Senior technical partner without a senior salary. When you need someone who's built it before, rescued it before, and knows the difference between shipping and shipping well.
When a Fractional CTO makes sense
A 10-200 employee business usually doesn’t need a full-time CTO. The salary ($200K-$350K plus equity in this market), the onboarding cost, and the management overhead rarely pencil out. What these businesses actually need is:
- A senior voice in the room when vendor pitches hit the table
- Someone who can read code well enough to know if the dev firm is being straight about timelines
- A partner who’s been through the migrations, the breach responses, and the “the original developer disappeared” conversations
- Direction on AI and automation that goes beyond the sales pitch
That’s this role.
What the engagement looks like
Monthly retainer. $5K to $15K depending on access level and active project load. Typically 4-12 hours per week of direct time, plus availability for the off-hours thing that can’t wait until Monday.
Work includes:
- Architectural decisions (build vs. buy, stack choice, cloud strategy, data ownership)
- Vendor selection and negotiation
- Code review of outsourced work
- Technology roadmap (6-month and 18-month horizons)
- Direct building when the faster path is to just ship it
- AI and automation strategy that fits the business, not the trend cycle
Three engagements at a time, maximum. That’s the quality ceiling, not a sales-y scarcity claim.
Who this fits
- Small and mid-sized businesses that have outgrown their original “my cousin built it” solution
- Founders who need technical judgment without adding a C-suite hire
- Operations leaders whose existing dev firm is expensive and they can’t tell if it’s worth it
- Companies preparing for acquisition or funding and needing their technology story to hold up under due diligence
- Businesses that want to use AI responsibly and are tired of being sold
Who this doesn’t fit
- Companies looking for a full-time CTO at a reduced rate. Not the same role.
- Venture-funded scale-ups with 30+ engineers. The fit there is a VP Engineering hire, not a fractional.
- Businesses that want someone to rubber-stamp decisions already made. The value here is honest second opinions.
Background
25 years across the LAMP stack, cloud infrastructure, enterprise application development, and recently AI workflow automation. Named inventor on a geospatial patent (TrailAware). NIH SBIR Phase I grant as co-PI. Rescued a failed ServiceNow implementation across 42 county departments. Built multichannel ecommerce integrations before the category had a name.
How to start
A conversation. No pitch deck, no discovery fee. Describe the business, the current technology situation, and what’s currently keeping you up at night. The fit is usually clear inside 20 minutes.
Call (949) 704-0969 or send a note through the contact form.
Common questions
- What does a Fractional CTO cost?
- Rofsky Fractional CTO retainers run $5,000 to $15,000 per month depending on access level and active project load. Most engagements are 4-12 hours of direct time per week, plus availability for urgent items.
- How is a Fractional CTO different from hiring a consultant?
- A consultant is brought in to solve a specific problem and leave. A Fractional CTO is an ongoing partner with context, memory of prior decisions, and accountability for the technology direction over time.
- What companies benefit most from a Fractional CTO?
- Typically 10-200 employee businesses that have outgrown ad-hoc technology decisions but don't have the scale to justify a full-time CTO. Common triggers include a failed implementation, an acquisition or funding process, or rapid headcount growth.
- Can a Fractional CTO help with AI strategy?
- Yes. The role includes evaluating which AI and automation investments actually move the business, which are vendor hype, and how to deploy the real ones in a way that is safe, auditable, and reversible.
- Do you work with companies outside Southern California?
- Yes. Southern California is the core footprint (Inland Empire, Orange County, Los Angeles) because of the in-person option, but ongoing retainers work nationally over video and shared tooling.
- What is the engagement minimum?
- Three-month minimum on retainers, renewing month-to-month after that. Project and on-demand engagements are scoped per engagement.
- How do you handle confidentiality?
- NDA on request, executed before any business detail changes hands. Three engagements at a time maximum, no competing clients in the same vertical, and any case study or reference work is anonymized by default.