Lead
A CTO for the decisions, not the headcount. It starts with 90 minutes.
You need a CTO’s judgement before you need a full-time CTO. Branko, Bushido’s founder, reads the architecture, sits in on hiring and checks what vendors send, with builders behind him.
- 90 minutes for the first session
- Written follow-up after it
- Monthly retainer after that
- One week for technical due diligence
What does a fractional CTO do?
It is technical leadership without a full-time hire: architecture, hiring, vendor and code review, and technical due diligence. It starts with a 90-minute session and a written follow-up, then a monthly retainer. We do not fill seats. We take a product off your hands inside your team.
Who it is for
You need this if
- You are a non-technical founder, and every technical call is a guess.
- Your CTO just left, and nobody knows what is in the codebase.
- A vendor sends estimates and invoices you cannot check.
- You are hiring your first engineers and cannot tell a good one from a good interview.
Included
What you get
- Architecture decisions in writing, with what each costs now and later.
- A roadmap cut to what launch needs.
- Vendor and code review: estimates checked, pull requests read.
- Hiring: the role, the technical interview, a view on each candidate.
- Technical due diligence in one week.
- A seat on the calls with vendors and providers, as for CachePay through launch.
Timeline
How CTO consulting runs
-
First
One 90-minute session
Your hardest question, and a written follow-up of what to do next.
-
Then
Read before we advise
The repository, the architecture and the vendor estimates, before we have an opinion.
-
Every month
On call
Founder, team and vendor calls, code review, and the hiring while it runs.
-
When it fills a week
Hand it over
We help you hire a full-time CTO and hand over every decision in writing.
Price
What CTO consulting costs
- First step
- A 90-minute CTO session, with a written follow-up
- Then
- A monthly retainer, or technical due diligence in one week
Priced on request, by the hours a month the work needs. Contact us for the terms.
Results
Products we have shipped.
- AnyoneGroup Two-sided marketplace for group discounts 6 monthsfrom a clickable prototype to a launched marketplace
- CachePay Payment gateway for merchants, crypto in and fiat out 10 minor less from a crypto payment to fiat settlement
“…their ability to accurately estimate the timeline and effort required for each feature.”
“Their guidance in product development and solving business problems was invaluable.”
Compare
A fractional CTO, a full-time CTO, or an agency
| Fractional CTO | Full-time CTO | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When it fits | Before product-market fit, between CTOs, or while a vendor builds. | Leading the team is a full-time job. | The plan is settled, and you need it built. |
| What it costs | A monthly retainer. No salary, no equity. | A salary, equity, and the time to hire well. | A project price, with the advice inside it. |
| Whose interest it serves | Yours. The answer can be to build less. | Yours, full time. | Yours and the agency’s. It sells the build. |
Questions
Common questions about CTO consulting.
What does a fractional CTO do?
The judgement part of a CTO’s job: architecture, the roadmap, the first hires, vendor and code review. It suits founders without a technical co-founder, and teams whose CTO just left.
How many hours a month is it?
It is set after the first session by what is running, such as a hire or a raise. We work in English from Novi Sad, Serbia, in hours that overlap the UK, Germany, Denmark and the US East Coast morning.
Can you add developers to our team instead?
No, we do not fill seats. We take a product off your hands inside your team, as we did for Numa in Berlin.
Do you also build?
Yes, as a separate engagement. A CTO who reviews a vendor should not be bidding for the work.
One way forward.
Thirty minutes with a builder, not a salesperson, to work out whether we are the right team for it. If we are not, we will say so.