SOC 2, PCI, KYC architecture, investor preparation, and engineering hiring for pre-Series A fintech founders. $5,499/mo Advisory, $9,499/mo full.
- Audit
- Architect
- Scale
monthly retainer
Who this is for
Non-technical fintech founder, typically pre-seed to Series A, with a fundraising deadline, compliance complexity, and no senior engineer on the team yet. You have a product that touches money, which means every architecture shortcut carries regulatory and investor risk.
The pain today
- Compliance decisions (SOC 2, PCI DSS, KYC/AML) are blocking your fundraise or your launch
- Investors want a credible CTO on the team page before they write the check
- A contractor shipped payment code that cannot pass a security review
- No one to walk through technical due diligence with a Series A investor
- A full-time fintech CTO search takes 6 to 9 months you do not have
The outcome you get
- Fractional fintech CTO at $5,499 to $9,499/mo, available within a week
- Minimum viable compliance posture for SOC 2, PCI DSS, and KYC scoped to your stage
- Investor-facing technical credibility backed by GigEasy (Barclays/Bain) and bolttech ($1B+ unicorn)
- Payment API integration experience across 40+ providers applied to your stack
- Hiring plan and interview loop for your first 3 to 5 engineers
Why fintech architecture requires a different kind of CTO
Fractional CTO for fintech is not the same service as fractional CTO for a SaaS startup. When money moves through your product, the compliance surface is real from day one: PCI DSS scope, KYC/AML obligations, state money-transmitter licensing, and data residency requirements. Architecture mistakes compound fast once customer funds are involved. Idempotency failures cause duplicate charges. Missing audit logs fail regulator inspection. Weak secrets management exposes card data. None of that is fixable with a quick patch after launch.
I have shipped fintech products at two ends of the scale. GigEasy, backed by Barclays and Bain Capital, went from zero to investor-ready MVP in 3 weeks. At bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, I led the Payment Service to 99.9 percent uptime across 40+ provider integrations in Asia and Europe, with zero post-launch critical bugs. Both shaped how I approach every fintech engagement: compliance is architecture, not a checklist you run at the end.
Fractional fintech CTO at $5,499 to $9,499/mo, available within a week
The compliance baseline I set on day one
Every fintech engagement opens with the same baseline review before a line of new code is written. Encryption in transit and at rest verified. Secrets moved into a proper vault (AWS Secrets Manager or equivalent). Audit logs on every sensitive action: who touched what, when, and from where. PII segregated from transactional data. Access controls scoped by least privilege.
For PCI DSS, the right starting point for most pre-Series A fintechs is scope minimisation through tokenisation, which keeps you in SAQ A — the lightest self-assessment level. For SOC 2, I scope a Type I using Vanta or Drata before your Series A conversations begin. For KYC/AML, I pick the right provider for your use case from Persona, Onfido, Jumio, or Sumsub, and wire the flow cleanly into your onboarding so compliance does not create drop-off.
The baseline at bolttech is what made 99.9 percent uptime possible under strict PCI requirements. I apply the same standards here, right-sized for your current stage.
40+: Payment providers integrated.
Payment API integration and banking infrastructure
Payment integration in fintech is where architecture decisions directly affect revenue and regulatory exposure. At bolttech I led integration across 40+ payment providers, which taught me exactly where the edge cases live: currency reconciliation failures, webhook retry storms, provider-specific idempotency quirks, settlement timing mismatches.
For early-stage fintechs, the stack choice matters. Stripe is the right default for most US founders: excellent developer experience, built-in Radar fraud tooling, and strong compliance documentation for auditors. Plaid is the right answer for bank account data access. The mistake I see often is using Stripe for everything including ACH, then running into Nacha rules the team didn't know existed.
I define the integration architecture upfront: which provider owns which transaction type, how chargebacks are handled, where the idempotency keys live, and what the reconciliation process looks like on day one rather than month six.
Investor technical due diligence preparation
Series A investors in fintech scrutinise the technical team harder than in most other sectors. They have seen too many fintechs fail post-close due to compliance surprises. Preparation matters.
I build the technical materials investors expect: architecture decision records for key choices, security posture summary, compliance roadmap with current state and 12-month target, cost model projection, and an engineering team plan. I attend investor meetings where technology is on the agenda, and I prepare you for the questions that will come: what happens if your primary payment provider goes down, how you handle PCI scope, what your incident response procedure looks like.
