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fractional CTO · for founders with revenue or funding

Your app makes money. Nobody senior owns it.

I become the technical partner your company is missing: releases, security, data, hosting, the developers and the roadmap. You run the business. I own the technology, one or two days a week.

Book a 15-minute call

See what a month looks like
Lucian Lutas

You'll talk to me, Lucian

from $3500 / month · 3-month start, then month to month · you keep every account · four named founders below

where it starts to show

Sound familiar?

  • Investors keep asking who our CTO is.
  • Our freelancer is the only one who understands the code.
  • Every release breaks something a customer notices.
  • I sign off on tech decisions I don’t understand.
  • We pay for servers and tools and I don’t know what half of them do.
  • An enterprise client sent a security questionnaire and I froze.

Each one is the same gap. The business grew, and nobody senior took the technology with it.

what I take off your plate

The technical side stops landing on you.

  • Architecture and the roadmap

    What gets built next, in what order and what it costs to run once it is live.

  • Releases and testing

    Every release reviewed and tested before a customer sees it, with a way back if one goes wrong.

  • Security, access and backups

    Logins and permissions kept tight, access removed when someone leaves, backups tested by restoring them.

  • Hosting and costs

    Every server, tool and subscription accounted for. The ones you don’t need get canceled.

  • Your developers or agency

    Their work reviewed, their estimates checked and their questions answered by someone who knows the code.

  • Investor and client tech questions

    Due diligence, security questionnaires and the answer when someone asks who your CTO is.

named clients

Founders I own the technology for.

AiudApp started as a takeover and became a partnership in the business. SSM Connect and Nuvra I built from scratch, as the hands-on CTO.

AiudApp logo

AiudApp · takeover → fractional CTO

From a fleet tracking portal to a full technical partnership

Andres came to me for a fleet tracking portal that ran on Tookan. I rebuilt it as a custom Next.js portal, which cut costs by about 80%. It took six months, because the business kept running and an enterprise client kept changing the requirements. Then we built a tracking app for his customers, updated the Flutter app the drivers use, cutting backend requests per active user-hour from 192.3 to 81.8, replaced paid Google routing with our own Valhalla server and built an API gateway so enterprise clients connect with their own keys. It now handles about 60,000 tasks a month, and I became a partner in the business.

  • ≈60,000 tasks / month
  • ≈80% lower costs
  • −57.5% requests / user-hour
  • Tookan → Next.js
“I really hope my competitors don’t find out about you lol.”
Andres Bocanegra, founder of AiudApp
Read the AiudApp case
SSM Connect logo

SSM Connect · hands-on CTO, from scratch

The Romanian safety file, digital and signed

Mihai wanted to simplify Romania's occupational health and safety (SSM) paperwork: the training records, instructions and signatures every employer has to keep. I built the platform. An organization sets up its employees and hierarchy once, picks an approved template, and the app generates the documents, works out who has to sign from the reporting lines, collects electronic signatures in order and files the result. Mihai runs operations, Mișu brings the SSM expertise, I own the technology.

  • Next.js + MongoDB
  • template builder + e-signature
  • team of three
Read the SSM Connect case
Nuvra logo

Nuvra · hands-on CTO, from scratch

An AI marketing department for hospitality venues

Paul wanted to help venue owners and managers keep Instagram and Facebook stocked with good, truthful posts without becoming marketers or hiring an agency. With Petre, my developer, I took it from a research brief to a working product: a venue brain that learns the business, a weekly pulse, precise capture requests for the staff, posts composed by AI around the venue's real photos, explicit approval and scheduled publishing. Mobile-first, Romanian first.

  • Next.js + MongoDB + AWS
  • AI composes, a human approves
  • private alpha
Read the Nuvra case

how a month runs

One call a week, one improvement at a time, one note a month.

  1. A weekly 45-minute call

    What the business needs next, decided together and written down.

  2. One improvement shipped at a time

    Finished before the next one starts, so nothing sits half done.

  3. Everything live kept safe

    Releases reviewed, backups tested, access checked, costs watched.

  4. A one-page note each month

    In plain English: what changed, what it cost and what is next.

the price

Three plans, priced by the time they take.

3-month start, then month to month with 30 days’ notice. Every account, repo and credential stays in your name.

about half a day a week

Advisor

$3500

a month

A weekly call, the technical decisions, reviews of your developers’ work and the investor and client tech questions. For a company that has developers and needs someone senior over them.

about one day a week

Partner

$6000

a month

Everything in Advisor, and I ship code, run the releases and own security and hosting. For a company without a developer of its own, or with one who needs a lead.

two days a week

Interim

from $9000

a month

For a stretch that needs more of me: a raise, a migration or hiring your first engineer.

US dollars, excluding VAT where it applies, billed monthly in advance. Hosting and tools are billed to you by those vendors.

for smaller live apps

No revenue or funding yet, but a live app that needs owning? Own is $2500 a month.

See Own

the first month

If month one isn’t worth it, you stop there.

  • In week one you get a written map of your technology: what runs where, what is exposed and what it all costs each month. It is yours to keep whatever happens.
  • Not worth it after month one? Stop, and months two and three are not charged.
  • Every account, repository and credential stays in your name from the first day.

good fit

A live app, real money behind it, nobody senior on it.

  • A live app that customers or daily operations depend on.
  • $20k or more a month in revenue, or a raised round.
  • Nobody senior owns the technology. A freelancer, an agency or AI tools hold it today.

not a fit

Better served by something smaller.

  • No app yet. Build gets one live for $4000 fixed. See Build
  • One broken thing. A Single Fix is $390, paid after it works. See the Single Fix
  • You need someone full-time, on site.

questions

Before you book.

Why not hire a full-time CTO?
A full-time CTO is a senior salary plus equity, and most companies at this stage don’t have a full-time CTO’s worth of work yet. You get senior judgment now and hire full-time when the work justifies it. When it does, I help you hire them and hand over.
You’re one person. What if you’re sick?
Everything is documented and lives in your accounts, and Petre, the developer I work with, knows the setup. Nothing depends on my laptop.
We already have a freelancer.
Good. I don’t replace them. I make sure what they build is safe and goes in the right direction.
You’re in Romania. What about time zones?
Calls run 15:00–20:00 Romania time: the UK and EU afternoon, and US mornings until 1pm Eastern, noon Central, 11am Mountain and 10am Pacific. The weekly call is fixed in your calendar.
What happens after the first three months?
It runs month to month with 30 days’ notice. Stop when it stops being worth it, and everything stays in your name.
How is this different from Own?
Own is $2500 a month for a smaller live app: releases, security, hosting and one improvement at a time. A fractional CTO adds the senior side on top: your developers, the roadmap, the investor and client questions and a weekly call.

Tell me what you have and what keeps going wrong.

Book a 15-minute call

15 minutes · no access needed · a straight answer on whether I'm the right fit