we sit inside your team as cto, head of data, or head of engineering — two or three days a week, for a fixed term. the team owns the title; we hold the technical posture until they do.
~ between hiring and not-hiring ~
cadence2–3 days per week
term6–12 mo. single renewal
postureinside the org payroll-adjacent
leaves withnamed successor trained, hired
the work, named.
you have a series-a balance sheet, a stretched cto, and a board that wants the data layer rebuilt before the next round. you don't need a full-time hire yet. you need someone with the technical posture to hold the room until you do.
what we hold while we sit in.
architecture decisions — written down, signed, traceable.
vendor selection — incl. sovereign-hosting and halal-compatible commercial structure.
technical hiring — the panel, the brief, the offer.
incident response — sit on the call, write the post-mortem.
standards — the working-paper template, the runbook template, the audit trail.
what we do not hold.
the org chart. we do not manage your people. we coach them.
shipped tickets. we pair with the team; we do not eat their backlog.
the title. the team holds it. we are clear with everyone on day one.
the politics. we are inside enough to read it. outside enough to write it down.
the next round. we hand over to your fundraising team, not run it.
§ posturewe sit inside the team for as long as the team needs the chair filled. then we hand the chair to whoever you hired. then we leave.
how it runs.
the chair is filled on day one. by day ninety, the named successor is on the panel. by month nine, they are running it without us in the room.
cadence
diagnosew. 01–02
fill the chairw. 03–12
hire the successorw. 13–28
pair hand-overw. 29–36
quarterly office hrm. 10–12
F.01 · diagnose
two weeks reading. one document out.
we read the repo, the data, the contracts, the past two board packs. we write a working paper on the technical posture as it stands. you read it before we agree the term.
F.02 · fill the chair
posture, not tickets.
two or three days a week. on-site where it matters. we hold the architecture decisions, the vendor reviews, the hiring panel, the board update. the team ships; we hold the standard.
F.03 · hire the successor
we write the role. we are on the panel.
by month four we have the brief written. by month six the successor is in the room. by month eight they are on the architecture call without us.
F.04 · pair hand-over
eight weeks of shadow-then-lead.
they shadow us for two weeks. they lead for six. on the last friday we close the laptop, send the closing working paper, and step out.
F.05 · office hours
quarterly, for one year.
one half-day per quarter for twelve months after we leave. they call us; we do not call them. no retainer, no surcharge.
this is for you if…
signals.
your founder-cto is stretched and the board is starting to ask why.
you have closed series a / b and the architecture has not caught up.
your data layer is on someone's laptop and someone wrote popia on a whiteboard once.
you tried to hire a full-time cto and the candidates were either too senior to want it or too junior to hold it.
your sector is regulated — health, fin, halal food, energy — and an auditor will be in the room within twelve months.
not for you if…
you want someone to ship features. hire engineers; pair them with us instead.
you want fractional-cto-as-a-brand-name. we will not sit on a public investor deck.
you want a contractor who codes the backlog at night. that is not the chair we hold.
you want indefinite. the chair has a successor. always.
commercial shape.
monthly retainer, scoped to days-per-week and term length. priced in zar; invoiced in zar or usd. halal-compatible commercial structure available on request — see the compliance brief.
2 days/wk · 6 mosingle quarter, single renewal. for founders triaging the chair while they hire.from r 180k/mo+ vat
3 days/wk · 9 mothe standard shape. fits a fundraising cycle, gives the successor 90 days of pair-time.from r 240k/mo+ vat
3 days/wk · 12 mowhen the corner is large — regulated sector, multiple platforms, an audit on the calendar.from r 280k/mo+ vat
quarterly office hourshalf-day per quarter for twelve months after the engagement closes. they call us; we do not call them.includedno retainer
§ notewe hold one fractional engagement per quarter. if the calendar is full, we will say so on the first call and tell you which surface fits the same problem.
example · a halal-food platform, series a.
a johannesburg halal-supply-chain platform, twelve people, series a closed. founder-cto stretched between fundraising and tekolo integration. nine-month fractional engagement, three days a week, with a named successor on the panel from week six.
m. 01–02
read the room.
working paper on the data layer, the audit posture, the halal-certification trail. four hires named.
m. 03–06
complete the corner.
tekolo replaced the spreadsheet ledger. de-ics1 wrote the daily audit trail. successor cto interviewed and offered.
m. 07–09
hand over.
eight weeks of pair-time. closing working paper signed. office hours quarterly until end of year two.