What Does a Fractional CTO Actually Do?

A fractional CTO works with a handful of companies at a time, giving each one 8-12 hours a week. None of those companies could justify a $300K full-time hire. All of them need someone making technology decisions that aren't going to cost six figures to unwind later.

That's the model. A senior technology leader who works part-time across a small number of companies, bringing the strategic capability of a full-time CTO without the full-time cost.

The Work

The point isn't adding another person to the org chart. It's streamlining what you already have: cutting wasted process, surfacing opportunities nobody's looking at, giving your team hours back every week. You get the strategic capability without the full-time headcount.

The balance shifts depending on the company, but it falls into four areas.

Technology strategy is the core. Assess where you are technically, find the gaps, build a roadmap. That means a technology audit, a 6-12 month plan, build-vs-buy analysis, vendor evaluations, and (increasingly) figuring out where AI actually helps versus where it's just noise. The vendor evaluation alone can save multiples of the engagement cost: a two-hour review of alternatives before signing a six-figure platform contract is worth the entire monthly retainer.

Team leadership matters if you have developers, whether in-house or outsourced. I set architecture standards, run code reviews, handle sprint planning, and act as the bridge between what the business wants and what the engineering team builds. The most common version of this: a founder has an outsourced dev team delivering what they ask for, but nobody's checking whether they're asking for the right things.

Operations and process is where most of the quick wins live. Automating manual workflows, connecting systems that don't talk to each other, setting up proper reporting. The classic example: a team spending 15 hours a week on data entry between two systems that could be connected with a Zapier integration in an afternoon. These are the wins that build momentum early.

Stakeholder communication is the part nobody thinks about until they need it. Board updates, due diligence prep, vendor negotiations, budget planning. When an investor asks about your technology architecture, somebody needs to have a clear answer.

How Engagements Work

Most start small and expand.

The audit is where I recommend starting. At PocketCTO, it's $999 for a 1-2 week assessment: current state of your technology, gap analysis against your goals, prioritised recommendations, cost estimates, and an AI opportunity map. It's designed to be useful on its own. You get a clear picture of what needs to happen, whether or not we keep working together.

Retainers are the ongoing model. You pay a fixed monthly fee for a set scope. I offer two tiers: CTO-on-Call at $5,000/mo (a CTO in your pocket, hence the name) for strategic guidance, and Embedded CTO at $10,000/mo when you need me doing hands-on implementation and sprint leadership too. For a full breakdown of how this compares to the wider market, see the pricing guide.

Projects work for specific initiatives: a platform migration, an AI implementation, due diligence prep. These are scoped and priced individually.

The First 90 Days

This is roughly how every engagement plays out, though the specifics vary.

Month one is discovery. I interview stakeholders, audit the stack, map core workflows, and identify quick wins. I aim for at least one visible improvement in the first two weeks (something small, like fixing a broken integration or killing a redundant tool subscription). It builds trust and shows the team that something is actually changing.

Month two shifts to structural work. Implementing the top recommendations from the audit, setting up development processes if they're missing, starting vendor evaluations. This is also when I'll kick off an AI pilot if there's a clear opportunity.

Month three is where results start compounding. Projects are underway with milestones. The team is running more smoothly. You can see the numbers moving. And the roadmap gets refined because you've learned things in months one and two that change the priorities.

Who This Works For

The sweet spot is companies between 5 and 50 people. Growing, technology matters to the business, and they need someone senior thinking about it. But not for 40 hours a week.

Common situations: a non-technical founder who needs someone to own the technology side. A scaling company that's outgrown its initial setup. An operations-heavy business looking to automate. A company with outsourced developers that needs oversight.

What This Isn't

I'm not a hands-off strategy person. I come from deep engineering. I can read your codebase, review pull requests, and tell you whether your developers are building the right thing the right way. You'll get an honest assessment of your team, your architecture, and your options forward. If something needs building to unblock a decision, I'll build it. But you're not hiring me to be a full-time developer. If that's what you need, hire one.

I'm not a project manager. I set direction and unblock things, but I'm not managing your Jira board. If you need someone running daily standups, that's a different role.

And it's not temporary. Unlike an interim CTO filling a gap while you recruit, fractional is a long-term model. Engagements of 12-24 months are common in the industry, and some run for years.

FAQ

How many hours per week? Depends on the engagement, but 8-12 is the sweet spot for most companies. Some weeks are heavier (during a vendor selection or migration), some lighter. It evens out.

Remote or on-site? Remote, with periodic in-person sessions for workshops or board presentations.

How is this different from a consultant? A consultant delivers a PDF and disappears. I stay, implement, and own the outcomes. I'm in your Slack, I know your team, and I'm accountable for what happens next.

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Wondering if this model fits your situation? The AI Readiness Assessment takes 5 minutes and gives you a starting point.