Your product is built.
Know if it’s ready.
We match you with a CTO to review what your AI tools, freelancer or agency built. Get a clear verdict in plain English and practical next steps.
A 30-minute call first, then a fixed price. No commitment before that.
Dan MarkeloffFractional CTO
Stas GorsheninRetail CTO
Mike TulubaevCTO, Tech Lead
Vitaliy MakarovHead of EngineeringRead-only access under NDA. Nothing changes in production.
Your next steps, clearly ranked.
SampleRanked by business risk, not by how hard it is to fix.
A Fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works for your company part time, for a set number of hours a month. They make the technical decisions, review the work of whoever writes the code and answer to you for the result, without the cost of a full-time hire.
At Valletta, that person comes from a team of four technical leaders and is matched to your product after a first call. The first step is a fixed-price technical diagnostic of what you already have.
| Role | Owns | Does not own |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Writing the code for a task. | Deciding what to build. Judging someone else’s work. |
| Project manager | Dates, status, coordination. | Technical decisions. Code quality. |
| Fractional CTO | Decisions, standards, review and acceptance of whoever writes the code. | Writing features, by default. |
| Interim CTO | The same, full time for a fixed period, usually during a handover or a hiring search. | Staying on once a permanent lead is in place. |
| In-house CTO | The same, full time, usually with equity. | Starting next week. Independence from the build. |
| Technical co-founder | The same, as an owner. Paid mostly in equity, usually a large share that vests over years. | A quick start: finding the right person takes time. An easy exit: if they leave, equity questions and knowledge go with them. |
The team
Four senior technical leaders whose experience differs on purpose. After the first call we propose the person whose background fits your product and your task, so you know exactly who answers for your project before you commit.
Fractional CTO and AI Director
For founders who need to know whether code from AI tools or an agency will survive paying customers, and for teams moving to AI-assisted development.
Fractional CTO, Retail and Omnichannel
For retailers and DTC brands whose stores, online shop and contact centre run on separate systems, and for PE funds weighing a retail deal.
CTO and hands-on technical lead
For an early-stage product that needs one person to set the architecture, hire the team and write code next to them.
Head of Engineering and Delivery, Valletta Software
For founders whose team or vendor keeps missing release dates, and for fintech products that have yet to reach MVP.
Four situations, and the CTO who usually takes each one. We confirm the fit on the first call.
No senior engineer has read it.
Usually taken byDan MarkeloffYou sign off on work you cannot read.
Usually taken byVitaliy MakarovEveryone ships, nobody decides.
Usually taken byMike TulubaevFounders before a round, investors before a deal.
Usually taken byStas GorsheninOne of four technical leaders, chosen for your product and task. Fixed price for the diagnostic.
Your CTO reads the code themselves. No automated scan.
Your CTO stays on part time, or hands over to a permanent lead when you hire one.
Fixed price agreed on a 30-minute call. Read-only access under NDA. Typically one to three weeks.
Executive verdict
Not ready for paying customers yet. Three fixes stand between you and launch. No rebuild needed.
Composite sample. Findings come from published Valletta audits, not from one client.
Why it matters. Anyone who finds the URL can create or change orders.
What to do. Put authentication on every payment route before launch. About a week for the current developer.
api/payments/*Why it matters. Customers pay and receive nothing. Refund requests follow.
What to do. Finish the webhook handlers and test them against Stripe’s test events.
webhooks/stripe.tsWhy it matters. Every past contributor still has them.
What to do. Rotate every key and move secrets out of the repository. One day.
.env, 3 filesWhy it matters. The next deploy may fail or silently drop data.
What to do. Reconcile migrations against production before the next release.
Why it matters. You would learn about it from the customer.
What to do. Add a retry and an alert on failed refunds.
Why it matters. They will carry the next year of growth.
What to do. Keep them. No rebuild.
Why it matters. Sign-in and sessions are handled by a proven service.
What to do. No change needed.
Why it matters. Bugs in the money paths would reach customers first.
What to do. Add tests around payments and refunds first, not everywhere.
Why it matters. Nothing exploitable today.
What to do. Schedule upgrades after launch.
Published Valletta work, clients anonymised.
A Fractional CTO Discovery costs $4,990, fixed. Your CTO reviews the code, architecture, infrastructure and basic security, then hands you six deliverables: tech debt and risks, a target architecture, a roadmap, the team you need and a fixed MVP cost estimate. You leave knowing what to fix, what to build next and what the MVP should cost.
Fixed price
$4,990
Your code, architecture and infrastructure, plus basic security hygiene: secrets, access and backups. You get a tech debt map with a severity and an effort estimate for every item.
Lets you decideWhich problems to fix now, which can wait, and how much effort each one takes.
How the product is built today and where its bottlenecks are, next to a target architecture for the next 12 months, with the reasoning for each change.
Lets you decideWhich changes to fund this year, and which parts of today’s system to keep.
The top risks: scalability, bus factor (how much depends on one person), vendor lock-in and security. Each comes with its impact and a mitigation plan.
