Technical judgement in the decisions, without a CTO on the payroll.
Some companies do not need a full-time technical director, but have spent years making technical decisions with nobody looking at them with judgement of their own. I sit in that chair for as long as it takes: I decide with you, I answer for what gets decided, and I do not depend on the project growing to earn more.
A first 30-minute call to see whether this makes sense in your case.
What external technical leadership is
External technical leadership means someone with senior technical judgement takes responsibility for your company's technology decisions, without being on the payroll and without dedicating a full working week to it.
It is usually called fractional CTO or CTO as a service. Labels aside, it means this: a person who understands your business, understands the technical side and is available on a regular basis to decide with you what has to be decided. One day a week, two, or whatever the company needs.
It is not a consultancy that walks in, hands over a report and leaves. Nor an adviser you call once there is already a fire. It is a continuous presence, with responsibility over what gets decided and the obligation to be there when a decision turns out badly.
Which companies it fits
It fits well in
- Companies with an established business and a substantial digital side that has grown with nobody in technical charge.
- Companies that depend on external suppliers for everything technical and have nobody of their own who can contrast what they say.
- Companies with a small technical team — two, three, five people — that works well, but lacks someone above who decides and covers for them.
- Companies that have just lost their go-to technical person and do not want to hire in a rush.
- Companies about to take on something big — a migration, an ERP integration, a platform change — and want their own leadership while it lasts.
It fits badly in
- Startups looking for a technical co-founder
- You need someone taking the same risk as you, and that is not me.
- Companies that need a full-time CTO and know it
- If the work is enough for one person every day, hire them. I would tell you so on the first call.
- Companies where nobody with authority wants to cede the technical decision
- The role only works if it can genuinely decide.
What problems it solves
Technical decisions the business cannot validate
A quote, an architecture or a platform recommendation arrives and nobody inside can say whether it makes sense.
Total dependence on the supplier
When the only person who understands your system bills you by the hour, the asymmetry is paid for in every conversation.
A roadmap decided by whoever has the fullest calendar
Without technical leadership, work is prioritised by urgency, and urgency always beats what matters.
Cost surprises
Projects that come out at twice the price because nobody reviewed the scope or the estimates before signing.
A technical team with nobody to talk to
Good people making structural decisions alone, with nobody to contrast them with and nobody sharing the responsibility.
Technical debt nobody defends
Without someone translating debt into money, it always loses against the next feature.
What responsibilities I can take on
Agreed at the start, in writing. From this list, whatever is needed.
- Architecture and platform decisions: what gets built, with what and why.
- Validation of supplier quotes and estimates, before you sign them.
- Definition and governance of the technical roadmap, with the business, not against it.
- Technical liaison with suppliers and agencies: I talk to them, you get the conclusions in your language.
- Supplier selection: defining what is asked for, reading what they answer and recommending.
- Support for the internal technical team, as someone they can contrast decisions with.
- Participation in the board, bringing the technical side translated into money and dates.
- Technical risk management: what can break, what happens if it does and what it costs to avoid it.
- Technical hiring: defining the profile, assessing the real level of candidates, saying no.
What it does not replace
Almost every external technical leadership engagement that goes wrong goes wrong over expectations of availability and authority. Better in writing from the start.
- It does not replace your development team
- I lead, decide and support. I am not the company's execution capacity.
- It does not replace a full-time CTO
- If your technical side is the product and you have twenty people building it, you need someone inside.
- It does not replace a project manager
- I do not track daily tasks or write up stand-up notes. If that is needed, it has to be put in place, and this is not it.
- It does not replace your responsibility
- I decide with you and I commit, but the company is yours. If I insist on something and you decide otherwise, we do what you decide and we put it in writing.
- I am not available at all hours
- On the agreed days, I am there. Outside them I answer, but I am not an on-call rota.
It is not the same as hiring an agency
An agency does. I decide what has to be done, and then review what the agency has done. They are different roles and, honestly, incompatible ones.
The problem is not the quality of the agency. It is that their business consists of building. When you ask an agency whether something needs building, the answer comes from an incentive, however honest the person giving it. It is not bad faith: nobody is good at seeing a problem when their invoicing depends on not seeing it.
