Fractional CTO · New York

Fractional CTO
in New York

Senior technical leadership without the $300K base.

We embed as fractional CTO for founders in New York who need senior technical leadership but aren't ready for a full-time hire. Architecture decisions, hiring rubrics, code review for your existing team, and hands-on execution when something needs to ship today.

Get a Fractional CTO quote New York overview

Engagement shape

From

$4,000

Flat price, quoted after 30-min call

Timeline

Monthly engagement

First production deploy

1

Senior engineer, named

Day 1

Code in your GitHub

$0

Retainer, equity, lock-in

How this works

One AI-native engineer.
The output of a team.

One senior engineer plus AI agents now ships fractional cto that used to need a four-person team. Same code quality, half the cost, three-week timelines instead of three months. Built for pre-seed to Series A founders in New York who need to ship before the next round closes.

The local read

Why fractional cto is hard in New York

NYC founders have a worse hiring problem than the funding headlines suggest. Half your top engineering candidates are weighing your seed offer against a $400K Google package. The dev shops in town are agency-of-record operations billing hourly, or staffing shops shoveling juniors into your team.

We're neither. One named senior engineer owns the build end-to-end. Flat price quoted after a 30-minute call. Eastern Time, same as your General Catalyst partner and your midtown customers. When we finish, the code is in your GitHub and the contract is over. No retainer.

Hiring one senior leader here is a ~$310K year-one outlay and a 60–90 day search. Our fractional cto engagement starts at $4,000 with a first deploy in Monthly engagement.

Did you know · New York

NYC has roughly 25,000 active tech startups, second only to the Bay Area in the US.

Time zone

--:--:--

ET

Eastern Time, same as you. Meetings happen during your morning coffee, not midnight Slack pings.

Sectors in New York

FintechAI infrastructureMedia techB2B SaaSConsumer tech

Stack we use

ArchitectureHiringCode ReviewRoadmapInfrastructureAI Strategy

What you actually get

Concrete deliverables.
Live in Monthly engagement.

No discovery phase that bills for itself. No Figma-only delivery. Every item below is something you can open, click, and ship to a user.

01

Weekly 1:1 with founder, monthly board-style technical update

02

Architecture decisions documented as RFCs, not as Slack threads that disappear

03

Hiring scorecards, take-home rubrics, final-round technical interviews run by us

04

Code review on your team's PRs — fewer regressions, faster reviewer cycle

05

Optional hands-on weeks when a critical build is behind

Why us

Why founders in New York pick us for this

01

We've been the technical owner on 50+ products — the failure modes are pattern-recognized, not theorized

02

Hands-on when you need it: not just a strategy deck, the senior engineer still ships code

03

No equity ask, no notice-period games — month-to-month

04

Cheaper than the recruiter fee on a single bad CTO hire

Fractional CTO we've shipped

Founders we shipped fractional cto with

Real founders, real product, real testimonials. The kind of fractional cto work we'd do for you in New York.

Content Platform · 2022

Sweet and Savory Meals

Homemade recipes blog and e-commerce platform for food lovers. Easy and delicious dishes with integrated recipe management and shopping features.

Visit the product

“When we started, there was no website, no technical foundation, just an idea and a clear vision of what I wanted to build. Valery and the Start Matter team took that vision seriously and helped me turn it into a real product from scratch. What I appreciated most was how easy and human the collaboration felt. They listened carefully, explained things in a way I could understand, and genuinely cared about building something that would work long-term, not just "finish a task." I always felt supported and involved in the process. Start Matter handled everything end to end and made the whole journey smooth and stress-free. Today, Sweet and Savory Meals is live, growing, and built on a solid foundation I trust. I’m truly grateful for their work, their patience, and their commitment, and I would happily recommend Start Matter to anyone looking for a reliable and thoughtful development partner.”

Catalina Castravet

Founder, Sweet and Savory Meals

Health Platform · 2023

Brain.fm

Music platform designed to help focus, relax, and sleep better. AI-generated music optimized for cognitive performance and mental wellness.

Visit the product

“Working with Start Matter has been a fantastic experience. When we brought Start Matter into the Brain.fm project, we were looking for more than just developers — we needed a team that could think with us, help shape the product, and execute at a high level. Start Matter did exactly that and more. From early iterations to complex feature development, the team showed deep technical expertise, strong problem-solving skills, and a clear focus on delivering value. Communication was always open and honest, and they were great about adapting to changes and challenges without missing a beat. What really stood out was their ability to integrate seamlessly with our internal team and match our pace. They consistently delivered high-quality work and made sure we felt supported at every step. I'm very grateful for their professionalism, creativity, and commitment to excellence. I would highly recommend Start Matter to anyone who wants a reliable, skilled, and thoughtful development partner.”

Daniel Clark

Co-founder, Brain.fm

Deeper reads

More on fractional cto from our blog

Same engagement model, written up long-form — pricing tiers, workflows, anti-patterns.

2026-05-23·8 mins

MVP Cost in 2026: Real Numbers From $5K to $50K

Five tiers, what each one ships, where the price comes from, and the work we won't take at the bottom of the range.

Read on the blog

2026-05-09·11 mins

How We Use Claude Code in Production: Workflows, Costs, Anti-Patterns

30+ production builds with Claude Code as primary tool. What works, what gets people in trouble, exact prompt patterns, monthly bill.

Read on the blog

2026-05-02·9 mins

Hire vs Engage: The 2026 Math With AI Agents

A senior engineer in 2026 costs more (year-1 outlay) and is harder to find (60–90 day pipelines). The decision math everyone uses for this is out of date.

Read on the blog

FAQ

Common questions about fractional cto
in New York

How much of your time do we get?

+

Plans typically range 10–30 hours/month depending on scope. We're not your only commitment, but we set a fixed window every week that's yours — same day, same hours.

Is the price really flat?

+

Yes. After a 30-minute call we send a single number and a scope you can accept or reject. No hourly billing, no change-order games. If we underestimate, we eat it.

Can you hire engineers for us?

+

Yes — full hiring loop: writing the JD, sourcing channels (we have a network), screening, technical take-home design, final-round interview. Most CTOs we've helped hire run their first sprint inside a month of starting.

Will you keep coding if we hire a full CTO later?

+

Happy to. Many founders bring on a full-time CTO and keep us as senior IC for 2–3 months while they ramp. No ego — we'll happily report to whoever you hire.

Who owns the code?

+

You do, from commit one. The repository is created in your GitHub org. Infrastructure is provisioned in your cloud account. We don't host your stack on ours and we don't lock you in.

More questions → /faq/partnership · /faq/team · /faq/scaling

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