AI built your app.I keep it running
Hands-on fractional CTO for founders who shipped with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor or Claude.
Does this sound familiar?
- The app works in the demo, but you are not sure who can see whose data.
- Every new prompt breaks something that used to work.
- You have paying users and no backups, no staging, no monitoring.
- Your AI tool chose an architecture and nobody can tell you if it was the right one.
- A customer or investor asked for a security review and you have nothing to send.
If three of these are true, you do not need an agency or a rewrite. You need one senior engineer who owns the hard parts a day or two a week.
How it works, and what it costs
Review first. Retainer only if the report makes the case for it.
Production readiness review
3 to 5 days, fixed price
I read the code, the database and the infrastructure the way a new CTO would in their first week.
- A written report in plain language
- One list, in order: fix now, fix this month, fine as it is
- A 60-minute walkthrough call
- The critical fixes done inside the review if you want them done
from $3,000One day a week
ongoing, three-month minimum
For products with users. I own backend and infrastructure decisions, review what the AI writes before it ships, build the parts it cannot, and run releases. One weekly call, async the rest of the week.
from $4,000a monthTwo days a week
ongoing, three-month minimum
For products with revenue and a roadmap. Everything above, plus hiring and vetting your first engineer, vendor and cloud negotiations, and an architecture that survives the next twelve months.
from $8,000a month
Pricing is on the page on purpose: founders searching for rates deserve an answer.
What the review covers
You get one list, in order. Not a deck.
What I check
- Fix nowRow-level security is off on three tables. Any signed-in user can read every customer’s records.
- Fix nowThe Stripe webhook accepts unsigned events and has no idempotency key, so a retry double-credits an account.
- This monthNo staging environment. Every change ships straight to paying users.
- This monthBackups are the provider default only, and a restore has never been tested.
- This monthLLM calls have no spend cap and no timeout.
- FineSign-up, sign-in and password reset behave as intended.
Code, not slides.
I write and review the code myself.
Where the eleven years went
- 2024 to nowNew Level WorkTechnical Lead. Backend for an AI coaching platform: event-driven services, real-time messaging, LLM conversations.
- 2022 to 2024QLessTech lead. Moved a high-traffic queueing product to event-driven architecture on AWS.
- 2020 to 2021Energize Global ServicesFintech backend for Atos, one of Europe's largest IT groups.
- 2019 to 2020SFLSpring Boot microservices and MariaDB for Greetz, the Dutch cards and gifts retailer in the Moonpig Group.
- 2015 to 2019IUNETWORKSIntern to development group lead on Armenia’s government smart cash register and national tax payment system.
Built, taught, certified
Who this is for
For
- Solo founders and small teams
- An AI-built product with users, or close to launch
- Budget for a fixed-price review and, if it makes sense, a day a week
Not for
- Companies that need a CTO in the office
- Full rewrites from scratch
- One-off bug fixes
Questions founders ask
What is a fractional CTO?
A senior engineer or technology leader who works for your company part of the week instead of full time. For an early product that means someone who owns technical decisions, security and releases for one or two days a week, at a fraction of a full-time salary. The difference with an agency: one person, accountable, who also writes the code.
What does a fractional CTO cost?
Published 2026 rates run $150 to $500 an hour, $1,500 to $5,000 a day, and $5,000 to $25,000 a month on retainer. Mine are on this page: a fixed-price review from $3,000, one day a week from $4,000 a month, two days from $8,000.
Do you work with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor or Replit projects?
Yes, that is most of the work. I do not care which tool wrote the first version. I care whether the data model, the auth and the deploy will survive real users.
Will you rewrite my app?
Almost never. Rewrites are how founders lose six months. The review tells you which parts to keep, which to fix and which to isolate.
Which time zone do you work in?
Yerevan, UTC+4. Full working-day overlap with the UK and the EU, and your morning if you are on the US East Coast. US West Coast works for async and a weekly call, not for daily pairing.
How do we start?
A free 30-minute call, then the review. After the report you decide whether you want ongoing days. No retainer without a review first.
How do you invoice?
Monthly in USD or EUR, via Wise, Payoneer or Deel. A short contract with scope, days per week and 30-day notice; the code is yours on payment.
Fractional CTO or technical co-founder?
A co-founder costs equity and takes months to find. A fractional CTO costs money and starts next week. Many founders use the second to earn the time to find the first.