Solve the Right Problem. Then Build It Right. I help Australian startup founders validate what to build, design the solution, and ship products users actually want—combining the strategic vision of a CTO with the hands-on execution of a Head of Engineering—without the cost of hiring full-time.
Based in Sydney and working with ambitious founders across Australia's major startup hubs. Whether you're in Sydney's tech scene, Melbourne's innovation district, or Brisbane's growing startup community, I provide fractional CTO services that combine strategic technology leadership with hands-on MVP development.
Based in Sydney and available for in-person strategy sessions and workshops. Whether you're in the CBD, inner west, or eastern suburbs, I can meet on-site for discovery workshops, technical planning, and team onboarding.
Local focus: Fractional CTO Sydney, Part-time CTO Sydney, Interim CTO services
Regular visits to Melbourne for discovery workshops and team onboarding. I work with Melbourne-based startups on a fractional basis, providing the same strategic CTO leadership and hands-on development remotely, with quarterly in-person sessions.
Local focus: Fractional CTO Melbourne, Startup CTO Melbourne, Virtual CTO
Remote-first workflow works perfectly for Brisbane, regional, and distributed teams. I've built MVPs for startups across Queensland and regional Australia using modern collaboration tools and agile practices that don't require being in the same office.
Local focus: Fractional CTO Brisbane, Remote CTO Australia, CTO as a Service
$150K-200K salary + equity, before you even have product-market fit.
$50K-100K for an MVP that takes 6 months and doesn't meet your vision.
Cheap upfront, but you end up with spaghetti code and no one to maintain it.
You can't evaluate developers, review code, or make architecture decisions.
Looking for a part-time CTO, startup CTO, or interim CTO for your Australian business? Whether you need a virtual CTO or CTO as a service, ShipSixty provides flexible technical leadership that scales with your startup from pre-seed to Series A and beyond.
Get senior technical leadership, fast MVP development, and strategic guidance—for equity + a fraction of a full-time salary.
Different stages require different approaches. Here's how I can help:
You have an idea, some customer validation, but no product. You need to ship fast to test with real users.
Client: B2B SaaS for construction teams
Timeline: 8 weeks from kickoff to beta launch
Result: 50 beta users in month 1, $5K MRR by month 3, raised $1.2M seed round
Tech: Modern web frontend + serverless backend + cloud database
$10-15K/month + 2-5% equity
20-30 hrs/week | 3-6 month commitment
You have an MVP and early customers. Now you need to optimize, scale infrastructure, and prepare for Series A.
Client: Health tech marketplace
Starting Point: $20K MRR, 200 users, slow app, no technical team
Result: Reduced load time 70%, scaled to 2,000 users, hired 2 engineers, raised $3M Series A
Improvements: API redesign, caching layer, CDN implementation, monitoring dashboard
$15-20K/month + 1.5-3% equity
15-25 hrs/week | 6-12 month commitment
You've raised Series A and need a full-time CTO, but the search takes 3-6 months. I bridge the gap.
Client: Fintech platform
Starting Point: Just raised $8M Series A, co-founder CTO left, 8-person eng team
Result: Managed team for 5 months, hired VP Engineering, scaled to 15 engineers, exited when VP was onboarded
Impact: Prevented 4-month development slowdown, shipped 3 major features, improved deployment process
$20-25K/month + 0.5-1.5% equity
10-20 hrs/week | 6-12 month commitment
Design first, then ship in 8 weeks. Prototype for validation, then build using AI-assisted coding and modern tech stack.
Make the right technology decisions: build vs. buy, which features first, when to refactor, how to scale.
Hire your first engineers, set up processes, establish engineering culture, conduct technical interviews.
Cloud expert: scalable, globally available, cost-optimized infrastructure. Built for growth, security, and reliability.
Validate the right problem, design the solution before coding. Lo-fi wireframes → hi-fi mockups → clickable prototypes → development.
Technical due diligence preparation, investor demos, architecture documentation, security & compliance.
Before writing code, we validate what to build:
Create & test the solution:
Ship fast with modern tools:
Refine based on real users:
Traditional approach: Spend 6 months building what you think users want, launch, realize you solved the wrong problem.
My approach: Spend 2 weeks validating the problem, 2 weeks designing the solution, 4 weeks building. Launch with confidence because users validated the concept before you wrote code.
You save time, money, and build something people actually want.
You don't need a CTO who knows specific technologies. You need someone who solves problems and ships products.
MVP in 8 weeks, not 6 months. Ship features weekly once live. Make technology decisions that prioritize speed.
Architecture that handles 10K users without rewrites. Add features without breaking things. Hire engineers who can extend your codebase.
$50-200/month hosting at launch. Auto-scaling means you only pay for what you use. No surprise bills.
Security best practices, error monitoring, automated backups. Pass technical due diligence for fundraising.
Not the shiniest tool—the right tool. Proven tech that your future team can work with. Documented decisions.
Clean architecture means changing features is fast. A/B test, pivot, adjust based on user feedback without rewrites.
Listing specific frameworks makes it look like those are the only things I can work with. The truth? I've worked with dozens of languages, databases, and platforms across 15+ years.
What matters isn't my technology resume—it's my ability to pick the right stack for your problem, learn what I need to learn, and ship products that work. That's what you're paying for.
