Is this for you?
- You're a technical founder but a first-time CTO, and you want a sounding board with a longer memory than the last Hacker News thread.
- You're a non-technical founder and the tech conversation keeps stalling because there's nobody senior in the room.
- Hiring has slipped — JDs are stale, interviews are inconsistent, and two engineers have joined that shouldn't have.
- You're about to make a vendor or architecture decision that'll be expensive to reverse.
- You need someone in the DD conversations when investors start asking real technical questions.
What you get
- Weekly 1:1 with founder(s).
- Async availability via Slack or email between calls.
- Architecture reviews and decision support.
- Hiring support — JDs, screening, technical interviews, calibration.
- Vendor and tooling evaluation.
- Investor and technical DD support when you're raising.
Scope
What's in
- Strategic technical direction
- Hiring and interviewing
- Architecture and vendor decisions
- Investor and technical DD support
What's out
- Day-to-day IC work
- Writing production code
- Being on-call
- Running standups
Process
Intake call
30 min, freeMutual fit check. Not every team needs this, and I'll tell you if I don't think we're a match.
Month 1 — onboarding
Weeks 1–4Stakeholder conversations, initial architecture read, current-state assessment. Weekly founder 1:1 starts immediately.
Months 2–3 — steady rhythm
Weeks 5–12Hiring, decisions, reviews, whatever's actively in front of you. Async availability in between.
Renewal or wind-down
End of month 3Continue, extend for another quarter, or hand off cleanly with documentation for whoever comes next.
Engagement
Three-month minimum, three to five hours a week, weekly founder 1:1 plus async availability between calls. Final retainer scoped on a discovery call.
Invoiced monthly, net 15. No setup fee. If the intake call shows we're not a fit, no engagement, no charge.
Every engagement starts with a discovery call. No prices on the public site — final scope and quote are confirmed once we've talked through your situation.
If the call shows we're not a fit, no engagement, no charge.
Questions
Can you go beyond 5 hours a week?
Sometimes, for short bursts. If it's a sustained need, you probably need a full-time CTO and I'll tell you so.
Do you write code?
Only to illustrate or unblock, not as the work. If you need a senior IC, that's a different engagement.
Will you do our technical due diligence for investors?
Yes — that's included in the retainer during active raises.
What happens after 3 months?
Continue month-to-month, extend for another quarter, or wind down. Your call.
How many fractional CTO clients do you take?
Three concurrent, maximum. Quality over volume.
About
26+ years of full-stack experience across PHP, JavaScript, and Python. I ship production systems for teams that need senior technical work they can trust, from the founding engineer's perspective.
More about Paper Scissors & GlueReady to start?
Book an intro call. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you on the call.