I do not build your project. That is why I can tell you not to do it, to do it smaller, or to let the agency you already have do it instead of switching. And that is why I can review an estimate without it suiting me for the number to go up.
The usual arrangement is that we coexist: your agency stays, I lead it technically.
When that part of the job is all that is needed, I call it technical vendor management.
It is not the same as hiring a CTO on the payroll
| CTO on the payroll | External technical leadership | |
|---|---|---|
| Dedication | Full | The agreed days |
| When it pays off | Technology is the product, or the technical team is large | Technology sustains the business, but is not the business |
| Time until it adds value | Months: searching, hiring, learning the house | Weeks |
| Cost | Salary, sometimes equity, and the cost of choosing wrong | What was agreed, for as long as it is needed |
| Independence | Part of internal politics | Outside them, which is sometimes exactly what is needed |
| Risk | Hiring the wrong CTO is very expensive and slow to correct | It ends when it stops adding value |
| Continuity | High | Lower by definition: I do not live inside the company |
If your company needs a CTO on the payroll, hire one. External technical leadership is not a cheap version of a CTO: it is a different role, for a different company. Sometimes the best work I can do is help you define the position, interview the candidates and leave when the right one arrives.
How the scope gets defined
On the first call I do not close a price or a timeline. I have not seen the project, and estimating without having seen it would not be serious: what a rescue, a due diligence or external technical leadership costs depends on the real state of the system, on what access exists, on how many suppliers are involved, on what documentation there is, and on how urgent it is.
- 01
A first call to understand the situation
Thirty minutes, no cost. You tell me what is going on, I ask questions, and I come out knowing whether I can help and what kind of work fits.
- 02
If it fits, an initial review of the context
I take a first look at whatever exists: documentation, access, contracts, who is involved. This is where the real size of the problem becomes visible.
- 03
Definition of the scope
What is in, what is out, what dependencies exist and what can be left aside without the work losing its point.
- 04
A written proposal
With scope, price, timeline and deliverables. No open ranges: a proposal you can compare and defend.
- 05
We start only if we both approve it
If the proposal does not convince you, no harm done and you have paid nothing. If it does not convince me, I say so first.
I would rather look careful than look fast. A quote given in thirty minutes, without having looked at anything, gets broken by week three.
Half an hour to see whether this fits.
Tell me how technical decisions are made in your company today, and who makes them. That is usually enough to know whether you need external technical leadership, a CTO on the payroll, or simply to put order into what you already have.
You tell me who decides the technical side today, and with what information.
I tell you whether this calls for external leadership, an internal CTO, or neither.
If it fits, I define dedication and responsibilities, and they reach you in writing before we start.
What people ask me before we start
What is the difference between external technical leadership, an external CTO and a fractional CTO?
None, fundamentally. They are three names for the same thing: someone with technical responsibility who is not on the payroll. What changes between providers is not the name, it is how far they commit.
How many days a month?
It is usually a regular commitment — not loose hours — because the value is in the continuity. The right dedication is not known on the first call: it is known after looking at how decisions are made in your company today. And it is almost never the one assumed at the start.
How is it billed?
A closed monthly price for the agreed dedication, not by the hour. Billing by the hour someone who hires you to decide fewer things is an odd incentive. The amount goes in the written proposal, once the dedication is defined — never on the first call.
How long is the commitment?
In less than a quarter there is not even time to learn the house. After that, for as long as it adds value.
Can you work with the technical team I already have?
It is the most common case and the one that works best. I am not here to replace anyone. If at some point I think there are too many or too few people, I tell you and you decide.
And if my company has no technical team?
Then external technical leadership leans on your suppliers: I talk to them, review what they propose and translate what they say. That is technical vendor management.
Do you work with startups?
Rarely, and frankly: it is not where I add the most. My ground is companies with a running business, real revenue and a digital side that has got out of hand. An early-stage startup needs something else.
Do you sign off on decisions or only advise?
I commit. I say what I would do and why, and I take my share when it goes wrong. If what you want is someone who presents options and washes their hands, there are cheaper options.