Service
Fractional CTO
Senior technical leadership without the $300K base.
We embed as fractional CTO for founders 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.
What you get
Concrete deliverables.
Not a slide deck.
- Weekly 1:1 with founder, monthly board-style technical update
- Architecture decisions documented as RFCs, not as Slack threads that disappear
- Hiring scorecards, take-home rubrics, final-round technical interviews run by us
- Code review on your team's PRs — fewer regressions, faster reviewer cycle
- Optional hands-on weeks when a critical build is behind
Why us
The shape of the work matters.
- We've been the technical owner on 50+ products — the failure modes are pattern-recognized, not theorized
- Hands-on when you need it: not just a strategy deck, the senior engineer still ships code
- No equity ask, no notice-period games — month-to-month
- Cheaper than the recruiter fee on a single bad CTO hire
Available in
Fractional CTO in your city.
FAQ
Questions founders ask.
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.
Ask anything
Got a fractional cto question?
Frequent questions
Valery Satsura
CEO · Start Matter · usually replies in minutes
Hey, I'm Valery. Ask anything about fractional cto engagements. I usually reply in minutes.
Deep reads
Long-form on shipping.
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Need a different shape?
30-minute call.
Flat-price quote in 24 hours.
We tell you the number, the timeline, and exactly what you get. No hourly games. No scope creep. Your code from day one.
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