M87
Fractional CTO·CTO experience without the CTO cost.

Fractional CTO

You need a technical co-founder — someone who makes architecture decisions, evaluates your stack, hires the right people, and ships alongside the team. Not a consultant. Not a contractor. A CTO who builds with AI agents, self-maintaining codebases, and AI-native development workflows — at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

1.5–2 yrstypical client engagement length
Work

Project Examples

AgentOS - AI Agent Fleet Infrastructure

AI Agents

A 4-layer platform for deploying and operating OpenClaw, Hermes, and custom AI agents at scale - agent-agnostic, hosting-agnostic, and designed for fleet management.

Agent fleet infrastructure - deploy to production in minutes

Next.jsReactTypeScriptPostgreSQLPrisma
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AI-Native Algorithm Pipeline

AI Agents

Made a critical algorithm self-maintaining with AI, then stayed to build the full production pipeline. Now embedded inside the engineering team.

From scoped AI project to embedded engineering team

PythonTypeScriptClaude Code
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AI Knowledge Platform

MVP Development

A full AI knowledge platform with RAG, lead collection, scheduled web crawling, audio transcription, and an embeddable widget - now serving 10+ enterprise clients.

10+ enterprise clients on the platform

Next.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLPrismaGoogle Gemini API
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Chess Education Platform

Fractional CTO

A gamified chess education platform with AI coaching, interactive minigames, achievement systems, and audio-narrated lessons - built over two years for chess grandmasters.

Gamified experiential learning platform, launching soon

Next.jsReactTypeScriptPostgreSQLPrisma
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AI Tarot Reading Game

MVP Development

An AI tarot reading experience where multiple reader characters draw cards one by one, control the interface in real time through tool calls, and remember users across sessions.

AI agent with tool-calling UI control

Next.jsReactTypeScriptMastraOpenAI API
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Multi-Chain Crypto Launchpad

Fractional CTO

Revived a mothballed crypto launchpad, deployed it across multiple blockchain networks, extended with staking, VIP tiers, and ongoing chain onboarding.

IDO platform deployed across multiple blockchain networks

Next.jsReactTypeScriptAdonisJSPostgreSQL
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Trading Infrastructure Overhaul

SaaS Development

Overhauled CEX market-making infrastructure to support more markets and strategies. Deployed capital rose by 1000%.

1000% increase in deployed capital

TypeScriptPythonPostgreSQLRedisDocker
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Promptchainer - AI Workflow Automation

SaaS Development

A visual AI workflow builder - drag-and-drop prompt chaining with a custom graph execution engine, async worker pool, and multi-tenant RAG. Reached $2k MRR.

$2k MRR - early to AI workflow automation

Next.jsReactReactFlowExpress.jsTypeScript
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What You Get

A CTO, not a consultant

Technical Strategy

Stack decisions, architecture reviews, build-vs-buy analysis. The decisions that cost you months if you get them wrong.

AI at the Core

We don’t bolt AI onto your roadmap. We bring AI-native development practices, agent pipelines, and automation patterns from real production systems we’ve built.

Hands-On Building

We’re not advisory-only. When the hard problem needs solving, we write the code. When the team needs unblocking, we ship the feature.

Team Leadership

Hire the right developers, set engineering standards, run the process. We’ve built and led teams from 1 to 10.

Stakeholder Translation

Talk to your investors, your board, your clients about what’s happening technically — in language they understand, with timelines they can trust.

Vendor & Partner Evaluation

Evaluate agencies, freelancers, tools, and platforms. Stop wasting money on the wrong bets.

Engagement

How It Works

1

Sprint — Weeks 1–3

A fixed-price Architecture & Production-Readiness Sprint. We audit your codebase, stack, and team, and deliver a technical assessment, a prioritized roadmap, and a hiring plan. You see exactly how we work before committing to more.

2

Lead & Build — Ongoing

Weekly syncs, async communication, architecture oversight, code reviews, hiring support, AI integration. We’re in your Slack, your GitHub, your standups — as much or as little as you need.

3

Crunch — As Needed

Intensive periods around fundraises, launches, and audits. We scale up for the push, then back down — without renegotiating the relationship.

4

Handoff — When You’re Ready

When it’s time for a full-time CTO, we help you hire them and run a structured 4–8 week handoff: documented architecture, healthy processes, a team that ships. You outgrowing us is the plan.

Typical engagement: 1–2 days per week, $8–15k/month retainer. Starts with the fixed-price Sprint. Scales up or down as your needs change.

Clients

Who This Is For

Non-technical founders

You have the vision and the business sense. You need someone who can turn that into technical decisions, hire the right team, and keep the product on track.

Startups between rounds

You’ve raised seed or Series A. You need a CTO-level person to set technical direction before you’re ready for a full-time hire.

Companies without senior technical leadership

Your developers are good, but nobody is setting architecture, evaluating AI opportunities, or making the big calls. You need the layer above.

Results

Outcomes

  • Technical strategy aligned with business goals
  • AI integrated where it creates real leverage — not as a checkbox
  • Engineering team that ships faster and makes fewer costly mistakes
  • A technical leader investors and partners take seriously
  • No full-time salary, no equity, no long-term commitment
FAQ

Common Questions

Why not hire a full-time CTO?

At pre-seed through Series A, a full-time CTO costs $300k+ plus meaningful equity — for a company that needs 1–2 days of senior leadership a week. We give you the leadership now and help you hire the full-timer when the team actually needs one.

How is this different from a dev agency?

An agency executes tickets you write. We sit on your side of the table: we own the architecture, hire and manage the developers, and are accountable for outcomes — including the work we don’t do ourselves.

We were looking for a CTO co-founder.

Co-founder searches take 6–12 months and cost 10–30% equity — for someone you barely know. You get co-founder-level ownership from day one, keep your cap table clean, and if it’s not working, there’s no messy breakup.

What happens when we outgrow you?

That’s the plan. When you’re ready for a full-time CTO, we help you hire them and run a structured 4–8 week handoff — documented architecture, healthy processes, a team that ships. We stay available as advisors after.

Need a technical leader?

Tell us about your company, your team, and what's keeping you up at night. We'll tell you if we're the right fit.