Post-Funding Startups
You've closed your Seed or Series A and need a credible technical voice at the leadership table, without committing to a six-figure salary before the model is proven.
Fractional & Interim CTO Services
Technology Leadership That Starts With Your Business
I sit with founders and leadership teams to understand how the business actually works, then make sure the technology decisions support where it's going. Not just what to build, but why it matters commercially.
25+ years scaling technology teams Seed to Series A sweet spot UK-based, remote-first
Trusted by teams at
Built for Companies at an Inflection Point
You don't need a full-time CTO just yet, but you do need someone who's been there before.
Scale-Ups Hitting Friction
Your engineering team has grown, but delivery is slowing. You need someone to diagnose what's blocking you and install the structure to scale cleanly.
Investor or Acquirer Due Diligence
Preparing for a funding round or exit? A clear architecture narrative and credible technical review can be the difference between a smooth close and a difficult one.
Interim Cover
Your CTO has just left or is on extended leave. You need an experienced leader to keep delivery moving and help hire their replacement.
Not for you if…
- You want a hands-on engineer to write production code week-to-week.
- You're pre-product, pre-team, and need someone to build the MVP themselves.
- You're in defence, gambling, or exploitative ad-tech.
- You're looking for a body to fill a chair. The value here is in the partnership.
The Partner CTO Method
Four phases that turn business understanding into technical outcomes, and a relationship founders treat as a partnership rather than a vendor engagement.
01 · Listen
Understand how the business actually operates before recommending anything technical.
02 · Translate
Move information cleanly between the business and the engineering team, in both directions.
03 · Build
Make the technical decisions, hire the right people, install the systems the business needs.
04 · Compound
Set up the team and culture that keep getting better after I'm gone.
Four Ways to Engage, Depending on Your Stage
Most engagements start with a discovery call. From there, choose the entry point that fits where the business is. Exit at the end of any phase, no lock-in.
Discovery Call
Free
30-minute conversation about your situation. No pitch, no follow-up sequence.
30-Day Tech Audit
From £4,000
Structured diagnostic with written report, quick wins, and 90-day roadmap. Fee credited against a retainer.
Fractional Retainer
£3k–£7k / month
Ongoing 1–3 days per week embedded with your leadership team. Strategic and operational.
Interim CTO
From £1,000 / day
Fixed-term full commitment. I step in as acting CTO with a clean handover plan from day one.
AI Brain, Install AI Into How Your Business Actually Runs
For founders who want the business-partner approach in concrete, productized form. Not another AI workshop. A working system, installed properly, in two to four weeks.
Context flows in automatically
Your knowledge store (Notion, Google Drive, Obsidian) connects directly to your AI. The hour a day spent re-pasting context disappears.
Workflows run as systems, not prompts
The three to five jobs you do every week become tuned project workspaces with reusable skills. One click, not one hour. They get better over time, not worse.
Archetypes for the roles you haven't hired
Written definitions of the AI colleagues your business needs (sales rep, ops manager, analyst) each with a job description, escalation rules, and quality bar.
Built by a CTO, not an AI consultant
Engagements run from a £700 audit to a £6,500 four-week Sprint that installs the full Founder AI Brain Framework. Capability transfer, not permanent dependence, every engagement is designed so you can run the system without me afterwards.
25+
Years in tech
Seed–A
Sweet spot
Tech for good
Primary focus
A Partner at the Table, Not Just a Technical Hire
What my clients tell me sets me apart isn't the technology, it's that I take the time to understand their business first. How it operates, what's driving the numbers, where the real pressure points are, what the team is genuinely trying to achieve. Once I have that picture, technology decisions become straightforward.
Twenty-five years across funded startups, scale-ups, and established businesses, with a particular focus on technology for good. Co-founder and CTO at Unmind (Series C). VP Technology at Vault Platform (acquired by Diligent in 2025).
What People Say
From the teams and founders I've worked with directly.
"Nick led with empathy, logic, and quiet confidence. He gave the engineering team room to think and took the time to understand the nuances of our work before suggesting changes. He navigated the sometimes tricky dynamics of working within a team where relationships were already established, with real care and professionalism. He tackled difficult conversations head-on (situations most people would sidestep) with clarity and kindness. He brought out the best in people. I left many of our 1:1s feeling genuinely motivated and more capable than when I walked in. Having Nick as a CTO is genuinely transformative for a team."
"Nick played a transformational role in our company. He joined at a critical inflection point and helped us rebuild the technical function (both the team and the culture) from the ground up. His calm, strategic presence and ability to earn trust across the organisation made a lasting difference. I'd work with Nick again without hesitation."
"Nick has an exceptional ability to align technical direction with business goals in a way that's clear, credible, and immediately actionable. He brought real rigour to our technology decisions and gave us the confidence to move fast without cutting corners. He's the kind of CTO-level thinking that most early-stage companies simply can't afford to hire full-time, which is exactly why the fractional model works so well with someone of his calibre."
Common Questions
What's the difference between a Fractional CTO and an Interim CTO?
A Fractional CTO works with you part-time (typically one to three days per week) providing ongoing strategic and operational leadership alongside your existing team. It's a retainer relationship designed to give you senior technical capacity without a full-time headcount cost.
An Interim CTO steps in on a fixed-term, full-time basis, usually to cover a departure, bridge a hiring gap, or lead a defined transformation. The engagement has a clear start, a clear end, and a handover built into it from the outset.
How does the cost compare to hiring a full-time CTO?
A senior CTO in the UK typically commands a salary of £120,000–£180,000, plus equity, employer NI, pension, benefits, and recruitment costs, which can add a further 20–30% on top. A quality hire also takes three to six months to find and onboard.
A fractional engagement removes all of that overhead. You pay a monthly retainer, scale commitment up or down as the business evolves, and can step back without notice periods or redundancy exposure.
What happens in the first 30 days?
The first month is a structured onboarding and diagnostic. I'll review your codebase, infrastructure, and current architecture; assess your engineering team's structure and culture; identify your most pressing technical risks; and talk to key stakeholders (founders, investors, product leads) to build a full picture of the business context.
At the end of 30 days you'll have a written technical audit, a prioritised list of quick wins, and a 90-day roadmap. That document becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
Do you work remotely or on-site?
Primarily remotely, which means geography rarely gets in the way. For the right engagement I'm happy to come on-site for key workshops, planning sessions, or team events, wherever you're based. We'll agree the right balance at the scoping stage.
Can you help us hire a permanent CTO?
Yes, supporting the search and appointment of a permanent CTO is often a natural conclusion to a fractional or interim engagement. I can help you define the role, assess candidates from a technical perspective, and ensure a clean handover when the appointment is made.