Blue Circuit Board Background

Simon Brooks

Your

Fractional CTO

Yellow Button Icon 3d

Get Started

Why hire a fractional CTO?

70% of Tech Startups fail

Main reasons being Team, Market Fit, and Funding

A Startup CTO is many things over time

Full time hiring for the current need can be shortsighted

Full time CTOs are expensive

An average $200k base for a non-founder CTO is likely to cost $400k plus equity

Leverage the experience at a fraction of the cost

Fractional CTOs have been through these trials before

Supplement the existing team

A fractional CTO can fill in the gaps to eliminate the learning curve

Ready to Go

Unlike hiring, fractional CTO can start immediately

When is the right time for a fractional CTO?

Need to outsource successfully

Prior low-cost outsourcing failures? Get help from someone who has succeeded before

Strategy, marketing, sales, networking taking all the time

Need someone to focus on the technical leadership

Rebuild trust in the tech team

Bad hires, practices, or communication with other teams have eroded trust

“Grown up in the room”

Investors need to see the results of a seasoned professional leading the technical teams

Fill the Gap

The departure of aTech Leader leaves a void that needs filling fast

Current team/CTO just needs help

Bring in a coach/mentor/advisor


What a fractional CTO can do for you?

Build the Technology

Through the whole technology stack and toolchains, build vs buy, vendor/OSS evaluation, management, onboarding, and implementation or integration

Build the Team

Developing and leading hiring, onboarding, and off boarding processes, building internal teams. Creating and managing outsourcing relationships

Build the Talent

Advising leadership, coaching and mentoring the engineering team. Creating growth pathways for individuals

Build the Process

How the teams design, build, test, deploy, maintain, communicate, and improve

Build the Trust

Assessments of risk, security, and compliance. Planning for scalability, reliability, and maintainability. Technical due diligence

Build the Strategy

Technology Strategy and Vision. How does the technology increase the company value. How to enable Innovation


Who? Simon is your fractional CTO

Built the Tech

Evaluated, PoC, initial engagement and integration 40+ vendors at 10+ companies covering encryption, pdf signing, office editing, email, test generation, cloud device labs and more

Built the Teams

Built teams from <5 to >50 for multiple companies. Internal hiring - 200+ hired from graduates to directors. Trained interviewers and hiring managers. Outsourcing - 1000+ over 25 years from 30 suppliers. Full cycle of supplier management from evaluation, RFP, onboarding, execution, and review, to completion and/or ongoing maintenance contracts


Built the Process

Implemented and scaled CI/CD, Devops, Agile processes at more than 10 companies. Built mobile apps used by 10s of millions of users

Built the Trust

Code review process, arch review process, audit of status, analysis tools (code, static, dynamic), threat models, security scanning, compliance auditing

Built the Talent

Coached/mentored engineers from entry-level to staff and principal engineers and through multiple ranks of management to Director/VP/CTO. A strong network of talented individuals and teams across many verticals

Built the Strategy

Innovation. 20+ patents covering machine learning, computer vision, blockchain, communication protocols, mobile applications, security, and identity. Involved in 10+ acquisitions from both sides


How to engage with a fractional CTO?

Virtual CTO

Coach/mentor/advisor

A few hours/week

Ad Hoc or Block of 10 Sessions

Yellow Button Icon 3d

Book Coaching

Fractional CTO

as a Service

One or more services

10-20 hours/week expectation

Retainer

Yellow Button Icon 3d

Start with Discovery

Fractional CTO

as a Solution

Project/outcome based engagement

(Hire and onboard a permanent CTO)

(Setup and manage outsourcing engagement through to milestone and handoff)

Fixed/outcome based pricing


Yellow Button Icon 3d

Start with Discovery

Where to start?

Yellow Button Icon 3d

Get Started

Simon Brooks

Your Fractional CTO

(408) 386-4837