A CTO inside your team, not on the sidelines.
A Forward Deployed CTO is a senior technical leader who works inside your company. They set the plan, own the technical decisions, build the first version with you, and stay until it runs. For a startup or a small business that cannot hire a full-time CTO, it is the most direct way to get senior judgement on the calls that are expensive to get wrong.
From $2,000/month · Month to month · Stop any month, keep everything
You speak to the senior lead who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
How it differs
We are a fractional CTO, done properly: embedded, and it leaves a system behind. Here is how that compares with the other seats founders weigh. The question is who owns the result, and what is left when they go.
Advisory-only fractional CTO
- Where they sit
- Part-time, outside the team. Joins a call a week.
- Who decides
- Gives a view. Your team decides and builds.
- What stays after
- Notes and a roadmap.
Forward deployed engineer
- Where they sit
- Inside the team, building.
- Who decides
- Builds what is asked. Does not own the decisions.
- What stays after
- Code.
Full-time CTO hire
- Where they sit
- Inside the team, once you find them.
- Who decides
- Owns the decisions.
- What stays after
- Whatever they wrote down. The rest leaves with them.
Fractional CTO, done properly
- Where they sit
- Inside the team: your standups, your Slack, your decisions.
- Who decides
- Owns the technical decisions while embedded, and builds with you.
- What stays after
- Code, playbooks, tools and a team trained to run them.
What gets installed
The person is half of it. The other half is the system they leave behind: the CTO OS, in four modules. It is what lets your team keep going once we step back.
Plan
Where AI helps most in your business, and the plan to get there.
- An honest check of what AI can and cannot do for your business
- Simple controls so you can see what your AI is doing, and stop it if needed
- Regular updates, so your systems do not fall behind
Product
AI built into your product from the start, not bolted on afterwards.
- AI that knows your business, because it runs on your own information
- Software that does real work for your team, not just chat
- An advantage your competitors cannot copy quickly
Platform
The systems behind your AI, kept safe and affordable.
- Secure systems that meet the rules your industry has to follow
- Set up on the cloud that fits you best, sized to what you actually use
- Running costs that stay under control as you grow
AI-native SDLC
How your team builds with AI: faster, with a human check and security at every step.
- Every AI-written change reviewed and tested before it goes live
- Modern working habits your own developers can keep using
- A safe, repeatable path from idea to live product
What stays with you
When the engagement ends, nothing leaves with us.
Your code and data
Everything lives in your own accounts from day one.
The playbooks
The AI guidelines, review rules and spend caps we write with you.
Everything we install, open source or self-serve.
A trained team
Your people learn to run it as we build it together.
Most AI projects start with prompts. We start with how your business works.
Five layers, worked from the top down. Each one makes the next one cheap to get right, and the last step feeds back into the first.
Map the workGraph engineering
A living map of how work flows: every step, decision, hand-off and owner. You see where AI belongs, and where it does not.
Close the loopsLoop engineering
Every process gets a measure and a feedback cycle, so you know whether a change helped, not just that it shipped.
Build the harnessHarness engineering
Agents with the right tools and permissions, plus spend caps, an off switch, evals and a human sign-off. Safe to switch on.
Feed it your knowledgeContext engineering
Your documents, data and decisions, structured so the AI knows your business, not the internet’s.
Tune the instructionsPrompt engineering
The last mile, and the cheapest to change. It goes last because it is easy to get right once the four layers above it exist.
Then it improves itselfRecursive self-improvement
What each loop learns updates the map, so every cycle the business runs a little better, with or without us.
The first 90 days
A map and a plan in 2 weeks. The first AI-run process or feature live by week 6. Your team running the loop by week 12.
1. Weeks 1–2
Embed
Map the work
A senior lead joins your standups and decisions, maps how the work actually flows, and writes the plan and the cost.
You have: A map of how work flows, and a plan and cost you can defend.
2. Weeks 3–6
Equip
Close the loops · Build the harness · Feed it your knowledge · Tune the instructions
We put measures and feedback on the work, build the agents with guardrails and spend caps, give them your knowledge, and put the first one live.
You have: Your first AI-run process or feature, live, measured and capped.
3. Weeks 7–12
Hand over
Then it improves itself
Your people are trained as we build and take over the loop. The map, the code, the data and the playbook are already in your accounts.
You have: A team that runs the loop without us, and the next cycle planned.
Where you start
Not every company needs a CTO embedded from day one. Try it free, start with one six-week build, or embed.
Readiness score and a free call
Free
Take the three-minute AI readiness score, then a free 30-minute Google Meet call with a senior CTO.
See this stageStartFirst Workflow Workshop
Priced on the call
Six weeks. We build your first AI workflow together.
See this stageEmbedForward Deployed CTO
From $2,000/month
A Forward Deployed CTO embeds in your team and installs the CTO OS.
See this stageQuestions about the role
What a Forward Deployed CTO does, and how the partnership starts and ends.
Put a CTO in the room.
You speak to the senior lead who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
From $2,000/month · Month to month · Stop any month, keep everything