Remote / Hybrid • CET Timezone

Fractional CTO in Stockholm

Expert technical leadership for Stockholm startups. CTO services in CET/CEST timezone. Build, scale, and transform your product without full-time CTO costs.

Why Stockholm Startups Choose Fractional CTO

Stockholm is the world leader in unicorns per capita. The city has produced companies like Spotify, Klarna, King, and many others. Strong engineering culture, excellent education system, and developed ecosystem make it one of the best places for tech startups. Industries like FinTech, Gaming, Music Tech, CleanTech, and Enterprise SaaS thrive here.

However, the Stockholm ecosystem creates unique challenges: intense competition for talent with Spotify, Klarna, and other unicorns, high salary expectations (SEK 1.5M-2.5M for CTOs), and strict Swedish regulatory requirements. Many startups find that traditional full-time CTO hiring is impractical at early stages.

Challenge

Common Challenges

  • Competition for talent with Spotify, Klarna, and other unicorns
  • High salary expectations (SEK 1.5M-2.5M for CTOs)
  • Finansinspektionen requirements for fintech
  • Need to comply with GDPR and Swedish regulations
  • Investor expectations to meet ecosystem standards
  • Competition for talent with Spotify, Klarna, and other unicorns
  • High salary expectations (SEK 1.5M-2.5M for CTOs)
  • Finansinspektionen requirements for fintech
  • Need to comply with GDPR and Swedish regulations
  • Investor expectations to meet ecosystem standards

How Fractional CTO Solves Them

Access to experienced CTO without Stockholm salary premiums (SEK 800K-1.5M+ savings annually)
Start immediately — without 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 with understanding of Scandinavian market

What I do

Build MVP
Turn your startup idea into a working product
  • Tech stack selection for Scandinavian talent market
  • Launch in 3-4 months with scalable foundation
  • GDPR-ready architecture from day one
Scale Product
Grow from seed stage to Series A
  • Handle 10x growth without failures
  • Technical debt management and refactoring
  • Prepare for Scandinavian 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 Scandinavian VC due diligence
  • Risk map and recommendations
Technical Due Diligence for Investors
For 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 competitive Stockholm talent market
  • Build hybrid teams (local + remote engineers)
  • Implement unicorn-level engineering culture

Pricing

Packages for Stockholm Startups

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

Most popular

$5,800per month

~10 hours per week of dedicated time

For Post-Seed to Series A startups actively building product and scaling their team from 3 to 10 engineers.

How we work:

  • Weekly sync with founders - priorities, blockers, technical strategy
  • Code review and architecture ownership - I'm in your codebase, not just on calls
  • Hands-on hiring: job descriptions, sourcing strategy, technical interviews, offer calibration
  • Technical debt triage - identifying what slows the team down and what can wait
  • CI/CD and developer productivity review - testing strategy, deployment pipeline, dev environment
  • Engineering delivery oversight - sprint reviews, velocity tracking, quality gates
  • Production incident support - emergency availability during critical outages
  • Async access via Slack (24-hour response time)

What you walk away with:

  • 90-day technical roadmap, updated quarterly
  • Architecture Decision Records - documented rationale for every major technical choice
  • Hiring playbook - leveling criteria, interview process, scorecards, onboarding checklist
  • Monthly strategic memo - progress, risks, recommendations
  • Technical debt register - prioritized list with estimated impact and effort
  • Team OKRs - quarterly goals tied to business outcomes

Outcome

A solid technical foundation and team ready for rapid product growth without chaos.

3-month minimum commitment

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 for Stockholm Startups

Working hours overlap: 2-3 hours overlap with CET (9:00-18:00) for strategic calls and synchronous work
Communication rhythm: Weekly strategic calls with founders, bi-weekly team sync, daily async interaction via Slack
In-person visits: Quarterly visits to Stockholm available for Scale CTO and above packages. Available for board meetings and investor presentations

How it works

1

Week 1: Onboarding and Audit

5 days

Meet the team, review codebase, identify critical issues, create initial roadmap.

2

Month 1: Quick Wins and Foundation

4 weeks

Address critical issues, set up development processes, code reviews, begin architectural improvements.

3

Month 2-3: Scaling and Growth

8 weeks

Implement architectural improvements, optimize performance, hire and mentor team.

Understanding Stockholm Startup Ecosystem

Industries I've Helped
  • Fintech and payment systems (Klarna ecosystem)
  • Gaming and Entertainment
  • Music Tech (Spotify ecosystem)
  • CleanTech and Sustainability
  • Enterprise SaaS
  • Developer tools and products
Investor Landscape
  • Familiar with EQT Ventures, Northzone, Creandum and others' expectations
  • Help defend technical architecture to Scandinavian investors
  • Experience with Nordic and pan-European VCs
Regulatory Environment
  • GDPR compliance (General Data Protection Regulation)
  • Swedish financial regulations (Finansinspektionen)
  • PSD2 for payment services
  • SOC2 Type II for enterprise clients

Frequently asked questions

Related services

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Fractional CTO in Stockholm - Anton Golosnichenko - Fractional CTO