services
Fractional CTO for scaling SaaS and product companies.
Senior engineering leadership for the moments full-time hire is too early — architecture, hiring, due diligence, and AI features that actually ship.
what this is
A fractional CTO is a senior engineering leader on retainer — typically two to four days per month — sitting inside your leadership team and owning the technology decisions you don’t have time or experience to make alone. Less “advisor.” More “co-founder shape, without the equity.”
for
When does this make sense?
Post-Series A, scaling engineering
You hired engineers fast and lost your technical direction. Sprint velocity is fine; architectural drift is not.
Pre-due-diligence
A VC has asked for technical leadership in the room. You need credibility plus an honest second opinion on your own stack.
Founding CTO vacuum
Your technical co-founder left, or never existed. You need someone with skin in the game without giving away equity.
Shipping AI in product
You're adding AI features, not building an AI product. You want someone who's already shipped agentic systems in production.
deliverables
What’s included.
01
Architecture and stack review
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
02
Engineering hiring plan
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
03
Technical roadmap (90/180/365)
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
04
AI / agentic systems strategy
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
05
Security and compliance baseline
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
06
Build-vs-buy decisions
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
07
Board and investor reporting
Placeholder copy — Richard to draft.
process
How it works.
01
Discovery
Two weeks shadowing the engineering team, reading the code, listening.
02
Roadmap
A written technical roadmap tied to business outcomes, with owners and deadlines.
03
Implementation
I lead delivery alongside your team — weekly cadence, working in the repo.
04
Optimisation
Measure, tune, document, hand over. Most engagements transition to lighter retainer.
investment
What this costs.
From £4,500/month
Retainer engagements run 6 to 18 months at 2–4 days per month. Technical due diligence is a discrete deliverable at £8–15k fixed. Pricing is shaped by the size of the engineering team and how much delivery work falls inside the retainer.
questions
Common questions
- How is this different from hiring a CTO?
- Placeholder — Richard to draft. Speak to retainer cadence, decision authority, and the kinds of bets a fractional CTO can and can't make.
- Will you actually write code?
- Placeholder. Yes — for greenfield product work, agentic systems, or critical architectural code. Not for steady-state feature delivery.
- Do you sign NDAs and IP assignment?
- Placeholder. Yes, both, signed before any technical conversation.
- What stage of company is this for?
- Placeholder. Post-revenue SaaS/tech, typically Series A/B, 8–50 engineers, or pre-seed founders who need a technical co-founder shape without giving away equity.
- Can you do technical due diligence as a one-off?
- Placeholder. Yes — that's a discrete deliverable, separate from the retainer. Typically 2–3 weeks for a £8–15k fixed fee.
- Are you available for full-time CTO roles?
- Placeholder. No — I'm a sitting CTO at a multi-brand industrial group. This is genuinely fractional.
- How is this different from a fractional CIO?
- Placeholder. CTO is product/engineering for software companies. CIO is IT, ERP, and operational technology for operating businesses. See the comparison piece.
Looking for operational IT leadership for an established SME instead?
Want a fractional CTO who'll actually ship?
A 30-minute call. No deck, no follow-up nurture sequence. I'll tell you whether I can help.