Interim CTO
When you need a CTO in the chair now, full-time, for a defined stretch, I step in and keep the team and the roadmap moving.
Sometimes you do not need part-time help, you need someone in the chair now. A CTO left, a launch is at risk, a team has lost its direction, or you are mid-raise and cannot afford a leadership vacuum. I step in full-time, take ownership, and keep things moving while you sort out the permanent answer.
The goal of an interim engagement is to leave you more stable than I found you, with a clean handover to whoever comes next.
What it covers
- Immediate ownership of the engineering team and roadmap
- Stabilizing whatever is on fire: delivery, morale, or reliability
- Keeping shipping on track through the transition
- An honest assessment of the team, the stack, and the risks
- Standing in on investor, board, and customer technical conversations
- Defining the permanent CTO role and helping you hire for it
- Documenting decisions so nothing lives only in one person’s head
- A clean, written handover when the permanent leader arrives
Who it’s for
- Companies whose CTO or technical lead just left
- Teams in a crunch or a turnaround that need steady hands
- Companies mid-raise or mid-transition who cannot afford a gap
What you get
- Full-time technical leadership for the agreed term
- A stabilized team with clear priorities and ownership
- A written assessment of the state of engineering and the real risks
- A defined permanent CTO role and support hiring it
- A documented handover so your next leader starts ahead, not behind
How it works
- 1
Fast start
Interim work is urgent by nature. We scope quickly and I start within days where needed.
- 2
Stabilize
First priority is to stop the bleeding: unblock delivery, calm the team, and triage the risks.
- 3
Lead
I run engineering day to day, keep the roadmap moving, and represent tech to the board and customers.
- 4
Prepare the handover
In parallel I define the permanent role and document how everything works.
- 5
Hand off
I help you hire the permanent CTO and hand over cleanly, then step out.
What stabilizing a team actually involves
Walking into a team mid-crisis, the instinct is to change everything. I do the opposite first. The fastest way to steady a team is to remove ambiguity: who owns what, what ships this week, and what we are deliberately not doing. Most engineering fires are not technical, they are unmade decisions and unclear priorities, and those can be fixed in days without touching the code.
Once delivery is moving again, the real work is making sure I am replaceable: an honest assessment of the stack, often a quick architecture review, a documented handover, and usually helping you hire the permanent leader and set the team up to run without me through deliberate engineering team building. An interim engagement that leaves no trace of itself except a calmer, better-run team has done its job.
Why work with me
I’m Matt George, a fractional CTO for SMBs and early-stage startups and the founder of the venture-backed legal-tech company Injuria.ai. I have built and shipped real products end to end, from scrappy MVPs to data and AI infrastructure running in production, so the advice here comes from doing the work rather than talking about it. You get a senior technical partner with nothing to sell you, no vendor kickbacks, and a bias toward shipping.
FAQ
How quickly can you start?
Interim engagements are usually urgent, so I keep room to start within days of agreeing scope rather than weeks.
Will you also help us hire our permanent CTO?
Yes. Setting up your permanent leader to succeed is part of the job, including defining the role and sitting in on hiring.
What happens to the team after you leave?
That is the whole point of the handover. I document decisions and ways of working so the team keeps moving when I step out.
Can an interim engagement convert to fractional?
Often, yes. Once things are stable, some clients keep me on part-time as a fractional CTO rather than ending cold.
Related services
Fractional CTO
Senior technical leadership on a part-time retainer, for companies that need a CTO’s judgment but not a full-time one yet.
Engineering Team Building
Hiring, structuring, and leveling up the engineering team, so you stop depending on heroics and luck.
Technology Strategy
A written, costed technology plan that ties every build and buy decision back to where the business is going.
Let’s ship it! 🚀
Whether it’s legal tech, an AI platform, fractional CTO leadership, or a problem you just want a second set of eyes on, grab a time that works.
Book a Free Consultation →