Service 04 — London
CTO Consulting
Senior technical leadership without a full-time hire: strategy, architecture review, technical due diligence, hiring and vendor decisions.
What we do
What’s included.
Fractional CTO engagements
Ongoing technical leadership on a defined number of days per month: decisions, oversight of delivery, and the technical voice in board and investor conversations.
Technical strategy and roadmap
Turning commercial goals into a sequenced technical plan — what to build, what to buy, what to defer, and what each stage costs in engineering time.
Architecture reviews
An independent read of your system: whether it will hold at the next order of magnitude, where the single points of failure are, what the real cost of the shortcuts has been, and what to change first.
Technical due diligence
For investors and acquirers: code quality, architecture, security posture, key-person risk, licensing and technical debt in the target company, reported in terms that support the investment decision.
Hiring and team building
Defining the roles you actually need, writing the specs, sitting in on technical interviews, and setting the bar — so your first engineering hires are not a guess.
Vendor and agency evaluation
Reviewing proposals, estimates and contracts from agencies and suppliers, and telling you where the quote is thin, where the risk sits, and what to negotiate.
Security and compliance leadership
Owning the technical side of security questionnaires, customer security reviews and compliance programmes, so enterprise deals are not blocked by engineering answers nobody is responsible for.
Packages
Two ways to start.
Fractional CTO Engagement
Monthly retainer, no minimum termFounders and boards without a full-time CTO
Ongoing part-time technical leadership: the decisions, the oversight of delivery, and the technical voice in board and investor conversations.
- Technical strategy and roadmap
- Architecture decisions and delivery oversight
- Hiring and vendor evaluation
- Ownership of security and compliance questions
System Architecture Review
Fixed-scope, typically 1–2 weeksScale-ups, investors and acquirers
An independent review of an existing system for scalability, security, cost and delivery risk — the same work we run as technical due diligence for investors and acquirers.
- Architecture and code review
- Infrastructure and cost review
- Security posture assessment
- Team and process assessment
How it works
Start to handover.
- 01
Orientation
A short engagement to understand the business, the team, the codebase and the commercial pressure on it — before recommending anything.
- 02
Assessment
A written read on architecture, delivery, security and team, with the risks ranked by what they will cost you and when.
- 03
Plan
A prioritised technical plan tied to your commercial milestones, specific enough for an engineering team to execute and clear enough for a board to approve.
- 04
Ongoing leadership
A regular rhythm: standing calls, decisions made and documented, delivery overseen, and board or investor material prepared when needed.
Who it’s for
Built for teams like these.
FAQ
Questions.
What does a fractional CTO cost compared with a full-time one?
A full-time CTO in the UK is a senior salary plus equity plus employment costs. A fractional engagement is a fixed monthly fee for an agreed number of days, typically a fraction of that, with no equity and no notice period to negotiate. We quote the monthly figure before we start so you can compare it directly.
How many hours or days per week is it?
Most engagements run between two and six days a month, concentrated around decision points and delivery reviews, with availability in between for things that cannot wait. Due diligence and architecture reviews are fixed-scope pieces of work rather than ongoing days.
Can you do technical due diligence for an investment?
Yes. We review the target's codebase, architecture, security posture, infrastructure, key-person risk and technical debt, and report in terms an investment committee can use — what is solid, what will need money, and what would stop the deal. Turnaround is typically one to two weeks depending on the size of the company.
Do you also build, or only advise?
Both, and they are separate engagements. Some clients want advice and keep delivery in-house or with an existing agency; others want us to lead and build. We will tell you when it is cheaper to have someone else build it, and we will still review the work.
How do we start?
A free consultation to work out whether you need a fractional CTO at all. If a one-off architecture review or a single piece of engineering would solve the problem, we will say so rather than sell a retainer.
Talk to us about cto consulting.
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