CTO as a Service

CTO as a service, that actually builds.

CTO as a service gives your startup the technical leadership of a Chief Technology Officer without a full-time hire: architecture, product strategy, security, and team leadership. Most providers stop at advice. We pair that leadership with a senior team that ships working software every two weeks.

Talk to Us How We Work
The Problem

The problem with most CTO as a service

Most CTO-as-a-service and fractional CTO offers are advisory. You get someone senior on a weekly call to review decisions and nudge your developers, but they never touch the codebase. That works if you already have a strong engineering team. It fails if you do not, because advice without execution still leaves you dependent on the exact team that was struggling.

We built Hurricane Studio to close that gap. The person setting the architecture is on the same team writing it. Decisions and delivery are not handed between two groups who blame each other when something breaks.

Scope of Work

What our CTO-as-a-service covers

Choose an architecture and stack that will not need a rewrite in a year
Own security and compliance, from SOC 2 to basic data hygiene
Translate business goals into a realistic technical roadmap
Pass investor and acquirer technical due diligence
Hire, lead, and unblock the engineering team
Make build-versus-buy calls and kill bad ideas early
The Math

CTO as a service vs a full-time CTO

Full-time CTO CTO as a service (Hurricane)
Cost $150-300k/yr salary + equity $5-30k/month, cancel or scale anytime
Time to start 3-6 month search Weeks
Builds the product One person's capacity A senior team ships every two weeks
Risk if it is the wrong fit Costly hire and equity to unwind End the retainer, keep the code

Related reading: what investors' engineers look for in technical due diligence.

Pricing

One monthly retainer.

$5-30k /month

Leadership and engineering in one retainer that scales with scope and team size. Most engagements land in the $10-20k range. Full detail on how we work.

Pricing Plans

CTO-as-a-service pricing plans

No fixed packages, one flexible retainer that scales with scope and team size. Most engagements fall into one of three general bands, and you can move between them as the work changes.

Early-stage

$5-10k/mo

Architecture decisions plus a small build team, right-sized for pre-seed and seed-stage founders getting the first version right.

Growth

$10-20k/mo

A dedicated squad shipping every two weeks, for products with real usage that need to move fast without breaking. Most clients land here.

Scale

$20-30k/mo

A bigger team for pre-Series A/B builds, where technical due diligence, security, and scale all land on the roadmap at once.

We scope the right band on a call. No hourly billing, no lock-in.

Don't take our word for it.

Eileen Burbidge
Eileen Burbidge

Partner at Passion Capital

Not every founder has a technical co-founder from the start, so some of the best ideas depend on a strong development partner. Vuk and Hurricane are much more than an outsourced dev resource. The team behaves like a company co-founder and brings the startup agility and pragmatism needed to develop a first prototype, MVP, or 1.0, at a level of quality that satisfies even the most discerning corporate clients and investors. I always recommend Hurricane to our founders.

Giuliano Sison
Giuliano Sison

Product Lead, Fertifa

Working with Hurricane Studio has given us the best of both worlds: flexibility to manage burn and make the most of our limited runway, but best-in-class dev resources so we don't have to compromise on the quality of our platform.

FAQ

CTO as a service: FAQ

What is CTO as a service?

CTO as a service gives a startup the technical leadership of a Chief Technology Officer without a full-time hire. It covers architecture, technology choices, security, hiring, and roadmap. Hurricane Studio goes further than most: we also build the product, not just advise on it.

What is the difference between CTO as a service and a fractional CTO?

Most fractional CTOs are advisory. They join calls, review decisions, and guide your developers a few hours a week, but they do not write the code. CTO as a service from Hurricane Studio pairs that leadership with a senior team that ships deployable software every two weeks.

How much does CTO as a service cost?

A monthly retainer of $5,000 to $30,000, most often $10,000 to $20,000, versus $150,000 to $300,000 a year plus equity for a full-time CTO. The retainer scales with scope and team size, with no hourly billing.

What CTO-as-a-service pricing plans do you offer?

We do not use fixed packages. Every engagement runs on one flexible monthly retainer that scales with scope and team size, and most fall into three general bands: early-stage architecture plus a small build team ($5,000-$10,000/month), a growing product with a dedicated squad shipping every two weeks ($10,000-$20,000/month), and larger pre-Series A/B builds needing a bigger team ($20,000-$30,000/month). We scope the right band on a call, and you can move between them as the work changes.

When do I need a CTO as a service instead of just developers?

When the technical decisions matter as much as the code: choosing a stack you will not have to rewrite, passing investor technical due diligence, meeting security or compliance requirements, or turning a fragile MVP into something production-ready. Developers execute; a CTO decides what to execute.

Can you help us hire an in-house CTO later?

Yes. When you are ready for a full-time CTO or engineering team, we help you interview, document everything, and hand off cleanly. No lock-in, and we would rather you graduate than stay dependent on us longer than you need to.

Get a CTO who ships , not just advises.

Tell us what you're building. If CTO as a service is not the right fit, we'll say so and point you toward what is.

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