The Leadership / Technology
The Leadership.
Fractional CTO.
You don't hire fractional because you can't afford the real thing. You hire fractional because you're in a specific situation that a permanent hire would handle badly, too slowly, or at the wrong cost.
Technology Leadership
The situations
When fractional CTO is the right call
Urgency
Hiring a full-time CTO takes three to six months. The architectural decision or the technical debt is costing velocity now. Or your engineering lead just left and someone needs to hold the function while the search runs. You need a technical operator in weeks, not after a process.
The architecture inflection
You're scaling and the codebase is starting to limit speed. Engineering knows something needs to change but no one is senior enough to decide what to rebuild, what to keep, and how to sequence it without breaking delivery. You need a technical executive for this phase, not permanently.
The technical credibility gap
Enterprise customers or investors are asking technical questions that need a credible senior voice. Your team builds well but no one can sit in those rooms, own the answers, and close the gap between what you've built and what a sophisticated buyer needs to trust it.
The founding technical leader
You're a strong engineer who built the product. You've never run an engineering organisation. You need someone to install the operating system: how to structure teams, how to run delivery, how to make architectural decisions at pace. Show me how, then leave.
The transformation mandate
The business is making a hard technical turn: AI integration, infrastructure overhaul, platform rebuild at scale. No one internal has done this before. You need the expertise for this phase. Not permanently.
Stabilisation
Something broke in engineering. A failed release, a team exodus, accumulated technical debt that is now blocking delivery. You need an experienced technical operator to stop the bleeding and rebuild the foundation. Not a consultant to document what went wrong.
What we do
We integrate into the organisation and operate as a principal, not an advisor. We own the engineering function for three to twelve months: architecture decisions, team structure, hiring, technical direction, and the relationship between engineering and the rest of the business.
What it produces
A functioning engineering organisation that keeps running after we're gone. The measure of a successful engagement is that our departure doesn't cause a regression.
What it isn't
We are not parachuting in to diagnose and leave. Our name is on the outcome.
“Having someone own the thinking with you rather than just advise sporadically feels different.”
“The biggest thing we were stuck on: what were we building, for who, and what was the direction? That’s something that has now concretely changed: we gained clear focus. We’re now very targeted in the what, for who, and why. The product marketing side was something we lacked a lot in. There was a big gap in how to translate what we had to an ICP: that’s something we really struggled with and where Raphaël helped the most.”
On the record
“… He doesn't jump to solutions. He gets to the crux of the problem first, builds solid hypotheses, and does the foundational research to back them up. The rigor was real. …”
Where is the technical gap?
Tell us what engineering is not doing and what it is costing. We will say whether a fractional CTO fits, or whether something else does.
No obligation either way. We will come back with a tailored answer, or tell you it is not us.
Or write to us directly at contact@sha-rp.com.