What a fractional CTO actually costs in the UK
Day rates, retainers and what the money buys, with the sources named and my own rate card on the page instead of behind a call.
Read itInsights
What I’ve learned building the things on this site.
Decisions, trade-offs and the occasional thing that didn’t work. Written from engagements and from running a business that depends on the software I build for it, rather than from a keyword list.
How technical due diligence works, from the first call to the report
What gets looked at, what access it needs, how long it takes and what slows it down. Written for the investor with a deadline and the founder on the other side of it.
Read itFractional CTO or interim CTO: two jobs that share a title
One is a day or two a week for as long as it's useful. The other is a full-time seat with an end date. Which you need depends on whether the chair is empty or the decisions are.
Read itHow to assess a software agency when you cannot read the code
You are paying an agency or an outsourced team and you cannot tell whether the work is good. Eight checks a non-technical founder can run this week, none of which needs the code.
Read itRunning AI locally when the data cannot leave
A refused cloud AI request is a constraint on one stage of the pipeline, not the end of the project. How I run private AI in my own business, and how to work out what yours needs.
Read itWhat belongs in a technical due diligence report
The report is for the person signing, and most are written for the engineers. The seven things it has to answer, and how to tell a useful one from a long one.
Read itWhy an AI pilot stalls before production
The pilot worked and nothing shipped. Five reasons that happens, all of them visible before the pilot started, and what to agree on day one so yours is not the next.
Read itWhen a database query beats a language model
A good deal of what gets specified as AI is a query nobody wrote. How to tell the difference before you pay for the expensive version.
Read itAI consultant or fractional CTO: which one does the problem need?
One is hired for a technology and the other for a business. How to tell which you are short of, and what it costs to hire the wrong one.
Read itTechnical co-founder or fractional CTO, and how to tell which you need
They do almost the same work. What differs is what you pay with, how long it lasts, and who carries the risk if it goes wrong.
Read itWhere AI automation pays, and where it does not
Most things sold as AI problems are process problems with a model bolted on. The test I use, the shapes of work where the economics change, and why picking the right technique matters more than picking the model.
Read itWhen should a founder hire a CTO?
Later than you think and earlier than you want. Five signals that the technical decisions have outgrown the person currently making them.
Read itNothing under that topic yet.
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