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Fractional CTO: your architecture, vendor and data calls made, on a fixed fee.

For companies of 10 to 150 people with no senior technical leader, in Europe or entering it from the US or the UK. A senior engineer makes the technology decisions on your product, its architecture and its vendors, and hands everything over when the mandate is done. The delivery risk sits on our side.

Tell us about your projectA 20-minute video call, no proposal attachedCompare it with hiring a CTO
  • Fixed fee, overrun on us
  • GDPR and AI Act calls in the design
  • Code and accounts in your name
Laurent Tulpan at his desk, code open on the screen (illustration generated from his portrait)

What does a fractional CTO actually do?

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader working for you on a fixed-fee engagement, without an employment contract: they decide, secure, document and hand over, then stop when the need is resolved.

Concretely: map the systems you already run, pay down the technical debt that slows everyone down, defend architecture decisions in front of your leadership, and build a roadmap tied to the business rather than to technology fashion. You will also see it called a part-time CTO, a virtual CTO or CTO as a service.

We work from Paris, for companies across Europe and for US and UK companies with customers or data there. What that changes is who makes the calls that European rules turn into architecture: where personal data is hosted, which vendors touch it under which contract, what an AI feature logs and tells its users. Made as part of the design, not retrofitted before a launch. It also means London’s working day, and a real overlap with the American morning.

Fractional CTO, a hire or a senior freelancer: what changes for you.

Price is left out on purpose: it is the only line where the three look alike, and the least useful one. The question that settles it is how many genuine technical decisions wait each month.

A fractional CTO, a hired CTO and a senior freelance developer, compared on six criteria
A fractional CTO, a hired CTO and a senior freelance developer, compared on six criteriaFractional CTOHiring a CTOSenior freelancer
Time to startA few weeksSix to nine months of searchOne to four weeks
Who carries a delivery overrunThe provider, on a fixed feeYouYou, on time and materials
Defends architecture to the boardYes, that is the jobYes, once the right person staysRarely: mostly delivers code
What remains when it endsDocumentation and a trained person, by contractWhatever was written down before they leftThe code, and the questions it raises
Right whenA handful of real decisions per monthTechnology is the product and the team is growingThe decision is made and the work is clear
Wrong whenYou need someone in the building every dayThere are three decisions a quarter to makeNobody internal can direct the work

From the paid assessment to the documented exit, what you hold at each stage.

  1. 2 to 5 days

    A costed action plan that belongs to you.

    Scope, risks, sequencing, timeline. If you do not continue with us, you hand it to another vendor and execute it.

    Technical due diligence

  2. Fixed fee

    The work delivered at the price signed.

    Short cycles, regular demos, a staging environment you can explore without fear of breaking production. We bill the deliverable, not hours.

  3. Go-live

    A cutover that has its rollback.

    Progressive migration, a documented cutover plan, a rollback tested before the switch, critical indicators watched through the first weeks.

  4. On exit

    Someone on your side who takes over.

    Documentation, a decision log, one person trained, code, accounts and access transferred. The day we leave, you run it without us.

100%of the role handed to an internal hire, no residual retainer

leads.fr engagement, case studies page

leads.fr, B2B lead generation

A product team moving again, then handed over in-house.

The problem
A product team that had stopped moving: cycles getting longer, and a management that no longer knew what to ask of its developers.
What was delivered
The backlog scoped, delivery restarted, and an internal product owner hired and operating before we left. The exit was written into the contract, not negotiated at the end.
Read the case studies

What you sign for a fractional CTO, in short.

Price
Fixed before we start, set by the assessment. A scope and a result, not a number of days.
Overrun
On a fixed fee, a slipping project eats our margin, not your budget. That is why we challenge assumptions up front.
Quality and dates
Acceptance criteria and calendar in the contract. If we slip through our own doing, we adjust at no cost to you.
Migrations
Backups, checks and a rollback written before the start. Data lost through something we did is restored at our expense.
Exit
Code, documentation, accounts and credentials in your name. You take it in-house or change providers when you want.
How we work, and the limit of each commitment

Who makes your technical decisions, and who takes over from them.

