All Services
Service

Startup Technical Partner

Your fractional CTO for the early stages

Technical co-founder energy without the equity. I help early-stage startups make foundational technical decisions, build MVPs, and establish engineering practices that scale.

Prefer reading first? See real engagements or read recent insights.

What's Included

  • MVP architecture and development
  • Technical co-founder support
  • First engineering hire coaching
  • Investor pitch technical preparation
  • Product-engineering alignment
  • Scaling strategy planning

Ideal For

Who this engagement fits best

  • Solo or non-technical founders pre-product
  • Pre-seed teams deciding their technical foundation
  • Founders who don't want to give up co-founder equity yet
  • Startups raising on a working demo, not a deck

Not quite the right fit? Browse other services or reach out and we'll figure it out together.

Outcomes

Results clients see

30 days to demo

From kickoff to investor-ready working product

1 hire onboarded

First engineer hired and productive within the engagement

Pitch-ready stack

Defensible technical choices investors won't grill you on

100% you-owned

All IP, repos, and infra in your accounts from day one

See similar results in the case study archive.

Process

How we work together

A structured approach to startup technical partner that delivers results.

1

Align

Understand product vision, market, and constraints

2

Scope

Define MVP scope and technical approach

3

Build

Rapid iteration with continuous feedback

4

Scale

Prepare for growth with documentation and hiring

Curious what each phase looks like in detail? Read the full process page.

Deliverables

What you get

Tangible outcomes from every engagement, not just slides.

Every deliverable is owned by you on day one—your repo, your cloud, your accounts. Want to see real artifacts from past engagements? Visit the work archive.

Working MVP
Technical documentation
Hiring rubrics and interview guides
Engineering playbook

Pricing

From $9,500 / month

Designed for capital-efficient founders who need senior CTO presence without a co-founder hire.

Engagement model: Monthly retainer with optional equity

Foundation Sprint
$18,000
4 weeks
  • MVP scoping + build
  • Investor-ready demo
  • Stack decisions documented
  • Hiring brief for first engineer
Start with Foundation Sprint
Most popular
Fractional CTO
$9,500 / month
Quarterly
  • 2 days/week
  • Technical roadmap ownership
  • Investor and board support
  • Hiring + onboarding
Start with Fractional CTO
CTO + Equity
Custom
6+ months
  • Reduced cash + small equity
  • Public CTO title for fundraising
  • Full hands-on build
  • Hire + transition plan
Start with CTO + Equity

Need a custom scope? See full pricing details or request a custom quote.

Client Voices

What teams say

Anonymized quotes from recent engagements.

He let us raise our seed off a real working product instead of a deck. That changed the round entirely.
Anonymized client
Founder, Pre-seed AI Startup
Felt like having a co-founder for three months. We hired our first engineer into the system he set up.
Anonymized client
CEO, B2B SaaS Startup

Technologies

Tools and platforms

The core technologies I use for startup technical partner projects.

Next.jsVercelSupabaseStripeOpenAIResend

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

Answers to the most common questions about startup technical partner engagements.

Do you take equity?

Sometimes. For early-stage clients I'll consider reduced cash plus a small equity component, typically 0.25-1%.

Will you be our public CTO?

For some engagements yes-useful for fundraising. We agree the scope and exit plan up front.

What if we want to hire a full-time CTO later?

That's the goal of most engagements. Part of my work is making sure the eventual full-time CTO inherits a great foundation.

Have a question that isn't here? Ask directly—I reply personally to every message.

Industries

Where this work lands

Sectors where this service has shipped real outcomes.

Reading

Related insights

Posts on topics adjacent to this engagement.

Or browse all insights.

Ready to get started?

Let's discuss how startup technical partner can help your business. Most projects kick off within two weeks of the first call.

Command Palette

Search for a command to run...