The Fractional CTO

A CTO for growing businesses, without hiring one.

Send any technical decision and get it handled: the roadmap, the architecture, the hires, the vendors, the board update. Unlimited requests, one flat monthly fee, pause or cancel anytime.

Book a 15-min intro callSee pricing
James, Founder and principal, The Fractional CTO
Your CTO: James

Built on the tools you already use

  • AWS
  • Next.js
  • Supabase
  • Stripe
  • Vercel
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • PostgreSQL
  • GitHub
  • Twilio
  • Cloudflare
  • Docker
  • Node.js
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Python
  • HubSpot
  • Shopify
  • Xero
  • Microsoft Azure
  • AWS
  • Next.js
  • Supabase
  • Stripe
  • Vercel
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • PostgreSQL
  • GitHub
  • Twilio
  • Cloudflare
  • Docker
  • Node.js
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Python
  • HubSpot
  • Shopify
  • Xero
  • Microsoft Azure

One subscription. Every technical decision handled.

No agencies to manage, no recruiter fees, no six-month hire. Subscribe, send what you need, get it done.

  1. Subscribe

    Choose your plan. We start within a week with a short technical snapshot of where you are at today.

  2. Ask

    Give us your hardest problems to solve. Send through anything technical, business, process or otherwise. A quote to sanity-check, a hire to interview, a roadmap to write, a board paper to draft.

  3. Done

    Decisions made, work shipped, updates in plain English. Most requests turned around within days.

Membership benefits

What comes with every plan, whichever size you pick.

  • Fixed monthly fee

    One number on the invoice. No hourly surprises, no scope creep.

  • Pause or cancel anytime

    Quiet month? Pause. Done? Cancel. A month of notice, nothing else.

  • Plain-English updates

    A monthly note you can forward to the board without translating it.

  • Investor ready

    Technical due diligence answered before anyone asks.

  • Vendor and cost control

    Cloud bills, agencies and contractors reviewed and negotiated on your side.

  • Hire when you are ready

    When you outgrow me, I help you find and onboard your permanent CTO.

Four ways to work together.

Most clients start with one and move between them as the business changes.

  1. 01

    Fractional CTO retainer

    Ongoing, part-time technical leadership. Roadmap, architecture, hiring, vendors and the board update, owned by someone who has done it before.

  2. 02

    Technical audit and due diligence

    A fixed-price, plain-English review of what you have built and who built it. Used before raises, acquisitions and big rebuild decisions.

  3. 03

    MVP and product build

    Your first product or internal tool, scoped properly and delivered by a small senior team, with a working demo every fortnight.

  4. 04

    AI and automation

    Practical AI agents, workflow automation and integrations that take real work off your plate, not demos that never ship.

One price, no surprises.

One monthly fee, unlimited requests, handled one at a time. Pause or cancel with a month of notice. Add-ons are optional, and fixed-scope work is quoted before it starts. All prices in Australian dollars.

Fractional CTO

Unlimited requests, handled one at a time.

$6,000/month

Best for: Growing businesses that need someone owning the technology, without a full-time hire.

  • Unlimited requests, handled one at a time
  • Most requests back within days
  • Technical roadmap and delivery ownership
  • Architecture and vendor reviews
  • Hiring and contractor vetting
  • Security, cost and reliability oversight
  • Board and investor technical updates
  • Async access on Slack or Teams
Get started

Pause anytime

Quiet patch? Pause the subscription and pick it back up when you are ready.

Try it for a month

Not sure yet? Run one month. If it is not the right fit, walk away.

Add-ons

Optional, and never required to get started.

A second request in parallel

$3,000/month

Two requests moving at once instead of one, for the months when more than one thing needs to happen at the same time.

  • Two active requests instead of one
  • Same turnaround on both
  • Add it or drop it month to month
Enquire

Technical audit

From$4,500

A fixed-scope review of your code, architecture, security and team. Written for founders and investors, not just engineers.

  • Plain-English report with a prioritised fix list
  • Read-out call with your leadership team
  • Built for due diligence before a raise or sale
Enquire

MVP and product build

From$25,000

Your first product or internal tool, built by a small senior team I lead. Scoped so you know what you get before we start.

  • Discovery and scoping workshop
  • Fixed milestones, a working demo every fortnight
  • Production-ready, documented, handed over
Enquire
James Di Blasi

Meet your CTO

Hey, I am James. I have sat in the CTO chair, not just advised it.

I joined a Microsoft consultancy when it was barely a company and helped grow it until it sold. More than a decade of building the thing, not presenting about it: hiring, shipping, and making the calls that get expensive when you get them wrong.

Along the way I have helped CIOs and CTOs solve their hardest problems, across banking, insurance, professional services and consumer brands. Same problems as yours, more zeros.

Bring me your hardest problem, business or technical or somewhere in between. Together we work out where the answer actually sits: in the technology, in the process, or in the people. Usually it is all three.

James Di Blasi, Founder and principal, The Fractional CTO

Free download

The CTO Readiness Checklist

Twenty questions every founder should be able to answer about their technology. Answer them all and you probably do not need me. Get stuck and you know where to start.

One email with the PDF. No drip sequence, no spam.

Questions founders ask first.

What does a fractional CTO actually do?

The same job a full-time CTO does, for a fraction of the week. Setting technical direction, leading the engineering team, choosing and managing vendors, keeping costs and risks in check, and explaining it all to the rest of the leadership team in plain language.

How is this different from hiring an agency?

An agency builds what you ask for. I help you work out what to ask for, whether to build it at all, and who should build it. If a build is the answer I can lead it, but I sit on your side of the table.

What does pause or cancel actually mean?

Exactly what it says. Give a month of notice and the subscription pauses or stops. No lock-in contract, no exit fee. Most clients stay because it is working, not because they have to.

Do you work with businesses outside Australia?

Yes. I am based in Australia and work remotely, so time zones across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the US west coast overlap well. Pricing is in Australian dollars.

How fast do requests get turned around?

Most within a few days. Bigger pieces like a roadmap or an audit get a date up front. You always know what is being worked on and when it lands.

Can you help us hire a full-time CTO later?

Yes, and I would encourage it once the business is ready. Part of the job is knowing when you have outgrown me and helping you find and onboard the right person.

We are not technical at all. Is that a problem?

It is most of my clients. Everything I write and say is in plain English, and there are no silly questions.

Find a time that works.(I can work around you)

Fifteen minutes on a call, no slides and no pitch. Bring the decision that is currently stuck and we will talk it through.

Prefer email? hello@thefractionalcto.au

Times are shown in your local timezone.

September 2026

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Thu 10th

Rather put it in writing?

Send a few lines about where the business is and what is getting in the way. I read every one myself and reply within a business day.