Technical Advisor

When you need judgment more than a full CTO seat

Some teams are not ready for a Fractional CTO engagement — or already have a technical lead who needs a sparring partner. That is the Technical Advisor path.

You bring a technology decision or a plan that needs a second set of eyes. I challenge the assumptions, assess the options, and give you a recommendation. Your internal owner remains responsible for the decision, implementation, and result.

If you need ownership of the outcome end-to-end, that is Fractional CTO — not this page.

For larger organizations

Most Technical Advisor work is with founder-led teams. Some of it is with much larger organizations. I've worked with teams at a Fortune 100 technology company, a Fortune 100 automaker, two large energy utilities, two of the world's largest philanthropic foundations, and founder-led operators like Indoor Drone Tours (some of it through agency partners Claribase, Optimize, and prettysim.pl), and I know what it takes to get a technology or AI decision through a large company: the vendor reviews, the security questionnaires, the executive brief that has to survive a forwarded email.

If you run a function inside a large company or foundation and have budget for AI advice, this is the path. You get a named advisor your team can bring vendor, build-versus-buy, and AI adoption decisions to, on a monthly cadence, with written briefs your leadership can circulate. Scope and fee for larger organizations are quoted per engagement. Procurement, MSAs, and security reviews are fine.

Cadence

Cadence drives where you land in the band:

• 2 × 90-minute sessions per month → toward the high end of the band
• 1 × monthly session + limited async → toward the low end
• Written decision briefs after sessions when useful
• Async between sessions is capped and scoped to active decisions — not unlimited Slack

A three-month initial relationship is preferred. The term is confirmed in your proposal; the Fractional CTO offer has a required three-month initial commitment.

Investment

$3,500–$5,500 per month, depending on cadence. Final quote after a fit call. Always lighter than the Fractional CTO seat ($9,500/mo).

The fee reserves judgment and a named cadence — not a block of billable hours.

What this is

• Recurring advisory sessions on stack, AI, vendors, and operating systems
• Decision support for build-versus-buy and architecture tradeoffs
• Pressure-testing plans before you spend
• Optional written briefs after sessions

What this is not

• A Fractional CTO seat (that lives on /cto/)
• An on-call help desk or outsourced engineering team
• Unlimited Slack access
• Project delivery you expected me to implement alone

Fit

Only with an internal owner who executes.

Best when you have someone who will implement, and you want an embedded advisor to challenge assumptions and keep technology decisions tied to profit.

If you need someone to own the outcome end-to-end, choose Fractional CTO instead.

Questions before you apply

What does Technical Advisor cost?

$3,500 to $5,500 per month depending on cadence, with the final quote after a fit call. It is always lighter than the $9,500 Fractional CTO seat.

Who owns the decisions?

Your internal owner. I challenge assumptions, assess options, and recommend. Your team decides, implements, and owns the result.

When should I choose Fractional CTO instead?

When you need someone to own the outcome end to end: technology direction, vendors, AI boundaries, adoption, and measurement for one initiative.

Next step

The application asks about the decision in front of you, who owns it internally, and what a useful result would look like. I qualify before inviting anyone to a call.