Lets you decideWhich risks to deal with first, and which you accept knowingly.
A prioritised plan for 3, 6 and 12 months with hour estimates, plus 5 to 10 actions that pay off in the first 2 to 4 weeks.
Lets you decideWhat your developers work on next, in what order, and how many hours to budget.
The roles your product needs and how to fill each one: hiring, staff augmentation or a contractor. Then a final session with you on the findings and the decisions.
Lets you decideWho to hire, who to bring in from outside, and what to commit to at the readout.
A fixed estimate of MVP cost and timeline: scope, hours, budget and team composition. Plus a high-level estimate of the next 2 to 3 milestones, such as v1.0 and scaling, with a budget range and key assumptions.
Lets you decideHow much to budget or raise for the MVP and the milestones after it.
It stands on its own. Two optional ways to continue.
Fractional CTO
You have a team or a vendor. You want one person answering for technical decisions.
Personal finance app, solo founder, no team. A $199 audit first, then a fractional CTO as technical owner of the backend until launch. The founder keeps changing the front end with AI tools, and our side reviews each release on staging before it goes live.
You are my back end now. If something breaks at three in the morning, I send one message and it is handled.
A founder, after the audit
Does not write features. If a fix needs hands, your CTO says so first and you decide who does it. Hours are agreed per engagement.
Interim technical owner
Your vendor is leaving, or your CTO left before the round.
Commercial terms with the vendor stay with you. Length is agreed per engagement.
A diagnostic and a part-time CTO now. Decide on equity once you have evidence.
Scope, estimate, milestones and code ownership checked before you sign.
Compare staying, a hybrid and a full migration before any rebuild starts.
A written verdict on code, architecture, security and team before a round or a deal.
Developer gone or agency stalled? Recover the code and accounts, then decide fix or rebuild.
One of the four people above, not a rotating team. Your CTO does the diagnostic, writes the verdict and is the person on your calls. They are named in the contract and not swapped without your consent.
On the first call we look at what you have, who builds it and what is coming next, then propose the person whose experience is closest to your product and task. You see their profile before you agree to anything.
Yes. Say so on the call or in the form. We confirm whether they are the right fit for the task; if not, we explain why and suggest someone else from the team.
No. In the four AI-built audits on our cleanup page the answer was refactor every time. Keeping your code and your developers is always an option in the report, and no Valletta development is proposed unless you ask.
A developer adds code. A Fractional CTO decides, reviews and answers to you for the result. The comparison above shows who owns what.
Yes, as your technical owner. Your CTO helps you get the code and the accounts back under your control, freezes changes and reviews what exists. You get a written verdict on what to keep and what to fix first. Who continues the build stays your decision: a new developer, your own hire or a team you choose.
Software project rescueGet read-only access to the repository and the cloud, then have someone on your side check it against the plan. Your CTO reviews what is built, what runs and what is missing, and writes a verdict ranked by business risk. You go into the next agency call with facts instead of status reports.
Usually keep fixing. A rewrite makes sense only when the data model cannot carry what the business needs. In the four AI-built products we audited, the answer was refactor every time. The diagnostic shows which parts are worth keeping before anyone proposes starting again, and keeping your code is always an option.
If technology is the core of the business and you have found someone you trust for years, a co-founder can be right. If you are not yet sure what the product needs, start with a Fractional CTO. You get decisions and reviews now and keep the equity question open until you have evidence.
Technical co-founder alternativeYes. Your CTO reads the scope, the estimate, the milestones and who owns the code, then gives you questions to send back and the red flags worth negotiating. We do not bid for the work, so the review has no stake in the price. The decision to sign stays with you.
Quote reviewIt depends on your contract and the law where it applies. In many places the author keeps the rights unless a written agreement assigns them to you, so check the contract for an IP or ownership clause. This is general information, not legal advice. Your CTO can check that the repository and accounts sit with you.
Yes. Stas Gorshenin has run technology due diligence on seven retail and retail-tech deals for private equity funds, covering architecture, tech debt, team and security. For a startup raising a round, the diagnostic also gives you a short note an investor can read.
Read-only repository and infrastructure access under NDA. You can revoke it the day the diagnostic ends.
By default, no. If a fix needs hands, your CTO says so first and you decide who does it.
A Fractional CTO Discovery costs $4,990, a fixed price. It includes a technical audit with a tech debt map, an as-is and to-be architecture map, a risk register, a 3, 6 and 12 month roadmap with quick wins, a team plan with an executive readout, and a fixed estimate of MVP cost and milestones.
What the Discovery includesA fixed price, quoted on the first call once the size of the codebase is clear. Built it yourself with Cursor, Lovable or Bolt? Start with the $199 audit, no call needed. Built by an agency or a team? Start with the diagnostic.
The $199 auditFounders who want a full-time developer, an equity co-founder or someone on site. For hands-on delivery, see Hire Developers.
Hire DevelopersYour name, email and four quick answers. A member of the team reads them and replies with times for a 30-minute call.