Who I Work With
VC's and Investors
De-Risk Portfolio Company Technical Execution
I partner with VCs to provide fractional CTO services to portfolio companies at critical inflection points. Pre-investment due diligence, post-Series A scaling, pre-Series B credibility building, or technical crisis management - I help de-risk technical execution and accelerate time to next milestone.
Your portfolio companies get CTO-level leadership without the $400K+ permanent hire. You get regular progress reporting and companies positioned for sustainable growth.
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Partner Organizations
Technical Expertise for Your Clients
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If you're a consultancy, investment firm, or advisory practice that needs technical assessment capabilities, I provide fractional CTO services you can offer to your clients.
Technical due diligence, second opinions on architecture decisions, crisis intervention, or execution support for companies navigating technical challenges. I work alongside your team to deliver outcomes while you maintain the primary client relationship.
Founders and CEOs
Fractional CTO Leadership for Growth Stage Companies
You need CTO-level technical leadership but aren't ready for a permanent executive hire. Your technical co-founder is overwhelmed, your systems can't handle growth, or you need to establish engineering credibility for your next raise.
I provide strategic guidance and hands-on execution for 3-6 months to stabilize operations, scale your team, design scalable architecture, and position your company for the next phase of growth.
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Right-Size Your Technology
(Before It Burns Your Runway)
Most fractional CTOs push complexity: bigger cloud infrastructure, larger teams, custom solutions for everything. I optimize for capital efficiency and speed to revenue.
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The Over-Engineering Problem
Early-stage companies often burn unnecessary capital on technology:
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$50K/month on AWS when $500 would serve your current users
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Hiring engineer #8 when you need better technology choices, not more people
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Building custom solutions when existing platforms get you to market in weeks instead of months
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Kubernetes infrastructure for an application serving 100 customers
This isn't technical excellence. It's premature optimization that shortens your runway and delays revenue.
Sometimes Simpler is Smarter
The best technical decision is often the one that preserves 6 months of runway while proving your model with real paying customers.
I evaluate your technology against your actual stage:
Burning cash unnecessarily?
Identify where to simplify, reduce infrastructure costs, right-size your team. Cut burn rate 30-50% while maintaining velocity. Sometimes you need 1-2 excellent engineers with smart tool choices, not a large team building everything custom.
Right-sized for your stage?
Optimize what you have, establish clear metrics for when you'll need to scale, create efficient growth path. Plan the migration before you need it.
Ready to scale?
Design distributed systems and build engineering teams that support 10x growth - but only for the pieces that actually need it. Keep everything else lean.
The Result
Extended runway. Reach profitability faster. Scale only what needs to scale, when it needs to scale.
The companies that win aren't always the ones with the most sophisticated tech stack. They're the ones that reach profitability before they run out of money.
Does This Sound Familiar?
Whether you're a VC watching a portfolio company struggle, a founder facing these challenges directly, or a partner serving clients with technical issues, these scenarios represent critical moments where fractional CTO leadership makes the difference.
Your site crashes during your biggest launch of the year.
You've grown 300% in the past six months, but your system wasn't built for this scale. Customers are frustrated, sales are lost, and you're losing sleep wondering when the next outage will hit.
Your development team spends more time fixing bugs than building features.
What used to be quick fixes now take weeks. Your engineers are constantly firefighting, and new feature development has ground to a halt. You're falling behind competitors who seem to ship faster than ever.
You want to hire senior developers, but they take one look at your codebase and walk away.
Your tech stack is a patchwork of quick fixes and outdated technologies. The few candidates who stay demand salaries you can't afford, and the ones you can afford lack the experience to untangle the mess.
Nobody on your team fully understands how your core systems work.
The original developers have moved on, documentation is sparse or nonexistent, and making changes feels like defusing a bomb. You're afraid to touch anything critical because you don't know what might break.
You're getting conflicting technical advice from every direction.
Your lead developer wants to rewrite everything in the latest framework. Your DevOps engineer insists the problem is infrastructure. Your product manager is pushing for more features. You need someone to cut through the noise and tell you what actually matters.
Your development velocity has slowed to a crawl.
What used to take days now takes weeks. Simple changes require extensive testing because no one knows all the dependencies. Your team is talented but overwhelmed, and you're not sure if you need more people, better processes, or a completely different approach.
