One call. One decision.
Fixed scope, no retainer, no implementation attached. You bring the question — build or buy, this stack or that one, is this plan sane, why did traffic drop — and leave with a decision you can act on.
Founders about to commit budget to a direction nobody has stress-tested. Teams holding a proposal from an agency and no way to judge it. Teams that need a plan on paper before a board or an investor sees it.
Not a fit if you want someone embedded part-time — this is one-time work with a fixed scope.
Strategy Session
60–90 minutes on one question, with preparation beforehand and a written summary after. No pitch attached.
Second Opinion
A review of someone else’s plan, prototype, architecture or quote — and a plain answer on whether it holds.
Roadmap
What to do by quarter, in what order, with effort and dependencies marked. Written to be handed to whoever executes it, as a table rather than a narrative.
Keyword Strategy
The questions your market actually asks, clustered, with the page that should own each one. Every question carries its cluster, its priority and the answer format the page needs — a table, a short answer, a step-by-step.
Who needs a fractional CTO?
Companies with real engineering decisions and nobody senior to make them — usually pre-Series A, or a founder without a technical background. But most people asking this need one decision, not a part-time executive: is this plan sound, is this contractor competent, build or buy. That is a single session with a fixed scope, not a monthly retainer.
How much does a fractional CTO cost?
In the US, $5,000–15,000 a month for a few days of attention, or $150–300 an hour. If what you actually need is one decision rather than ongoing presence, a fixed-scope session costs €250 and ends with a written answer — no retainer attached.
How do you decide between build vs buy?
Buy when the problem is standard and your process can bend to the tool. Build when the process is the business and bending it costs more than the software. The honest test: list what the off-the-shelf option cannot do, then price the workarounds. If two years of workarounds cost more than the build, build.
How do you evaluate a development agency proposal?
Check four things. Does the scope name deliverables or only activities. Who owns the code, the repository and the accounts when it ends. What happens when the estimate turns out wrong. And whether the timeline includes their QA or only their build. A proposal that prices "development" without naming what is delivered is a rate card, not a proposal.
What is an SEO roadmap?
A prioritised plan of what to change, in what order, with effort marked against expected impact — written so whoever executes it knows the next step without asking. It is not an audit. An audit says what is wrong; a roadmap says what to do about it, when, and what it costs.