Senior technical leadership without hiring a full-time CTO
Some businesses need somebody to help make the technical decisions before they need more developers. A fractional CTO gives you that judgement at the point it is most valuable, which is usually before the money is committed.
You get hands-on technical leadership from someone who stays close enough to implementation to understand what the advice will cost to follow.
- Still writing software, so the advice stays grounded
- Can oversee your team, your supplier, or build it ourselves
- Independent of any platform or vendor relationship
- Scales up and down as the business needs it
When businesses bring us in
Businesses usually bring us in when a decision feels larger than the information available to make it, and nobody internally owns the technical side.
- Choosing between suppliers, and unsure how to compare the proposals
- An internal developer has left and taken the only understanding with them
- Growth is making the existing architecture creak and nobody knows how urgently
- A board wants an AI strategy that is more than a list of tools
- Due diligence before an acquisition, an investment or a big commitment
- Recruiting a technical hire, without the expertise to assess candidates
- Technology strategy and a roadmap grounded in delivery realities
- Software architecture and the decisions that are expensive to reverse
- Supplier evaluation and proposal review
- Oversight of in-house or outsourced development
- Technical due diligence
- Security, compliance and data protection input
- Support with recruitment and technical assessment
Questions we get asked
How much time does a fractional CTO take?
We work on a day rate of £800 excluding VAT, with a minimum commitment of two days a month. Most engagements settle into a regular rhythm at around that level, with heavier months around a decision and lighter ones in between.
Two days a month is the minimum because less frequent involvement rarely provides enough continuity for advice to stay grounded in what is actually happening. A one-off decision can instead be handled as a separate consultation.
Is this independent, or a route to selling us development?
A fair question to ask anyone offering both. We are happy to advise on work we will not do, and we say when a supplier you already have is the right choice. If the recommendation is that we build something, you should expect us to explain why, and to be comfortable getting a second opinion.
Can you work with our existing development team?
Yes. That can mean providing senior review, architectural direction and additional experience for decisions that fall outside the team’s usual work.
Discuss a technical decision
Tell us what you are deciding, the constraints around it and when the decision needs to be made.