"So... what do you actually do all day?"
A founder asked me this last week. She'd been burned by a "consultant" who charged $12K and delivered a 40-page PDF nobody read. Fair question.
Here's the thing: most fractional CTO descriptions are vague. "Strategic leadership." "Technical guidance." "Architecture decisions." What does that actually look like on a Tuesday afternoon?
Let me show you. This is what a real day looks like when you work with me.
7:15 AM: The Morning Slack Check
I'm having coffee. My phone buzzes.
It's Sarah, a pre-seed founder building a marketplace. Her developer in the Philippines just pushed code that broke the checkout flow. Users are seeing error messages. She's panicking.
I pull up the error logs on my laptop. The issue is obvious to me—a missing null check on the payment response. I write a three-line fix, push it to the staging branch, and message the developer with an explanation.
Total time: 12 minutes. Crisis averted before Sarah's first customer complaint.
This is the stuff that would take a non-technical founder hours to even understand, let alone fix. That's $500 of developer panic time saved before breakfast.
The real value: I'm not just fixing bugs. I'm available when things break. Your developers have someone technical to escalate to. You don't have to pretend you understand stack traces.
9:00 AM: Weekly Strategy Call
Every Monday and Thursday, I have a standing 45-minute call with Marcus. He's building an AI-powered recruiting tool. Seed stage, two developers, burning $40K/month.
Today's agenda:
- Review last week's sprint—what shipped, what didn't
- Discuss a new feature request from a pilot customer
- Decide whether to build or buy a PDF parsing solution
- Plan the technical portion of his investor deck
The PDF parsing question is the big one. He's gotten quotes from $2K to build it custom, or $400/month for an API. I walk him through the tradeoffs.
Building saves money if it works. But his developers have never done document parsing. It'll take 3 weeks minimum, probably 6. That's $15K in developer time, plus the opportunity cost of not shipping user-facing features.
My recommendation: use the API for now. When you have 50 paying customers and know exactly what you need, revisit building custom.
Decision made in 10 minutes. $13K in development cost avoided.
Want Someone in Your Corner?
These aren't hypothetical scenarios. This is what I do every week with founders like you. Book a call and let's see if we're a fit.
Book a Free Consultation →11:30 AM: Code Review and Developer Feedback
One of my founders just hired her first senior developer. She's paying $140K. She has no idea if he's any good.
I spend 45 minutes reviewing his first two weeks of code. Here's what I find:
- Architecture choices are solid—he knows what he's doing
- Code style is inconsistent—needs project standards
- No tests—red flag we need to address
- One security issue—user input not being sanitized
I write up a summary for the founder. Good news: he's competent. Not-great news: he needs guardrails.
I schedule a call with the developer directly. We talk through the security issue (fixed in 20 minutes), discuss testing expectations, and align on code standards.
The founder gets peace of mind. The developer gets technical mentorship. Nobody gets fired over a misunderstanding.
2:00 PM: Vendor Negotiation
A founder forwarded me an agency proposal. They want $85K to build an MVP. The proposal is 12 pages of jargon.
I spend 30 minutes reviewing it. My assessment:
- $85K is about $30K too high for this scope
- Timeline of 16 weeks is padded—should be 10-12
- They've included features we discussed deprioritizing
- The tech stack choice is defensible but not optimal
I draft a counter-proposal with the founder. We cut scope to the real MVP, challenge the timeline, and negotiate the price down to $58K.
That's $27K saved. My monthly retainer paid for itself 3x over in one conversation.
Why this matters: Agencies know when they're dealing with a non-technical founder. They pad quotes because they can. Having a technical person review proposals changes the dynamic entirely.
4:00 PM: Technical Hiring Support
Interview time. A founder is hiring her first full-time developer. She's narrowed it to two candidates. I'm doing the technical screens.
Candidate A has an impressive resume—FAANG experience, computer science degree, talks a great game. But when I dig into a past project, the answers get vague. He was "involved" in the architecture but can't explain the decisions. Red flag.
Candidate B is less polished. No big-name companies. But she walks me through a side project in detail. She explains why she chose PostgreSQL over MongoDB, how she handled caching, what she'd do differently. She's built things herself.
My recommendation: Candidate B. She's going to ship. Candidate A is going to have opinions about what other people should build.
The founder was leaning toward Candidate A based on the resume. This one call probably saved her from a $60K mistake.
Tired of Hiring Blind?
I do technical screens for all my founders' key hires. You get the best candidate—not just the best interviewer.
Let's Talk About Your Hiring Needs →30 minutes • No obligation • Honest feedback
6:30 PM: Architecture Discussion
A quick async exchange in Slack. One of my founders is scaling fast—went from 200 to 2,000 users in a month. The database is starting to slow down.
He's worried they need to rewrite everything. I talk him off the ledge.
The fix isn't a rewrite. It's adding database indexes on three columns and implementing basic caching. I write up the specific changes needed. His developer can implement them tomorrow.
Total conversation: 15 minutes. Avoided a $40K "we need to rebuild everything" panic spiral.
What You're Actually Paying For
Let me tally up this random Tuesday:
- Morning bug fix: $500 in developer time saved
- Build vs. buy decision: $13K in unnecessary development avoided
- Code review: Caught security issue before production
- Vendor negotiation: $27K saved on agency contract
- Hiring support: Avoided potential $60K bad hire
- Architecture advice: Avoided $40K unnecessary rebuild
That's over $140K in value. For context, fractional CTO support costs $10K-15K per month.
Not every day is this dramatic. Some days I'm just answering questions, reviewing PRs, and keeping things moving. But the big decisions? They add up fast.
The pattern: You're not paying for my time. You're paying for decisions made right the first time. Every wrong decision costs $10K-$100K to fix. Getting them right upfront is where the ROI lives.
What This Looks Like For You
When you work with me, here's what you get:
Slack access. You can message me when things break, when you have questions, when you're not sure what to do. I typically respond within a few hours (often faster).
Weekly calls. Scheduled time to review progress, make decisions, and plan ahead. Usually 45-60 minutes.
Technical oversight. I review code, interview candidates, evaluate vendors, and sit in on technical discussions. You're never making these decisions alone.
Strategic guidance. Architecture decisions, build vs. buy, hiring plans, technical roadmaps. The stuff that shapes your company for years.
Most founders tell me the best part is the confidence. You stop second-guessing every technical decision. You stop worrying if your developers are doing the right thing. You have someone who actually knows.
Want This Level of Support?
I work with a handful of founders at a time so I can give this level of attention. Book a call and let's see if there's a fit.
Apply to Work Together →30 minutes • No obligation • Honest feedback