I don't jump straight into code. I start with understanding the problem, then design the solution visually, test it with users, and only then build it.
Quick sketches and basic wireframes to validate the concept and information architecture. Fast iteration on ideas before investing in detailed design.
Polished, pixel-perfect designs with your brand colors, typography, and visual style. What the final product will actually look like.
Interactive prototypes that feel like the real product. Test user flows, get feedback, and validate before writing a single line of code.
Get prototypes in front of 5-10 target users. Watch them interact, identify friction points, iterate on design before development.
It's 10x faster and cheaper to iterate on designs than on code. Spending 2 weeks on design saves you 2 months of development rework. Plus, investors and stakeholders can actually see what you're building before you build it.
Examples of problems solved, solutions designed, and products shipped.
Problem: Non-technical recruiters were spending 15-20 hours per week manually matching resumes to tech jobs, struggling to understand which technologies are equivalent (React vs Angular, AWS vs Azure) and missing quality candidates buried in the pile.
Solution: Built an AI-powered matching platform that analyzes resumes and job descriptions, scores candidates on skills/experience fit, and generates detailed match reports. Recruiters review top-ranked candidates instead of screening everything manually.
Design Process: Recruiter interviews (3 agencies) → Competitive analysis → Lo-fi matching flows → Hi-fi design with scoring UI → User testing with real job postings → 8-week MVP build
Outcome: 2 agencies using within 2 months, 75% time savings on resume screening, 2x increase in successful placements, approaching profitability
Problem: A retail company launching new products had no data-driven way to set initial prices. Teams relied on gut feel and competitor guessing, leading to products priced too high (no sales) or too low (left money on the table).
Solution: Built an AI agent system that analyzes their historical sales data from similar products, identifies pricing patterns and customer behavior, builds predictive models, and suggests optimal launch prices. The platform walks through each data science phase: data cleaning, exploratory analysis, feature engineering, modeling, and validation.
Design Process: Stakeholder interviews → Lo-fi wireframes of parameter inputs → Hi-fi interactive dashboard where users tweak variables (cost, margin, seasonality) and see pricing scenarios → User testing with product managers exploring possibilities → 10-week build
Outcome: Successfully launched 8 new products at market-ready price points, reduced pricing research time from 2 weeks to 2 days, improved launch success rate by 40%
Problem: Tradies (plumbers, electricians, landscapers) were losing 30-40% of potential appointments because they couldn't answer calls while on job sites. Customers calling during work hours would hang up and call the next business, resulting in thousands in lost revenue monthly.
Solution: Built a voice AI agent that answers calls 24/7, understands natural customer questions, answers service queries based on the company's website content, checks calendar availability, and books appointments directly. Sends confirmation SMS to both customer and tradie.
Design Process: Tradie interviews (6 businesses) → Call flow mapping → Lo-fi conversation scripts → Hi-fi voice interaction design → Testing with real customer calls → 8-week build
Outcome: Currently launching with 3 pilot businesses, early results show 85% call answer rate (vs 20% before), product in active development
I'm a problem-solver first, designer second, and technologist third. I've spent 15+ years helping startups figure out what to build, design it, and ship it.
Important: I'm a generalist problem-solver, not a domain expert. I join startups to understand the problem alongside you, design the right solution, and then build it. If you need a CTO with 10 years in your specific industry, I'm not the right fit.
If you need someone who thinks strategically, designs thoughtfully, and then builds fast—that's me. If you just need someone to code what you tell them to code, I'm not your person.
Cash: Monthly retainer (billed 1st of each month)
Equity: 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff, single-trigger acceleration on acquisition
Notice: Either party can terminate with 60 days notice
Maximum 2-3 clients simultaneously. This ensures I can give each company 15-30 hours per week of focused attention. I use a portfolio approach: work with multiple startups to diversify risk, learn different markets, and find the best long-term fit.
Absolutely. Many fractional CTO engagements convert to full co-founder roles. If your company takes off and you want me full-time, we can negotiate additional equity (typically 8-15% more) and I'll commit 100%. This is actually my goal—find the right company to go all-in on.
That's exactly why you need me. I document decisions, explain trade-offs in plain English, and show you working demos every week. You don't need to understand code—you need to understand if the product works, if users like it, and if we're on track. I handle the technical evaluation.
Both. As a Fractional CTO, I provide strategic technology leadership (architecture decisions, tech stack selection, investor presentations, technical roadmap) AND hands-on execution (MVP development, team management, code reviews, hiring). You get the strategic vision of a CTO and the operational delivery of a Head of Engineering in one package. Early-stage startups can't afford to split these roles—you need someone who thinks strategically and ships fast.
Yes to NDA (confidentiality). No to broad non-competes. I'll agree not to build a directly competing product in your exact market, but I need freedom to work with other startups in different industries. Standard practice for fractional CTOs.
With 60 days notice, either party can end the engagement. You keep all vested equity (standard 4-year vesting, 1-year cliff). If you run out of cash but the company has potential, we can discuss continuing for equity-only for 2-3 months.
Yes. I'll help write job descriptions, source candidates (LinkedIn, networks), conduct technical interviews, evaluate portfolios, and make hiring decisions. Once you have a team, I can mentor them while transitioning responsibilities.
I'm currently working with 2 startups and have capacity for 1 more client starting in Q1 2025.