Fractional CTO & CPO for startups
Executive technology and product leadership, a few hours a week. You get a senior partner for the decisions that shape your company, without the cost and risk of a full-time C-level hire before you need one.
You need 10 hours a week of the right CTO.
Here's a trap I see often. A founder raises a seed round, feels the pressure to "look like a real company," and hires a senior full-time CTO at a six-figure salary plus equity. Six months later they've burned a chunk of runway on someone spending most of their time on problems a mid-level engineer could handle, because there simply isn't enough CTO-level work yet.
A fractional CTO earns its cost at specific moments:
- Architecture decisions that are painful to reverse. A wrong call on your data model or infrastructure at month three costs you a rewrite at month eighteen.
- Hiring your first engineers. Who to hire, in what order, where (including LATAM), and how to tell a strong candidate from a good interviewer.
- Enterprise deals and security reviews. SOC 2, security questionnaires and compliance requirements that block sales.
- Investor conversations. Someone who can represent your technology and roadmap credibly in a fundraise or due diligence.
- AI strategy. Moving from a pile of AI features to a coherent, governed framework that actually scales.
Everything a CTO and CPO own, sized to your stage
Technology strategy & architecture
- Architecture reviews and target-state design
- Build vs. buy decisions and vendor selection
- Cloud infrastructure and cost optimization
- Technical debt assessment and payoff plan
Product leadership (CPO)
- Product vision, roadmap and prioritization
- Discovery practices and customer feedback loops
- Product metrics and success criteria
- Aligning product, engineering and go-to-market
AI adoption & strategy
- Where AI changes your market, not just your features
- AI architecture on standards like MCP
- Governance, security and EU AI Act readiness
- AI-native engineering workflows for your team
Security & compliance
- SOC 2 Type I and Type II readiness
- Controls built into how your team ships
- Answering enterprise security questionnaires
- Experience in investment banking, retail banking and fintech
Team building & leadership
- Org design, roles and career ladders
- Hiring your first LATAM engineers
- Technical interviews and onboarding
- Coaching your tech lead or future full-time CTO
Board & investor support
- Technology narrative for fundraising
- Preparing for technical due diligence
- Board updates on engineering and product
- Budget and headcount planning
Flexible by design
We agree on scope and cadence up front, then adjust as your company grows.
Short and focused
Assessment
A time-boxed review of your technology, team and roadmap. You get a written diagnosis and a prioritized 90-day plan your team can execute.
Most common
Ongoing fractional CTO/CPO
A recurring weekly commitment, typically around 10 hours. I join leadership meetings, own key decisions, and lead the engineering and product team alongside you.
Bridge
Interim leadership
Higher-intensity cover during a transition: a CTO departure, a major launch, an acquisition or a compliance push. Includes hiring and onboarding your permanent leader.
How an engagement runs
Intro call
We talk about your company, stage and the decisions in front of you. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so.
Assess
I review your code, architecture, team, processes and roadmap, and talk with the people doing the work.
Plan
A clear, prioritized plan with owners and milestones. No 80-page decks.
Lead
I stay on to execute with your team, measure progress and adjust as you grow.
Experience you can lean on
- CTO at NoNighter LLC (investment-banking technology): led the company through SOC 2 Type II without freezing the roadmap, built redundant infrastructure on AWS and Azure, and shipped AI agents and OCR to customers.
- CTO at Homie.mx (proptech): led engineering and product through rapid scale, migrated a monolith to microservices on AWS and Kubernetes, and built a support chatbot that cut inbound calls 40%.
- Director of Technology at Santander: built a 90+ person technology hub with 65 hires in one year across 7 squads, reporting to the CIO.
- Technology Advisor at SnowBus / ReserveWinter: defined the modernization strategy, relaunched two booking sites and recruited the team.
- 15+ years building digital products in fintech, banking, proptech and travel, including 10 years at Despegar.
- AWS CTO Fellowship (2024) and hands-on AI engineering with tools like Claude Code.
Looking for an independent view for your portfolio or board instead? See technology advisory for VCs and boards. Need a team to build your first product? See product engineering for early-stage companies.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fractional CTO?
A fractional CTO is an experienced Chief Technology Officer who works with your company part-time, typically a set number of hours per week, instead of as a full-time employee. You get executive-level technology leadership for architecture, hiring, security and strategy at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
When does a startup need a fractional CTO instead of a full-time CTO?
Most pre-seed to Series A startups don't have 40 hours a week of CTO-level work. They need around 10 hours a week of the right CTO: someone to make architecture decisions that are hard to reverse, hire the first engineers, prepare for security reviews like SOC 2, and represent technology to investors. A fractional CTO fits until the company has enough scale to justify a full-time executive.
What is the difference between a fractional CTO and a fractional CPO?
A fractional CTO owns how the product is built: architecture, engineering team, infrastructure, security. A fractional CPO owns what gets built and why: discovery, roadmap, prioritization and product metrics. In early-stage companies the two roles overlap heavily, so I often cover both.
Can you help us hire engineers in Latin America?
Yes. I'm based in Argentina and help startups define roles, run technical interviews and onboard their first LATAM engineers, so you get time-zone-aligned talent for US teams with a leader who knows the market.
Can a fractional CTO help us pass SOC 2?
Yes. In my most recent CTO role we passed SOC 2 Type II without freezing the roadmap. The approach is to build controls into how teams already ship, so the audit trail becomes a byproduct of good engineering instead of a separate project.
How do I start working with you?
Send me a connection request on LinkedIn followed by a DM with your company's stage and what you need. We'll set up an intro call from there.
Need a CTO or CPO, part-time?
I don't use contact forms. Reach me on LinkedIn:
- Send me a connection request.
- Follow it with a DM mentioning "Fractional CTO/CPO", your company's stage, and the decisions you're facing.
Intros welcome too.