For non-technical founders
You do not need a CTO on payroll. You need one in the room when it matters.
If someone else is building your product, or you built the first version yourself with AI tools, here is what a senior engineering leader would do for you in the next ninety days, and what it looks like to have one on call.
What a CTO would do for you this quarter.
1
Read the code and tell you the truth about it. Not whether it is elegant, but whether it will survive your first real customer and your first real hire.
2
Look at the contract with your development partner and the scope they are working from, and tell you where the two disagree.
3
Sit in the weekly delivery meeting on your side of the table, and send you a short note afterwards in plain English.
4
Put the security basics in place before a customer asks: who has access to what, whether the backups work, where the secrets live.
5
Tell you when it is time to hire your own engineers, what the first hire should be, and how to interview for it when you are not technical.
How oversight works.
First, a review
A one-week review of what you have: the code, the plan, the contract, the bill.
Second, a report
A written report you can read in twenty minutes and a call where you can ask anything.
Third, if you want me to stay
A block of hours each month to sit in the delivery meetings and keep the work honest. When the product is ready to bring in-house, I help you do that and then step out.
The checklist
Twelve questions to ask your development agency this week.
The questions I ask in the first hour of every oversight engagement. If your agency answers all twelve well, you probably do not need me. If they cannot, you will know where to look.