Fractional CTO
Technical leadership: high-calibre experience where it matters most, for the hours your business needs it.
An experienced CTO, part-time and on demand
Get the technical leadership your business needs without the full-time commitment. We set the technical direction, lead the people building it and keep the risks in view, for a few hours a month or a couple of days a week.
You get the judgement of someone who has launched, scaled and rescued products at banks, marketplaces and government platforms, without the salary, equity and months-long search of a full-time hire.
Who it's for
Companies that need a CTO's judgement, but not yet a CTO's full week.
Funded startups
You've raised, the build is starting, and the decisions made now will be lived with for years. You need a CTO's judgement before you need a CTO's salary.
Growing companies
The product works, but releases have slowed, the team has outgrown its processes, or the system is creaking under new customers.
Non-technical founders
You're paying developers or an agency and can't tell whether you're getting what you pay for. You want someone on your side of the table.
What you get
The four things a good CTO does, done for your business, whatever its size.
Strategic technology planning
Technology decisions that follow your business goals, not the latest trends: the right tools for your scale, systems that grow with you, and no expensive dead ends that look good on paper but don't solve real problems.
Team building and leadership
Hiring, structuring and leading your technical team so you can run the business: the right developers for your needs, processes that actually work, and a technical culture good people want to stay in.
Product and technical execution
Turning the business vision into a product customers can use: running the development process, making the trade-offs between features and timelines, and keeping the technical foundation working for your business model.
Risk management and operations
Finding technical risks before they become business emergencies: security, compliance, system reliability, backups and disaster recovery, so you can sleep at night.
Ways to work together
Each engagement is shaped and priced on a free call, around what you need now. You can move between them as the business changes.
CTO on call
A few hours a month
A senior sounding board for founders and leadership teams.
- Architecture and vendor decisions reviewed before you commit
- A second opinion on quotes, hires and estimates
- Monthly check-in, with help between calls when you need it
Embedded CTO
A day or two a week
Part of your team, leading the technical side of the business.
- Owns the technical roadmap and delivery
- Leads and grows the engineering team, in-house or agency
- Reports to you and the board in plain language
Technical due diligence
Fixed scope
Before you raise, invest or acquire: what you are really buying.
- Code, architecture, security and delivery reviewed
- Team and key-person risks assessed
- A written report of risks and what fixing them would take
Discovery and roadmap
Fixed scope
A few weeks to understand where you are, ending in a plan anyone can carry out.
- Current systems, team and spend mapped
- Priorities and risks ranked
- A technical roadmap and hiring plan that is yours to keep
How it starts
From the first call to a steady rhythm in about three weeks. A minimum of one hour after the free call.
15 minutes
Free call
Tell us where things are and what's worrying you. We'll say plainly whether we can help, and how.
Week 1–2
Discovery
We read the code, talk to the team and suppliers, and look at what the technology costs and where it hurts.
Week 2–3
The plan
A written plan: priorities, risks, hiring, and what we will do each week, agreed with you before we start.
Ongoing
A steady rhythm
Regular reviews of progress against the plan, with decisions made quickly and written down.
Who you work with
Alla Babkina, Innovective's founder, has spent 13 years helping products launch and succeed, after an earlier career in corporate law. Recent work includes expanding a clearing bank into Europe, scaling regulatory compliance and launching a global marketplace.
More about AllaFractional CTO FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in a fractional CTO. Get in touch if yours isn't here.
A senior technology leader who works with you part of the time instead of full time. You get the same judgement on architecture, hiring, delivery and risk, for the hours your business actually needs it, without a full-time executive salary, equity package or long search.
A full-time CTO is the right answer once there's enough technical work to fill the role every day. Before that, a fractional CTO costs a fraction of the salary, starts in days rather than months, and brings experience from many companies rather than one. Many clients use us until they're ready to hire, then we help them hire.
Yes. We can write the role, set the technical interviews, sit on the panel and hand over to the person you hire, so they start with a documented system and a team that already knows the plan.
As little as an hour after the free 15-minute call. Most clients settle into either a few hours a month on call, or a day or two a week embedded with the team. Retainers come with better rates, and some include an agreed response time.
Usually not. The cheapest time to get technical decisions right is before they're built. Early on that might mean choosing a stack, scoping a first version, picking an agency or freelancer and checking what they deliver.
Yes, as a fixed-scope piece of work. We review the code, architecture, security, team and delivery process, and write up the risks and what it would take to fix them, in language investors and boards can act on.
When it helps, yes: a proof of concept, a fix nobody else has time for, a review of a tricky change. But the main job is leading the technical side of the business, so most of the time is spent on decisions, people and process rather than on the keyboard.
Yes, and it's the most common setup. We work alongside your team or supplier: setting direction, reviewing their work, unblocking them and making sure what gets built is what the business needs.
Our standing confidentiality commitment covers everything you share with us from the first conversation. Once we work together, the signed agreement sets out confidentiality and intellectual property in full, and the work we produce for you becomes yours once it's paid for.
Yes. We're based in the south of England and work with clients worldwide across more than 14 hours of time difference. We can travel for workshops or key meetings; travel is charged as expenses plus an agreed fee.