Insights

Strategic thinking on technology leadership, architecture decisions, and building what matters.

Fractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO: The Right Choice for Seed-Funded Startups
Vygandas Pliasas19 min read

Fractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO: The Right Choice for Seed-Funded Startups

Every dollar counts when your startup runway sits between $1M and $4M, the range where 52% of pre-seed and seed-stage companies land. On average, seed-stage startups raise around $3.3 million. That sounds like breathing room. It isn't. Tech leadership decisions, from architecture choices to engineering hires, can consume 30 to 40% of that capital within the first 12 months, leaving founders scrambling before they've validated product-market fit.

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Hackathons and Pitchathons for Entrepreneurs
Vygandas Pliasas14 min read

Hackathons and Pitchathons for Entrepreneurs

A decade ago, hackathons were weekend affairs fueled by energy drinks and curiosity. Developers gathered in university labs or coworking spaces, built rough prototypes, and competed for modest prizes.

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How Fractional CTOs Engage in Healthcare Startups
Vygandas Pliasas8 min read

How Fractional CTOs Engage in Healthcare Startups

Understanding the financial structure is one thing. Knowing what the engagement actually looks like, week by week, is another.

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How LLMs Are Reshaping Software Engineering: A Fractional CTO's Strategic Playbook
Vygandas Pliasas20 min read

How LLMs Are Reshaping Software Engineering: A Fractional CTO's Strategic Playbook

Boardroom narratives have a seductive simplicity. "AI will write all our code within a year." "We can cut the engineering team in half." "Just plug in Copilot and watch productivity triple." The reality on the ground tells a different story.

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if my developers are underperforming or slacking off?
Vygandas Pliasas6 min read

If my developers are underperforming or slacking off?

Goodhart's Law states it plainly: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. The moment your team knows that hours logged in Jira are being scrutinized, those hours stop reflecting reality.

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LLM in software engineering
Vygandas Pliasas6 min read

LLM in software engineering

Not long ago, AI in software engineering meant a glorified autocomplete, finishing your half-typed function call and occasionally suggesting a loop. That era is over.

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How to Drastically Speed Up Software Development Without Hiring More Expensive Engineers
Vygandas Pliasas12 min read

Stop Hiring, Start Optimizing: How CI/CD Automation and Fractional CTO Leadership Can Double Your Development Speed

Most executives assume the fix for slow software is simple: hire more engineers. It rarely works.

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What is Fractional CPO
Vygandas Pliasas9 min read

What is Fractional CPO

This is the core ROI proposition. A Series A startup paying $12,000 per month for a fractional CPO, or $144,000 annually, accesses the pattern recognition of someone who has shipped products across multiple companies and market cycles.

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What is a Fractional CTO
Vygandas Pliasas13 min read

What is a Fractional CTO

Every startup reaches a technical inflection point. Architecture decisions multiply.

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Finding a firm temporary CTO for Portfolio Companies
8 min read

Why Your Portfolio Companies Need a Firm Interim CTO

Most venture capital and private equity firms evaluate market fit, unit economics, and founder credibility with rigor. Technical architecture rarely receives the same scrutiny.

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Why is my software development team suddenly so slow compared to last year when we were half the size?
Vygandas Pliasas9 min read

Why is my software development team suddenly so slow compared to last year when we were half the size?

Numbers check out. Now let me produce the polished article.

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