Technical leadership on retainer
Senior technical judgement for founders who aren't technical
A fractional CTO for funded startups run by non-technical founders. We make or review the architecture decisions, help with vendor and hiring calls, get you ready for investors' technical due diligence, and check a dev shop's estimate before you sign it.
What you get
What’s included
Architecture decisions
Choices about stack, infrastructure and integrations made or reviewed by someone senior, with the reasoning written down.
Vendor oversight
Agency proposals, estimates and progress reviewed by someone on your side who can question them.
Hiring calls
Help defining your first engineering roles and judging the candidates for them.
Due-diligence readiness
Documentation, architecture and known risks put in order before investors' technical review.
Second opinions
A check on the big changes your developers propose, like a rewrite, a new framework or a new third-party service.
A good fit if
- Funded founders without a technical co-founder
- Wellness and fitness startups relying on an outside agency for all their engineering
- Founders preparing for a raise where investors will look closely at the tech
- Teams about to hire their first engineers
Not included
- Day-to-day product management (see Fractional product planning)
- Legal, security certification or compliance sign-off
- A full-time presence in your company
How it runs
From kickoff to handover
- First weeks
Technical review
We look at what's built, who's building it and what's planned, and tell you where things stand.
- Priorities
Agree the agenda
Together we list the decisions and risks that need attention first, such as a vendor question, a hire or an upcoming raise.
- Each month
Decisions and oversight
We make or review technical decisions as they come up and keep watch on delivery.
- Before a raise
Due-diligence prep
We get the documentation and answers ready before investors' technical questions arrive.
Questions
Questions about Fractional CTO
Can a part-time CTO be useful if they're not in the company every day?
For most early startups, yes. The decisions that need a CTO, like architecture, vendors, hires and investor questions, come up a few times a month. The risk without one is that those decisions get made by whoever is selling to you.
Will you push us to hire Zee Palm for the build?
If Zee Palm is one of the vendors you're considering, we say so up front. The reasoning behind every recommendation is written down, so you or an investor can check it.
Can you work with the agency we already use?
Yes. A lot of the value is having someone on your side who can read their estimates, review their technical choices and ask the right questions when progress slips.
What does due-diligence readiness involve?
Getting the answers investors' technical reviewers will ask for into shape before they ask: how the product is built, who owns the code and accounts, what the known risks are and what's planned to address them.
When do we need a full-time CTO instead?
Usually when you're building an in-house engineering team that needs daily leadership. Part of the fractional role can be helping you define that position and hire for it.
More from Product Strategy
- MVP Planning Sprint
- Healthtech & Mental Health MVP Blueprint
- Product planning workshop
- Problem statement & MVP scope
- User journeys & flow maps
- Feature prioritisation & release roadmap
- PRD / requirements document
- Technical discovery & architecture options
- Analytics & measurement plan
- Fractional product planning
Keep exploring
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Work with us
Ready to start Fractional CTO?
Tell us about your business. We'll confirm the scope and send you a start date.