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Fractional CTO Advisory for Startups
Fractional CTO advisory gives post-seed through Series A founders access to a senior engineering leader for about half a day per week — typically $800/month for monthly advisor (weekly call + async) or $2,000/month embedded one day/week — for architecture review, AI adoption, hiring calibration, and unblocking the eng team when the lead is stuck.
What is fractional CTO advisory?
A fractional CTO is a senior engineering leader who works with your company part-time — not as a full-time hire, not as a consulting firm pitching a bench of juniors. You get one person's judgment, applied consistently over months.
The role covers architecture and technical review, AI adoption strategy, eng hiring calibration, team unblocks, and pre-funding technical narrative — without day-to-day people management or writing your production code.
Fractional CTO vs. full-time CTO vs. consultant
Founders often hire too early or too late. This table clarifies when each option fits.
- Fractional CTO ($800–2k/mo) — you have 2–15 engineers, need senior judgment weekly, cannot afford or don't yet need full-time. Best post-seed through Series A.
- Full-time CTO ($200k+/yr) — you need daily leadership, org design, and someone accountable for delivery velocity. Usually post–Series A with 15+ engineers.
- Consulting firm ($15k+/mo) — you need a team to build a deliverable. Different problem; I am brain-not-hands advisory, not staff augmentation.
What I do as your fractional CTO
Engagements are retainer-based with a clear SLA for async response. I am currently Head of Engineering at Hashone Digital — twelve engineers, production AI systems — so advice reflects what works at scale today.
- Architecture & technical review — codebase walkthroughs, ADR feedback, scaling decisions, build-vs-buy.
- AI adoption strategy — what to automate vs. hype, model selection, where agents fail vs. one LLM call.
- Eng hiring calibration — interview rubrics, sitting in senior loops, leveling debates.
- Team unblocks — when the lead engineer is stuck on something an outside brain solves in 30 minutes.
- Pre-launch / pre-funding technical narrative — eng story for investor deck or DD pack.
What I will not do
Disqualifying honestly is part of the service. If you need full-time CTO coverage, production code as the primary deliverable, or a recruiter — I will say so on the first call and point you in the right direction.
Proof points
- 12 engineers led, 25+ mentored, 8 years shipping
- Goal for client teams: ~10× engineer leverage via AI-augmented workflows
FAQ
Aren't you working full-time somewhere?
Yes — that is the point. You get someone currently doing the job at scale, about half a day a week, with evenings/weekends for async and a clear response-time SLA.
What if I actually need a full-time CTO?
I will say so on the first call. Disqualifying honestly is part of the service — and I can help calibrate what to hire for.
Do you take equity?
Sometimes as a bonus on top of cash retainer, never instead of it. Never trade rate for cap table alone.
How is this different from an ex-CTO advisor?
I am actively Head of Engineering running twelve engineers on production AI — not advising from a memory of 2019. Differentiator: currently operating, not retired from building.
Next step
30-minute discovery call — fit and disqualify honestly. Scope doc within a few days if we proceed.