We need to ship the MVP before the round.
The demo works on stage. Now it has to work for paying users, and the date is already set.
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Ship the MVP before the round.Built by senior engineers.
We act as your fractional CTO, design the LLM architecture and write the code. For early-stage AI startups, paid in cash, equity or a mix.
- Senior engineers only
- You own the code from day one
- EU company, GDPR by design
Sound familiar?01 / deadline 02 / diligence 03 / scale
Founders call us when they say this.
Investors keep asking about our tech.
They ask about your moat, model costs and data rights, and what happens if the provider raises prices. You need the answers in writing.
Our prototype doesn't scale.
Replies get slower. Each request costs more. Nobody wants to touch the prompt file.
What we docto/ arch/ mvp/ scale/ dd/
Your technical team from the first architecture call to the data room.
Take one part or all five. The senior engineers you meet on the first call write the code.
Fractional CTO
- Technical decisions made and written down
- Roadmap and build-or-buy choices
- Help hiring your first engineers, and review of their code
Architecture and LLM stack
- RAG, agents or plain prompts, whichever fits the problem
- Model and provider chosen, with a fallback
- Evals built from your real cases
MVP build
- Web, mobile and backend in the hands of real users
- Login, billing and admin built properly
- A demo every week that you can show investors
Scaling
- Cost and speed of each request kept in check
- Monitoring, alerts and safe releases
- Each customer’s data kept separate
Due-diligence readiness
- Architecture overview and a record of key decisions
- Security notes and a GDPR data map
- A frank list of known tech debt
From demo to due diligence
- Prototype
- MVP
- Scale
- Diligence
The demo impresses. The code won't survive real users.
We write down the architecture and pick a model and provider with a fallback. Then we decide what to keep from the prototype.
An MVP that real users can rely on.
Evals built from your real cases, proper login and separate customer data. A new release every week.
Costs and speed in check before they hurt.
We track what every request costs and set up monitoring. New users then add to revenue faster than to the cloud bill.
When investors ask, the answers are already written.
The architecture, key decisions, data map and known debt sit in one place for a technical reviewer.
Tech readiness · what investors askReady for questions
- Architecture and trade-offs written downprototype
- Model and provider choice, with a fallbackprototype
- Evals on real cases, run on every changemvp
- Login, roles and separate data per customermvp
- Cost and speed of each request trackedscale
- Monitoring, alerts and safe releasesscale
- Security notes and GDPR data mapdiligence
- Code, infra and docs in your accountsdiligence
IllustrativeExample checklist, adapted to each startup
How we get paidoption/cash option/equity option/mix
Cash, equity, or a mix.
Before a round, runway is everything. We shape the deal around your situation and agree it with you.
Cash
A standard engagement: clear scope, a set start date, then monthly work.
Equity
If we believe in the problem and the team, we can take our fee as equity and build alongside you.
A mix
A lower cash fee plus equity. Senior engineers stay on your product and your runway lasts longer.
We agree terms with each startup in writing before work starts. This page lists no standard percentages. They depend on your stage, your round and what you need from us.
Honestly
Who we are a good partner for.
A good fit if
- AI does real work in your product, and you don’t have a senior technical co-founder yet.
- Your prototype impressed people. Now it has to hold up with real users.
- A round is coming, and investors will ask how the technology works.
- You want engineers who build and who tell you when an idea won't work.
Not a fit if
- You want to rent developers by the head. We take on outcomes and own the technical work.
- You need someone to approve technical claims the product can't back up.
- You run an established company and want to automate its work. See process automation.
Questions founders ask
Before you get in touch.
Can you be our CTO?
As a fractional CTO, yes. We own the technical decisions, the architecture and the build. We join investor meetings when the questions get technical. When you hire a full-time CTO, we hand over the code, the documents and the reasons behind each decision.
Do you really work for equity?
Yes. We work for cash, equity or a mix of both. We agree the terms with each startup in writing before work starts.
Who owns the code and the IP?
You do. From the first day, the code sits in your repositories and the infrastructure runs in your accounts. Nothing needs to be transferred before a round or a sale.
Which models and stack do you use?
Whatever fits the problem and the data. That can be a hosted model from a major provider, a deployment in an EU region or an open-weight model you host yourself. We design the system so you can switch provider without rewriting the product. Every change is tested against your own evaluation cases.
What do you prepare for investor tech due diligence?
An architecture overview and the key technical decisions with their reasons. Evaluation results, a view of costs and scaling, a security and GDPR data map, and a frank list of known technical debt. A technical reviewer can check it quickly.
Tell us about your startup
Tell us what you're building.
A few lines and a deck link are enough. We read every message and reply within a few hours in plain words: yes, no, or what we'd need to know first.
- Takes two minutes
- No deck? A few lines will do
- Cash, equity or a mix, agreed with each startup
Prefer to talk first? Request a 30-minute call.
You speak with the senior engineer who would build it. Bring the deck or just the problem, and we'll tell you plainly what we'd do.
Request a 30-min call30 minutes, free. We reply within a few hours with times that suit you.