Here's How We Help
If any of these situations feel familiar, you're not alone. We've seen just about every scenario during our time leading technical teams. Here's how we approach them:
Rapid Assessment & Reverse Engineering
We dive deep into your existing systems to understand what you actually have, not just what you think you have. Through code analysis, architecture review, and team interviews, we create a comprehensive map of your technical landscape—including the undocumented parts that only live in developers' heads.
Strategic Prioritization
Not all technical debt is created equal. We help you identify which issues are genuinely blocking growth versus which ones just feel urgent. We focus on the 20% of problems that are causing 80% of your pain, creating a roadmap that delivers immediate stability while building toward long-term scalability.
Team Building & Development
Your people are your greatest asset. We work with your existing team to establish clear technical leadership, and we can help you develop mentorship programs, and career development paths. When hiring is necessary, We help you attract senior talent by improving your technical reputation and creating an environment where experienced developers actually want to work.
Scalable Architecture Design
We design systems that grow with your business, not against it. Whether you need to handle 10x traffic, support multiple product lines, or expand internationally, we create architecture that scales efficiently without constant rewrites.
Process & Documentation
We establish engineering practices that prevent future chaos: automated testing, code reviews, deployment pipelines, and—crucially—documentation that actually gets maintained. Your team learns to work smarter, not just harder.
Fractional Leadership, Full-Time Impact
You don't need the overhead of a full-time CTO to get strategic technical leadership. Through 6-month or 1-year retainer agreements, we provide executive-level guidance when and where you need it most—without the six-figure salary, equity, or lengthy hiring process.
Why Fractional CTO?
Many companies facing technical scaling challenges assume they need to hire a permanent CTO. Sometimes that's right. Often it's not.
The Full-Time CTO Path
Investment Required:
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$300-500K+ total compensation (salary, bonus, equity)
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2-4% equity dilution
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6-month average search timeline
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40% fail within first year
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Permanent addition to payroll and cap table
Best For:
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Companies with sustained need for executive technical leadership
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Organizations ready to support C-level hire with appropriate resources
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Situations requiring full-time strategic and operational oversight
The Fractional CTO Path
Investment Required:
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$14-48K per month for 3-6 months
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No equity dilution
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Available in 1-2 weeks
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Proven track record and outcomes
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Clean exit when objectives achieved
Best For:
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Post-Seed through Series A companies navigating technical scaling challenges
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Pre-Series B companies building technical credibility for fundraising
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Companies in technical crisis requiring immediate expert intervention
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Bridge period during CTO search or leadership transition
Common Use Cases
Crisis Stabilization (90 days intensive)
Systems failing, customer churn accelerating, team morale collapsing. Rapid intervention to stop the bleeding, restore stability, and establish sustainable operations.
Scaling Preparation (4-6 months)
Post-funding need to 3x engineering team. Establish architecture, processes, and leadership structure that support growth without losing velocity.
Technical Credibility Building (3-6 months)
Pre-fundraise need to demonstrate technical capability to investors. Security compliance, scalable architecture, and engineering metrics that support valuation story.
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Leadership Development (6-12 months)
Technical co-founder augmentation. Build their capability to lead larger team while maintaining technical excellence. Prepare for their growth or transition to permanent CTO.
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After Fractional Engagement
Companies typically find themselves in one of three positions:
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Technical co-founder successfully scaled - now capable of leading larger organization
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Ready to hire permanent CTO from position of strength - systems stable, processes established, company attractive to top talent
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Extended engagement for next phase - additional scaling challenges require continued support
The fractional model provides flexibility to adapt as your needs evolve, without the commitment and risk of permanent executive hire.
How We Work
Every engagement follows a structured approach designed to deliver measurable outcomes while building internal capability that outlasts my involvement.
Discovery (Week 1)
Comprehensive assessment of your current state:
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Meet with leadership team to understand business objectives and constraints
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Interview engineering team to assess capability, morale, and challenges
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Review codebase, architecture, and infrastructure
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Analyze processes, tools, and documentation
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Identify critical issues and opportunities
Deliverable: Detailed assessment with prioritized recommendations, success metrics, and engagement roadmap.
We align on specific problems to solve, how we'll measure success, timeline, and how we'll work together. No surprises, clear expectations.
Execution (Weeks 2-24)
Hands-on fractional CTO work. Engagements structured in 10-hour weekly blocks (40 hours per month). Clients can scale up or down based on needs.
