No CTO yet, MVP on the line
We pick the stack, design the architecture, and run engineering until you ship. You stay focused on customers.
AnnouncementFractional CTO Without the Full-Time CostSchedule a Free Call
Fractional CTO Services for Startups & SaaS
You hire a fractional CTO who runs engineering instead of advising from the sidelines. We make the architecture calls, hire the team, and stay until your product ships. Same scope as a full-time CTO, at 15 to 40 percent of the cost.
We built awesome things at these companies
as employees, freelancers, contractors, or advisors 👇
Early warning signs
Sound Familiar?
You don't need an advisor with a slide deck. You need a fractional CTO who makes the calls and gets held accountable when something breaks.
You're building an MVP but not sure how to structure the team.
You hired developers but they're not delivering.
You're the bottleneck for every technical decision.
You paid a consultant, got a slide deck, and nothing changed.
You don't know if you're building it right, or wasting money.
Your client data, backups, and servers feel one bad deploy away from a disaster.
Competitors are shipping AI features and you're stuck.
Nodding along to two or more? That is usually one root cause, not seven. A fractional CTO unblocks it.
Talk to a Fractional CTO
You do not need to do this alone.
When Founders Bring in a Fractional CTO
Eight situations where founders call us. We start with whatever is bleeding the most.
First engineering hires
We write the role, run the interviews, and onboard the hire. Then we lead the team you just built.
Team exists but isn't shipping
We sit inside the team for a few weeks, find what's actually stuck, and lead the turnaround. Not a diagnostic-only engagement.
You're the bottleneck
We take the technical decisions off your plate. Architecture, vendors, hires, infrastructure, all of it.
Product and engineering pulling apart
We sit between the two. The roadmap matches what the team can ship, and both sides answer for it.
AI in your product, done right
Pick the spots where AI actually helps. Ship the pipelines and agents. Add guardrails so a model can't take down production.
Security and data risk
We audit access, backups, and infrastructure, then lead the fix. AWS-certified hands on the keyboard.
Fundraising tech due diligence
Investors will ask about your stack, your security, and your team. We sit on the calls, answer the hard questions, and clean up what they'll find.
Delivery principles
Why Hire a Fractional CTO From Us
Click through the three things that make this different from a typical fractional CTO arrangement.
Performance Signals
Track Record
Twenty years of running engineering and product. Not a CV. The work behind the pitch.
Since 2006
in software engineering and product leadership
200+ engineers
coached and mentored
12+ teams
built from first hire
40-person orgs
restructured and turned around
99.98% uptime
on systems we've architected
LLM products
in production, including pre-training pipelines and AI agents
How a Fractional CTO Engagement Starts
From first call to a fractional CTO leading your team, usually inside two weeks. No three-month scoping document.
- 1
Discovery Call (30 min)
Tell us where you are and what’s not working. No pitch.
- 2
Diagnosis
We dig into your situation. Team, process, tech, goals. If it needs deeper investigation, we run a SolidPulseâ„¢ audit.
- 3
Action Plan
Clear recommendations with our hands behind them. What to fix, who to hire, how to structure. We don’t hand you a document and walk away.
- 4
We Lead and Build
A fractional CTO embedded in your team, with hands-on engineering and coaching when you need it. We stay until your team can run without us.
Is This Right for You?
