Fractional CTO for Early-Stage Startups
I help non-technical founders make the right technical decisions, vet their engineering teams, and build systems that scale — without the cost of a full-time hire.
How I Can Help
Choose the engagement that fits where you are right now.
Fractional CTO Retainer
Monthly engagement (10–20 hrs/week). Technical strategy, architecture decisions, team hiring and vetting, roadmap planning.
Best for: Seed-stage startups without a technical co-founder.
Technical Architecture Review
One-time deep audit of your codebase, infrastructure, and team. Deliverable: written report with prioritized recommendations.
Best for: Startups before a funding round or major scaling event.
AI Integration Consulting
Evaluate and implement AI features into your product. RAG pipelines, LLM API integrations, agent workflows.
Best for: Non-technical founders who want to add AI but don't know where to start.
Case Studies
Real projects. Real outcomes.
- Cartpanda
PayPal Dispute Automation
- Challenge
- Merchants averaged 679 chargebacks per month and spent ~30 hours monthly on manual dispute resolution.
- What I did
- Served as sole full-stack developer and architect. Transformed a single Notion page spec into a fully working production app. Built both frontend and backend from scratch using React, Node.js, OpenAI API, MongoDB, and PayPal API.
- Outcome
- Analysts became 3x faster at dispute resolution. Certain dispute types now resolve automatically with zero manual review. Live in production.
Alex did a great job delivering the project end to end. He handled both frontend and backend work, integrated third-party APIs, and moved fast without sacrificing quality. He has real experience working with OpenAI APIs, using them in production features, not just experiments. Communication was easy, tasks were clear, and everything was delivered on time. I'd be happy to work with him again.
- Xpand
AI-Powered Multi-Tenant Dashboard
- Challenge
- Needed a management console for a global network of autonomous retail stores — managing thousands of SKUs, real-time operations, and multiple client tenants.
- What I did
- Sole frontend developer and architect. Built multi-tenant console with role-based access control using Auth0 and CASL. Integrated real-time security camera feeds and live store monitoring.
- Outcome
- System supports up to 2,000 SKUs and 24,000 items. Used by clients and employees worldwide in production.
Alex is a true asset to any company - it's not our first project together and Alex always delivers a quality result. Super dependable and professional. Looking forward to working together again!
- Ballerine (YC S22)
KYC Infrastructure
- Challenge
- Needed to build the initial KYC/KYB application from scratch — the foundation that would attract first investors.
- What I did
- Joined as one of the first developers. Worked directly with founders to architect and build the KYC app. Built a white-label UI system and configurable step management so clients could define their own KYC flows without code changes.
- Outcome
- Became the world's leading open-source KYC/KYB platform. Backed by Y Combinator (S22), raised $5M seed. 1,500+ developers worldwide.
Really solid work from start to finish. Alex contributed to our platform using Svelte, taking on both whitelabel solution development and SDK work. He understood the product requirements quickly and delivered high-quality, maintainable code. The whitelabel implementation was flexible and well thought out, and the SDK was clean and easy to integrate. A reliable and skilled developer, happy to work together again.
- Jobufo
Enterprise Recruitment Platform
- Challenge
- Needed a recruitment assistant integrating with 150 ATS systems, scaling across 200,000+ job postings, and feeling native to each enterprise client's brand.
- What I did
- Frontend architect and team lead. Built a white-label UI system with dynamic branding per client. Full mobile optimization across all devices.
- Outcome
- Used by Volkswagen Group, McDonald's, KFC, ERGO, ProSiebenSat.1, and Lieferando. Integrated across 200,000+ job postings.
Alex proved to be an exceptionally productive and highly efficient team member. We were working with Alex for more than 3 years and it was a very good experience. He would undoubtedly be a valuable asset to any company. Highly recommend Alex and hope to work again in the future.
About Alex
I'm Oleksandr (Alex) Rudin — a Fractional CTO and Senior Full-Stack Developer based in Irvine, California. Over 12+ years I've helped startups go from zero to production, led engineering teams, and shipped $500k+ in freelance work — solo.
I work with non-technical founders who need someone to translate their product vision into technical reality. Whether that's choosing the right stack, vetting engineers, or designing architecture that won't break at scale — I've done it, and I can do it for you.
- IEEE Senior Member
- EB-2 NIW — US National Interest Waiver Visa
- Upwork Top Rated Plus
- $500,000+ delivered as solo freelancer
- 12+ years full-stack: React, Node.js, TypeScript, AWS
- Led engineering teams of 12+
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about working with a Fractional CTO.
- A Fractional CTO is an experienced technology executive who works with your company part-time or on a retainer basis, providing CTO-level strategy, architecture oversight, and team leadership without the cost of a full-time hire.
- Early-stage startups benefit most when they have a non-technical founder, are approaching a funding round, or need to make critical architectural decisions but can't yet justify a full-time CTO salary.
- A consultant delivers a one-time report or project. A Fractional CTO is an ongoing member of your leadership team — attending standups, mentoring engineers, owning the technical roadmap.
- At $102/hour on a typical 10–20hr/week retainer, you get senior CTO-level leadership for $4,000–$8,000/month — compared to $250,000–$350,000/year for a full-time hire. You pay only for what you need.
Let's talk about your technical challenges
No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about your technical situation.