FRACTIONAL CTO
Muhammad Kashif, our CTO, makes your architecture calls, reviews your vendors and interviews your engineers. $5,000 a month: 3 months to start, then 30 days' notice to stop.
Free · 30 minutes · NDAs are standard
$5,000
A month, fixed
23 years
Kashif's time in software
Weekly
A 60-minute call, plus Slack
3 months
To start, then 30 days' notice
WHO IT'S FOR
01
An agency or a freelancer is shipping, and nobody on your side can tell whether the work is sound or the estimates are fair.
02
You're raising, and each meeting brings questions about architecture, security and scale that you answer from memory.
03
You need someone to write the roles, run the technical interviews and tell you who can actually do the job.
04
You need cover now, and time to decide whether to replace the role or change the plan.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
Six jobs, every month. You decide which ones matter most this quarter.
01
You get a clear call on what to build with, what to keep and what to replace, written down so the next engineer can follow it.
02
Every agency or freelancer quote gets checked before you sign, including ours.
03
Kashif writes the roles, sets the technical interviews and sits on them, so you hire the right engineer first.
04
A technical roadmap that matches the business plan, revisited every month.
05
Written answers for due diligence, and a technical voice in the meetings where you need one.
06
A standing check on how passwords, customer data and access are handled, before a customer or investor asks.
He writes his decisions down as he goes, so you never depend on one person's memory. Everything he writes is yours.
HOW IT WORKS
01
WEEK 1
A 60-minute call to set the month's priorities, and last month's note reviewed.
02
WEEK 2
Architecture and vendor questions answered in Slack, with the decisions written up.
03
WEEK 3
Technical interviews if you're hiring, and a review of what shipped.
04
WEEK 4
The monthly note: what was decided, what's at risk, what comes next.
RECOMMENDED FIRST STEP
The CTO Diagnostic is a fixed $5,000 review: Kashif reads your code and your plans, answers the question in front of you in writing, and gives you a roadmap and a hiring plan. If you keep him on as your fractional CTO afterwards, the first month starts from that roadmap, so there's no onboarding month. If you start within 60 days, the $5,000 comes off your first month.
See the CTO Diagnostic →STEP 1 · $5,000 · 1 WEEK
A written answer, a roadmap and a hiring plan. The report is yours either way.
STEP 2 · $5,000/MONTH
Kashif stays on and carries out the plan with you.
COST
| Full-time CTO | Typical fractional CTO | Kashif, SociiLabs | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | ~$157K average startup base; ~$293K cash for a non-founding Series A CTO (Kruze) | $5K–$15K a month; 69.5% charge $5K–$10K (Frak) | $5,000 a month |
| Who you get | Whoever you manage to hire | Varies by marketplace or network | Muhammad Kashif, named, 23 years in software |
| Commitment | A hire, and 46% of new hires fail within 18 months (Leadership IQ) | Usually a monthly retainer | 3 months to start, then 30 days' notice |
| Can bring a team to build | No | Rarely | Yes, if you want one |
| Best when | You're building an engineering org around one leader | You need senior decisions every month | You need senior decisions now and may need the build later |
Sources: Kruze Consulting (250+ startup payrolls), Frak (fractional executive pricing), Leadership IQ (20,000+ employees).
PROOF
4 months
AI marketing SaaS
Navia's founder had a clear product vision and no technical co-founder. The plan was WordPress. We made the stack call (Next.js, Node.js and PostgreSQL) and shipped four AI modules in four months, idea to production. The founder owns 100% of the code, and the product has paying subscribers.
Read the Navia case study →“The range of skills was incredible. They delivered on time, and flagged it early when a deadline was at risk.”
5.0 on Clutch · 4 reviews · You contract with a US entity under US law
FAQ
Ours is $5,000 a month. Across the market, fractional CTOs charge $5,000 to $15,000 a month, and most fractional executives charge $5,000 to $10,000 (Frak).
