A fractional CTO for services firms building proprietary tech
Internal platforms, productisation roadmap, vendor strategy for 20 to 100-person B2B professional services firms. $4,500/mo Advisory, $8,500/mo full.
Who this is for
Partner at a 20 to 100-person B2B professional services firm (consulting, recruiting, accounting, legal) building proprietary tech with no clear ownership.
The pain today
- Internal platforms and client-facing tools proliferate without ownership
- Productisation potential visible but unrealised
- Vendor stack grew organically, costs rising
- Partners making tech decisions outside expertise
- Full-time CTO hire premature at current revenue
The outcome you get
- Fractional B2B-services CTO at $4,500 to $8,500/mo
- Internal platform strategy and consolidation
- Productisation roadmap if strategically warranted
- Vendor management across firm's technology stack
- Hiring plan for technical capability
B2B-services CTO topics
Three topics. Internal tools — delivery platforms, client portals, reporting dashboards, billing automation. Productisation — firm-developed IP that could become standalone product. Data — unified view of clients, engagements, profitability, knowledge management. Fractional CTO at $4,500 to $8,500/mo covers these for firms 20 to 100 people where technical leadership materially affects delivery margin and competitive positioning.
Stack consolidation playbook
Mid-size services firms accumulate tools — CRM, PM, accounting, time tracking, document management, collaboration, reporting. Stack audit reveals redundancy and underuse. Consolidation to integrated platforms plus best-of-breed specialists. Typical outcome: 20 to 40 percent vendor cost reduction plus improved operational flow. For firms with delivery quality concerns, consolidation also improves consistency — less tool-jumping, more work in shared systems.
Productisation from services revenue
Services firms often develop repeatable IP — methodology, templates, tools, proprietary data. When this IP has value beyond the firm's direct clients, productisation is possible. CTO role: evaluate productisation candidates for market fit, scope product investment separately from services revenue, lead product development if warranted. Instill is my own example of productising a work pattern. For firms serious about productisation, CTO engagement extends naturally into 18 to 36 months.
Pricing tiers
CTO Advisory $4,500/mo. Fractional CTO $8,500/mo. 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime. US LLC invoicing. Typically 12 to 24 months for services firms, extending if productisation becomes central goal.
Case: LAK Embalagens and Instill — service-to-product patterns
LAK Embalagens: B2B manufacturer site with catalog-first approach and quote funnel, 45 percent bounce reduction. Structural discipline for B2B services internal tools. Instill: self-initiated AI skills platform demonstrating productisation of work patterns. Between them, both structural and productisation patterns applicable to services-firm CTO work.
When a VP of Product is right
For firms productising, VP of Product complements CTO — VP owns product direction, CTO owns execution. For firms with internal-tools focus only, fractional CTO handles both. I help structure when the transition makes sense — usually at the point productisation is clearly validated and product team grows past what fractional can manage.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Turned a B2B manufacturer into a digital showroom
Designed and developed a high-performance institutional website to showcase packaging solutions and generate qualified leads.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- How do you handle productisation?
- Evaluate candidates (market fit, defensibility, technical viability). Scope initial product separately from services revenue. Lead MVP build with dedicated team. Transition to dedicated product team once validated. Productisation is 18 to 36-month commitment minimum.
- What about IP separation?
- Critical for productisation. Client contracts typically give client IP on deliverables (Work Made for Hire). Firm retains generic patterns and tools. For productisation, IP separation matters — cannot productise what clients own. CTO role helps structure contracts (with counsel) so productisation path remains open.
- Can you lead internal platform build?
- Yes. For firms building client portals, delivery platforms, or reporting dashboards, CTO leads the build — scope, architecture, vendor decisions, team leadership. Typical internal platform: 6 to 12 months.
- How do you handle vendor relationships?
- Quarterly vendor reviews, clear scope agreements, SLA enforcement. For firms with poor-performing vendors, I manage replacement process.
- What about data analytics?
- Unified view of clients, engagements, profitability. Data warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery) for firms with serious data needs. Simpler BI tools (Metabase, Looker Studio) for smaller firms. Analytics strategy per firm size.
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