Fractional CTO & advisory

1. 01

   You've hit a technical decision you don't want to make alone — a platform pick, an architecture call, a build-vs-buy moment.

2. 02

   You need a second opinion on what your current team, vendor, or contractor is telling you. Independent read, no agenda.

3. 03

   You're evaluating vendors — software, infrastructure, or a development shop — and want a senior technologist in the room for diligence.

4. 04

   You're planning your first engineering hires and need help shaping the roles, sequencing the build, and scoping what to ship first.

5. 05

   You need someone in the loop on technical interviews — reviewing take-homes, calibrating signal, sitting in on the technical screens.

6. 06

   You want recurring strategic technology direction, but a full-time CTO isn't the right fit yet.

Strategy and judgment are the headline, but a retainer or project window often covers the hands-on build work too. Common workstreams:

1. 01

   Custom software.

   Internal tools, dashboards, and line-of-business applications that fit how your team actually works — not the other way around.

2. 02

   System integration.

   Making the tools you already pay for talk to each other. Your CRM should know about your billing system without someone copying data between them.

3. 03

   Workflow automation.

   Eliminating the repetitive copy-paste, file-rename, send-three-emails work that's eating your team's day.

4. 04

   Data & reporting.

   Turning the spreadsheets and exports you already have into decisions you can act on. Stop making calls from gut feel when the answer is in the data.

5. 05

   Security & compliance.

   Access controls, backup posture, audit logs, and compliance-ready practices. Fully on-prem AI is available when your work demands it.

6. 06

   Custom AI projects.

   One-off AI builds that don't need the full managed-agent engagement — internal knowledge systems, smart assistants, tools that learn your operations.

Senior judgment compounds when I have context — your team, your stack, the calls you've already made. The engagements that deliver the most value for you are the ones with a defined cadence, not drive-by hours. Three ways I work:

1. 01

   Monthly advisory retainer.

   A set number of hours per month for strategy calls, decision reviews, vendor diligence, and async support. The default option when you want a senior technologist in your pocket on a recurring basis.

2. 02

   Project window.

   A defined scope and timeline — evaluate a platform migration, design a hiring plan, run a four-week vendor diligence. Fixed start, fixed end, written deliverable.

3. 03

   Interview partner.

   A standing slot to sit in on technical interviews, review take-homes, and calibrate your loop. Common companion to a retainer when you're hiring your first few engineers.

I work in ongoing relationships, not by the hour. If your need is a single conversation or one-off review, reach out anyway — I'll point you toward someone who specializes in that work. I'd rather refer well than push you into a retainer that's overkill.

Interview partner engagements are scoped against an active retainer. Exact tier and rate set once we've scoped the engagement together.