CTO Advisory at $5,499/mo or full Fractional CTO at $9,499/mo. Weekly calls, architecture reviews, hiring help. 14-day money-back, cancel anytime.
- Audit
- Architect
- Scale
monthly retainer
Who this is for
You built the idea. You pitched it. You're running the company. But every technical decision still lands on your desk, and "what stack should we use" is not a question you want to answer alone at midnight. This page is for founders who have no CTO and no technical cofounder — and who need real technical leadership without the $300K full-time hire.
The pain today
- Every architecture, vendor, and hiring decision falls to the founder with no technical baseline.
- Investors ask who owns the technical roadmap and there is no good answer.
- Developers on the team work without direction, and the founder can't tell if the code is solid or a time bomb.
- Finding a technical cofounder at the seed stage takes 6-12 months and rarely works out.
- A full-time CTO is a 4-6 month search, $300K+, and real equity dilution before revenue.
The outcome you get
- A named technical lead you can put in the deck and reference with investors.
- Weekly strategy calls on the decisions that actually move the company forward.
- Architecture reviews that catch expensive mistakes before they compound.
- Hiring help for the first senior engineer or the permanent CTO search.
- Month-to-month terms — Advisory at $5,499/mo, full Fractional at $9,499/mo, no equity, cancel anytime.
The decision overload founders without a CTO know well
Founders without a technical cofounder hit a specific wall. It is not that the company is failing. It is that every technical decision requires research the founder does not have time for, evaluated without a baseline, and with no one to call before saying yes or no to a vendor, a framework, a hire, or an architecture proposal. I have worked with founders at this stage. The problem is rarely catastrophic in week one. It compounds. Wrong stack, misaligned hire, vendor lock-in on the wrong platform — each wrong call takes 6-18 months to unwind. The point of CTO Advisory at $5,499 a month is to stop that compounding before it starts. One weekly strategy call, async Slack or email between calls, and a technical lead named in the deck.
A named technical lead you can put in the deck and reference with investors.
What CTO Advisory covers, and what full Fractional adds
Advisory at $5,499/mo delivers focused strategic coverage: one weekly strategy call, async support, architecture guidance, vendor evaluation, and hiring help. I give 4-6 focused hours a week and I am the technical decision-maker your team escalates to. This tier fits idea-stage founders, pre-seed rounds, and bootstrapped companies where volume of technical work is low but quality of decisions matters enormously.
Full Fractional at $9,499/mo is a different scope. Fifteen to twenty hours a week, hands-on architecture, day-to-day engineering management, board-ready briefings, and a direct line to investors. It fits seed-stage companies that have a small engineering team and need active management, not just a weekly call. Most founders start at Advisory and upgrade after closing a round, when the team grows past three engineers and the management load becomes real.
3 weeks: From kickoff to investor demo.
The investor conversation you are not ready for
Every investor at the pre-seed and seed stage asks the same question in some form: who is responsible for the technology? If you are the only answer, that is a risk flag. Not fatal — but it opens a line of questioning about single-person dependency that slows term sheets. A named fractional CTO who can be referenced, who attends a board call when needed, and who has documented the architecture changes that picture. I have seen this first-hand at GigEasy, a Barclays and Bain Capital-backed fintech, where a clear technical lead and documented architecture were part of what made the investor demo credible. The MVP shipped in 3 weeks from kickoff. Investor credibility is not just a product story — it is also a technical story.
Architecture reviews before the technical debt clock starts
One thing early-stage founders consistently underestimate is how fast technical debt accumulates without an experienced technical reviewer in the loop. A developer building alone will make reasonable local decisions that create unreasonable global costs 12 months later. Monthly architecture reviews are included in both Advisory and full Fractional. I look at the codebase, the infrastructure choices, the data model, and the deployment process. I flag what will cause pain at the next scale inflection and what can safely be deferred. The goal is not a perfect system. It is a system that can grow without a full rewrite.
Hiring the first engineer and the path to a permanent CTO
The first senior engineering hire is one of the highest-leverage decisions a founder makes. Get it right and the company compounds. Get it wrong and 18 months later you are back to zero. I help founders write the job description, source candidates from my network, run the technical panel, and evaluate the final shortlist. I do not just advise from a distance — I run the technical interview.
Most founders eventually hire a permanent CTO. Advisory or full Fractional runs alongside that search and transitions cleanly when the permanent leader lands. I document the architecture, the team dynamics, the technical strategy, and the open decisions so the incoming CTO inherits a system — not a set of verbal agreements and a Slack history. For most founders that moment comes at Series A, sometimes at Series B, occasionally at the first $5M ARR. The timing depends on the company.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Built and shipped an investor-ready MVP from scratch
Built the entire technological base and delivered MVP in just 3 weeks, enabling a successful rapid launch and investor demo.
Read the case studyFrequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
For most pre-seed founders, yes — it covers the same decision-making gap without equity dilution or a 6-12 month search. A fractional CTO does not co-own the company or take a founding stake, which is often the right trade-off at early stage. The difference is commitment: a technical cofounder is all-in, a fractional CTO is a professional engagement. Most founders find Advisory covers what they actually need, not what they thought they needed.
In Advisory the weekly call covers the most important pending technical decision — a vendor choice, a hiring call, an architecture question, a fundraising narrative. Between calls, I am available async for anything urgent. Monthly, I review the architecture and flag what will hurt you in 12 months. At the full Fractional tier I add day-to-day engineering management and board-level communication. The exact mix shifts with what the company needs in any given month.
When the engineering team exceeds five people and needs daily management, when you have closed a Series A with 18+ months of runway, or when the technical complexity of the product requires full-time deep context. Before those conditions, a permanent CTO is an expensive hire filling a role that does not yet exist at full-time intensity. Most founders reach that threshold at Series A or the first $5M ARR, though some earlier, some later.
No. Fee-only. Advisory at $5,499/mo and full Fractional at $9,499/mo are flat monthly retainers. I do not take equity, warrants, or options. The fee-only structure keeps the relationship clean — I am a service provider, not a stakeholder making decisions influenced by cap table exposure.
Advisory is 4-6 hours a week: one strategy call, async support, architecture reviews, hiring help. It is right for low-volume decision environments — idea stage, pre-seed, bootstrapped. Full Fractional is 15-20 hours a week: hands-on architecture, engineering team management, board communication. It is right when the team has grown past two or three engineers and needs active leadership, not just a weekly call. Most founders start on Advisory and upgrade after closing a round.
One to two weeks from signed agreement to first strategy call. That includes an onboarding session to map the current technical state, open decisions, and the team structure. I do not charge a setup fee. The 14-day money-back guarantee runs from the first call — if it is not the right fit in the first two weeks, full refund, no process.