Fractional CTO, a few hours a month
For companies without a senior technical person who keep making technical decisions anyway, and would rather not guess.
A fractional CTO is a technical lead who works with a company for a few hours a month instead of full time. At Vyorde that means advice on tools, suppliers, hiring and what to build first, from the people who design and build here, on a month-to-month agreement with every decision written down.
- Typical timeline
- 2 to 3 weeks to get up to speed, then month to month. The exact dates are in your quote.
- Quote
- A written quote after a short, free call
What you get
A few hours a month
Of technical advice from the people who build, booked as calls or answered in writing.
Choosing tools
Which platforms, services and vendors make sense for you, and which ones are a nice demo and a long contract.
Hiring developers
Help writing the role, reviewing candidates and sitting in on technical interviews.
A roadmap
What to build first, what to leave alone, and what to stop paying for.
A second opinion
On quotes, estimates and proposals from other agencies or freelancers before you sign.
Notes you keep
Every decision written down with the reason, so the next person understands why.
How it goes
We get to know the setup.
Your product, your team, your accounts and whatever is keeping you up at night.
We agree the hours.
How many, how you reach us, and what counts as urgent.
We work through it.
Decisions as they come up. The agreement can include a short written summary each month.
You stop when it's done.
If you hire your own CTO, they get the notes and we step back.
Every project follows the same five steps. See the full process.
What's not included
- Writing code or building features. That is a separate scope with its own quote.
- A full-time or on-call role. The hours, and what counts as urgent, are agreed at the start.
- Managing your developers day to day. We advise the person who does.
- Legal, tax or financial advice.
Before you start
- A list of the tools and services you pay for now
- Any quotes, proposals or contracts waiting for a decision
- Who builds or maintains things today: staff, a freelancer or an agency
- The decision that worries you most
- How many hours a month you think you need. A guess is fine.
You don't need all of it for the first call.
Questions about the Fractional CTO
Do you write code as part of this?
Not usually. This is advice and decisions. If you need things built, that's a separate scope.
Will you only recommend your own services?
No. If another agency, a freelancer or an off-the-shelf tool is the better fit, we'll say so.
Is there a long contract?
No. It runs month to month, and you can stop when it stops being useful.
What do you need from us to start?
A list of what you run and pay for, access to look at it, and the decisions that are waiting. The first two to three weeks go on getting to know the setup.
Who do we talk to?
The people who design and build here, not an account manager. You keep the same contacts from one month to the next.
How is this different from hiring you to build something?
This is advice: which tools, which suppliers, what to build first, whether a quote is fair. Building is separate work with its own scope and quote, and you are free to give it to someone else.
What does it cost?
It depends on the hours we agree. You get a written quote after a short, free call.
More questions are answered on the FAQ page.
From Insights
The other two packages
Last updated