A $25/hour developer who writes insecure, unmaintainable code costs you far more than strategic CTO leadership that prevents disasters before they happen.
For Non-Tech Founders:
You're being sold on hourly rates while your competitors invest in leadership. That $261K/year in hidden maintenance costs? The security breach that destroys customer trust? The 9-month SOC 2 delay that kills your enterprise deal? Those are the real costs of development without strategic oversight.
Real example from recent client engagement
Developer A: $25/hr × 2,000 hours = $50,000 + $735,000 technical debt = $785,000
Developer B + Fractional CTO: $150/hr × 1,000 hours + $96K/year CTO = $246,000 (done right, secure, maintainable)
You "saved" $100K upfront. You spent $539K extra over 3 years.
This isn't about buying individual services. It's about ongoing strategic technology leadership that protects your investment and prevents costly mistakes.
~5-10 hours/month
Strategic counsel for specific questions and decisions
Best for: Early-stage companies needing strategic guidance but not full oversight
~15-25 hours/month
Active technology leadership with regular code oversight
Best for: Growing companies with active development teams needing oversight
~30-40 hours/month
Full fractional CTO with hands-on involvement
Best for: Companies preparing for scale, compliance, or major transitions
Not a Menu of Services
Within your engagement, I do whatever work is needed - comprehensive code audits, security assessments, architecture reviews, team management, crisis response. These aren't separate line items you purchase. They're capabilities within the fractional CTO relationship.
Note: This includes managing your Upwork and Fiverr contractors - ensuring code quality, security, and maintainability. Learn how CTO oversight works with freelance platforms →
These aren't separate services you order. They're examples of deliverables and work that happens as part of ongoing fractional CTO leadership.
When needed, comprehensive analysis of your entire codebase - security vulnerabilities, technical debt, architecture issues, compliance readiness.
Recent example: 24 detailed reports across 485K lines of code, identifying $735K in preventable costs
Ongoing security oversight, vulnerability identification, SOC 2 preparation, and compliance gap analysis as you grow.
Recent example: Identified 5 critical vulnerabilities within 48 hours, prevented potential data breach
Daily/weekly architecture decisions, technology choices, build vs buy analysis, and strategic technology roadmap planning.
Recent example: Prevented $200K rewrite by identifying refactoring path that preserved working code
Regular code reviews ensuring quality, security, and best practices. Holds development teams accountable to professional standards.
Ongoing benefit: Prevents technical debt accumulation, catches issues early when they're cheap to fix
Whatever technology leadership work is needed to protect your business and enable growth.
This is what a comprehensive assessment looks like when it's needed within a fractional CTO engagement.
Your developers tell you everything is fine. But you don't know if that 2-week feature should actually take 2 days. You don't know if "we need to refactor" means "we wrote bad code" or "the requirements changed." You're managing blind.
That shortcut your developers took in month 3? By month 12 it's costing you 3x the development time. By month 24 you're looking at a complete rewrite. The $15K you "saved" by skipping oversight just became a $200K disaster.
Your "experienced" development team hardcoded the production database password. You won't find out until customer data leaks. Then you're dealing with lawsuits, lost customers, and destroyed reputation. All because you didn't have technical oversight.
That $500K enterprise contract requires SOC 2. Your developers say "no problem." Six months later you discover you're 9 months away from certification. The deal dies. Your competitor (who had proper technical leadership) gets the contract.
$4-8K/month prevents: $50K security disasters, $245K/year maintenance waste, $200K unnecessary rewrites, lost enterprise deals, destroyed customer trust.
Annual Investment: $48-96K | Typical Value Protected: $500K+
*Cost savings and value protected are estimates based on actual client engagements. Results vary based on project scope, existing technical debt, and specific business circumstances. Examples are illustrative and not guaranteed.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your specific needs and determine the right engagement level for your company.