For owner-led SMEs
Your company runs on software nobody in the building can check.
A CTO for an SME is usually a part-time, fractional CTO for 2 to 4 days a month who takes ownership of the software, the suppliers and the bills on your side of the table, then hands that ownership to someone inside the company.
You didn't set out to become a software company. Now there's a supplier you can't verify, a bill that grows every year, and a business that stops when the platform does. I sit on your side of the table until someone in the building can.
Who this is for
Owners, CEOs and CFOs of profitable companies with roughly 40 to 400 staff, and 5 to 40 people in and around software they built or bought. Manufacturing, distribution, services, a wholesaler with a customer portal. The software runs the orders, the pricing or the planning, and nobody's job is to look at it as a whole.
- One system the business cannot do without lives in 1 or 2 heads.
- An agency invoices every month and nobody can say whether the invoice is right.
- Cloud, licences and maintenance rise every year with nothing new to show for it.
- The team grew one urgent hire at a time and nobody senior watches the whole.
Who it is not for
- You need IT support: laptops, Microsoft 365, the printer. That is a job for an IT partner, and a good one costs less than I do.
- Your software is a website and a standard ERP you don't customise. You are not a software company and should not pay like one.
- You want someone to build the product or write code every day.
- You want a stamp on a decision about a supplier that is already made, without anyone reading the contract.
- You can only pay in equity, or out of a saving that has not happened yet.
When owners call
- The lead developer handed in notice, or you are afraid he will.
- The agency contract is up for renewal and you have no basis for judging it.
- The cloud or hosting bill doubled and the supplier's explanation did not help.
- An ERP replacement or a platform rebuild is on the table, with a quote larger than last year's profit.
- A portal or an integration has been "three months away" for a year.
- Two agencies blame each other and the lead developer is stuck in the middle. One lead developer, two agencies, and no CTO covers that one.
No board, no round, real money
There is no funding round behind this work. It comes out of the operating budget, so it is smaller, shorter, and has to earn its own fee. The rate holds and the number of days flexes: most SME work runs at 2 to 4 days a month, not 3 days a week.
Often that is all that is needed: a cost and debt review, one or two people-decisions that have been postponed for a year, and a lead engineer promoted into a job with a proper mandate. The SME that became a software company by accident describes how companies get here, and why the answer is rarely to become a tech company.
How a part-time CTO engagement runs
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Week 0 | A 15-minute call. If it fits, a written scope for the diagnosis. |
| Weeks 1 to 3 | The diagnosis, EUR 9 500, fixed. I talk to everyone who touches the software, the supplier included, read the contracts, the bills and the code where it matters, and put what I find in writing. You decide what happens next, including nothing. |
| Month 1 | If you continue: advisory at 2 to 4 days a month. The supplier contract read line by line and rewritten to pay for outcomes, with acceptance criteria and dates that carry consequences. |
| Months 2 to 3 | An internal owner gets the mandate, often the lead developer, promoted with the title, the pay step and the authority to reject a supplier's work. A roadmap you can read: what the software must do in the next 2 quarters, and what it costs. |
| Months 4 to 6 | The owner runs it, I review and back him up. Cloud and licence lines get owners. The decisions that had been postponed get made. |
| Handover | The internal owner, or a hire made during the engagement, holds the software. I stay reachable for a short check-in period, then leave. |
For scale: the supplier engagement below took 3 days a month for 6 months, 18 days in total. If the cloud bill is the most urgent part, the shorter entry point is the 1 to 2 week platform cost review.
What it costs
Day rates in the normal Western European band of EUR 1 000 to EUR 1 600, invoiced monthly. For a smaller company the difference is fewer days, not a lower rate, so the total stays in proportion to the problem. The diagnosis is EUR 9 500, fixed. Advisory has a 3-month minimum. No equity, no success fee, and no cut of whatever a supplier renegotiation saves. What a fractional CTO costs in Europe compares the engagement models.
