A senior technical partner, without a full-time hire

What a fractional CTO is — and when you need one

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader you bring in part-time, for a fraction of the cost and commitment of a full-time hire. You get the judgment and experience of someone who has built and shipped real software for 20+ years, without adding a six-figure salary and equity to a young cap table. You usually need one when you're a non-technical founder making expensive technical decisions on instinct, when you're early enough that a full-time CTO isn't justified yet, or when there's simply no senior engineer in the room to sanity-check what your team or your agency is telling you.

What I do in the role

• Architecture and tech strategy — I choose the stack, the infrastructure, and the shape of the system so it fits your product today and doesn't box you in tomorrow.
• Sequencing the roadmap — I help you decide what to build first, what to cut, and what to defer, so engineering effort lands where it moves the business.
• Hiring and interviewing developers — I write the job spec, run the technical interviews, and tell you honestly whether a candidate can do the work.
• Reviewing agencies, contractors, and their code — I read what your vendors actually ship, price their estimates against reality, and catch corner-cutting before it becomes your problem.
• The technical voice with investors — I'll sit in on the calls, answer the hard engineering questions in a raise or due diligence, and back you up so you're never the only non-technical person defending the build.

How it works

This is deliberately light-touch, not a full-time cost. We agree a flexible monthly retainer sized to how much support you actually need, and it flexes up around a raise or a big hiring push and back down when things are steady. You get regular calls to work through decisions together, plus async availability in between — so when a contractor sends a scary invoice or a candidate needs a fast answer, I'm a message away rather than a meeting three weeks out. You get senior technical judgment on tap, not another salary on the books.

Who it's for

• Non-technical founders who need someone in their corner who can translate business goals into technical decisions — and tell them the truth about trade-offs.
• Early startups that aren't ready to hire a full-time CTO but can't afford to keep guessing on architecture, hiring, and vendors.
• Teams with junior or outsourced engineering that need a senior hand to set direction and review the work being delivered.
• Founders heading into a raise who want a credible technical voice on investor and due-diligence calls.

Why me

I've spent 20+ years building software across the full stack, and I'm Top Rated on Upwork with 100% Job Success — which means a long track record of founders trusting me with the decisions that matter. I've shipped the kind of products your roadmap is aiming at: aticketing platform that handled 20,000+ registrants, a mobile app that grew past 200,000 downloads, and a news platform tuned for 200,000 daily visitors. Because I've actually built and scaled systems like these, my advice comes from having done the work, not from a slide deck. I'll always give you the honest answer, even when it's the one you didn't want to hear.

How it fits with my other work

The advisory role pairs naturally with ongoing hands-on support. Many founders keep me on forCare Plans so I'm also maintaining and improving the product month to month, not just advising on it. And when you're weighing an acquisition, an investment, or taking over someone else's codebase, a focusedtechnical due diligencegives you a clear-eyed report before you commit. Whether you need a steady technical partner, a one-off review, or both, we can shape it around where your startup actually is.