Diagnosis before scope
No proposal without a 30-min technical call. We size the gap before pricing it.
Outcome studies. Methodology, not testimonials.
Each case dissected: where we started, what we ran, what shipped. The pattern repeats — that's the playbook.
METHODOLOGY · 4 PILLARS
The playbook every case runs through
No bespoke kickoff. The same four pillars carry every engagement from brief to outcome.
CTO match, not HR match
Engineers picked by an active CTO, validated against a real architecture decision.
Onboarding < 24h
Same Slack, same dailies, same metrics. Sprint zero shared with your team.
Outcome-tied scorecard
Each engagement ships a 90-day scorecard against the KPI that justified hiring.
CASES · DEEP DIVES
Four engagements, opened up
Each block: problem we walked into, approach we ran, stack on the ground, outcome at 90 days.
PROBLEM
Local hiring funnel was 14 weeks per role. Roadmap slipping a sprint per month while board pressed for product velocity.
APPROACH
- Audit of current squad to identify bottleneck (turned out to be backend Go, not frontend).
- Five Go seniors shortlisted in 9 days, 3 hired after CTO round.
- Onboarding playbook ran during sprint zero — first PR merged on day 4.
STACK
Go · Postgres · Kafka · GCP · Datadog
OUTCOME3x delivery throughput in 90 days, measured by points/sprint and lead time.
3x throughput
PROBLEM
Board demanded -30% engineering opex without sacrificing release cadence. Local team plateauing on judgment calls.
APPROACH
- Replaced 3 expiring local contractors with nearshore seniors at -55% rate.
- Architecture review uncovered 2 incident risks — fixed in week 4.
- Code review SLA tightened from 36h to 6h with new ownership map.
STACK
TypeScript · Node · Postgres · AWS · Pulumi
OUTCOMEEngineering opex -40% YoY, deploy frequency 1.4x, no regression in change-failure rate.
-40% opex
PROBLEM
Closing round on Friday, integration deadline with hospital partner the following month. Hiring couldn't be the blocker.
APPROACH
- Pre-vetted candidates pulled from sector-specific pool the same day round closed.
- Three concurrent CTO interviews on Monday morning, all three offers Monday afternoon.
- Compliance onboarding (HIPAA-equivalent) packaged as ready-to-run module.
STACK
Python · FastAPI · Postgres · AWS · HL7/FHIR
OUTCOMEFirst production code shipped 72h after offer. Hospital integration delivered on schedule.
72h to first commit
PROBLEM
Domain-expert founder, no technical co-founder. Needed production SaaS — not a prototype — to close pilot contracts.
APPROACH
- Fractional CTO ran spec + architecture in week 1, locked scope to 9 legal flows.
- Squad of 2 (full-stack + AI) delivered against weekly demo cadence.
- Compliance baked in: GDPR, EU AI Act risk classification, audit log from day 1.
STACK
Next.js · TypeScript · Postgres · OpenAI · Stripe · Auth0
OUTCOMEMulti-tenant SaaS in production at day 42. First 3 pilot contracts signed within 60 days of launch.
42 days to prod
LESSONS · WHAT REPEATS
Patterns that hold across every case
Diagnosis time pays back 10x
Cases skipping the technical call always re-scoped mid-flight. The 30-min upfront call is the highest-ROI step we run.
Senior + onboarding > more seniors
Three engineers with a clean ramp outperform five engineers dropped in cold. Sprint zero is not a luxury.
Outcome metric beats output metric
We track points/sprint internally but only sign engagements against an outcome the customer's board cares about.