Fractional CTO — San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Bay Area & Remoteamp; Remote
What a fractional CTO
engagement actually looks like.
Not a slide deck. Not a strategy document that collects dust. Here's what happens week-to-week when you bring me in as your fractional CTO.
The first 30 days
Week 1
Audit & triage
I read every line of your codebase, review your infrastructure, map your deployment pipeline, and interview your team if you have one. By Friday you get a written assessment: what's solid, what's dangerous, and what's blocking you from shipping faster. No jargon — a document you can hand to your co-founder or your investors.
Week 2
Architecture decisions
This is where the expensive mistakes get prevented. Database schema that won't need to be rewritten at 10x scale. API design that contractors can build against without constant hand-holding. Infrastructure choices that don't lock you into a vendor. These are the decisions that cost $200k to reverse if you get them wrong — and they're the ones most startups make with a Stack Overflow search and a prayer.
Week 3-4
Build the machine
CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, deployment workflows, monitoring. The stuff that nobody wants to set up and everybody regrets not having. I also introduce AI-powered development tooling at this stage — not as a gimmick, but as infrastructure that makes your current team (even if that's just you) produce 5x more output. By the end of month one, you have a professional engineering operation running.
After month one
The engagement shifts from setup to ongoing leadership. A typical week looks like: two 1-hour calls (one with you, one with the engineering team or contractors), code review on critical PRs, architecture decisions as they come up, and async availability on Slack for the questions that can't wait.
Some weeks I'm evaluating a vendor pitch. Some weeks I'm debugging a production issue with your team. Some weeks I'm prepping technical due diligence materials for your Series A. The work follows the company's needs, not a rigid scope document.
When you're ready to hire a full-time CTO, I write the job description, screen candidates, run technical interviews, and do a structured handoff. Most fractional engagements last 6-12 months. Some companies keep me on at reduced hours even after hiring full-time — a second opinion from someone who knows the codebase is worth a few hours a week.
When you should NOT hire a fractional CTO
You need someone writing code 40 hours a week
A fractional CTO is a decision-maker, not a full-time developer. If you need hands on keyboard all day, you need a senior engineer or a dev shop. I can help you find and evaluate the right one.
You have a 50+ person engineering org
At that scale, your CTO needs to be in the building every day — managing politics, running standups, doing 1:1s. A fractional engagement works best under 20 engineers. Above that, you need full-time leadership and I can help you hire them.
You want someone to validate decisions you've already made
If you've already picked your stack, hired your team, and committed to a roadmap — and you just want someone to nod along — that's not what I do. I give honest assessments. Sometimes that means telling you the thing you built needs to be rebuilt.
The real math on fractional vs. full-time
| Fractional CTO | Full-Time CTO | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $6,000-10,000 | $25,000-35,000+ |
| Equity | None required | 1-5% typical |
| Recruiting cost | $0 | $50-80k (agency fee) |
| Time to start | This week | 3-6 months to find + hire |
| Commitment | Month-to-month | Severance risk if wrong fit |
| Experience level | 25+ years, multi-company | Varies — often first CTO role |
Questions founders ask before hiring a fractional CTO
How many hours per week do you typically work?
10-20 hours depending on the phase. The first month tends to be heavier (15-20 hrs) as I audit, architect, and set up infrastructure. Ongoing engagements settle to 10-15 hours — two calls per week, code review, architecture decisions, and async Slack availability.
What happens if we need more hours one week?
You get them. There's no rigid cap — if a production issue hits or a fundraise requires last-minute technical prep, I flex up. You pay for actual hours worked, not a fixed retainer that goes unused.
Can you work with our existing dev agency or contractors?
Yes — this is one of the most common setups. I act as the technical layer between you and your dev team. I review their architecture proposals, audit their code, push back on scope creep, and make sure they're building something that will hold up. I've saved founders six figures by catching bad contractor decisions early.
What if we want to hire a full-time CTO later?
That's the goal for most companies. When you're ready, I write the job description, source candidates through my network, run the technical interview loop, and do a structured 2-4 week handoff. The new CTO inherits clean architecture, documented decisions, and working processes — not a mess.
How is this different from a technical advisor?
Advisors give opinions. I make decisions and own them. I'm in the codebase, in the PRs, on the calls with your contractors. If something breaks, I help fix it. An advisor gives you 1-2 hours a month of high-level input. A fractional CTO gives you ongoing operational leadership.
Most founders know within the first call whether this is the right fit. No pressure, no pitch deck — just a conversation about where you are and what you need.
Book a discovery call