Remote fractional CTO — technical leadership without the full-time commitment.
A fractional CTO provides technical direction, architecture decisions, and team leadership for companies that don't yet need (or can't yet afford) a full-time CTO. Remote-first, structured engagement.
Founder or CEO who needs a senior technical leader to own technical decisions without a full-time hire
The fractional CTO role exists for a specific company stage: post-seed, pre-Series A. The company has engineers but no technical leader who owns the architecture and roadmap.
What the fractional CTO does:
- Sets technical direction — what to build, how to build it
- Makes the architecture calls — database choice, deployment approach, third-party integrations
- Reviews code for quality and consistency
- Manages technical debt without letting it accumulate unchecked
- Translates business requirements into technical specs
- Prepares the technical foundation for Series A due diligence
Remote-first fractional CTO engagement: All of the above can be done remotely. Code review via GitHub. Architecture decisions via Loom and written documentation. Weekly 1:1s with the engineering team. Monthly board-level technical update.
Technical leadership in place — architecture decisions made, team guided, technical roadmap defined
Technical roadmap
for the next 6-12 months
Architecture documentation
for all critical systems
Engineering processes
code review, deployment, incident response
Hiring criteria
for first full-time engineers
Series A technical prep
due diligence readiness
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
Technical leadership in place — architecture decisions made, team guided, technical roadmap defined
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Fractional CTO engagement scope is the hours-per-week and the deliverables. Monthly retainer with defined output.
Questions, answered.
8-16 hours per week. Weekly engineering team meetings. Monthly executive review. 6-12 month engagements. Transitions out when the company hires a full-time CTO.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.