of technical depth and human-centered design is what made them stand out in a crowded field.”
Filip Sobel, Founder & CEO, Staffly (via Clutch)
Retainers are scoped by hours (10–40/week) with a fixed quote before we start, ask on the intro call and you’ll get a number, not a dance. See typical market rates →
Month to month after the first engagement period. If we’re not creating value, firing us should be easy.
That’s the best case, we make strong senior engineers more effective, not redundant.
Start with a Reality Check session, fixed price, credited if you continue. Learn about the Reality Check →