Fractional CTO services

Senior technical strategy.
Without the salary.

A full-time CTO costs £150k+ and you might not need one yet. We embed as your part-time technical leader — owning architecture, vendor selection, hiring, security, and roadmap — at a fraction of the cost.

The trap

The "non-technical founder"
trap.

If your business is a software product but no-one on your leadership team is technical, every important decision happens in a fog. Vendor pitches sound equally credible. Estimates have nothing to anchor against. The roadmap drifts toward whatever the loudest engineer suggests.

What it covers

What does a
fractional CTO do?

Architecture & technology decisions

What to build vs buy. What stack. What infrastructure. What database. The decisions that are cheap to make right and expensive to undo.

Roadmap & prioritisation

Translating business goals into a sequenced engineering plan. Saying "no" to the things that don't matter so the team can ship the things that do.

Hiring & team building

Writing job specs, screening technical candidates, running pair-programming interviews, negotiating offers. Building the team that will eventually replace us.

Vendor & agency oversight

If you're already engaged with another agency or freelancer, we can review their work objectively, hold them accountable, and translate between their world and yours.

Security & compliance

GDPR, SOC 2 readiness, ISO 27001 prep, security audits, penetration testing oversight. Not glamorous; protects the business from existential blow-ups.

Investor & board communication

Translating engineering reality into board-deck language. Defending technical decisions to non-technical investors. Tech-due-diligence prep ahead of fundraising or sale.

The economics

The cost of
leadership.

A senior technical leader in the UK earns £130–180k base, plus equity, plus benefits, plus the cost of a botched search if they don't work out. A fractional engagement scales to your stage — typically 1–3 days per week for £6–18k/month — and ends cleanly when you're ready for a full-time hire.

  • No equity grant required
  • No 6-month notice period
  • No recruitment fees
  • Immediate availability
  • Step up or down as your needs change
£150k+
Full-time senior CTO base salary (UK)
£72-216k
Annualised fractional cost (1-3d/wk)
0
Equity dilution
2 weeks
Typical engagement-end notice
Who this is for

Is this a fit?

Pre-Series A founders Building a software product, not yet ready to commit £150k+ to a full-time CTO. Need senior judgement on architecture and hiring.
Established businesses going digital Trading 10+ years, now building a software product to defend or extend the core business. No internal technical leadership yet.
Pre-acquisition prep Approaching a fundraise or trade sale. Need someone to clean up the tech house, prepare due-diligence materials, and answer the hard questions.

Stop guessing.
Start leading.

Tell us about your business and where you currently lack technical confidence. We'll propose an engagement shape — or tell you honestly if you don't need one yet.

Discuss engagement →
Speak directly

Skip the sales team.
Talk to a Lead Engineer.

Tell us about your business bottleneck. If we can solve it, you'll know within 24 hours. If we can't, we'll tell you who can.

  • Response within 24 hours, weekdays
  • NDA available before any discussion
  • No obligation, no sales pitch
  • Direct line to senior technical staff
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