Good Fit
- Bootstrapped or early-funded founder who needs both a technical leader and the team behind them
- You want one engagement that covers strategy, architecture, and delivery
- Need to build your first engineering team the right way
- Want AI capabilities built into your product by people who've done it
- Tired of advice without execution
Not a Fit
- Want a dev shop to build your product with no strategic involvement
- Looking for the cheapest hourly rate
- Need a full-time employee at part-time prices
- Not willing to change processes or ways of working
- Already have internal technical leadership to handle this
What People Say
Vygandas was a great technical partner and support helping as I built out the MVP for my SAAS business. He was patient and offered tons of value as we architectured the initial tech stack!Read more →
Vygandas is great to work with and brings a depth and breadth of experience. He's thoughtful and detail-oriented and is able to switch quickly from big-picture planning to granular project management.Read more →
I had the pleasure of working with Jean Baptiste, and I can confidently say that he is an exceptional DevOps professional with extensive expertise in AWS. He is highly knowledgeable about AWS services and has a deep understanding of how to architect, deploy, and manage applications on the AWS platform. His problem-solving abilities are second to none, and he consistently delivers effective solutions to complex challenges using AWS tools and technologies. Jean Baptiste's ability to integrate his solutions with AWS is incredibly efficient, and he always provides detailed plans for executing projects quickly. I highly recommend his services to anyone seeking a top-notch DevOps specialist with AWS expertise.Read more →
Great professional and team leader. Very calm and friendly professional. Feels like everything will be ok, all the time. This helps maintain the team morale in the right place. When calling him to a Design Brainstorming or Process, he is the one that provides the boldest ideas. I really hope we get to work together again in the future.Read more →
Vygandas is a great leader & manager with deep knowledge & experience in many different areas -- marketing, programming, management, sales, etc. I have worked closely with him for 6 months on a day-to-day basis and have only the best things to say. He made sure that our team runs proficiently and performs consistent results. Vygandas is an ambitious, hard-working and results-oriented leader. The thing I loved the most about working with him is that he has an easy-going attitude and doesn't resist going the extra mile when sharing his professional knowledge with co-workers.Read more →
I was lucky to be the Team Lead that hired Vygandas into Toptal. From the interviews he was impressive in the nicest way: calm, friendly, very intelligent, and communicates very well. Once at the company, he continuously did great work. Yes, he is an excellent engineer. At the same time he can work with people superbly, is a great listener, can organize thoughts and priorities, and is patient. To top it off, Vygandas is always positive and uplifting. After I departed Toptal, he took over my position as Team Lead and it worked out very well for everyone involved. Vygandas can work at any level of an organization and excel.Read more →
Vygandas was a great technical partner and support helping as I built out the MVP for my SAAS business. He was patient and offered tons of value as we architectured the initial tech stack!Read more →
Vygandas is great to work with and brings a depth and breadth of experience. He's thoughtful and detail-oriented and is able to switch quickly from big-picture planning to granular project management.Read more →
I had the pleasure of working with Jean Baptiste, and I can confidently say that he is an exceptional DevOps professional with extensive expertise in AWS. He is highly knowledgeable about AWS services and has a deep understanding of how to architect, deploy, and manage applications on the AWS platform. His problem-solving abilities are second to none, and he consistently delivers effective solutions to complex challenges using AWS tools and technologies. Jean Baptiste's ability to integrate his solutions with AWS is incredibly efficient, and he always provides detailed plans for executing projects quickly. I highly recommend his services to anyone seeking a top-notch DevOps specialist with AWS expertise.Read more →
Great professional and team leader. Very calm and friendly professional. Feels like everything will be ok, all the time. This helps maintain the team morale in the right place. When calling him to a Design Brainstorming or Process, he is the one that provides the boldest ideas. I really hope we get to work together again in the future.Read more →
Vygandas is a great leader & manager with deep knowledge & experience in many different areas -- marketing, programming, management, sales, etc. I have worked closely with him for 6 months on a day-to-day basis and have only the best things to say. He made sure that our team runs proficiently and performs consistent results. Vygandas is an ambitious, hard-working and results-oriented leader. The thing I loved the most about working with him is that he has an easy-going attitude and doesn't resist going the extra mile when sharing his professional knowledge with co-workers.Read more →
I was lucky to be the Team Lead that hired Vygandas into Toptal. From the interviews he was impressive in the nicest way: calm, friendly, very intelligent, and communicates very well. Once at the company, he continuously did great work. Yes, he is an excellent engineer. At the same time he can work with people superbly, is a great listener, can organize thoughts and priorities, and is patient. To top it off, Vygandas is always positive and uplifting. After I departed Toptal, he took over my position as Team Lead and it worked out very well for everyone involved. Vygandas can work at any level of an organization and excel.Read more →
Vygandas and I worked together on growth initiatives, primarily on roadmapping and prioritization. Vygandas does a great job in managing his engineering team and collaborating across the engineering organization to make sure that his team works on high impact projects. While I only worked with Vygandas for a few months, I enjoyed his leadership style and hands-on approach to scoping.Read more →
