Fractional CTO

You are selling judgment and a calendar, not a stack diagram.

A fractional CTO is hired when builders report to a founder who cannot tell whether the next hire, the next vendor, or the next rewrite is the real decision. The proposal should list the decisions you will own in the timeline, and the ones that stay with the founder.

Judgment and a calendar

Write the days. One day a week for a quarter is a product a board can understand. A stack diagram is not. List the decisions already on the table: hire a senior engineer or a product manager first, keep the vendor or bring the work in, rewrite the billing module or wrap it. If no decision is on the table, the first fortnight is to force one into the open.

Say you will not be the engineer who clears the backlog at night. Founders often hope the fractional leader is a senior individual contributor with a better title. The proposal should disappoint that hope on purpose, and offer a separate delivery brief if they actually need hands.

Decisions that stay with the founder

The founder still hires and fires, still signs the hosting bill above a number you name, and still owns the relationship with their largest customer. You prepare the decision and you will say what you would do. Write the threshold. Below it, you may choose. Above it, they choose. Ambiguity here becomes a fight in month two.

Security leadership, a fundraising technical narrative, and an architecture review can be inside the calendar if you list them. They cannot all be the hidden main job. Pick the one the timeline is for, and let the calendar absorb the smaller questions around it.