Senior technical leadership on retainer, so your technology decisions stop being reactive.
Fractional CTO leadership for businesses that need to make sound architecture, hiring, and infrastructure decisions without carrying a full-time executive salary. Senior accountability, not one-off advice.
A Fractional CTO gives your business the technical leadership it needs at the stage it is actually in. You get someone accountable for technology strategy, architecture direction, engineering hiring, vendor decisions, and security posture, present part-time and answerable full-time. This is a relationship, not a report. It is built for founders and executive teams making decisions that are expensive to reverse: what to build versus buy, how to structure a first engineering hire, whether current infrastructure will survive the next stage of growth.
The reason Rule27 can do this well is the model behind it. We are four studios under one roof: creative, growth, engineering, and strategy. A Fractional CTO here is not an advisor working in isolation. When a decision needs execution, the same leadership can pull a real engineering team into the work rather than handing you a plan and leaving you to source vendors. That means the roadmap we set is one we can actually help build, and the trade-offs we recommend are ones we have shipped against, not ones we have only read about. The site you are on is part of that proof: the build and the systems behind it are our own engineering work.
This is a senior engagement, sold and scoped honestly. It fits businesses that are typically pre-Series B or in the $2M to $20M range, where technology has become a real lever or a real liability but a $300,000-plus full-time CTO is not yet the right call. If you are making architecture and hiring decisions reactively, or you cannot get a straight read on whether your technology can carry your next year of growth, this is the engagement designed for that gap.
Built to deliver.
Technology strategy tied to business direction
Objective build vs. buy and architecture decisions
Engineering hiring, interviewing, and onboarding
Team leadership and code review standards
Vendor evaluation, selection, and negotiation
Security posture review and risk-prioritized remediation
Monthly reporting in business terms for leadership
See how Fractional CTO would work for your business.
Book a consultationThe engagement.
Technology Assessment
We review your current architecture, infrastructure, team, and vendor commitments, then map where technology is helping you and where it is holding you back.
Roadmap
We deliver a prioritized 12-month technology roadmap tied to your business goals, with the near-term decisions and trade-offs laid out plainly for your leadership team.
Lead
We take ownership of the initiatives that matter most: hiring, architecture calls, vendor selection, and security. Where execution is needed, we can bring in our own engineering team.
Steer
On an ongoing retainer, we keep the roadmap current, report progress in business language, and adjust course as your priorities and stage change.
Priced like a product.
Not sure which tier fits? We will scope it with you.
Start with Fractional CTOWe deliver a comprehensive technology assessment and 12-month roadmap within 2 weeks of engagement start. If we miss that, that phase is on us.
Asked often.
What does a Fractional CTO actually do?
Owns technology strategy, architecture decisions, engineering hiring and leadership, vendor selection, and security oversight, and keeps technology working as an advantage rather than a growing liability. Fractional means part-time presence with full-time accountability. You get a leader answerable to your roadmap and systems, not a consultant delivering a document and moving on.
How is this different from a technical consultant?
A consultant advises. We lead. We are accountable to your technology roadmap, system reliability, and team performance, not just to a deliverable. Because Rule27 is four studios under one roof, when a decision needs building we can pull our own engineering team into the work instead of handing you a plan and a list of vendors to find.
What size company is this right for?
Typically pre-Series B or $2M to $20M revenue businesses that need real technical leadership but cannot yet justify a $300,000-plus full-time CTO. If you are making architecture and hiring decisions reactively, or you cannot get a straight answer on whether your technology will carry your next stage of growth, this is the engagement built for that.
Do you manage our development team?
We can provide direction and leadership to your existing engineers, work alongside a current technical lead, or bring in our own engineering studio where you need execution. We scope the right structure during discovery so it fits your team and your budget rather than forcing a fixed model on you.
What if we do not have developers yet?
We frequently help companies make their first technical hires. We define the requirements, run the technical interviews, and onboard new engineers into a sound architecture so your first build starts on a foundation you will not have to unwind later.
Can you help us evaluate build vs. buy decisions?
Yes, and it is one of the most consequential things we do. We evaluate objectively whether to build custom software, buy a platform, or run a hybrid, based on your real constraints rather than what is easiest to sell. Because our own engineers can build the recommendation, our advice is grounded in what shipping it actually costs.