01 — Embedded
Fractional CTO — the technical co-founder you haven't hired yet.
We take the CTO seat and bring the engineering team with us. Strategy, architecture, delivery and on-call — owned end to end, for a fraction of what a full-time technical leader plus a team would cost.
Your tech team
Assembled, not hired
- Fractional CTOLeadStrategy, architecture, on-callWeek 1
- Product engineerWeb app, API, databaseWeek 1
- Mobile engineeriOS and AndroidOn demand
- ML / AI engineerModels and automationsOn demand
One engagement. No hiring cycle, no equity table surprises.
What's included
The whole technical function.
Not an advisory retainer. We hold the pager, review the pull requests and answer for what ships.
Technical strategy
The architecture, the build-vs-buy calls and the roadmap that gets you from where you are to the next milestone — written down, not implied.
We are the team
Backend, frontend, mobile, data. Until you hire, we are your engineering department, and we ship every week.
Delivery management
Sprint planning, standups, code review and release. You get demos on a staging URL, not status reports.
On-call & incident response
When something breaks in production, we're the ones paged — triage, fix, and a postmortem, not a ticket in a queue.
Infrastructure & security
Cloud setup, CI/CD, access control, backups and cost discipline before it becomes a rewrite.
Diligence support
Investor and enterprise technical diligence, answered by someone who can defend every decision in the codebase.
A good fit
You'll get a lot out of this if…
- Non-technical founders with a funded idea and no engineering team
- Teams whose technical co-founder left, or never arrived
- Startups with contractors and no one owning the architecture
- Companies raising a round that need the tech story to hold up
Probably not a fit
We'd point you elsewhere if…
- Teams that want advice-only, a few hours a month
- Projects looking purely for the lowest hourly rate
- Work with no decision-maker available to talk weekly
Need something built to a spec instead? Product development
Engagement
How it starts.
A short, low-commitment path from first call to a team that's already shipping.
Week 0
Discovery
A call, then a written read on your architecture, risks and what the next 90 days should contain.
Week 1
Plan & team
Roadmap, system design and the shape of the team. We agree a monthly retainer — a set number of hours, a cadence and a scope.
Week 2+
Shipping
Sprints begin. Weekly demos, a shared board, and a CTO in your Slack answering in hours, not days.
Ongoing
Hand over
As you hire, we transfer ownership deliberately — documentation, pairing, and a clean exit whenever you're ready.
FAQ
Questions founders ask first.
Straight answers on what a fractional CTO does, how it's priced and how it ends.
What is a fractional CTO?
A senior technical leader who works with your company part-time instead of as a full-time hire. With MojoLabs the seat comes with an engineering team, so technical strategy, architecture, delivery and on-call are all owned end to end.
When does a startup need a fractional CTO?
When there's a product to build and nobody senior owns the technology — a non-technical founder with funding, a technical co-founder who left, contractors with no one owning the architecture, or a round that needs the tech story to hold up.
Is this advisory, or do you write the code?
We write the code. This isn't an advisory retainer: we review the pull requests, ship every week and hold the pager for production. If you only want advice for a few hours a month, we're probably not the right fit.
How is a fractional CTO engagement priced?
As a monthly retainer — a set number of hours, a cadence and a scope, agreed in the first week before a single hour is billed. It costs a fraction of a full-time technical leader plus a team.
How quickly can you start?
Discovery begins with a call and a written read on your architecture, risks and next 90 days. The roadmap, system design and team shape are agreed in week one, and sprints begin from week two.
What happens when we hire our own CTO or engineers?
We hand over deliberately — documentation, pairing and a clean exit whenever you're ready. Repositories, infrastructure and documentation are yours from day one, so nothing breaks when we leave.
Fractional CTO
Let's talk about your tech.
Bring your product, your stage and your worries. We'll tell you honestly whether you need a fractional CTO, a project team, or neither.
We reply within one business day.