Founder with a working product but no CTO
You shipped a v1 with contractors. Now you need someone who can make architecture, hiring, and vendor decisions before they become expensive mistakes.
Fractional Tech Leadership
Senior tech leadership for SMBs, without a full-time hire.
Fractional CTO, AI advisor on retainer, or a fixed-price transformation roadmap. CAMF Solutions Inc steps in where you need senior judgment but not 40 hours per week of it.
TL;DR
CAMF Solutions Inc provides part-time senior technology leadership to SMBs. Fractional CTO retainers run 1–3 days/week, scoped per engagement after a discovery call. AI Advisor retainers run 4–8 hours/month from $1,200/month. The Digital Transformation Roadmap is a 4–6 week fixed-price engagement, $12,000–$25,000.
Who this is for
Three SMB shapes where part-time senior tech leadership pays for itself in the first quarter.
Ops leader at a 30-person SMB
Your tech is held together by one freelancer and three SaaS subscriptions nobody fully understands. You need a senior partner to bring order, and to step out of the way once it's stable.
PE-backed SMB modernizing post-acquisition
The thesis includes a digital lift. You have 12–18 months to modernize the stack without disrupting operations. You need senior judgment more than extra developers.
Three offerings, one team
Pick by engagement shape: ongoing leadership, light advisory, or a fixed-price roadmap.
Fractional CTO
Scoped per engagement
A senior technologist, 1–3 days per week.
For: Funded startups and SMBs with a real product and no in-house senior tech leader.
In scope
- Architecture reviews and tech-debt prioritization
- Hiring help: writing JDs, screening, technical interviews
- Vendor and platform selection
- Quarterly roadmap and OKR setting
- On-call for big technical decisions
Out of scope
- Day-to-day implementation (handled by your team or a build partner)
- 24/7 production oncall (different SLA, different price)
Commitment: 3-month minimum · 1–3 days/week
AI Advisor on Retainer
From $1,200–$2,500/month
Strategic AI input, monthly, with no implementation overhead.
For: SMBs that completed an AI Pilot and want ongoing strategic input without the AI Operator retainer's hands-on scope.
In scope
- Quarterly review of AI workflow performance
- Vendor and model-provider strategy
- Build-vs-buy advice for new AI use cases
- AI-related security and compliance review
Out of scope
- New workflow implementation (that is the AI Operator retainer)
- Prompt and eval maintenance (also Operator scope)
Commitment: 4–8 hours/month · month-to-month
Digital Transformation Roadmap
$12,000–$25,000 fixed
A 4–6 week fixed-price engagement to set the next 12 months of tech.
For: SMBs and PE-backed mid-market businesses planning a multi-quarter modernization.
In scope
- Assessment of current tech, vendors, and team
- Target-state architecture and integration map
- Prioritized backlog of initiatives with effort/impact scoring
- Hiring and buying recommendations
- Executive readout deck
Out of scope
- Implementation (handled by your team or as a follow-on engagement)
Commitment: 4–6 weeks · fixed price
How a typical month looks
A realistic Fractional CTO retainer for a 25-person SMB.
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Week 1
Architecture review on the new payments integration. Sit in on the Tuesday engineering standup. Draft the JD for the senior backend hire.
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Week 2
Phone screen 3 backend candidates. Vendor call with two hosting providers. Office hours for the team: anyone can book a 30-min slot.
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Week 3
Quarterly roadmap working session with the founder. Review the security audit findings. Decide on the model provider for the new AI feature.
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Week 4
Final round interviews for the backend hire. Monthly board update: tech KPIs, hiring pipeline, top three risks. Plan next month.
Need hands-on AI delivery too?
Fractional CTOs often pair with our AI Consulting & Ramp-Up. The CTO sets technology strategy across the business; the AI consultant ships a workflow into production.
See AI ConsultingFrequently asked
Fractional CTO vs. agency vs. full-time hire: which do I need? +
A fractional CTO is a part-time senior decision-maker (architecture, hiring, vendors, roadmap). An agency builds what you tell them to build. A full-time CTO costs $200,000+ all-in per year and is overkill for most SMBs. CAMF Solutions Inc recommends fractional when you need senior judgment but not 40 hours/week of it.
What does a fractional CTO actually do day-to-day? +
A typical week mixes architecture reviews, hiring help (screening candidates, sitting on interview panels), vendor selection calls, roadmap sessions with founders, and on-call decisions when an engineering team hits a fork in the road. The exact mix depends on what the business needs that month.
When do I outgrow a fractional CTO? +
Usually around 25–40 engineers, or when the technical decision load exceeds what 1–3 days/week can cover. At that point a fractional CTO often helps recruit and onboard a full-time successor.
How is this different from the AI Operator retainer? +
The AI Operator retainer is hands-on AI workflow delivery: shipping new AI features, tuning prompts, maintaining evals. Fractional Tech Leadership is broader and lighter: technology strategy across all of the business, not just AI. SMBs often combine an AI Operator retainer with an AI Advisor retainer.
Can I do a 1-month trial? +
The Fractional CTO retainer has a 3-month minimum because anything shorter doesn't produce real outcomes; a month is barely enough to learn the codebase. If you need a shorter engagement to test the fit, start with a Digital Transformation Roadmap instead.
Talk to a senior technologist for 30 minutes.
Tell us where you're stuck and we'll tell you whether fractional leadership is the right fix, or whether it isn't.
Book a 30-min intro callLast updated: 2026-05-15