"Fractional CTO" can sound like a fancy title for an advisor. Someone who joins a call, nods, and sends an invoice.
It should not be. Done well, it is senior technical leadership with clear outputs on a clear timeline. You should know what you get each month, and you should be able to check it.
Here is what the first 90 days look like when we do it. It is concrete on purpose.
Who this is for
Most of our fractional CTO clients fit one of these descriptions:
- A non-technical founder, somewhere from pre-seed to Series A.
- A company paying an agency or contractors, with nobody to check the work.
- An operator whose business runs on software nobody inside really owns.
- A team about to make its first engineering hire, with nobody to interview them.
The common thread is decisions. You are making technical calls without an engineer you trust. Each one feels reversible until it is not.
Who this is not for
Be honest about these before you sign anything:
- You need someone forty hours a week. Then you need a full-time CTO. A fractional one can help you hire them.
- You want someone to agree with you. The job is to tell you what you do not want to hear, early.
- There is no budget to act on advice. A plan with nobody to build it is just a document. An audit may suit you better.
Weeks one and two: map everything
Nothing useful gets decided before the map exists. The first two weeks are about reading, asking and writing things down.
We map four things.
Systems. Where the code lives and who can change it. Where it runs, and every outside service it depends on. How a change reaches your customers today.
Vendors. Every agency, contractor and software provider. What each one does, what the contract says, and when it renews.
Spend. Every software subscription and every cloud bill. Most companies are surprised by at least one line.
Risks. Accounts in someone else's name. Backups nobody has tested. One person who knows how the deploy works. Security gaps an investor might find first.
To build that map, we read the code, the contracts and the invoices. We also talk to whoever builds your software today. Those conversations are often friendly and always revealing.
At the end of week two, you get a written picture of your technology. It ranks the risks by how much they could cost you.
By day 30: decisions and a written plan
The second half of the first month turns the map into decisions.
Typical early decisions look like this:
- Keep the current agency, re-scope the contract, or replace them.
- Fix the existing app or replace it one part at a time.
- Which tools to stop paying for.
- Which risks to fix this month, and which can wait.
A common case: your agency proposes a full rewrite. Often the better answer is fixing the riskiest parts first. Sometimes the rewrite really is right. Either way, you get the reasoning in plain English before you spend.
Every decision gets written down with its reason. Six months later, nobody has to guess why you chose what you chose. That log becomes one of the most useful documents in the company.
By day 30, you also have a written plan for the quarter. It covers what gets built, who builds it, and in what order. It ties each item back to a business goal.
The weekly rhythm starts here too. One standing call, followed by written notes and decisions. Most weeks take six to ten hours of our time. Heavier weeks happen around a hiring round or a due diligence request.
By day 60: people, vendors and process
The second month is where things actually change.
Hiring. If you need engineers, we write the role and run the technical interviews. Then we help you decide. Sometimes the right call is not to hire yet. That is a valid answer, and we say so.
Vendors. Contracts get renegotiated, re-scoped or ended, based on the day 30 decisions. We review what your agency proposes and what they ship. You start to know whether you get what you pay for.
Process. Small habits make a big difference:
- Every change reviewed before it goes live.
- A staging environment where you can see work before customers do.
- A release pipeline, so deploys stop being a ritual only one person knows.
- Backups that get restored on a schedule, not just taken.
Investors. If due diligence is coming, we prepare the technical side. We can join the calls when it helps.
By day 90: a roadmap and a choice
By the end of the first quarter, you should have a technical roadmap tied to your business plan. Not a wish list. A sequence of work you can fund, staff and check.
You also have a real choice about what comes next. There are four common paths:
- Keep going month to month. Many companies need a few strong decisions a week for a long time.
- Hire a full-time CTO. We help write the role, interview candidates and hand over properly.
- Build with our team. When the plan calls for a build, our engineers can take it on.
- Stop. After the first quarter, you can stop with thirty days notice. Everything is already documented in your name.
Option four matters more than it looks. A good fractional CTO leaves you stronger, not dependent.
What we need from you
A fractional CTO only works if the founder stays involved. In the first 90 days, we ask for a few things:
- An hour a week for the standing call, kept even in busy weeks.
- Access to the code, the cloud accounts and the vendor contracts.
- Honest numbers on budget, runway and hiring plans.
- One person who can say yes to a decision.
- Permission to talk directly to your agency or contractors.
The last one matters most. Much of the useful work happens between your vendors and us. You stay informed through the weekly notes, without sitting in every thread.
How to tell it is working
You do not need a technical background to judge this. Ask yourself a few questions at day 90:
- Do I understand the main risks in our technology?
- Can I explain why we made our last three technical decisions?
- Do I know what each vendor does and whether they are worth it?
- Is there a plan for the next quarter that I believe?
- Could someone new pick this up from the written notes?
If the answer to most of those is yes, it is working. If not, say so early. Fixing the rhythm is easier in month two than month six.
Where we fit
Our fractional CTO engagement follows this shape. Our firm still ships production software, so the advice comes from people who live with their decisions. If you want a quick diagnosis before committing to a quarter, start with a technical audit. If your app was left behind by its last developer, our rescue and modernization work may fit better.
Talk it through
Stuck on a technical decision right now? Book a 30 minute call. You leave with a clear recommendation, whether or not we work together.