Strategic Activities:
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Architecture planning and technical roadmap development
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Leadership team meetings and decision-making
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Board preparation and investor reporting
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Hiring strategy and senior candidate interviews
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Operational Activities:
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Code reviews and architectural decisions
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Team mentorship and engineering leadership development
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Process establishment and tool evaluation
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Crisis management and critical issue resolution
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Throughout:
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Regular progress reporting to leadership and board
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Weekly team check-ins and 1-on-1s
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Documentation of decisions, systems, and processes
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Async support via Slack/email for questions and urgent issues
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The engagement flexes based on needs - some phases require more intensive presence (multiple blocks), others need lighter strategic guidance (single block).
Transition (Final Month)
Clean exit built into every engagement from day one:
Knowledge Transfer:
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Comprehensive documentation of systems, decisions, and rationale
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Training sessions for team members carrying work forward
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Recorded walkthroughs of critical systems and processes
Leadership Development:
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Internal technical leaders prepared to take ownership
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Clear decision-making frameworks established
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Team capable of self-direction and continued growth
Strategic Handoff:
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Technical roadmap for next 12-18 months
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Hiring plan and candidate pipeline if needed
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Support for permanent CTO search and transition if applicable
Post-Engagement:
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30 days availability for questions and clarifications
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Optional ongoing advisory relationship
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Support for new leadership during transition period
Measuring Success
Every engagement starts with clear, measurable objectives. I track progress using industry-standard metrics that matter to both technical teams and business stakeholders.
DORA Metrics (DevOps Research and Assessment)
Deployment Frequency: Monthly → Weekly
(or daily for mature teams)
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Lead Time for Changes: 2 weeks → 2 days
Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR): 4 hours → 30 minutes
Change Failure Rate: 20% → 5%
These four metrics are the gold standard for measuring engineering team performance and are recognized by technical leaders and investors alike.
Technical Stability
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System uptime improvement (95% → 99.9%)
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Customer-reported incidents decrease (15/month → 2/month)
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Infrastructure cost optimization while improving performance
Business Impact
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Revenue unblocked (specific deals closed, enterprise customers signed)
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Fundraising enabled (technical credibility supporting Series B)
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Cost optimization (infrastructure efficiency, algorithm improvements)
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Time-to-market acceleration for critical features
Leadership Development
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Technical co-founder successfully scaled to lead 20+ person team
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Senior engineers promoted to engineering management roles
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Permanent CTO hired from position of strength
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Team capable of self-direction after engagement ends
We review metrics weekly and adjust approach based on what's working.
Background: Tim Newsom
28 years building software. 15+ years in leadership helping teams scale. 6+ years at executive levels as Director and CTO guiding organizations through critical technology decisions.
Currently pursuing MS in Artificial Intelligence while building fractional CTO practice focused on high-growth companies navigating technical scaling challenges.
Notable Outcomes:
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Prevented loss of $24M multi-year contract through emergency system stabilization and rebuilds when customer was ready to leave due to technical issues
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Reduced development time 70% on critical feature - from 6 months with 5 engineers to 2 months with 1 engineer through architectural innovation
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Turned $4-5M annual losses into profitability - helped company go from losing money on $20M revenue to profitable on $24-26M through technical stabilization and customer retention
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Scaled engineering teams from 4 to 20+ members while maintaining delivery excellence
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Designed algorithms saving clients $10M+ annually
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Led technical transformations across fintech, retail analytics, transportation and government
Leadership Philosophy: Servant leadership focused on building capabilities, not dependencies. Success is measured by what teams can do after I leave, not what they needed me for while I was there.
Technical Depth: Distributed systems, microservices architecture, cloud-native solutions (AWS), CI/CD, system reliability engineering. I can have technical conversations with your best engineers and strategic conversations with your board.
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Email: tim.newsom@dioscuri-es.com
Phone: 463-328-2524
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Let's Talk
Ready to discuss your situation?
For VCs & Investors:
Explore how I can support your portfolio companies through technical scaling challenges and de-risk your investments.
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For Founders & CEOs:
Discuss your specific technical challenges and whether fractional CTO engagement makes sense for your stage.
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For Partner Organizations:
Explore how we might work together to serve your clients' technical needs.
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Prefer to Email or Call Directly?
Tim Newsom
Email: tim.newsom@dioscuri-es.com
Phone: 463-328-2524
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Initial conversations are exploratory. We'll determine together whether fractional CTO services make sense for your situation. No obligation, no pressure.