Technical Strategy
Stack selection, architecture decisions, build-vs-buy analysis, and technology roadmap. The foundational decisions that compound over time.
CLEVELAND, OH
Fractional CTO Services for Cleveland Startups
You need a CTO's judgment, not a CTO's salary. Fractional technical leadership from someone who's built companies from zero, raised millions, and navigated acquisitions.
Rick Deacon: DEFCON speaker at 20. Y-Combinator W17. Built platforms to 650,000+ users. Co-founded RADwood (acquired by Hagerty). Currently CTO at Velocity Markets. 18 years of building, scaling, and exiting companies.
Technical Leadership Without the Full-Time Commitment
Early-stage startups need senior technical judgment for critical decisions — architecture, hiring, security, vendor selection, investor diligence — but can't justify a $250K+ CTO salary. Fractional CTO services give you access to that judgment on your terms. Zero to Ten provides hands-on technical leadership for Cleveland startups, drawing on 18 years of experience as a hacker, founder, and operator. DEFCON speaker at 20, Y-Combinator backed, built platforms used by Coinbase and Uber, grew a company to 650,000+ daily users.
The Decisions That Define Your Startup
Your tech stack, your architecture, your security posture, your first engineering hire — these decisions compound. Get them right and you build on a solid foundation. Get them wrong and you spend six months refactoring instead of growing. A fractional CTO brings the pattern recognition to make these calls correctly the first time. I've made these decisions dozens of times across multiple companies, industries, and scales. That experience translates directly into faster, better decisions for your startup.
Investor-Ready Technical Diligence
When investors evaluate your startup, they're assessing your technical foundation as much as your market opportunity. A fractional CTO ensures your architecture, security, and development practices can withstand due diligence scrutiny. I've been on both sides of this process — building the technology that gets funded and evaluating the technology that seeks funding. Your technical story needs to be as compelling as your market story.
From Fractional to Full: Building Your Technical Team
The goal isn't to be your fractional CTO forever. It's to build the technical foundation, make the right early decisions, and help you hire your own team when the time is right. I help you write job descriptions, evaluate candidates, structure your engineering culture, and ensure your first hires can build on the foundation we've laid. The transition from fractional to full-time technical leadership should be seamless.
Services
Architecture & Code Review
Hands-on review of your codebase, infrastructure, and development practices. Identify risks, technical debt, and optimization opportunities.
Team Building & Hiring
Engineering hiring strategy, candidate evaluation, culture design, and onboarding. Build a team that can execute your vision.
Investor-Ready Tech Diligence
Prepare your technical infrastructure and documentation for investor scrutiny. Architecture diagrams, security posture, and scalability narrative.
Frequently Asked Questions
Typically 10-20 hours per week, scaled to your needs. Some weeks are heavier around key decisions, launches, or fundraising. The engagement is flexible and adjusts as your startup evolves.
An advisor gives opinions. A fractional CTO makes decisions, writes code when needed, reviews pull requests, interviews engineering candidates, and sits in on investor meetings. It's hands-on leadership, not arm's-length advice.
That's exactly who benefits most. Non-technical founders need a trusted technical partner who can translate business requirements into architecture decisions and protect them from expensive mistakes.
That's the goal. I help you define the role, evaluate candidates, and ensure a smooth handoff. The foundation we've built together means your new CTO inherits a solid technical base, not a mess to clean up.
Significantly less than a full-time CTO salary. Engagements are structured as monthly retainers scaled to your needs. Most early-stage startups invest a fraction of what they'd pay for a senior engineering hire.
Yes. I help prepare your technical narrative for investors, create architecture documentation, and can join pitch meetings to answer technical diligence questions. I've been on both sides of the table.
Most engagements start within a week. The first session is a technical deep-dive into your current state, priorities, and immediate decisions. You get actionable value from day one.
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Proudly serving the Cleveland ecosystem including JumpStart Inc, Cleveland startup ecosystem, Northeast Ohio venture community, Bounce Innovation Hub.