SCALE / 4–8 MONTHS / POST-SEED TO SERIES A
Theproductworks.Theorgisthebottleneck.
For founders whose growth stalled after the team that got them here got pulled into interviews and rewrites.
The product works.
The problem is the shape of the company that shipped it.
A senior engineer gives notice on Tuesday. By Friday, three customers are waiting on a release nobody left knows how to cut. The CTO is in interviews all week. Tickets go in, nothing comes out. An investor asks why headcount keeps growing and velocity doesn't.
MORE ENGINEERS
Won't fix a structure problem.
A REWRITE
Won't fix a team problem.
A FRACTIONAL VPE, TWO DAYS A WEEK
Won't change the company that made both.
What we take off the table?
The code. Someone from outside tells you what to rip out and what to contain.
The structure. How work moves, who owns what, what stops going through the founder. Written down.
The hiring pipeline. Roles defined, rubrics written, interviews run, offers closed.
The systems to be maintained. Monitoring, deploys, incident response. Handed back operable.
MONTHS
4–8
SET BEFORE WE START
Fixed price
A senior core pulls in a vetted network per engagement — design, compliance, additional engineering — scaled to the scope, not to a bench.
PARTNERSHIP, NOT OUTSOURCING
Whatever we take on only works with close collaboration - regular syncs, shared context, and a common willingness to face hard problems.
We're not a replacement. We're senior expert support.
The final call stays with the founder - always. That's why culture fit and partnership matter.
Who is it for?
A fit if:
- The org has become the ceiling on growth.
- You want the problem owned end-to-end for a fixed window.
- You want out clean when it's done.
Not a fit if:
- You want to buy engineer-hours by the month.
- You want a vendor who ships the backlog you hand over without asking whether it's the right backlog.
- You're shopping on price alone.
HOW IT ENDS
Handover is the deliverable. Everything goes back in a form your team can run. No retainer. No lock-in. The engagement ends on the date we wrote down.
You own everything we ship
The rest is our problem.
PARTNERSHIP
Fractional CTO
For founders who've worked with us once and want a standing seat on the hard calls. Architecture, hiring, product sequencing. Scoped in months - we hand over and leave when the need ends.