Every technical decision
is a guess. It doesn't have to be.
Senior technical judgment, without the full-time cost.
Non-technical founders already know what a CTO is. They know they don't have one. Fractional makes it accessible, an ongoing strategic relationship with someone who has skin in the game.
Does this sound familiar?
No one technical in the room
Build or buy. Which tool. Who to hire. Every technical decision is made on gut feel.
Without someone senior in the room, the decisions that look small now create the bottlenecks you'll spend six months untangling at $500k. Most founders don't feel the cost until it's already compounded.
Developer accountability gap
You hired a developer. Months later it still doesn't work. The answer is always "almost ready."
You don't have the technical background to know whether the work is good, whether the timeline is realistic, or whether you're being managed. That's not a technology problem, it's a leadership problem.
Growing too fast for gut feel
At $200k in revenue, your ops are fine. At $500k, they'll become your biggest bottleneck.
The systems that got you here won't get you there. Knowing when to rebuild, when to integrate, and when to hire technical staff requires experience that most founders don't have, and can't afford to hire full-time.
Technical debt catching up
Decisions made 18 months ago are now costing you time, money, and momentum.
The wrong CRM. The tool that doesn't export data. The developer who built something nobody else understands. These decisions compound. Getting in front of them before they compound further is exactly what a fractional CTO does.
How we work together
The tiers reflect how deeply involved we are in your business, not a list of features. We meet you where you are.
Light
Strategic Advisory
$500 - $1,000
per month
A thinking partner for the decisions that matter. We apply our experience directly to your business, strategy, direction, and the calls you shouldn't make alone.
Medium
Embedded Part-Time
$1,500 - $3,000
per month
We're in the business with you on a defined basis, part strategic direction, part real execution. We can own specific workstreams, not just advise on them.
Heavy
Fully Ingrained
$4,000 - $6,000
per month
We function as your CTO. Strategic ownership and hands-on execution across the business, in the day-to-day with your team, making things happen.
What we deliver across engagements
All work is billed at $110/hour. Retainer prices are derived from scoped hours, no surprises.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from hiring a full-time CTO?
A full-time CTO costs $180k-$250k+ a year in salary alone, before equity or benefits. Fractional gives you the same senior judgment, scoped to what your business actually needs right now, starting at $500/month. You're not locked into a full-time hire before you know you need one.
Which tier should I start with?
Most founders start with Strategic Advisory to get a thinking partner on the decisions that matter, then move to Embedded Part-Time once there's specific execution work to own. We'll tell you honestly on the first call which tier fits, not upsell you into the biggest one.
What if I only need help with one specific decision?
That's a fair reason to reach out even if you don't need an ongoing retainer. Tell us what the decision is, and we'll scope it as one-off work billed at $110/hr, no retainer required.
Do you write code yourselves, or just advise?
Both, depending on the tier. Strategic Advisory is judgment and direction. Embedded Part-Time and Fully Ingrained include hands-on execution, architecture work, code and app rescue, developer oversight, whatever the engagement actually requires.
Can we change tiers later?
Yes. Engagements typically start lighter and scale up as the relationship proves out and the business needs more hands-on involvement. Nothing is locked into a long-term contract at the start.
How is pricing structured?
All work is billed at $110/hr. The three tiers reflect a scoped range of hours per month based on how involved we are, not a fixed feature list, so the monthly retainer is derived from real hours, not a flat package price.
71%
of outsourced IT projects fail. Not because of bad intentions, because there was no senior technical judgment in the room when it mattered.
6 months
is typically how long it takes for a bad technical decision to fully surface. By then, it's already compounded into something much harder to fix.
$110/hr
All work is billed at a single rate, scoped upfront into a fixed price. No surprises, no scope creep billed silently.
We've seen what happens when there's no one technical in the room.
Founders who've been burned before don't need a pitch. They need someone who'll tell them what's actually there, even if it's not what they want to hear.
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Honesty. We tell you what we find. Even when it is not what you want to hear.
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Clear process. You know what we are doing, why, and what it costs before we start.
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No overruns. Everything is scoped upfront. $110/hr, derived to a fixed price.
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We stay. We are not a project vendor. We are a partner who is still here in 12 months.