I worked closely with Vygandas on a day-to-day basis as the product manager of the team he managed. We frequently discussed ways to optimize the team and to prioritize features. It was truly a pleasure working alongside Vygandas as he will go above and beyond to support his team. He excels when it comes to capacity planning and providing high-level estimates on LOE for the initiatives on the roadmap. His management style is pretty straightforward - ensure that everyone is equipped to succeed. This includes removing blockers, researching the unknowns, and getting the right people in the room. This mentality is the reason for the success of the team, why his direct reports thrived and how the Product team was able to manage stakeholders and expectations. I would highly recommend Vygandas for a management position at any company that requires building strong teams and effective, strategic planning.Read more →
Vygandas was employee #1 of our Lithuania branch, and his hard work was crucial in getting the new office and team up and running.Read more →
Vygandas is a very creative person who knows how to materialize complex ideas into reality easily. It's because he has strong IT background and management skills which let him to see end picture in the beginning of new project. Vygandas comes up with creative solutions to difficult problems and know how to manage all process to seek best result on time.Read more →
Je recommande vivement Jean-Baptiste en tant que DevOps. J'ai eu le plaisir de travailler avec lui pendant plusieurs années, et j'ai été impressionnée par son expertise en matière d'automatisation, de développement et de déploiement d'applications. Jean-Baptiste est un collaborateur exceptionnel qui a la capacité de travailler en étroite collaboration avec les équipes de développement et d'exploitation pour assurer une transition fluide vers la production. Sa connaissance approfondie de l'écosystème DevOps et de ses outils a été inestimable pour la réussite de nos projets. Je recommande vivement Jean-Baptiste à toute entreprise cherchant à mettre en place des pratiques DevOps efficaces et efficientes. Son expertise technique et sa capacité à travailler en collaboration font de lui un atout précieux pour toute équipe de développement.Read more →
Vygandas and I worked together on growth initiatives, primarily on roadmapping and prioritization. Vygandas does a great job in managing his engineering team and collaborating across the engineering organization to make sure that his team works on high impact projects. While I only worked with Vygandas for a few months, I enjoyed his leadership style and hands-on approach to scoping.Read more →
I worked closely with Vygandas on a day-to-day basis as the product manager of the team he managed. We frequently discussed ways to optimize the team and to prioritize features. It was truly a pleasure working alongside Vygandas as he will go above and beyond to support his team. He excels when it comes to capacity planning and providing high-level estimates on LOE for the initiatives on the roadmap. His management style is pretty straightforward - ensure that everyone is equipped to succeed. This includes removing blockers, researching the unknowns, and getting the right people in the room. This mentality is the reason for the success of the team, why his direct reports thrived and how the Product team was able to manage stakeholders and expectations. I would highly recommend Vygandas for a management position at any company that requires building strong teams and effective, strategic planning.Read more →
Vygandas was employee #1 of our Lithuania branch, and his hard work was crucial in getting the new office and team up and running.Read more →
Vygandas is a very creative person who knows how to materialize complex ideas into reality easily. It's because he has strong IT background and management skills which let him to see end picture in the beginning of new project. Vygandas comes up with creative solutions to difficult problems and know how to manage all process to seek best result on time.Read more →
Je recommande vivement Jean-Baptiste en tant que DevOps. J'ai eu le plaisir de travailler avec lui pendant plusieurs années, et j'ai été impressionnée par son expertise en matière d'automatisation, de développement et de déploiement d'applications. Jean-Baptiste est un collaborateur exceptionnel qui a la capacité de travailler en étroite collaboration avec les équipes de développement et d'exploitation pour assurer une transition fluide vers la production. Sa connaissance approfondie de l'écosystème DevOps et de ses outils a été inestimable pour la réussite de nos projets. Je recommande vivement Jean-Baptiste à toute entreprise cherchant à mettre en place des pratiques DevOps efficaces et efficientes. Son expertise technique et sa capacité à travailler en collaboration font de lui un atout précieux pour toute équipe de développement.Read more →
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Leadership
Who's Behind This
Vygandas Pliasas has been writing code and leading engineering teams since 2006. He sits as fractional CTO and CPO across companies in the US and Europe today.
One of those companies is an AI-powered platform where he runs engineering and product hands-on. So the technical calls he makes for you are calls he is also making on his own roadmap this week. Teams built from the first hire, broken ones turned around, LLM products shipped end to end including the pre-training side.
Backed by senior operators who specialize in cloud infrastructure, security, DevOps, and software architecture. Not subcontractors. People he's worked with and trusts to deliver.
Our Team
Our Team
Strategy without execution is just advice. That's why we built a team that ships.
Cloud infrastructure and security. Software architecture and DevOps. When your project needs hands-on engineering, our team embeds directly and delivers. No agency markup, no handoff gaps. One team from strategy through deployment.
Meet the teamFrequently Asked Questions
Let's Talk
30 minutes on a call. No pitch. Tell us what is broken and we will be straight with you: a fractional CTO fixes this, or you need something else.