Fractional CTO

You don't need a $300K CTO
You need 10 hours a week of one who's done this before

Fractional technical leadership for startups. Architecture decisions, team guidance, and AI strategy — without the full-time commitment.

01 — The situation

Sound familiar?

You raised capital. You're building the product. But you're making technical decisions without a senior technical partner.

Your dev team is good — but they need direction. Your architecture works now — but will it scale? Every AI vendor promises the world — but you can't tell who's real.

You don't need more engineers. You need someone who's already made these decisions — and the mistakes — so you don't have to.

02 — What you get

Senior technical leadership, part-time

Weekly architecture & strategy sessions

Recurring calls to review technical direction, unblock your team, and make hard decisions together.

Code & architecture review

Eyes on your codebase from someone who's built 20+ products. Catch problems before they become expensive.

AI/ML feature guidance

What to build, what to buy, what to skip. Based on what we've seen work and fail in real products.

Team mentoring

Level up your developers without hiring over them. Build the team's capability, not a dependency on external help.

Vendor evaluation

Cut through AI hype with someone who builds AI products. We'll tell you which vendors are real and which are marketing.

Hiring support

Writing job descriptions, interviewing candidates, evaluating technical hires. So you hire the right people, not just available ones.

03 — Who you're working with

Mike Knott

Founder, Mostly Human

30+ years as a technologist. Scaled teams from 3 to 65. Built products across AI, fintech, robotics, and regulated industries.

Spent 6 years as CTO of Undercurrent, a venture studio where we built 20+ companies from zero to production — simultaneously.

Currently building AI products at Mostly Human. This isn't theoretical advice. It's hard-won experience from someone still in the trenches.

04 — Investment
$8,000/month

8 hours per week. 3-month minimum, month-to-month after that.

Includes:
  • Weekly strategy & architecture sessions
  • Async code review & Slack/Teams access
  • AI/ML feature guidance & vendor evaluation
  • Team mentoring & hiring support

Not sure if this is right for you? Book a 30-minute call. No pitch. Just an honest conversation about what you actually need.

Let's talk about what you're building.

30 minutes. No pitch. Just a practical conversation about your specific situation.