Fractional CTO
A senior technical owner, one or two days a week.
For a business that runs on its own software but has nobody senior in charge of it. Maybe you never had a CTO, or yours has just left and took most of what they knew with them.
We take ownership of the technical decisions, explain them to you and your board in plain words, and make sure the systems you depend on are actually doing their job.
The terms
£1,000–£1,200 a day
- Day rate
- £1,000–£1,200
- Time
- 1–2 days a week
- Commitment
- Rolling monthly, scaled up or down as the work needs
- Where
- Remote, working UK and EU hours
- Best fit
- Software built on .NET and Microsoft Azure
When people call us
Usually something has just changed.
01
Your CTO or lead developer has left.
The systems still run, but nobody can tell you why they were built that way, what is fragile, or what the supplier quotes on your desk are really for.
02
You never had one.
The software grew one contractor or agency at a time. Now the big technical decisions get made by whoever is building, and you have no one on your side to check them.
03
Someone is about to look closely.
An investor, a buyer, an auditor or an insurer is going to ask about your systems. You want someone senior who can answer, and who has looked first.
04
A big change is coming.
A move to the cloud, a new finance system, a rebuild someone has quoted for, or a new rule you have to meet. Decisions that are expensive to get wrong and hard to undo.
What we do
What you get for one or two days a week.
- 01Someone senior who owns the technical decisions, and writes down why each one was made
- 02A plain account of where the risks are, in words you can take to the board
- 03A second opinion on quotes and plans from suppliers and agencies, before you sign
- 04Hiring for technical roles, and a team that doesn't depend on one person
- 05A close eye on what your cloud hosting costs, and why
- 06Proof that the jobs your business depends on are actually running
- 07Hands-on work where that is the quickest way to get something done
Why only one or two days
Most businesses without a CTO don't need one full-time. They need the decisions made well and someone accountable for them. If you do need someone five days a week, we'll tell you, and help you hire them.
Background
Someone who has made these calls before.
25 years building and fixing the .NET and Azure systems businesses run on, around 10 of them leading the teams that build them. Much of it in regulated businesses, where the record of what happened matters as much as the feature.
Senior from start to finish.
The person on the first call is the person doing the work. Nothing is handed to a junior.
We explain, you decide.
Every recommendation comes with what it costs, what it risks and what happens if you don't do it, in plain words. The business decision stays yours.
We say when we'd benefit.
If a recommendation would lead to work we could be paid for, such as an automation build, we'll say so up front, so you can weigh the advice knowing that.
What this isn't
- A full-time hire. If you need one, we'll help you find them.
- A development team. We can do hands-on work, but one or two days a week won't replace the people who build your software.
- Deep hands-on work outside .NET and Azure. Ownership, hiring and supplier decisions work on any setup. If you need specialist building in something else, we'll say so on the first call.
Questions
Before you get in touch.
How much does a fractional CTO cost?
£1,000 to £1,200 a day, usually one or two days a week on a rolling monthly arrangement, scaled up or down as the work requires. Remote, working UK and EU hours.
Do I need to be technical to work with you?
No. Most of the people who hire a fractional CTO aren't. Part of the job is turning technical choices into plain business ones: what it costs, what could go wrong, and what you are deciding.
What if our systems aren't built on .NET and Azure?
That is where we are deepest. Owning decisions, hiring, checking supplier plans and explaining risk to a board work on any setup. If you need specialist hands-on work in something else, we'll tell you on the first call rather than learn it on your time.
Can you help us hire a permanent CTO?
Yes. Writing the role, interviewing and handing over to them can all be part of the arrangement, and that is often how it ends.
Is this the same as the Silent Failure Audit?
No. The audit is a fixed five-day check of the jobs your systems run on their own. Fractional CTO work is ongoing ownership. You don't need the audit first, though it is a quick way to find out what a new technical owner should look at.
Tell us what has changed.
A departure, a deal, a big system change, or just a nagging sense that nobody senior is looking. Thirty minutes is enough to work out whether one or two days a week would help.