Senior judgement,
without the hire.
Senior technical judgement on retainer — architecture calls, delivery review, stack and hiring direction — without a full-time executive appointment. The deliverable is a written decision record, not an opinion delivered in a meeting nobody minuted.
Eight responsibilities,
held by one person.
Scoped narrowly on purpose. A retainer that covers everything covers nothing, and the first thing to slip is the writing — which is the part that outlasts us.
Architecture authority
Data model, service boundaries, integration surfaces, and the build-or-buy calls. One person holds the shape of the system and is accountable for it, including the parts that turn out to be wrong.
Decision records
Every material call written down: the decision in a sentence, the constraint that forced it, the option we rejected, and what would make us revisit it. The record is the deliverable, not a by-product.
Architecture review
A read of what already exists, including the parts nobody wants to open. Fragility, coupling, single points of failure, and the migrations that will get harder every month you defer them.
Delivery review
Sprint output against stated intent. Where estimates break, where review is being skipped under pressure, and which recurring bug class is a design problem rather than a discipline problem.
Stack and vendor direction
What to standardise on, what to retire, and which contract is quietly setting your ceiling. We argue for boring infrastructure and put the reasoning in writing when you want to go the other way.
Hiring direction
The sequence of roles, the level required, the interview loop, and the technical screen. We sit in final rounds and give a written read on each candidate rather than a thumbs up.
Risk register
A maintained list of what could break the business, ordered by cost rather than by how recently it was mentioned. Security, key-person dependency, data recovery, cost exposure, and compliance.
Technology due diligence
Independent technical reads for boards and investors — codebase quality, architecture risk, team capability, and what the roadmap will actually cost. Written for a non-engineer to act on.
Same slot, same person, decisions recorded.
Architecture questions answered in writing within one working day.
Long enough to see how your team actually delivers.
We carry our own on-call, so recommendations come from experience.
Four situations
where this works.
If none of these describes you, the retainer is probably premature. A team of three engineers with a clear roadmap does not need an architecture authority on a monthly bill.
Funded teams without a CTO
You have engineers shipping and nobody holding architecture. Decisions get made by whoever is closest to the keyboard, which works until two of them disagree in production.
Founders about to commit capital
A build is priced and about to start. An architecture read before the first commit is the cheapest hour you will spend on the project.
Boards needing an independent read
You are being asked to approve a technical plan you cannot verify. We report to the board, not to the team being assessed, and we say so to everyone up front.
Teams inheriting a codebase
An acquisition or an outsourced build has landed on your team and nobody trusts it. We map what is there, what is load-bearing, and what has to be rewritten before it can be extended.
Funded teams pre-CTO
Boards needing technical assurance
Pre-build diligence
Four weeks,
four artifacts.
The rhythm is fixed so the work is auditable. If a week produces no artifact, it did not happen and you should ask us about it.
Week 1
Standing session and priorities
A fixed weekly slot with the founder or engineering lead. Open decisions listed, ranked by what blocks delivery, and the ones we will settle in writing this month agreed.
- Decision queue
- Blocked items named
Week 2
Architecture and code review
A read of the current branch, the schema, and the deployment path. Findings go into the risk register with a cost and a recommended sequence rather than a severity colour.
- Architecture note
- Risk register update
Week 3
Delivery review and decisions
Sprint output against intent, estimate accuracy, and review discipline. Every call made this month is written as a decision record and lands in your repository, not a slide deck.
- Decision records
- Delivery read
Week 4
Roadmap and reporting
The next quarter resequenced against what we learned, including what is explicitly deferred. One written report you can forward to a board without translating it first.
- Sequenced roadmap
- Monthly report
Four documents
that stay with you.
All of it lives in your repository or your drive from day one. The reasoning does not leave when the retainer ends, which is the only honest test of whether advisory work was worth buying.
Deliverables
- 01
Decision records
One page per material call. The decision, the constraint, the rejected alternative, and the trigger to revisit.
- 02
Architecture notes
Data model, service boundaries, and integration surfaces at a level a new engineer can join on.
- 03
Risk register
What could break the business, ordered by cost, with an owner and a recommended sequence.
- 04
Sequenced roadmap
What to build in what order, and what is explicitly deferred with the reason attached.
Infrastructure defined as code, reproducible from zero. Observability and alerting configured before launch.
Retainer terms
- Shape
- Retainer · fixed hours · decision records
Fixed monthly hours agreed at the start and reported against. No open-ended availability, no unbilled drift.
- Cadence
- Standing weekly session
Same slot every week with the founder or engineering lead. Recorded decisions, not a status meeting.
- Between sessions
- Async, one working day
Architecture questions answered in writing within one working day during IST hours.
- Minimum term
- 3 months
A shorter term buys an opinion. Three months buys judgement informed by how your team actually delivers.
- Notice
- 30 days, either side
The records are already yours, so ending the retainer does not require a transition project.
- Escalation
- Two documented levels
The retainer holder, then the founder. Response commitments are stated in the agreement rather than assumed.
The rate depends on hours and scope, and we state it in the first reply to a brief. Diligence engagements for boards and investors are quoted as a fixed piece of work rather than a retainer.
We carry the pager
for what we recommend.
Three products are ours, and we run them in production. When we advise you to standardise on something or to refuse a shortcut, it is because we have already lived with that decision at our own cost.
Aurelia
Your network, with a memory.
Relationship intelligence · B2B SaaS
Voyazio
The backbone of travel business.
Travel infrastructure · Vertical SaaS
AxleOne
Powering the backbone of Bharat.
Logistics infrastructure · Fintech
We do not write the strategy deck
The output is a decision record, an architecture note, and a sequenced roadmap. If what you need is a fundraising narrative, hire someone who does that well.
We do not carry the title without the authority
A fractional CTO who can be overruled by whoever shouted last is decoration. Either the architecture call sits with us or the retainer is not worth your money.
We do not sell a build off the back of a review
A diligence or architecture engagement can conclude that your current team is fine and needs no vendor. That conclusion is a legitimate outcome and we have delivered it.
Read the rest
before you commit.
Technology leadership is one of three models. If the direction is already settled and the problem is capacity, a different shape will serve you better.
Compare all three engagement models
Technology leadership against project delivery and embedded engineering, including who leads and what each ends with.
Advisory and applied research practice
Cloud delivery, hosted platforms, and the operational layer that keeps them up.
Add engineers once the direction is set
Embedded engineering puts named engineers inside your team under the same review discipline, on a monthly allocation.
The ventures we own and operate
Three products we own the roadmap for and run in production ourselves.
Statutory and compliance
Legal entity, LLPIN, GSTIN, and recognitions — for boards and procurement teams that verify before they sign.
Bring us the decision you are stuck on
Describe the system, the call in front of you, and who has to be convinced. We reply with how we would approach it, the hours it needs, and the rate — including when the answer is that you do not need a retainer yet.