Fractional CTO — A CTO in your corner, before you can hire one.

A senior technology leader who works with you part-time. At this stage that's mostly steering, not managing: setting the technical direction, guiding the big architecture decisions, advising your developers or agency, and representing the technology to investors and your board. Your team keeps doing the day-to-day work. We make sure it's pointing the right way, and that the decisions that matter get made well.

No. Your lead developer or agency runs the day-to-day, from standups to sprint planning. We set the direction, review the big decisions, and we're there whenever your team needs a senior view. If you need someone managing the team full-time, we'll help you hire them.

A fixed monthly fee for an agreed scope, not an hourly or day rate, so your costs are predictable and there's no reason for us to drag things out. The amount depends on the days per month and the remit, and we agree it before anything starts. The diagnostic that usually comes first is priced separately, so you can stop there if that's all you need.

Speed, cost and flexibility. A permanent CTO at this level usually means six months of searching and a six-figure salary plus equity, and it's a hard hire to judge if you're not technical yourself. We can start in weeks, at a fraction of the cost, and step away when the time's right. It's not better than the right permanent hire. It covers the couple of years before you can make one, and it usually includes helping you make it.

As long as it's useful, and no longer. We review it every quarter, and the goal is always to finish: we help you hire a full-time CTO and hand over everything we've decided and why. An arrangement that rolls on forever isn't fractional leadership any more. It's an expensive dependency.

It's a fair question, and one you should ask anyone you hire. We agree clear goals at the start, and report back in plain English on the decisions made, progress against the plan and what's next. Everything is reviewed with you every quarter. You'll always know what we're doing and why, and our written diagnostic is yours to show anyone you like for a second opinion.

We help you hire them. We'll write the job spec, help you interview, and hand over everything we've decided and why. Hiring a CTO is hard when you're not technical yourself, so having someone who's done the job on your side of the table makes a big difference.

We work with them, almost always. Your team usually knows where the problems are. What's missing is someone senior to steer the big calls. If something does need to change, we'll tell you early and straight.

Probably not yet, and we'd rather tell you that now. A fractional CTO steers a team, and without one there isn't much for the role to do. What you probably need first is help getting the product built: deciding what goes into version one, making the architecture calls that shape the next two years of costs, and building it. That's what our build your MVP service is for: we build the first version ourselves, quoted as a project, and it has its own page. Founders often move from that to this once the team arrives. We'd rather start you in the right place than sell you steering with nothing to steer.

Yes, and it's often the better option. Advisory for equity puts technical and product leadership into your business instead of cash, or alongside it if you want to bring the monthly cost down without losing the support. Take a look at investment and equity partnerships to see how those deals work.