A non-technical founder raising a round
Investors will ask who owns the technology. A fractional CTO answers that question in the data room and in the meeting, and sets the plan the money will fund.
[ 19 ]Fractional CTO
A fractional CTO on retainer, without the executive hire.
Senior technical leadership for companies that need someone accountable for the technology before they can justify a full-time CTO: the roadmap, the architecture, the vendors, the hires and the answers investors and customers ask for.
Held by people who still ship. The studio's founder has served as fractional CTO and venture partner to investment firms and as CTO of companies it co-founded.
When you need one
The moments a company needs a technology executive, part-time.
A product built by an agency nobody owns
The software works, the vendor is gone or expensive, and no one inside the company can judge what they are being told. Someone has to be accountable for it.
Hiring the first engineers
The first technical hires set the culture and the codebase for years. Writing the roles, running the interviews and judging the work needs someone who has done it.
Diligence, audit or a security questionnaire
An acquirer, a bank or an enterprise customer wants answers about architecture, data handling and security. The answers have to be true and defensible.
A CTO who left
The person who held the system in their head is gone. Cover the role while the search runs, keep the roadmap moving, and hand over cleanly to the permanent hire.
Build, buy or partner decisions
Every quarter brings a vendor pitch, an AI initiative or a platform choice with a five-year consequence. A standing technical voice in the room keeps them from being made by default.
What it covers
Accountable for the technology, not just consulted on it.
The difference from an advisor is ownership. The roadmap is ours to deliver, the vendors are ours to manage, and the answers to your board are ours to stand behind.
Technology strategy and a written roadmap tied to the business plan and the next raise
Architecture, security and data-handling oversight, with a review of every significant change
Vendor, agency and platform decisions, including managing the teams that do the building
Hiring: role definitions, interview loops and technical assessment of candidates
Board, investor and customer-facing technical representation, from the pitch to the diligence call
Escalation when something breaks, and a plan so it breaks less often
How the retainer runs
Knowwhatyouhave,decidewhattodo,thendoiteveryweek.
Every engagement starts with a written audit, so the roadmap rests on what is actually there rather than on what the last vendor said.
- 01
Audit
The first two weeksWe read the code, the infrastructure, the contracts and the team, and write down what is sound, what is at risk and what it will cost to fix. You keep the document either way.
- 02
Roadmap
Written and pricedA plan for the next two to four quarters: what gets built, bought or retired, in what order, by whom, and what it costs. Tied to the raise, the revenue plan or the exit it has to serve.
- 03
Cadence
Weekly, on retainerA standing weekly session with the founder or the executive team, review of what ships, oversight of the people doing the work, and availability between sessions when something needs a decision.
- 04
Scale or hand over
Your callWhen the company is ready for a full-time CTO, we help write the role, run the search and hand over with the roadmap and the documentation in order. Some clients keep the retainer alongside the hire.
Proof
“AW3 has helped us structure Baird Augustine and the holding company Finance Inc. from the beginning. He provides invaluable insight and expertise in technology.”
“Will believed in my idea before anyone else did and helped me build a strong brand which gave the vision and idea more confidence and a design language we still use today.”
Need the build as well as the leadership? The retainer pairs with custom software development from the same team, and with project rescue when the system you inherited is the problem.
[ FAQ ]
Questions we actually get asked.
Not sure whether you need a CTO, an advisor or an engineer? Tell us what is on your plate and we'll say which.
Enough to carry the role: a standing weekly session, review of everything significant that ships, and availability between sessions for decisions that cannot wait. The amount is set in the engagement and scales up when a raise, a launch or a hiring push needs it.
Need someone accountable for the technology?
Tell us what you are building, who is building it and what the next two quarters have to deliver. We'll propose the audit with a price.