Fractional CTO for owner-run businesses

A part-time head of technology. I decide with you what to build, build it with your team and look after it, without you hiring a full-time executive. For an owner-run business, that usually means your website, your ads and the back office your staff use every day.

Yes. Your code, your data and every account sit in your company's name, not mine. That is part of every handoff. If you ever want a different developer, you hand them the keys and they pick up where I left off.

Yes, for the small changes that come up every week, like a new field, a new report or a tweak to a screen. During the Build, the person who will make changes works next to me. That way they learn the system as it grows. At a Houston-area wholesale distributor, the owner made 55 of the 56 changes in the month after handoff, using Claude.

It is when the guardrails are in place, and every handoff includes them. Checks run on every change before it goes live. Every change gets a preview link your team can click through. Changes that touch payments, security or your database come to me before they go live. And every change is on record, with who made it and when.

When something breaks, you text me and I pick it up. If the cause is in my work, there's no invoice. That's the standing warranty, and it has no end date. If the cause is a later change, an outside service or a new feature, it falls under the support option you picked at handoff. On-call support and pay per fix are priced at handoff, sized to what you run.

Your software keeps working. The code and accounts are in your name, the runbook and staff guide explain how it fits together, and your team already makes the everyday changes. Any good developer can pick it up from there.

An agency builds for you and usually stays the one who can change it. A freelancer builds the piece you ask for. A full-time hire makes sense once there's a full week of work every week. I sit in between: I plan and build the whole system with your team, then hand it over so you don't need me for the small things.

Sometimes, once there's steady work for one every week. Many owner-run businesses aren't there yet. They need a burst of building, then small changes. So I build the system in about three months, your team takes over the small changes, and you keep as much of me as you need. If a hire makes sense later, I'll help you make it and hand over to them. For scale: the Build starts from $18,000, with no salary, benefits or hiring time.

During the Build, I work on your system every week and you see progress every week. After handoff, it depends on the path you pick: on call when something breaks, pay per fix, or a set share of each month as your fractional CTO. We agree the time in writing before it starts.

Owner-run businesses with a team. The daily work lives in spreadsheets, inboxes and tools that don't talk to each other. In 2026 I handed over systems to two of them. One is a Houston meal-prep brand. The other is a Houston-area wholesale distributor. If you're a founder still building a product, see the founders page. Every engagement starts with the Scoping Sprint, $5,000 flat, so you see the plan before you commit to a Build.

Your team pays for Claude directly, at Anthropic's published price. It's a monthly plan for each person who makes changes, and the bill goes to you, not through me. I help you pick the right plan during handoff.

Your software runs without Claude; Claude is how your team edits it. The code is standard and lives in your accounts, so any developer or another AI tool can work on it. If the tools change, I will help your team switch.

Yes. Every engagement starts with the Scoping Sprint: $5,000 flat, 7–10 business days, and a written plan you keep whether or not we build. If the Build starts within 30 days, the Sprint fee is credited in full.