A part-time CTO, built for the steady state.
Most small companies will not need a full-time CTO for years, maybe ever. What they need is the judgment: a few focused days a month and someone accountable for the stack in between. That is the part-time model. Fixed weekly rhythm, public pricing, one senior lead who stays.
What a part-time CTO does in a normal week.
No launch drama, no rebuild. The steady-state job is a rhythm: decide, review, unblock, document. Here is the cadence every ongoing engagement runs on.
Working session
One standing session that works the week's top technical call: review the contractor's pull requests, price the infrastructure change, sequence the next build. Decisions leave the call written down.
Async cover
Slack or email with same-day responses on weekdays. A vendor changes pricing, a developer gets stuck, a customer asks a security question: you get a senior read before you have to answer.
Focused build and review time
The remaining hours go where the month needs them: hardening the deploy pipeline, reviewing an integration before it ships, or building the piece nobody on staff can. Typical engagements run 20 to 40 hours a month total.
Roadmap and decision log
A short roadmap tied to revenue, plus a running log of every significant decision and its rationale. If you ever do hire full-time, your new leader inherits documentation instead of guesswork.
The math that makes part-time work.
A full-time CTO runs $250,000 to $400,000 in total compensation, plus equity, and most SMBs cannot keep one busy. Part-time buys the same class of judgment for a fraction of that, with no recruiting cycle and no severance risk.
Plus a $15,000 fixed-scope 90-day foundation engagement to start, then month-to-month. Full market comparison on the cost page.
- Weekly working sessions with a single senior engagement lead
- Same-day async responses on weekdays
- Typically 20 to 40 hours a month, sized on the fit call
- 30-day notice to cancel after the 90-day foundation
When part-time is enough. And when it is not.
Part-time works for a specific kind of company. If that is you, it works for years. If it is not, we would rather say so on the fit call than six weeks in.
A small team on a weekly cadence
One to five developers, contractors, or an agency shipping on a weekly rhythm. They need direction and review before things ship, not a manager sitting in every standup.
A stack that mostly works
Revenue already runs through your software. It needs vendor decisions, steady hardening, and someone to catch expensive mistakes early, not a ground-up rebuild.
Full-time is years away
You are bootstrapped or lightly funded and the honest plan says no full-time technical hire for two or three years. Paying for full-time attention you cannot use is waste.
signals part-time is not enough
- Fifteen or more engineers shipping to production daily
- Your CTO just left and the team has no leadership today
- Technical diligence for a raise or acquisition on a short clock
- A ground-up platform rebuild with a hard deadline
- Consistent need above 40 hours a month
- You expect daily on-call ownership of production incidents
Part-time, fractional, interim, virtual: pick by situation.
The labels overlap and every firm defines them differently. Here is how we use them. All are delivered by the same senior lead at the same pricing floor.
Fractional CTO Services
The umbrella model and the full scope: strategy, architecture, hands-on builds, and hiring. Part-time is the steady-state shape of this engagement.
fractional-cto-services.html → gap coverageInterim CTO
Full-intensity bridge leadership when your CTO leaves or before your first one starts. Time-boxed by design, then a clean handoff.
interim-cto.html → fully remoteVirtual CTO
The same engagement delivered entirely remotely. The label describes where the work happens, not how much of it there is.
virtual-cto.html →The fractional versus part-time question comes up on most fit calls. Short version: fractional describes who you hire (a senior CTO shared across a few companies), part-time describes how much of them you need. For the numbers behind every model, the fractional CTO cost breakdown has the full comparison.
What part-time CTO buyers ask.
How many hours a month does a part-time CTO work?
Typical engagements run 20 to 40 hours a month: a weekly working session, same-day async responses on weekdays, and focused build or review time where the month needs it. We size the hours on the free fit call and adjust month to month.
Is a part-time CTO enough for my company?
It is enough when a small team or agency ships on a weekly cadence and the stack needs judgment more than headcount. It is not enough when 15 engineers push to production daily, when you need someone in every standup, or when a rebuild has a hard deadline. We will tell you which side you are on during the fit call.
What is the difference between a part-time CTO and a fractional CTO?
Mostly framing. Fractional describes the hiring model: a senior CTO shared across a small number of companies. Part-time describes the steady-state shape of the work: a fixed weekly rhythm that holds for years. At MyCTO Pro both are delivered by the same engagement lead at the same public pricing.
Can a part-time CTO manage my existing developers?
Yes, and most engagements start exactly there. We direct in-house developers, contractors, or an agency: setting priorities, reviewing work before it ships, and handling the vendor conversations. Week one of the foundation engagement includes a straight assessment of whether your current team setup is working.
How much does a part-time CTO cost?
A $15,000 fixed-scope 90-day foundation engagement to start, then an ongoing retainer from $5,000 per month with a 30-day cancellation notice. Compare that against $250,000 to $400,000 in total compensation plus equity for a full-time hire. The fractional CTO cost page has the full market comparison.
Apply for a fit call.
Two business day response. 30 minutes. We will tell you honestly if part-time is the right shape, and point you at fractional or interim if it is not.
apply --fit-callOr email admin@digitalminerz.com directly.