CTO as a Service
A CTO's judgement, without the CTO hire.
Great ventures die of bad architecture more often than bad ideas. Our CTO Partnership embeds the studio as your technical co-founder — decisions, roadmap, and execution, on terms where we win only if you do.
What the partnership covers
Everything a founding CTO would own: system architecture, technology choices, the engineering roadmap, hiring and vendor decisions, AI strategy, and patent-ready IP where the product warrants it. You get senior judgement in the room for every hard call — not a consultant's slide deck after the fact.
The engagement is deliberately long-term: minimum six months, structured as revenue share or an equity kicker plus retainer. A vendor optimises for the invoice; a partner optimises for the outcome. The structure is what keeps us honest.
Proof: the VDOlocal partnership
VDOlocal — India's video-first digital storefront for physical store owners — runs on this exact model. Sitio Labs owns the complete technology stack: platform, mobile, AI, and infrastructure, with five patents filed across the work. It's a co-founding relationship, not a services contract, and it's live across India today.
Case study
VDOlocal — owning the stack as CTO Partner
Platform, mobile, AI, and infrastructure for India's video-first storefront — architecture to app store, under one partnership.
Read how the partnership works →Fair questions.
How is this different from hiring a fractional CTO individual?
You get a studio, not a person: CTO-level judgement plus the design and engineering team to execute on it. When a decision is made, the same roof ships it.
What does it cost?
A monthly retainer plus revenue share or an equity kicker, scoped to the venture's stage. The variable component matters — it's what makes us a partner instead of a vendor.
Will you work with our existing developers?
Yes. Often the fastest win is giving an existing team clear architecture and honest priorities. We lead, mentor, and fill gaps — we don't demand a rebuild to justify ourselves.
Your venture deserves a real technical partner.
Tell us where the product stands today. We'll give you a straight architectural read — even if the answer is that you don't need us.