Fractional CTO & Tech Lead Nepal — senior engineering leadership without the full-time cost.
A full-time CTO costs USD 80,000+ per year in most markets. A founder running engineering themselves costs the company a different way — usually in shipping speed, quality and team growth. The middle path is a senior fractional CTO: 10–15 hours per week of technical leadership at a fraction of a full-time hire. That's the role I take from Kathmandu, Nepal.
What is a fractional CTO and when do you need one?
A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader hired part-time or on retainer rather than full-time. The role covers everything a CTO covers — technical strategy, team leadership, hiring, code quality, stakeholder reporting — but on 10 to 20 hours a week instead of 40+. For most early-stage companies and SMEs, that's the right amount.
You probably need a fractional CTO when one or more of these is true: the company is past 2–3 engineers and needs technical direction, the founder is doing engineering management as a second job and it's slowing both, you're about to make significant hiring decisions and want a senior advisor in the room, or you're inheriting an unowned codebase and need someone accountable for it.
What I do as your fractional CTO
- Technical roadmap — translating product strategy into a sequenced engineering plan with realistic estimates and trade-offs flagged.
- Team hiring — writing job descriptions that filter for the right candidates, running technical interviews, designing fair take-home tasks, advising on offers.
- Sprint planning & cadence — establishing a working rhythm: sprint length, planning, retro, demo, async updates. Less ceremony, more shipping.
- Code quality — review standards, CI gates, test pyramid, deployment process. The boring infrastructure that makes the team faster six months in.
- Stakeholder reporting — weekly written updates that translate engineering progress into language founders, boards and customers understand.
- Architecture decisions — when an architectural choice will define the next two years, you want a senior technologist in the room. That's me.
Who this is for
- Funded startups with a small engineering team and a non-technical founder, between seed and Series A, where a full-time CTO is premature but going without one is a risk.
- SMEs running internal software with a 2–5 person dev team that has outgrown the original founder-developer.
- Agencies scaling their tech team, needing a senior advisor for architecture and hiring without the partner cost.
- International companies with a Nepal-based dev team needing local senior leadership in the same time zone as the engineers.
Engagement models
- Monthly retainer — 10 to 20 hours per week on an ongoing basis. The standard model. Three-month minimum so the working relationship has time to settle.
- Project-based — a 90-day technical strategy + team build-out engagement, fixed fee. Useful when you have a defined turning point (Series A prep, platform migration, team scale).
- One-off audit + strategy — a 1- to 2-week deep-dive resulting in a written technical strategy document and a 12-month roadmap. The minimum-viable engagement.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a fractional CTO and a project manager?
A project manager runs a project. A fractional CTO sets technical direction across all of them. PMs translate decisions; CTOs make them. The fractional CTO role includes architecture, hiring, code quality and stakeholder reporting — a PM operates inside someone else's framework.
How many hours per week is a typical engagement?
Most engagements run 8–20 hours per week, structured as a mix of weekly leadership meetings, code review, hiring support and async availability. The exact pattern is set in the first scoping call.
Can I introduce you to my engineering team?
Yes — that is the entire point. The first two weeks are spent meeting the team, reading the codebase, understanding the roadmap and building the working relationship. The team should know me as their technical leader, not a remote consultant.
How much does a fractional CTO cost in Nepal?
Fractional CTO retainers from Nepal typically run USD 2,500 to USD 8,000 per month depending on scope. Project-based engagements (a 90-day technical strategy + team build-out) are quoted as fixed fees.
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