Skip to content
automate5

Services / Advise

Senior technical leadership, without the full-time hire.

A CTO one or two days a week. Strategy, architecture, hiring and delivery oversight for companies that need senior judgment before they need a full-time executive.

Who it's for

You'll recognize yourself here.

Non-technical founders

You have the idea, the customers or the funding, and nobody to own the technical side.

Companies between CTOs

Your technical lead left, or you've outgrown the agency that built v1.

Teams about to make a big move

Raising, hiring your first engineers, or rebuilding something that's creaking.

What you get

Concrete deliverables, not vague support.

Strategy

  • A technical roadmap tied to business goals
  • Build-vs-buy decisions, written down with trade-offs
  • An AI plan with a business case, not a slide of buzzwords

Architecture

  • System design reviews and a target architecture
  • Security, reliability and cloud-cost baselines
  • Hands-on code review where it matters

People

  • Hiring plans, interview loops and candidate vetting
  • Managing agencies and contractors against clear milestones
  • Building the team that eventually replaces us

Stakeholders

  • Board and investor updates in plain English
  • Technical due diligence, on either side of the table
  • Vendor negotiations and contract reviews

How it works

A clear path from first call to results.

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    We start with the 5-Day Diagnostic, so the first month is spent on the right problems.

  2. 02

    Set the cadence

    A weekly working session, a written decision log, and a monthly update you can forward to your board.

  3. 03

    Hand over

    When it's time for a full-time CTO, we help you hire one and hand over cleanly.

Where to start

The usual path.

Start here

The 5-Day Diagnostic

5 days · Fixed fee

Pricing

Fixed fee

Quoted after a 30-minute call, based on your scope.

The fee is credited against any follow-on work.

Book a call about this

Anyone who knows something needs to change, but not exactly what.

In five working days we review your product, stack, data and operations, then hand you a prioritized plan.

What's included

  • Stakeholder interviews and a walkthrough of how work actually gets done
  • Review of your codebase, infrastructure, tools and data
  • The three highest-return AI and automation opportunities, with rough ROI
  • A prioritized roadmap with estimates, risks and a build-vs-buy call for each item

You walk away with

A written plan you can act on with us, with another team or on your own.

Ongoing

Fractional CTO

1–2 days a week · Monthly retainer

Pricing

Monthly retainer

Quoted after a 30-minute call, based on your scope.

Most clients start with the Diagnostic.

Book a call about this

Companies that need senior technical judgment before a full-time executive.

Technical leadership one or two days a week: roadmap, architecture, hiring, vendors and board updates.

What's included

  • A technical roadmap tied to business goals
  • Architecture and build-vs-buy decisions, written down
  • Hiring plans, interviews, and managing engineers or agencies
  • Investor, board and due-diligence conversations

You walk away with

Someone senior who owns the technical side of the business.

FAQ

Common questions.

How is this different from hiring a consultant?

A consultant writes recommendations. A fractional CTO owns the outcome: decisions, hiring, vendors and delivery, week after week.

Will you write code?

Where it matters, yes: prototypes, architecture spikes and code reviews. For sustained building, pair the retainer with a Build engagement.

Can you help us hire a full-time CTO?

Yes. We define the role, run the search with you, interview the candidates and hand over once they're in the seat.

Start with a conversation

Tell us what you're building.

30 minutes, no pitch deck. You'll leave with a clear next step, even if it isn't us.