Fractional CTO for Startups
Instead of hiring a 10-person team: 1–2 AI-augmented engineers plus a fractional CTO with 25+ years of engineering leadership and 7 patents. No long-term contracts, and a free infrastructure package when you hire me.
Oleg Sotnikov works as a fractional CTO for startups: architecture and stack decisions, cost control, and a lean build model where 1–2 AI-augmented engineers do the work a ten-person team used to. Every startup he takes on also gets the production platform at no extra cost — self-hosted GitLab with CI runners, Sentry, Grafana, and Loki, which costs $2,000–5,000/month from commercial providers. He has 25+ years in engineering leadership, 7 patents, and nine startups founded with two exits, and works month-to-month rather than on long-term contracts.
Free Infrastructure for Every Startup I Work With
Every startup that hires me as advisor or Fractional CTO gets production-grade infrastructure at no cost: hosted GitLab with powerful CI/CD runners, Sentry, Loki, Grafana, and custom tools for your development and operations work.
Build it right the first time
Technical Architecture & Strategy
Most startups don't fail because of bad ideas. They fail because of bad architecture decisions made under pressure. I help you avoid the expensive mistakes and build systems that scale.
- End-to-end architecture reviews and technology stack selection
- Scalability planning from MVP to millions of users
- Monolith vs. microservices decisions based on your actual stage
- API design, database architecture, and infrastructure planning
- Technical debt assessment and remediation roadmaps
- Vendor evaluation and build-vs-buy analysis
Do more with less
Cost Optimization
I've run a production platform serving 190+ countries on $650/month AWS. I know what real cost optimization looks like, and it's not about cutting corners.
- Cloud infrastructure audit and right-sizing
- Team efficiency analysis and restructuring
- Eliminating redundant tools and services
- Optimizing CI/CD pipelines and deployment costs
- License consolidation and vendor negotiations
- Building lean development workflows
A technical partner who gets it
Founder Sounding Board
Being a technical founder is lonely. You're making high-stakes decisions with incomplete information, often without anyone who truly understands the technical implications. I've been there.
- Sounding board for major technical decisions
- Reality checks on timelines, budgets, and scope
- Conflict resolution between business and engineering
- Strategic planning without the emotional baggage
- Honest feedback, including the parts you would rather not hear
- Navigating pivots, layoffs, and tough conversations
Included at no extra cost when you hire me as your Fractional CTO, mentor, or advisor
Free Infrastructure Package
You get a complete self-hosted DevOps infrastructure: production-grade tooling that would typically cost $2,000–5,000/month from commercial providers.
Self-Hosted GitLab
Full GitLab instance with generous CI/CD runner resources, without usage limits or per-seat surprises
Sentry Error Tracking
Self-hosted Sentry for real-time error monitoring, alerting, and performance tracking across all your services
Loki Log Aggregation
Centralized log collection and querying, so you can search all your services in one place
Grafana Dashboards
Monitoring dashboards for infrastructure metrics, application performance, and business KPIs
Additional DevOps Tools
Extra pieces matched to your stack: container registries, artifact storage, and more
Results from an AI transformation I actually ran
AI in Action: The AppMaster Story
Staff Reduction
People Doing Work of 25
Tokens Processed Monthly
Platform Uptime Maintained
In 2025, I transitioned AppMaster.io from a 25-person team to a 2-person AI-augmented operation. I rebuilt every function (engineering, QA, support, content) around AI workflows. The platform kept serving users in 190+ countries with no drop in service.
The FCTO Model
Senior technical leadership without the full-time cost
Traditional Startup
- CEO / Founder
- VP of Engineering ($180-250K)
- 3-5 Senior Developers ($150-200K each)
- Product Manager ($120-160K)
- DevOps Engineer ($140-180K)
$800K - $1.4M / year
FCTO Model
- CEO / Founder
- Fractional CTO (fraction of full-time cost)
- 1 Senior Engineer
60–80% lower technical team cost
The FCTO model works because senior leadership multiplies output. One experienced architect makes better decisions than five mid-level developers debating in Slack.
Who This Is For
I work best with founders who are ready to move fast and think lean.
Seed-Stage Startups
Need architecture that scales without over-engineering. Want senior technical guidance without hiring a full-time CTO.
Growing Startups
Hit scaling challenges. Tech debt is slowing you down. Need someone who's been through hypergrowth to help navigate.
Pivoting Companies
Changing direction and need to rebuild the tech stack. Want to do it right this time, with guidance from someone who has done it before.
AI-Curious Startups
Want to integrate AI into your product but don't know where to start. Need practical guidance, not theoretical frameworks.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should a startup hire a fractional CTO?
As soon as technical decisions start affecting your runway: choosing a stack, hiring the first engineers, or scaling an MVP. A fractional CTO gives you senior architecture and hiring judgment without burning a full-time executive salary you can't yet justify.
Can a fractional CTO help us adopt AI?
Yes, and from firsthand experience. Oleg ran an 80% team reduction at AppMaster while maintaining output with AI-powered workflows. The focus is pragmatic AI: automating repetitive work and replacing headcount with intelligence, not chasing hype.
How do you keep cloud costs low for early-stage startups?
By right-sizing infrastructure for your stage, not Silicon Valley's latest trend. Oleg runs a production startup on roughly $650/month on AWS and routinely cuts cloud bills by up to 80% through infrastructure audits.
Do you write code or just advise?
Both. Engagements range from hands-on architecture and setup to high-level advisory, depending on what your stage actually needs.
Let's Build Your Technical Foundation
Book a free 30-minute call. No pitch, no pressure, just a conversation about your startup's technical needs.