Cost isn't the only factor. The decision framework based on stage, team, and goals.

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

I was a Fractional CTO (fCTO). I no longer offer the service to new clients, and here is why and what I’ve learned. The beginning In the summer of 2023 I started learning about the concept of fCTO wor...

Tech + marketing hub for startup founders. Fixed cost MVP development, GTM tech setup, and fractional CTO advisory to build and scale reliably with Foundersbar

A fractional CTO isn’t right for every SaaS company. Learn when the model fails and how & when to choose the right tech leadership model.

Let's begin this with, _what is a #FractionalCTO?_ > A Fractional CTO is an experienced, executive-level technology leader who provides strategic guidance, engineering team mentorship, and architecture oversight on a part-time or contract basis. This role allows early-stage startups and growing companies to access high-level technical expertise without the significant financial commitment of a full-time executive salary and benefits. It is an ideal solution for non-technical founders, scaling businesses, or organizations navigating transitions that require executive direction on a reduced schedule. Here are the 10 core aspects that define the role and how I believe that I've been filling the role of a **Fractional CTO** for _four years now_ and I've only _just_ been introduced to the term itself. English is my second language. ## Part-Time Executive Leadership **Delivers top-tier C-suite technical oversight for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive salary, benefits, and equity.** Fractional CTO's start at $200/hr when you need on-demand **top-tier** C-suite technical oversight, insight and expertise accessible to you for a _fraction of the cost_ of a full time executive salary, benefits, equity, and ultimately, ownership. Sometimes, you just need a confidential second opinion about a difficult decision. Protected under a strong NDA, **Fractional CTOs** offer you _true diverse perspectives_ without the overhead of full time commitment for each perspective you tap into. As an **Executive Vice President** or **Chief Executive Officer** selecting or appointing a **Fractional CTO** to be assigned a fraction of responsibilities to your organization in order to _diversify the role of the Chief Technology Officer itself._ Instead of just **one CTO,** why not have a _suite of Fractional CTOs?_ ## Technical Strategy & Architecture **Aligns high-level business goals with the correct software, cloud, and hardware infrastructure choices to prevent costly technical debt.** **Case Study** A _VP_ in a company came to me and said _Andrei, can you reduce my AWS bill? We spend $17K per month right now._ I replied, _absolutely!_ What ended up happening cost them $69K up front and it reduced their OPEX down to $2K. The company experienced a 1,400% increase in their build times using NVMe NAS over 10Gbps fiber in a colo-hosted private cloud using a dozen Mac Pros running vSphere ESXi on each. The QNAP NAS was programmed and a hand-off document was provided to the CEO and the full time CTO. In this capacity, I functioned as a **Fractional CTO** providing low level action on high level business goals while implementing and architecting the correct software, cloud and hardware infrastructure choices to prevent costly technical debt by reducing this company's 3 year OPEX by $471K. For the few months that it took me to build the private colo for them, what I cost already paid for itself several times over. At this point, its a matter of discovery to know that **Fractional CTOs** exist and I'm ready to build! ## Infrastructure Cost Optimization **Audits cloud environments, build pipelines, and vendor contracts to drastically reduce operational expenses (OPEX).** **Case Study** A _VP_ in a company came to me and said, _Andrei, can you optimize our build pipelines in our TeamCity Pipelines so it costs us less money?_ I reply, _why of course!_ During this engagement, tooling was introduced that would optimize infrastructure and reduce OPEX by auditing existing on-prem and AWS hybrid private cloud infrastructures across multiple AWS Organization accounts in order to audit **build pipelines** and provide **vendor pipelines** specifically to move hundreds of gigabytes of data using Helix Core `p4`. Building tooling in **PowerShell** for `p4prometheus` Windows support and developing counter so you can have a helper with **counting things.** Well, I ended up building out technology that replaced $250K rack mounted server clusters with cloud hosting Terraform, Ansible and Bash scripting, _custom built without AI_ to spin up a cluster for a _fraction of the cost_ with immediate uptime. A **Fractional CTO** is a person who can be on-call for these sensitive systems under NDA and provide technical support for these critical applications. When one group in the company lost their data, I restored them and brought them back online. At another company, another _VP_ called me and wanted me to bring them back online. I did then too. And I'll do it again. That's what a **Fractional CTO** does. ## Crisis Management & Recovery **Intervenes during high-stakes situations—such as production outages, security breaches, or corrupted pipelines—to restore system stability.** This is when $200/hr really is peanuts when you think about it. You're in the middle of a **security breach** like another company that I've worked with. You're an Executive Vice President and you have alarms going off, orders aren't going through, and you have ransomware installed on your AWS system that is demanding bitcoin. Who do you call? Your **Fractional CTO** of course. That's me. I got the 6AM call, and when I hung the phone up, the systems were back online before supper. Then, what transpired for months, can only be described as **Fractional CTO** responsibilities without the label and without the acknowledgement. But, when your corrupted systems require an intervention from a **Fractional CTO** even $400/hr for after-hours is a bargain when millions of dollars are on the line. ## Team Mentorship & Hiring **Mentors internal developers, establishes engineering standards, and leads technical interviews to hire key talent.** A full time _CTO_ may cost too much to justify this, but for $200/hr, you can truly enhance and expand your team by bringing on additional **Fractional CTOs** to your organization. You definitely don't want to be using AI agents to hire for your Senior Distributed Systems Engineer role. Instead, let your **Fractional CTO** do the interviews for you to get the best candidates only? You need a new technology explored and then presented to the team? Ask your **Fractional CTO.