9io.ai / Fractional CTO
A CTO for the hours you actually need one.
Someone senior enough to be accountable for the technical calls — architecture, security, what gets built first — without putting a $300k salary on the payroll before the product exists.
They can work alongside the engineers you already have, or lead a full team from us.
You need the decisions, not necessarily the headcount.
Every technical question lands on you
Which stack, which cloud, what the data model has to survive, how to handle customer data properly. Each one is cheap to get right now and expensive to undo in eighteen months.
Nobody senior reviews what ships
Contractors or a junior team are producing code and it works in the demo. What nobody can tell you is whether it holds when traffic arrives, or how much of it will need replacing.
Due diligence is coming
A raise, a big customer or a security review will ask who owns architecture, where data lives and what happens when something fails. Much easier if someone has been writing it down.
Good engineers, no technical owner
They are making architecture decisions by default, between tickets, without the context to weigh them — and they would rather someone else did.
You inherited a codebase
Something built by a previous team now has to be extended or replaced. Someone senior has to read it honestly first and tell you what is actually there.
The hire is a year-long bet
A search, a notice period, an onboarding, and a fixed cost that starts before the first commit. If the hire is wrong for your stage, undoing it is a severance conversation.
Things that exist afterwards, not advisory hours.
Which of these apply depends on your build — the proposal says so explicitly, before anything starts.
An architecture pack
The system written down: the pieces and their boundaries, the data model, the failure modes that matter, and why each choice was made. Enough that another engineer can read it and understand the shape.
A build order with acceptance
What gets built when, in short stages, with what counts as done agreed up front — ordered so the risky parts are proven early rather than discovered late.
A security and data position
Access, secrets, retention, third parties and the regulatory questions your market asks — decided deliberately and written down, rather than inherited from whichever tutorial the first engineer followed.
A working release path
Infrastructure as code, continuous deploys, a staging environment with a login, and alerting. Live early, so every later layer ships onto something that already works.
An honest read of existing code
Where there is already a system: what is load-bearing, what is a liability, and what it would cost to fix, extend or replace it — with each option priced rather than implied.
A team plan
Which roles you need, at what seniority, for how long, and which of them you should eventually hire rather than rent — including the case for hiring a full-time CTO when that is the right answer.
You don't need a $300k hire to get senior people.
Roughly what a full-time CTO in the US costs, all in. That is one person, before an engineer has been hired — and the salary runs whether or not there is product to build that month.
The same seniority and the same accountability, for a day a week or a full push. It comes down once the architecture has settled, and stops when there is nothing left to decide.
$300k–$400k is a commonly quoted range for a fully loaded US CTO, not a researched statistic. We don't publish rates, because they depend on how much of the role you need and for how long — the proposal sets them out before you sign anything.
Three steps, no surprises.
Tell us what you're building
One email is enough. No forms, and no sales call you have to sit through.
Get a proposal with a name on it
Who the CTO would be, how many hours a week, and the rate. Add engineers, design or QA underneath only if you want them.
Decisions start landing
Architecture written down, a release path running, and a short update every Friday. You are invoiced only for hours worked.
We don't show client logos. We show something we built.
9io Alpha is a market research platform we designed, built and run — data ingestion, an AI research pipeline, a dense operator interface and two broker integrations.
The architecture calls on it were ours, and we live with them daily. That is the same judgement you are hiring when you take a fractional CTO from us.
Take a look →- DecidedArchitecture, data handling and the order things were built in.
- RunningOn our own infrastructure, live before the product was finished.
- OperatedWe are on call for it, so the technical choices had to be ones we could live with.
Questions we get a lot.
What does a fractional CTO actually do?
The same job a full-time CTO does, for the hours the work actually needs: architecture and technology choices, security and how you handle data, the release and infrastructure path, input on hiring, and the technical judgement calls a founder shouldn't be making alone.
They also own the shape of the build itself — what gets made in what order, and what counts as done at each checkpoint. Where there's a team, they set the standard it works to and review what ships against it.
How many hours a week does it take?
It depends on what's in front of you. A stable product with a working team might need a day a week. A build going from an empty repository to production usually needs considerably more at the start and less once the architecture has settled. The hours are named in the proposal and you pay for the hours worked, so the number moves as the work moves rather than being fixed for a year.
Can they work with the engineers we already have?
Yes, and it's a common shape. The fractional CTO comes in alone alongside your team, sets architecture and standards, reviews what's shipping, and unblocks the decisions that have been sitting. You can add engineers, designers or QA from us later if you need more throughput, but nothing about the arrangement assumes you will.
Who owns the architecture decisions?
You do. Decisions are recommended with the trade-offs written down, and they're yours to accept or overrule. The code sits in your repository from the first commit and becomes yours as you pay for it, and delivered work carries a 90-day warranty.
When should we hire a full-time CTO instead?
When the role is mostly about people and permanence rather than building. If you're growing a large in-house engineering organisation, if your market expects a named technical officer on staff, or if your board wants a technical co-founder on the cap table, hire. If you expect twenty engineers inside the year, hire.
Fractional is the right answer while the open questions are still what to build and how, and while committing a permanent salary would be premature.
Tell us what you're building.
Describe the product, where it is today, and which decisions are stuck. You'll get a straight read on whether you need a fractional CTO, a full team, or to go and hire someone.
Replies come from the person who'd do the work.