Technical leadership, without a full-time hire.
A Fractional CTO makes architecture, team, and tool decisions before they become expensive mistakes, for as long as you need one.
The situation
Many mid-sized companies and portfolio companies have no CTO, or the position is vacant while important decisions pile up. Leadership makes technology decisions on the side, the engineering team has no technical leadership, and investments in infrastructure or tools are deferred because nobody owns the responsibility. A full-time hire is expensive, slow, and often oversized for the actual task.
We take on the role on demand, with a fixed weekly scope. This isn't a consulting engagement that ends with a slide deck. It's operational leadership: architecture decisions, roadmap prioritization, leading engineering leads, choosing tools and vendors.
After the first weeks, there's a solid technical roadmap, clear responsibilities in the team, and one person who represents investment decisions on the technical side, to leadership, the advisory board, or the investment committee.
Deliverables
Technical roadmap
A prioritized list for the coming months, aligned to business goals rather than the team's wish list.
Architecture decisions
Solid decisions on system boundaries, buy-vs-build, and technology choice, documented and justified.
Leadership of the engineering team
Regular one-on-ones, goal setting, and personnel decisions for tech leads and developers.
Vendor and tool decisions
Assessment and selection of cloud providers, SaaS tools, and service providers based on cost and risk.
Sparring for leadership
A technical counterpart at eye level for investment decisions and board materials.
Handover to a permanent hire
Building out the role, defining the profile, and supporting the search when a permanent CTO follows.
Our approach
- 01
Take stock
We review architecture, team, tools, and ongoing projects and talk to the key stakeholders.
- 02
Set priorities
We agree with leadership on the most important levers for the coming months.
- 03
Take on operational leadership
We run team meetings, architecture decisions, and vendor conversations within the agreed scope.
- 04
Report regularly
We report to leadership or the advisory board on a short, fixed cadence: status, risks, next steps.
- 05
Prepare the handover
We build the structure so it can be handed over to a permanent hire or the existing team.
Typical clients
| Situation | Our approach |
|---|---|
| CTO position vacant | A Fractional CTO bridges the gap without stalling the roadmap |
| Portfolio company without technical leadership | The PE fund gets a technical view of the portfolio without creating a full-time role |
| Growth outpaces the existing structure | Architecture and team get organized ahead of the next growth stage |
| Leadership without a technical background | A sparring partner translates technology questions into business decisions |
Our approach: A Fractional CTO bridges the gap without stalling the roadmap
Our approach: The PE fund gets a technical view of the portfolio without creating a full-time role
Our approach: Architecture and team get organized ahead of the next growth stage
Our approach: A sparring partner translates technology questions into business decisions
Outside our scope
We don't take on day-to-day coding tasks and don't replace an existing engineering team. Nor are we an interim fix for a company that doesn't want to build a technical function at all: the goal is always to bring the organization to a state where it can keep working with or without us.
Frequently asked questions
| Ausgangslage | Umsetzung | Ergebnis | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D2C food brand, Bremen | D2C food brand without permanent technical leadership, open shop and ERP decisions. | Shop evaluation, new architecture, and a guided ERP migration as interim CTO. | Decisions were made and implemented, no longer postponed. |
| EdTech company, PE-financed | PE-financed EdTech company, technical picture unclear before the investment. | Tech DD, greenfield architecture, AI agents in production, AI-assisted engineering organization. | The company runs AI in day-to-day operations, not just in pilot projects. |
| Enterprise commerce platform, Hamburg | Enterprise commerce provider with a tightly coupled architecture that had grown over time. | Headless architecture with Kafka event streaming and a staged AWS migration. | The platform runs decoupled, with Kafka as the backbone instead of a central monolith. |
Ausgangslage
D2C food brand without permanent technical leadership, open shop and ERP decisions.
Umsetzung
Shop evaluation, new architecture, and a guided ERP migration as interim CTO.
Ergebnis
Decisions were made and implemented, no longer postponed.
Ausgangslage
PE-financed EdTech company, technical picture unclear before the investment.
Umsetzung
Tech DD, greenfield architecture, AI agents in production, AI-assisted engineering organization.
Ergebnis
The company runs AI in day-to-day operations, not just in pilot projects.
Enterprise commerce platform, Hamburg
Ausgangslage
Enterprise commerce provider with a tightly coupled architecture that had grown over time.
Umsetzung
Headless architecture with Kafka event streaming and a staged AWS migration.
Ergebnis
The platform runs decoupled, with Kafka as the backbone instead of a central monolith.
Initial call: 30 minutes, concrete.
We discuss your current technical situation and whether a Fractional CTO is the right next step.