** These are the exact type of tasks that I was asked throughout my career. Now, you're a CEO, a VP or a person needing a **Fractional CTO** and you're wondering, what does a Fractional CTO do? ## Vendor & Agency Oversight **Evaluates, negotiates with, and manages third-party software vendors, outsourced development agencies, and contractors.** This is critical. Under NDA, **Fractional CTOs** can provide you with additional oversight to third party software vendors performance. An experienced **Fractional CTO** with overseas staffing agencies is available on-tap and capable of providing reasonable negotiations with respect to these contracting services. In the age of AI, so many imposters are going around just giving you another interface to ChatGPT or to Claude. Sorry, I am not going to do that. A **Fractional CTO** is a new title that is in response to the loss of the 20+ year Senior Software Engineer being able to choose from the crop of jobs. Instead, now they've been reduced to training AI for data harvesting operations on LinkedIn Premium. In this capacity, I serve your interests and I look at the contracts that you have and I weigh them based on the best value that can be brought to your company. It's as simple as that. ## Security & Compliance Standards **Establishes cybersecurity policies, access controls, data privacy protocols, and regulatory compliance (e.g., SOC2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA).** I have experience with this space, including the tooling and scanning of systems that are needed in order to assert compliance. Being involved in the Medical Services industry, I have an understanding of Provider, Doctor, and Patient like I do the sanctity of HIPPA and what privacy means for the actual common link to why PCI and even SOC2 fit into that mix. Oversight of systems and verifiability of compliance to systems is key. I have built SOC2 Ansible compliance scripts designed to provision resources for compliance with SOC2. I have deployed Wazuh DevSecOps security monitoring solutions inside private networks both in the public cloud (hidden via VPC routing and VPNs) and on-prem. When it comes to compliance in these areas, I am the type of **Fractional CTO** that knows these frameworks well, has built systems around them, and can apply that same expertise and knowledge to additional companies in need of fractional services from a _CTO._ ## Investor Readiness & Due Diligence **Prepares technical roadmaps, system documentation, and architecture diagrams for fundraising, board updates, or M &A activities.** One thing that I love doing is writing, if you couldn't tell. I love writing system documentation and building Architecture Diagrams. How they are used, can be applied to fundraising, board updates and other activities, but at the end of the day, when I am studying your infrastructure, sometimes poor decisions from past teams compound on themselves, and I do not _seek to blame anyone,_ instead I choose to **own without ego** and _seek engineering excellency_ in all that I build. As a **Fractional CTO,** you may need to tackle a larger project that needs closer collaboration with your CTO that you don't want to give to your full time staff. Perhaps it affects them. Perhaps its new software that you want them to use. Yes, I can be that guy. I am that **Fractional CTO.** Sometimes, growing pains need to happen. That adult tooth won't come out if the baby tooth doesn't fall out first. Yes its painful at first, but its needed. Likewise with the choice of using **Fractional CTOs.** Use us like we are a tool in your toolbox. Have 3 or 4 on speed dial. ## Scalability Planning **Designs high-availability, multi-region, or distributed architectures that allow a growing product to scale without breaking.** **Case Study** A company wanted to get involved with a publicly traded company and saw that my professional experience has mostly been with those companies, 2025 was the exception aside from publishing firm in college, but that doesn't _really count._ That company that I am talking about, wanted to go **multi-region** and they had a fragile _single-region_ Terraform architecture, mostly scaffolded by ChatGPT and held together by dozens of manual steps needed between each error message to get the "builds to work." In this case study, I have specifically taken AWS and GCP single-region architectures and was single handedly tasked with making them multi-region. I have the resources capable of doing this, and I've done it three times in my career. As a **Fractional CTO** this is what is expect of you. Once the platform was _multi-region_ the publicly traded company took interest in this company and began using their technology. Without my **multi-region efforts,** they would be in the stone age still. ## Bridge for Non-Technical Founders **Translates complex engineering trade-offs into plain business terms, giving founders the technical clarity needed to make strategic decisions.** This is probably the most fun that I have on the job as a **Fractional CTO.** I really enjoy being asked to sit in on technical conversations and just give my feedback on them. A fresh perspective from the outside. Sometimes the executives that I've worked with are watching a presentation from an employee that they know nothing about, and they need an honest **Fractional CTO** opinion on it to get a sense of what opportunities exist, what the trade-offs look like, and what what technical clarity could look like that involves the **Fractional CTO.** ## Conclusion I have been doing this now for 17 years across my career. I never had a name for it. I do now. It's called **Fractional CTO.** Are you a **Fractional CTO?** I didn't know that I was, until it dawned on me this year. When I look at what it means to be a **Fractional CTO,** the 10-points outlined here demonstrate how I have intimately been involved with company Vice Presidents and the CEOs themselves throughout my entire career as a very close confident. Not the type of person who did a CoderPad challenge for you, but the type of person to save your organization millions of dollars and save it from disaster in a moments notice. That's where having a **Fractional CTO** makes the most sense.

Follow-up from a recent collab article in which Greg and I discussed how people can make the transition towards a Fractional CTO role.