At GigEasy, the investor-ready MVP shipped in 3 weeks against a 10-week typical development cycle. That kind of credibility in a diligence conversation is not something a slide deck produces on its own.
Pricing and what each tier includes
CTO Advisory — $5,499 per month. One to two days per week. Architecture guidance, compliance review, hiring support, and investor preparation. Right for founders who have an engineering lead and need senior oversight and external credibility.
Fractional CTO — $9,499 per month. Three days per week. Deep involvement in architecture, active compliance work, running the hiring process, attending investor meetings. Right for founders without a senior engineer, where the fractional CTO is effectively filling the full CTO role.
Both tiers include a 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancel anytime. NDA is standard. Most fintech engagements run three to twelve months, then transition to a full-time CTO hire when the funding round closes and headcount budget supports it. I stay involved in that search and overlap for one to two months during handoff.
When to hire a full-time fintech CTO instead
The fractional model works well from seed through Series A. Post-Series A, when you have committed to a specific regulatory path that requires dedicated leadership, a full-time hire makes more sense. A banking charter application, a state licensing pipeline, a multi-jurisdiction product with complex compliance interaction — these need someone whose full attention is on the regulatory posture daily.
I help with the full-time CTO search directly: writing the job description, running the interview loop, levelling candidates, and evaluating their fintech-specific experience. Many customers stay with me through the search, then I step back to a technical advisor or board-observer role at a reduced rate after the new CTO has onboarded. That is an optional but common pattern, and it means the institutional knowledge built during the fractional engagement does not disappear.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Unified payment orchestration across Asia and Europe
Delivered the payment orchestration platform at bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, with 40+ integrations across multiple regions.
Read the case studyFrequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
SOC 2, PCI DSS, KYC, and AML are the core four for US-focused fintechs. For European fintechs, GDPR data residency and DORA incident reporting requirements also come into scope. I right-size the posture to your stage: pre-revenue companies need a defensible minimum viable compliance baseline, not a full Type II audit. I scope what is required to close your current funding round and satisfy your top-tier investors, then plan the 12-month path from there.
With Vanta or Drata as the automation layer and a clean starting codebase, a pre-Series A fintech can reach Type I readiness in roughly 10 to 14 weeks. The timeline is dominated by access control documentation, change management process definition, and evidence collection, not the tooling itself. If the engineering baseline has gaps, remediation adds time. I set the baseline first so there are no surprises when the auditor begins fieldwork.
Yes. I build the technical artifacts investors expect: architecture decision records, security posture summary, compliance roadmap, cost model, and engineering team plan. I also attend investor meetings where technical leadership is on the agenda. Fintech investors at Series A ask pointed questions about PCI scope, incident response, and key-person risk. I have been in those rooms from both the bolttech unicorn side and the GigEasy fundraising-stage MVP side, so I know what good answers look like.
At bolttech I integrated across 40+ providers in Asia and Europe, including Stripe, Braintree, and regional acquirers. For US-focused early-stage fintechs I typically recommend Stripe as the primary processor plus Plaid for bank account connectivity. The provider choice depends on your product type, target markets, and the compliance burden each provider carries. I define the integration architecture before any code is written: idempotency strategy, reconciliation process, chargeback handling, and webhook retry logic.
Cash at the published monthly rates is my preference. It keeps the engagement clean and avoids incentive conflicts. For very early-stage founders with thin runway, a reduced cash rate plus a small equity slice can work on a case-by-case basis. Equity-only is not something I do. The monthly rate model also means you can cancel anytime without triggering a complicated equity unwind conversation.
Every engagement is built with handoff in mind. Architecture decisions are documented as ADRs, the compliance posture is written up, and the hiring pipeline is visible in a shared system. When you hire full-time, I overlap for one to two months so the incoming CTO has full context rather than a cold start. After that I typically step back to a part-time technical advisor role, available for major architecture decisions and investor interactions at a reduced rate. Optional, but most fintech customers find it useful.
Week one is the audit: codebase, infrastructure, compliance posture, and any existing contracts (payment providers, KYC vendors, hosting). Week two is the plan: prioritised list of compliance gaps, architecture recommendations, and hiring brief if needed. Weeks three and four are execution on the highest-risk items and the first investor-facing deliverable if a fundraise is active. Most customers describe the first month as the fastest they have ever moved on technical decisions.