[01]/cto
Senior technical leadership, on retainer.
A fractional CTO engagement for teams that need real technical leadership without a full-time hire. You pay a monthly retainer; we scope specific projects and campaigns inside it — software, marketing, AI, and the long tail in between.
How it works
Retainer → scope → ship
Predictable access to senior bandwidth. Discrete projects scoped inside the engagement. Delivery in visible slices.
01
Retainer
A monthly engagement that secures senior CTO bandwidth — decisions, reviews, architecture calls, and hands-on work as needed. Predictable cost, predictable access.
02
Scope
Inside the retainer we scope discrete projects and campaigns with explicit goals, milestones, and exit criteria. Larger builds become named workstreams; smaller asks stay lightweight.
03
Ship
Work is delivered in slices with visible progress, honest tradeoffs, and artifacts your team owns afterward — code, docs, dashboards, and decision records.
What you can scope
Most things a CTO would own
Examples of work that fits inside a [01]/cto retainer — not an exhaustive list.
- ▹Tech strategy & roadmap
- ▹Architecture & code review
- ▹Software builds (web, internal tools, integrations)
- ▹AI initiatives — use-case selection, integration, evals
- ▹Marketing engineering & instrumentation
- ▹Hiring, interviewing, and team design
- ▹Vendor & stack selection
- ▹Security, ops, and incident hygiene
- ▹Technical due diligence
- ▹…and whatever else your roadmap demands
Browse the longer catalog on services.
AI agent compliance
Regulated-industry deployments, done properly
Healthcare, fintech, and other regulated verticals need more than a working agent — they need a defensible audit trail. We use PTOI (Periodic Table of Information), our open-source compound-catalog spec, to bring structure to AI agent data flows from day one.
PHI/PCI boundary mapping
We map every surface where sensitive data enters, rests, or transits in your AI agent system — field by field, with explicit PHI/PCI classifications and least-privilege access rules.
Compound catalog architecture
Structure your agent's data vocabulary using the PTOI compound-catalog spec: reactions, field types, masking rules, and audit events — version-controlled and BAA-audit-ready.
HIPAA-eligible AWS design
Architecture that uses only HIPAA-eligible AWS services in PHI paths — private subnets, encrypted storage, CloudTrail, short-lived credentials. No PHI on the public internet.
Governance that survives the next dev
AI compliance decisions are only as good as the artifacts that document them. We ship decision records, runbooks, and audit-log schemas your next engineer can pick up on day one.
PTOI is open source and maintained separately from 01team.dev. Every [01]/cto engagement in a regulated vertical uses it — the IP stays with us; you get the compliance posture. View on GitHub →
Who it's for
Teams that need senior judgment, not another seat
Pre-CTO founders
Non-technical or solo-technical founders who need a senior counterpart on architecture, hiring, and vendor decisions before committing to a full-time CTO.
Teams between CTOs
Continuity for product and platform decisions while you run a thoughtful search — without freezing the roadmap.
Scale-ups adding leverage
Augment existing leadership with senior hands for AI initiatives, marketing engineering, or focused builds that don't justify a new hire yet.
PE / portfolio operators
Drop-in technical leadership for portfolio companies — diligence, post-close 100-day plans, and ongoing advisory.
FAQ
Common questions
How is the retainer priced?
Monthly retainers are sized to the engagement — bandwidth, response expectations, and the kind of work in flight. We agree on the shape upfront and revisit quarterly.
What's included vs. scoped separately?
Strategy, reviews, decisions, and lightweight hands-on work live inside the retainer. Larger builds (multi-week software, campaigns, or AI workstreams) get scoped as named projects with their own milestones — usually inside the retainer, occasionally as agreed scope add-ons.
Do you write code, or just advise?
Both. We default to senior advisory and architecture, and we go hands-on when shipping a slice unblocks the team. The mix is whatever the retainer needs that month.
How do you work with our existing team?
Direct access, async-first, light process. Decisions are documented; reviews are honest; handoffs leave artifacts the next person can pick up. No revolving cast.
How do engagements end?
Cleanly. Notice period agreed upfront, with a handoff that includes documentation, decisions, and any in-flight workstreams in a state your team can own.
Next step
Talk through your roadmap
Quick call to see if a [01]/cto retainer fits — what you'd scope first, what good looks like in 90 days.