Fractional CTO
Technical leadership without a full-time hire. Someone senior in the room for the decisions that are expensive to reverse.
This page explains what the work actually is and who it suits. It is not a pitch — engagements run through the studio.
What the work actually is
Advisory goes wrong when it stays abstract. These are the concrete things the role covers.
Own the architecture
Decide how the system is put together and write down why. Data model, service boundaries, what to build and what to buy. Decisions get documented so they survive a staff change.
Evaluate vendors and agencies
Read the proposal, read the code, interview the team. Say what is actually being offered and where the estimate does not hold up.
Shape the roadmap
Sequence work so dependencies land in the right order and the risky, uncertain parts get tested early rather than last.
Sit in on engineering hires
Write the job description, screen the technical work, and run the parts of the interview a non-technical founder cannot assess.
Attach the cost to the decision
What a technical choice does to headcount, hosting spend, and the operating model. This is the part most technical advice leaves out, and it is why I can say no credibly.
Be the person who says no
The most valuable item on the list. Push back on the expensive, hard-to-reverse decision while pushing back is still cheap.
Who this suits
Three situations account for most of the calls.
A dev team you can't evaluate
They say six months. You have no way to know whether that is true, whether the architecture is sound, or whether you are being managed. You need someone on your side of the table who can read the work.
A build that is stalled or drifting
Timelines keep moving, scope keeps changing, and nobody can say plainly what is left. Usually this is not a people problem. It is an architecture or decision-making problem nobody has named.
An irreversible decision coming
A platform, a vendor contract, a rewrite, an acquisition. The kind of choice that is cheap this week and very expensive in eighteen months.
Who it doesn't
Being honest about this saves everyone a call. This is a partnership, not a vendor arrangement. If what you want is someone to take a finished spec, execute it, and not ask questions, that is a real need and the studio can meet it — but it isn't this. The value here is in the questions.
It is also not a fit if you don't want strategic input. Some engagements come with the decisions already made and only need hands on a keyboard. That is fine, and it is a different arrangement.
And it isn't a fit if what you actually want is agreement. A meaningful part of the role is disagreeing with you early, in writing, while the cost of changing course is still low.
How I approach it
An engineer who's owned a P&L. Most people who can evaluate an architecture have never owned a budget, and most people who can read a P&L can't read the code. I spent eight years as Director of Development and Operations with profit-and-loss responsibility across three departments, after fifteen years writing the software.
That changes what the advice sounds like. A recommendation arrives with the cost attached — what it does to headcount, to hosting spend, to the next eighteen months — because I have had to live with that answer from the other side of the table.
Most expensive problems I get called into were not caused by bad engineers. They were caused by a decision nobody senior enough was in the room to question. That is the job: be in the room, understand the tradeoff, and be willing to say the unpopular thing while it is still cheap to change.
How engagements usually work
Fractional arrangements come in three shapes, and which one fits depends on how often decisions arrive rather than on how much work there is.
- A one-off technical assessment — a bounded review of a codebase, a team, a vendor proposal, or a decision on the table, delivered as a written assessment and a walkthrough. The usual starting point, because it ends with something in hand either way.
- Retained monthly — standing availability, regular review of what is shipping, and retained context so it does not have to be rebuilt every time. Fits when there is an active build and decisions arrive weekly.
- Scoped to a project — bounded to one initiative: a migration, a platform selection, a rebuild decision, or due diligence ahead of a transaction. Defined start and end.
Engagements run through AIwhirks
AIwhirks is my software studio — advisory and build both start there, and I do the work either way. Describe the decision, the build, or the team you are trying to assess, and you will get an honest read on whether I am the right person for it.
Start a conversation at AIwhirks ↗If it isn't a fit, you'll be told so and pointed somewhere better.
Common questions
What is a fractional CTO?
A senior technical leader working with you part-time instead of as a full-time hire. The work is architecture ownership, vendor and agency evaluation, roadmap sequencing, input on engineering hires, code review, and pushing back on expensive decisions. Companies use it when technical decisions have outgrown the founder but the workload doesn't yet justify a full-time CTO salary.
How is this different from hiring a development agency?
An agency is who you hire to build the thing. A fractional CTO is who you hire to decide whether it should be built that way, and to tell you when the agency's estimate doesn't hold up. The roles are complementary, and a fractional CTO sits on your side of the table.
What does a fractional CTO typically cost?
The common basis across the market is 10–20% the cost of a full-time CTO, because you're buying a fraction of the time. Where a given engagement falls in that range depends on how much standing availability it needs; a one-off assessment is usually quoted as a fixed scope instead. Specific numbers get worked out in the first conversation, which happens at AIwhirks.
Does the technology stack matter?
Less than people expect. The expensive decisions are usually about architecture, sequencing, and people rather than syntax. Hands-on depth here is strongest in PHP, JavaScript and TypeScript, Node, relational databases including PostgreSQL and MySQL, cloud infrastructure, and AI-augmented development workflows — worth raising on the first call if your stack sits outside that.