Remote / Hybrid • GMT/BST Timezone

Fractional CTO in London

Expert technical leadership for London startups. CTO services in GMT/BST timezone. Build, scale, and transform your product without full-time CTO costs.

Why London Startups Choose Fractional CTO

London is Europe's largest tech hub and the global FinTech capital. The city is home to thousands of startups with access to a strong VC ecosystem, international talent, and corporate partnerships. Industries like FinTech, InsurTech, PropTech, E-commerce, Enterprise SaaS, and AI thrive in this ecosystem.

However, this concentration creates unique challenges: engineering salaries are among the highest in Europe, competition for senior talent is intense, and investor expectations for technical maturity are extremely high. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring—costing £200K-£350K+ plus equity—is impractical at early stages. Post-Brexit changes also add complexity to talent acquisition.

Challenge

Challenges for London Startups

High engineering salaries make full-time CTO prohibitively expensive
Intense competition for experienced engineers
Investors expect high technical maturity
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds

Regulatory requirements (FCA, GDPR, UK Data Protection)
High engineering salaries make full-time CTO prohibitively expensive
Intense competition for experienced engineers

Investors expect high technical maturity
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds
Regulatory requirements (FCA, GDPR, UK Data Protection)

How Fractional CTO Solves These Challenges

Access to experienced CTO without London salary premiums (£150K-£300K+ annual savings)
Start immediately—no 3-6 month hiring process
Scale engagement up/down as you progress through funding rounds
Expertise in building distributed teams with remote-first focus
Global best practices, not limited to UK talent pool

What I do

Build MVP

Turn your startup idea into a working product

Tech stack selection for UK engineering market
Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
Architecture ready for investor demos

Scale Product

Grow from seed stage to Series A

Handle 10x growth without outages
Manage technical debt and refactoring
Prepare for London VC due diligence

AI Transformation

Integrate AI/ML into your startup

LLM integrations and GPT-powered solutions
ML systems for competitive advantage
Strategy, implementation, and MLOps

Technology Audit

Technical assessment before raising capital

Code quality and architecture review
Prepare for London VC due diligence
Risk map and recommendations

Technical Due Diligence

For London investors evaluating startups

Comprehensive technical risk assessment
Team and product scalability analysis
Reports for investment committees

Team Building

Hire your first 5-10 engineers

Navigate UK candidate market
Build hybrid teams (local + remote engineers)
Establish engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for London Startups

Currency:

Advisor CTO

$3,600per month

~6 hours per week of dedicated time

For early-stage startups with an MVP or an idea that need oversight and support without full-time involvement.

How we work:

Bi-weekly strategy session with founders (90 min)
Technical stack and architecture review - are you building on the right foundation?
Code review of critical decisions and risky PRs
Candidate screening: resume review, interview structure, hire/no-hire recommendations
Infrastructure and tooling spend review - are you overpaying for cloud and third-party services?
Async access via Slack (48-hour response time)

What you walk away with:

Technical assessment report - honest evaluation of your codebase, infrastructure, and risks
Technology roadmap - prioritized recommendations for the next 6 months
Hiring scorecard - what to look for in your first 3-5 engineers

Outcome

Confidence that your technical decisions are sound and a clear plan to build on - without costly mistakes.

Month-to-month, cancel anytime

Growth CTO

Scale CTO

$11,000per month

~20 hours per week of dedicated time

For Series A+ startups with 15-20+ engineers preparing for the next funding round.

How we work:

Everything from Growth CTO package
Daily involvement in engineering operations - standups, planning, escalations
Executive team participation - board prep, investor meetings, due diligence support
Engineering management development - coaching team leads into engineering managers
Organizational design - team topology, processes, rituals, communication structures
Vendor strategy - cloud cost optimization, service negotiations, contractor management
Technical debt strategy - refactoring roadmap balanced against product delivery

What you walk away with:

Engineering handbook - culture, standards, processes, expectations
Leveling and compensation framework - career ladders and salary bands
Engineering metrics dashboard - DORA metrics, velocity trends, code quality
Incident management playbook - on-call rotation, severity definitions, postmortem process
Technical due diligence package - investor-ready architecture and security documentation
Security and compliance assessment - SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA readiness evaluation
Engineering headcount plan and infrastructure budget forecast

Outcome

A mature engineering organization ready for due diligence and the next funding round.

3-month minimum commitment

How Remote Work Functions with London Startups

Working hours overlap: 3-4 hours overlap with 9am-6pm GMT/BST for live calls (depending on DST). Outside this window, available asynchronously via Slack and email, enabling work without downtime.
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic call with founders. Bi-weekly team sync. Daily communication via Slack. Emergency availability for critical issues.
In-person visits: Quarterly visits to London available for Scale CTO and higher packages. Available for board meetings and investor presentations (remote or in-person).