What it has produced
- The portal shipped in 11 weeks. Owner-led SME, 60 people, eighteen months of supplier delay. Took over the supplier relationship and reset the contract. Shipped in 11 weeks, EUR 180 000 a year off the agency bill, the lead developer promoted into the job.
- Cloud bill down 42 percent. A scale-up rather than an SME, but the mechanics hold for any company on AWS. From EUR 74 000 to EUR 43 000 a month in 5 months, no layoffs, no re-platforming.
The pattern behind both: nothing required new technology. It took someone who could read the contract and the codebase in the same week, and an insider who finally got the mandate he had earned.
Fractional CTO, agency, or a full-time hire
| Option | What you get | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
| A full-time CTO or IT manager | Someone in the building every day who learns the business. | A good one costs a full senior salary for what is often a few days a month of real decisions. A weak one is one more person nobody can check. |
| The agency's own lead | Deep knowledge of the system they built. | They grade their own work. The person checking the invoice is paid by it. |
| A fractional CTO, 2 to 4 days a month | Senior oversight on your side: contracts read, suppliers graded, an internal owner promoted. | Not there every day. If the software is the product and the roadmap is large, you need a full-time leader, and I'll say so. |
The usual outcome is a mix: a fractional CTO for a few months, an internal owner promoted, the agency kept on a rewritten scope. Fractional, interim, or part-time CTO covers the cases where an interim CTO fits better, such as a lead developer leaving next month or delivery that has already stopped.
A part-time CTO in Belgium and the Netherlands
I work from Flanders, in Dutch or English, remote-first with days on site when the situation asks for it. Most SMEs I work with are in Flanders, Brussels or the Netherlands. The supplier contracts, the employment rules and the way agencies invoice differ between the two countries, and reading them is part of the work.
Related: technical debt, priced per month, reducing cloud costs, the four problems I take on, and what the diagnosis covers.
Put a number on it first: the engineering cost calculator
Frequently asked
What does a CTO for an SME do?
Takes ownership of the software the business depends on, on your side of the table: grades the suppliers, reads the contracts and the bills, sets a roadmap the owner can read, and promotes or hires an internal owner. At an SME that is usually 2 to 4 days a month for 3 to 6 months, not a full-time job.
What alternatives does an SME have to hiring a full-time CTO?
Owner-led companies with 5 to 40 people in and around software, and no board or funding round behind the work, usually start with a lighter fractional option: 2 to 4 days a month, or a 3-week diagnosis. Often that is all that is needed: a cost and debt review, one or two people-decisions that have been postponed for a year, and a lead engineer promoted into a job with a proper mandate, instead of a full-time hire.
What problems does a fractional CTO solve for an SME?
An agency or software house that misses every date and answers every question with an invoice. A cloud, licence, and maintenance bill that rises every year with nothing new to show for it, usually debt and unowned architecture priced per month. A lead developer who holds the whole system in their head, with nobody able to check, replace, or promote them. A team without a shape, grown one urgent hire at a time, with no one senior watching the whole.
How much does a part-time CTO cost for an SME?
Day rates in the normal Western European band of EUR 1 000 to EUR 1 600, invoiced monthly, with fewer days rather than a lower rate for a smaller company. The 3-week diagnosis is EUR 9 500, fixed. No equity, no success fee, no cut of a saving.
Do I need a CTO if an agency builds my software?
You need someone on your side who can grade the agency, which is rarely a full-time CTO. The agency's own lead cannot check the agency's invoice. A few days a month of oversight, plus an internal owner with the mandate to reject work, closes most of the gap.
Will you replace my lead developer?
Rarely. More often the lead developer is already doing the job without the mandate, and the fix is a promotion with the title, the pay step and the authority to reject a supplier's work. If he cannot or does not want to step up, finding the person who can is part of the engagement.
Do you work with SMEs in the Netherlands too?
Yes. Belgium and the Netherlands, in Dutch or English, remote-first with days on site when it helps. The work is the same on both sides of the border; the supplier contracts and the employment rules differ, and reading them is part of the job.