Ongoing Support
CTO as a Service
CTO as a service gives you a senior engineer in the CTO seat without the full-time hire: architecture reviews, technology decisions, vendor due diligence and an honest second opinion, by the session or on retainer. You get the judgement, not the headcount — and no lock-in.
Founder-led
You talk to the people who build this for a living, not an account manager.
No lock-in
Start with a single session. Move to a retainer only if it earns it.
We will say no
If the honest answer is "do not build this", that is the answer you get.
The expensive decisions happen before anyone writes code
There is no technical founder, so the biggest technical decisions are being made by people guessing in good faith.
A vendor has quoted a number and a timeline, and you have no way to tell whether either is honest.
The architecture is at a crossroads, and picking wrong now costs a rewrite in eighteen months.
A build has started going sideways, and nobody can tell you whether it is recoverable.
You are about to buy, invest in, or merge with something and its codebase is a black box.
A fractional CTO gives you the judgement that prevents all of that, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Bring us in for a decision, a review, a due-diligence pass, or keep us on retainer for the questions that keep arriving.
What you get
Architecture reviews
We read what exists — or what is proposed — and tell you where it breaks: the scaling ceiling, the single points of failure, the decisions that will be expensive to undo. You get the risks and trade-offs written down plainly, not a diagram you cannot act on.
Technology choices
What to build with, grounded in the team you actually have and the outcome you actually need, rather than whatever is fashionable. The right stack for a two-person team is rarely the right stack for a forty-person one, and neither is the one on the conference stage.
Second opinions
A sanity check on a plan, a quote or a proposal before you sign. Most people who come to us with a vendor quote are not asking whether the number is big — they are asking whether they are being told the truth. We tell them.
Roadmapping
Sequencing what gets built first so effort lands where it matters, and so the thing that de-risks the project happens before the thing that decorates it. You leave with an ordered plan and the reasoning behind the order.
Technical due diligence
Before you acquire, invest in, or take over a codebase, someone should read it. We assess the state of the code, the infrastructure, the security posture and the key-person risk, and tell you what you are actually buying.
Retainer access
Ongoing availability for the questions that arrive while you build — the ones that are too small for a project and too consequential to guess at. No lock-in; the retainer continues only while it is earning its place.
- Clear recommendations you can act on
- Written notes from each session
- Risk and trade-off analysis where relevant
- Flexible session or retainer arrangements
What is CTO as a service?
CTO as a service — often called a fractional CTO — means renting the judgement of a senior engineering leader for the decisions that need one, instead of hiring a full-time executive to make them. You get architecture reviews, technology decisions, vendor assessment and technical due diligence, delivered by the session or on a retainer.
It exists because the decisions that sink software projects are made early, by whoever is in the room. If nobody in that room has built and run systems at scale, the cost of that gap does not show up for a year — and by then it is an expensive rewrite rather than a cheap conversation.
When do you need a fractional CTO?
Five situations account for almost everyone who calls us. You have no technical founder, and the biggest technical decisions are being made on instinct. You are choosing a vendor and cannot tell whether the quote and the timeline are honest. Your architecture is at a crossroads and the wrong turn costs a rewrite. A build is going sideways and you need to know whether it is recoverable. Or you are acquiring, investing in, or inheriting a codebase that nobody independent has read.
If none of those describe you, you probably do not need one — and we will say so.
Fractional CTO vs hiring a full-time CTO
A full-time CTO makes sense when the technical decisions are constant, the team is large enough to need day-to-day leadership, and the company can carry a senior executive salary and equity. That is a real threshold, and plenty of companies cross it.
A fractional CTO makes sense before that threshold: when the decisions are occasional but consequential, when you need seniority rather than availability, and when committing to a permanent hire would be premature. You get the same judgement on the decisions that matter, without the headcount, the equity, or the risk of hiring the wrong executive early.
The honest test is frequency. If you need a technical decision-maker in the room every day, hire one. If you need one in the room for the decisions that are hard to undo, a fractional arrangement is cheaper, faster, and easier to end.
Software consulting and technical consulting
Not every engagement needs the CTO framing. Sometimes it is a single question: is this architecture sound, is this quote fair, will this scale, should we build or buy. We take those as standalone consulting work — a session, a review, a written recommendation you can act on or hand to a board.
What you will not get is a report that hedges. The value of an outside opinion is that it has nothing to protect, so we say what we think, including when what we think is that you should not build the thing at all.
We will tell you not to build it
It is worth stating plainly, because it is the part that surprises people. A consultancy that only ever validates your plan is not giving you a second opinion; it is giving you an invoice with your own idea written on it.
A good outcome from a session is often that you leave with a smaller project, a cheaper tool you had not considered, or the decision not to build at all. We would rather lose the build and keep the relationship.
Common questions
Can I just book one session?
Yes. Many clients start with a single session, then move to a retainer if it is useful.
Will you tell me not to build something?
If that is the honest answer, yes. Saving you from the wrong build is part of the value.
Do you review other vendors’ quotes?
Yes. A second opinion before signing a large contract is a common request.
What is CTO as a service?
CTO as a service, also called a fractional CTO, means engaging a senior engineering leader for the technical decisions that need one, rather than hiring a full-time executive to make them. It covers architecture reviews, technology choices, vendor assessment, roadmapping and technical due diligence, delivered by the session or on a retainer.
Fractional CTO vs full-time CTO — which do I need?
The honest test is frequency. If you need a technical decision-maker in the room every day, and the team is large enough to need daily leadership, hire a full-time CTO. If the decisions are occasional but hard to undo — architecture, vendor selection, build-or-buy, due diligence — a fractional arrangement gives you the same seniority without the headcount, the equity, or the risk of hiring the wrong executive too early.
Can you do technical due diligence on a vendor or an acquisition?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people call. Before you acquire, invest in, or take over a codebase, somebody independent should read it. We assess the state of the code, the infrastructure, the security posture and the key-person risk, then tell you plainly what you are buying and what it will cost to keep running.
Do you work with non-technical founders?
Often. If there is no technical founder, the biggest technical decisions are being made by people guessing in good faith, and that is exactly the gap this fills. We explain the trade-offs in plain language, give you a recommendation you can act on, and are happy to sit in on conversations with vendors or investors on your behalf.
How does an engagement start?
Usually with a single session on the specific question that prompted the call — an architecture, a quote, a decision. You get written notes and a clear recommendation. If ongoing access turns out to be useful, it moves to a retainer, and if it does not, it simply ends there. There is no lock-in either way.
CTO as a Service
Tell us what you need and we will come back within one business day with a clear, honest next step — no obligation.