Remote / Hybrid • PST Timezone

Fractional CTO in San Francisco

Expert technical leadership for San Francisco startups. CTO services in PST timezone. Build, scale, and transform your product without full-time CTO costs.

Why San Francisco Startups Choose Fractional CTO

San Francisco remains the epicenter of global tech innovation. The Bay Area is home to thousands of startups, from early stage to unicorns, with unprecedented access to venture capital, talent, and corporate partnerships. Industries like SaaS, FinTech, AI/ML, HealthTech, and Enterprise Software thrive in this ecosystem.

However, this concentration creates unique challenges: engineering salaries are the highest in the country, competition for experienced talent is intense, and investor expectations regarding technical maturity are extremely high. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring—costing $350K-$500K+ plus equity—is impractical in the early stages.

Challenge

Common Challenges

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

Regulatory requirements (CCPA, SOC2, HIPAA for HealthTech)
High engineering salaries make full-time CTO prohibitively expensive
Intense competition for experienced technical talent

Investors expect high technical maturity
Need for rapid scaling after funding rounds
Regulatory requirements (CCPA, SOC2, HIPAA for HealthTech)

How Fractional CTO Solves Them

Access to experienced CTO without SF salary premiums ($200K-$400K+ savings annually)
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 SF talent pool

What I do

Build Your MVP

Turn your startup idea into a working product

Tech stack selection for Bay Area talent market
Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
Architecture ready for investor demos

Scale Your Product

Grow from seed stage to Series A

Handle 10x growth without downtime
Technical debt management and refactoring
Prepare for San Francisco VC due diligence

AI Transformation

Integrate AI/ML into your startup

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

Technology Audit

Technical assessment before fundraising

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

Technical Due Diligence for Investors

For San Francisco 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 San Francisco talent market
Build hybrid teams (local + remote engineers)
Establish engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for San Francisco 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 with San Francisco Startups Works

Time overlap: 8 hours daily overlap with 9am-6pm PST—sufficient for meetings and calls. Outside this window, available asynchronously via Slack and email for uninterrupted workflow.
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic calls with founders. Bi-weekly team syncs. Daily communication via Slack. Emergency availability for critical issues.
In-person visits: Quarterly trips to San Francisco/Bay Area available for Scale CTO packages and above. Available for board meetings and investor presentations (remote or in-person)