Fractional CEO and CTO for technical companies
I step in as CEO, CTO, or technical operating partner for companies that need senior leadership without a full-time executive hire. The center of gravity is technical, but the work is not only technical: customers, hiring, investors, planning, and the numbers all need to line up.
When this helps
- The founder is stretched between product, engineering, customers, and board expectations.
- Engineering needs direction, but hiring a full-time CTO is too early or too slow.
- A smaller technical company needs someone who can carry CEO-level operating work for a while.
- Product and technology are drifting apart.
- The board needs technical clarity, not more jargon.
- A company is integrating after investment, acquisition, or a leadership change.
What I do
- Set technical direction and make tradeoffs explicit.
- Build and manage customer relationships: listen, sell, follow up, and keep trust intact.
- Read the P&L, understand cash and margin pressure, and turn that into operating choices.
- Create or sharpen the business plan so product, sales, hiring, and runway tell the same story.
- Talk to current and potential investors in a way that is clear, credible, and grounded.
- Work with engineering leads on delivery rhythm, quality, and focus.
- Build trust between board, product, engineering, founders, and investors.
- Help with hiring, org design, and senior technical leadership gaps.
- Spot technical risk before it becomes business risk.
Operating model
Most engagements work best as a fixed number of days per month with a clear mandate. The cadence can be weekly, biweekly, or board-cycle driven. I am not there to become another layer of process. I am there to make the technical direction sharper, the commercial story cleaner, and the company easier to run.
Typical roles
- Fractional CEO for smaller technical organizations.
- Fractional CTO.
- Interim CEO during a transition or reset.
- Interim CTO.
- Technical operating partner.
- CEO sparring partner for founders of technical companies.
- Portfolio company support after an investment.
What I am not
- Staff augmentation.
- A slide-only consultant.
- A general-manager-for-any-industry profile; I am strongest where the business is technical.
- A permanent-leader substitute once the company is clearly ready to hire one.
