How much does it cost to engage WH Studio?

Engagements are scoped after a discovery call. Most projects begin with a fixed-scope proposal covering milestones, deliverables, and timeline.

How quickly can you start a new project?

Most projects can begin within one to two weeks once scope, timeline, and priorities are aligned.

Do you work with US startups and distributed product teams?

Yes. Projects are structured for US startups and globally distributed teams with clear communication windows and milestone-based delivery.

What is your development process?

Each engagement moves through discovery, architecture, UI implementation, backend delivery, testing, and launch support with clear documentation throughout.

What is a Fractional CTO?

A Fractional CTO provides part-time executive-level technical leadership. You get the expertise of a seasoned CTO without the full-time salary commitment, typically at 20-40% of the cost.

CTO for hire — what does that actually mean?

A CTO for hire (also called fractional, part-time, or interim CTO) is a senior technical executive you bring in on a monthly retainer instead of a full-time hire. You get architecture decisions, engineering leadership, hiring support, investor-facing materials, and security/scalability oversight — billed in 8, 16, or 32+ hour blocks per month. WH Studio offers a CTO-for-hire engagement from $4,000/month, available within 1–2 weeks.

Fractional CTO vs full-time CTO — which should I hire?

Hire a fractional CTO when you need senior leadership but the company is pre-Series-B, the engineering team is under 15 people, or the work does not yet justify a $250K–$400K loaded annual cost. Hire a full-time CTO when engineering is 20+ people, the role spans board reporting plus operational management every day, or you need a long-term equity holder on the executive team.

What does a fractional CTO cost per month in 2026?

US fractional CTO pricing in 2026 ranges from $3,500–$18,000 per month depending on hours and seniority. WH Studio plans: Advisory at $4,000/mo (8 hrs), Fractional CTO at $8,000/mo (16 hrs), and Embedded at $15,000/mo (32+ hrs).

When should a startup hire a fractional CTO?

Most startups hire a fractional CTO between pre-seed and Series A - when technical decisions start shaping fundraising, hiring, and architecture, but the burn rate cannot justify a $250K+ full-time CTO.

What does a fractional CTO for startups actually own?

A fractional CTO for startups owns technology strategy, architecture decisions, engineering hiring, vendor selection, security posture, and investor-facing technical materials.

How is this different from hiring a consultant?

Unlike consultants who advise from the outside, a Fractional CTO becomes part of your team. I attend standups, lead technical decisions, and am accountable for outcomes, not just recommendations.

How quickly can you start?

I can typically start within 1-2 weeks of signing. The first week focuses on understanding your business, team, and technology landscape.

Fractional CTO · From $4,000/mo

Senior technical leadership, on a retainer.

Hire a fractional CTO from WH Studio for technology strategy, engineering hiring, architecture, and investor-ready technical materials — without committing to a $250K+ full-time hire.

Hire a Fractional CTO View All Consulting

1–2 wk start · US-based · $100M+ funded advised

What you get

What I do as your fractional CTO.

Technology Strategy

Tech stack selection and architecture planning aligned to business milestones.
Scalability strategy and cost optimization across cloud and vendors.

Team Building & Leadership

Hiring strategy, sourcing, and take-home review with the engineering bar defended.
Team structure, sprint cadence, and mentorship for founding engineers.

Technical Due Diligence

Code quality, security, and technical debt audits for founders and investors.
Risk evaluation and remediation plans that unblock the next round.

Investor Relations

Technical pitches, DD support, progress reports, and milestone planning.
Board-ready engineering updates that pattern-match how VCs read progress.

CTO for hire

Engagement options.

Advisory · 8 hrs/mo

Weekly strategy calls, email support, architecture review, and team guidance for founders who need a senior sounding board.

Starting at

$4,000/mo

Fractional CTO · 16 hrs/mo

All advisory features plus team leadership, hiring support, vendor management, and investor relations. The most common engagement.

Starting at

$8,000/mo

Embedded · 32+ hrs/mo

Fully integrated: daily standups, hands-on engineering contribution, board participation, and outcome accountability.

Starting at

$15,000/mo

First 90 days

How the engagement unfolds.

Days 1–14 · Audit
Read every PR, sit in every standup, talk to every engineer. Diagnose the three biggest velocity unlocks.
Days 15–30 · Stabilize
Ship the fixes: unowned production systems, missing on-call, misaligned roadmap.
Days 31–60 · Hire & decide
Run the hiring loop and own build-vs-buy calls that shape the next 3 years.
Days 61–90 · Steady state
Hand off systems, transition to a strategic 4–8 hr/week cadence around decisions and investors.

Field notes

What a fractional CTO actually does in the first 90 days.

A good fractional CTO is not a consultant who writes a strategy deck. It is an executive who shows up in your codebase, your hiring loop, and your investor conversations — with the authority to make and defend technical decisions on your behalf.

Days 1–30: Audit and stabilize

Read every PR for two weeks. Sit in every standup. Talk to every engineer. Diagnose the three things that, if fixed, would unlock the next two quarters of velocity — usually an unowned production system, a hiring gap, and a missing roadmap.

Days 31–60: Hire and decide

Most early-stage founders make two of their first three engineering hires wrong. A fractional CTO owns sourcing, screening, take-homes, and on-sites, and is accountable for the bar. The same applies to build-vs-buy decisions that quietly shape the next three years of architecture.

Days 61–90: Hand off, keep the relationship

By day 90 the team should have a written roadmap, a working hiring pipeline, and an on-call rotation that does not depend on the founder. See our 90-day SaaS MVP playbook for how this wraps around a build.