How is a Miracuves fractional CTO different from a strategy consultant or advisory retainer?
Consultants deliver recommendations and leave; fractional CTOs make decisions and stay accountable for outcomes across the engagement. They join leadership meetings, own engineering hiring and vendor choices, direct architecture, and mentor your team while code ships — not a quarterly review deck. Vetting includes leadership references and live architecture judgment exercises on realistic constraints, not slide craftsmanship alone.
How many hours per week is typical, and when does full-time interim coverage make sense?
Part-time engagements commonly run 8–20 hours per week for ongoing advisory, hiring, roadmap ownership, and engineering KPI definition. Full-time interim coverage suits CTO transitions, post-acquisition integration, or pre-IPO technical governance when the organization cannot wait six months for an executive search. Scope, hours, and deliverables are fixed in writing so fractional does not become vague 'office hours' without output.
Can a fractional CTO hire and build my engineering team — not just advise on org charts?
Yes. Many engagements include hiring playbooks, job specs, interview loops, compensation framing, and pipelined candidates from Miracuves' vetted roster. The CTO runs the process; Miracuves supplies depth when you need engineers quickly without compromising vetting standards. Miracuves confirms structure, rate, timezone overlap, and IP assignment in your engagement letter before start — not verbal promises after you have paused the roadmap.
Do you support investor or acquirer technical due diligence?
Yes — fixed-scope technical audits for fundraising, Series B diligence, or M&A are a common engagement type, typically 2–3 weeks. Deliverables include architecture risk assessment, scalability constraints, security posture summary, and remediation roadmap suitable for board or investor review. Miracuves confirms structure, rate, timezone overlap, and IP assignment in your engagement letter before start — not verbal promises after you have paused the roadmap.
Can a fractional CTO direct a Miracuves engineering squad under the same engagement?
Yes. CTO + Squad pairings combine fractional leadership with a Miracuves delivery team executing under their technical direction — useful when you need strategy and shipping velocity simultaneously without hiring a full executive team first. Miracuves confirms structure, rate, timezone overlap, and IP assignment in your engagement letter before start — not verbal promises after you have paused the roadmap.
We are non-technical founders. Is fractional CTO the right first hire before engineers?
Often yes. Fractional CTOs translate technical decisions into business terms, evaluate build-vs-buy, manage vendor relationships, and stand up engineering function until a full-time hire is justified. Miracuves matches for communication clarity with non-technical stakeholders — not engineers who only speak in acronyms.
What if the CTO's style or industry experience is not aligned with our company stage?
The 2-week replacement guarantee applies. Miracuves sources an alternative profile with closer stage fit — seed vs growth, B2B vs regulated, hardware vs pure SaaS — without restarting a six-month executive search. Miracuves confirms structure, rate, timezone overlap, and IP assignment in your engagement letter before start — not verbal promises after you have paused the roadmap.
What is the minimum engagement for due diligence vs ongoing fractional leadership?
Due diligence projects typically run 2–3 weeks with defined deliverables — architecture risk, scalability constraints, security summary, and remediation roadmap suitable for board or investor review. Ongoing fractional CTO work is month-to-month with two weeks' notice. There is no multi-year retained mandate required to access senior technical leadership when you need decisions made, not another assessment delayed.
