Fractional CTO for early-stage startup

We're a small, non-technical founding team with a live product and paying customers. Most of it was built quickly by us, AI tools, and a couple of freelancers. It works, mostly. But we've hit the point where nobody can confidently say how it all fits together, what's fragile, or what to do next. We don't need another developer right now. We need someone senior who can own the technical side with us: make sense of what we have, set priorities, and help us make the right calls. Where we need help: - Understanding what we actually have: codebase, data, integrations, tools. - Finding what's fragile or broken before it costs us customers. - Deciding what to fix, what to rebuild, and what to buy instead of build. - Making sure our data and reporting can be trusted. - Technical input on hiring, vendors, and the roadmap. - Eventually, guiding developers, whether freelance or in-house. Ideal background: - CTO or fractional CTO experience with early-stage startups. - Has inherited messy or AI-built systems and brought order to them. - Comfortable across architecture, data, integrations, and payments. - Explains technical tradeoffs in plain English to non-engineers. - Available for a few calls a week in US hours. How I'd like to start: - A 1-hour paid consultation call. We'll walk you through the product, the business, and what's keeping us up at night. We'd like a first read on where the biggest risks are and what you'd tackle first. If it's a fit, we'll agree on a short first engagement with a clear deliverable, then move to an ongoing part-time arrangement, likely 5–15 hrs/week. To apply: tell us briefly about a time you stepped into a startup's tech mid-flight, and what you prioritized in the first month. Start your proposal with "fractional" so we know you read this.