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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. Typical pricing is $800/month for a weekly call plus async, or $2,000/month for one day a week embedded.
What is fractional CTO advisory?
A fractional CTO is a senior engineering leader who works with your company part-time, rather than a full-time hire or 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, hiring calibration, team unblocks, and pre-funding technical narrative, without day-to-day people management or writing production code.
Fractional CTO vs. full-time CTO vs. consultant
Founders often hire too early or too late. This comparison clarifies when each option fits.
- Fractional CTO ($800-$2k/mo): you have 2-15 engineers, need senior judgment weekly, and cannot afford or do not yet need a full-time leader. 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. That is staff augmentation, whereas this advisory is strategic guidance and unblocks.
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 and technical review: codebase walkthroughs, ADR feedback, scaling decisions, build-vs-buy.
- AI adoption strategy: what to automate vs. hype, model selection, and where agents fail vs. one LLM call.
- Engineering hiring calibration: interview rubrics, sitting in senior loops, and 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: engineering story for investor decks or DD packs.
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 output via AI-augmented workflows
Related writing
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: review fit and disqualify honestly. A one-page scope doc follows within a few days if we proceed.