The mandate is scoped and led by Laurent Tulpan, the firm's founder and CTO, who started inside the IT departments of media, telecoms and banking companies. A lone freelance CTO recreates the dependency on one person; here three senior engineers, two of whom have worked together for more than twenty years, cover your account. Measured in July 2026, across every engagement delivered since 2019: no client has had to call us back on an emergency after handover. The few follow-on contracts extended a warranty or widened the knowledge transfer, never to repair something we had left behind.

Laurent Tulpan, in more detail
  • Laurent Tulpan, founder of Coeur du WebLaurent, founder and CTOScopes the mandate, makes the architecture calls and defends them in front of your leadership.
  • Clairmont, technical leadClairmont, technical leadArchitecture, backend, infrastructure and integrations: the technical answer behind a sensitive migration.
  • David, frontend leadDavid, frontend leadThe interfaces, so that a tool is still pleasant to use two years later.

Cost, interim or fractional, Europe: before you get in touch.

What is a fractional CTO?

A senior technical leader made available to your company on a fixed-fee engagement, without an employment contract. They bring, or become, your technology leadership function:

  • mapping what exists
  • paying down technical debt
  • defending architecture decisions to the board
  • building a roadmap tied to the business

The market also says part-time CTO, virtual CTO or CTO as a service. Same job: someone who decides, secures and hands over, then stops when the need is resolved.

How much does a fractional CTO cost?

It depends less on the person than on the model you buy, and there are three:

  • a day rate
  • a monthly retainer with a stated number of days
  • a fixed fee on a defined mandate

Each makes the provider optimize for something different, which is why the cheapest headline number is often the most expensive arrangement.

We work on the third. Our only public price is the starting point, technical due diligence at 2000 € to 3000 € excluding VAT (value-added tax) for 2 to 5 days, credited if the mandate follows; it sets the fixed fee of the mandate.

Fractional CTO or interim CTO: what is the difference?

An interim CTO fills the seat full time for a period, usually between two permanent hires, and runs the team day to day.

A fractional CTO holds the technology leadership part time, on a mandate, and is right when there are a handful of real decisions a month rather than a team to run every morning.

If your CTO has just left and fifteen engineers are waiting, you need an interim. If nobody senior has ever owned the architecture, a fractional mandate is usually the better shape.

We are a US or UK company opening in Europe. What does a fractional CTO do for us?

Three things, early:

  • Decide where European customer and staff data will live, and which current vendors can stay once they process it.
  • Check what the AI features in your product owe under the EU AI Act, since the Regulation reaches providers outside the EU when the output is used in the Union.
  • Set up the local engineering arrangements, from hosting accounts to a data processing agreement template, so that your first European contract does not stall on a questionnaire.

We do this as engineers; your counsel handles the legal side.

What happens to the work when the engagement ends?

Everything transfers: source code, documentation, accounts, credentials, and a decision log that explains the reasoning behind each significant choice.

One person on your side is trained during the engagement, not in the final week, so knowledge builds alongside the system rather than at the end.

What if the person leading the work becomes unavailable?

You are never tied to a single individual. Three senior engineers cover your account, two of whom have worked together for more than twenty years, and everything is documented so it can be picked up without us.

On every engagement since 2019, no client has had to call us back on an emergency after handover.

And when the decision is to build?

The same engineers build what the mandate decides: custom software, automations and AI, hosted in the EU.

Build and automate

Software, automations and AI hosted in the EU, sources in your name.

Closer to your case

All services

In 20 minutes, you will know if a mandate fits.

Your tools, your blockers, what is at stake. We will say plainly whether a fractional CTO is the right format, or which one is.

Tell us about your project

A 20-minute video call, no proposal attached