Fractional CTO in Minneapolis

Q: What does a fractional CTO seat cost?

$3,500, $6,500, or $11,000 a month, for about two days a month, a day a week, or two days a week. Cash, equity, or a mix on longer work. Nonprofits, co-ops, and arts groups can use the sliding scale.

Sounds like you

“We pay a dev shop every month and nobody here can tell if the work is any good.”

“Every software decision lands on my desk and I am not a technology person.”

“A big customer sent a security questionnaire and I do not know how to answer it.”

“We need a CTO, but not a full-time one, and not yet.”

The problem

Your vendors are grading their own homework.

Without a technical lead, the dev shop decides what to build, the software vendor decides what you need, and you find out what it cost at the end. A full-time CTO in Minneapolis runs a median base near $324,000. A fractional seat puts someone on your side of every one of those decisions, for a fraction of that.

Who it is for

Companies with no CTO yet Owners managing a dev shop Founders before the first tech hire Teams after a CTO leaves

What you get

Decisions you can stand behind, and someone who answers for them.

A technology roadmap. What to build, what to buy, what to stop paying for, in the order that pays back first.
Vendors who deliver. I pick the dev shop and the software, write down what each one owes you, and check the work.
The security basics. Access, backups, passwords, and the questionnaire your big customer sent.
A plan for the first hire. What the role is, how to interview for it, and an architecture they can pick up on day one.

In the seat now

Two CTO seats, running today. At Quartz Importers MN I designed and built a 49-workflow automation platform that has run 39,645 times at a 0.2 percent failure rate. At U.S. Asset Appraisals I run the marketing technology and the AI rollout for a firm working in 35+ states. In both, I picked every vendor and I answer for every one of them.

How it works

Step 01

Talk it through

A 30-minute call. What you have, what it costs, and what keeps breaking.

Step 02

Read what you have

The first month is mostly listening: the code, the contracts, the vendors, the bills.

Step 03

Run the technology

The roadmap, the vendor calls, the build or buy decisions, the security basics. I hold the seat on your team.

Step 04

Hand it over

When you are ready for a full-time hire, I help you find them and hand over a system they can run.

Questions

What does a fractional CTO seat cost?

$3,500, $6,500, or $11,000 a month, for about two days a month, a day a week, or two days a week. Cash, equity, or a mix on longer work. Nonprofits, co-ops, and arts groups can use the sliding scale.

Do you write the code yourself?

Sometimes, on a fixed-price build. The monthly seat is for deciding, choosing, and managing. Paying a CTO rate for routine development is a bad deal for you, so part of the job is finding people who do that work for less. Fixed-price builds are on the build page.

Can a fractional CTO replace our IT company?

No, and it should not. The IT company keeps the computers, the network, and the accounts running. The CTO decides what the business should build or buy and makes sure every vendor, the IT company included, delivers what it owes you.

Is the CTO seat remote or on site?

Remote-first, based in Minneapolis, working across the United States. On site when a meeting calls for it, like the kickoff or a vendor review.

What do we have when the engagement ends?

A written roadmap, vendor contracts in your name, the passwords and accounts in your hands, and a description of how everything fits together. Nothing should depend on me after I leave.

Do you also take AI or marketing seats?

Yes, same structure and same prices. I hold a Chief AI Officer seat today as well. The title depends on what is missing.

Before you hire this, people ask

Do I need a fractional CTO or a dev shop?A dev shop builds what it is told. A fractional CTO decides what to build, picks the shop, and checks the work. If you have a shop and no CTO, nobody is checking. If you have a CTO and no shop, nothing is getting built. Most small companies need a little of both, and the CTO should come first.
How do I turn a strategy into vendor RFPs?Break the strategy into jobs, write each job as a problem with a measurable result instead of a feature list, add your must-haves (data, ownership, security, budget range, timeline), and send it to three to five vendors. Score the answers against the same list. A good RFP fits on a few pages and makes the bad vendors drop out on their own.
We bought software and nobody uses it. What now?The tool is almost never the problem. The rollout was. Software gets used when it fits the way people already work, when the people were involved in picking it, and when somebody made it the easy path. Fix those three and the same tool usually works. Buy another one and you will be here again.
What does a fractional CTO cost?Nationally, fractional CTO advisory runs $4,000 to $10,000 a month for ten to fifteen hours, active engagements $10,000 to $25,000, and near full-time $20,000 to $40,000. Mine run $3,500, $6,500, and $11,000 a month by days, and I currently hold two of these seats.
What does a fractional exec do in 90 days?Month one is listening: reading what exists, meeting the people and the vendors, and finding what is about to break. Month two is the first fixes and the plan. Month three is running the plan and reporting on it. By day 90 you should have a written plan, at least one problem fixed, and a clear answer on whether the seat is worth keeping.

Tell me what your technology needs to do next.

A 30-minute call, no deck, no pitch. We figure out whether a fractional seat fits and whether I am the right person to hold it.

Book 30 min ↗ Or just email me