Seattle founders don't need a full-time CTO. They need a fractional CTO who owns the outcome.
Fractional CTO for Seattle and Washington State startups, on Pacific time. For non-technical founders building in Seattle, Bellevue, and across Washington: a sitting CTO who owns the technical decisions and the code behind them. If you have developers, I lead them. If you don't, I am the team. Either way, one person is accountable, without a full-time executive hire.
CTO at Get Cover · 4+ years leading IT at Jacana Warranty · 13+ years shipping software · Five clients at a time
Technology leadership for
Satsman
Fractional CTO for Seattle startups
Most Seattle founders I speak to arrived at the idea from inside a big engineering org. They were a PM at Amazon, a program lead at Microsoft, a commercial owner at a Bellevue enterprise — sharp about the market, well-networked, and used to a company where someone else already decided the stack, the CI, and the security posture. Starting a company removes all of that scaffolding at once, and the first six months of technical decisions turn out to be the permanent ones.
That is a different starting position from a bootstrapped founder in Austin or a technical co-founder in the Bay Area, and it needs a different kind of help. You usually don't need someone to explain what good engineering looks like — you have seen it. You need someone on your side of the table who will make the early calls with you and then tell you honestly whether the developer you are paying is delivering.
Every engagement is remote-first and scheduled on Pacific time: a weekly video call in your working hours, async Slack in between, and same-day responses on weekdays.
What a fractional CTO does for a Seattle startup
Five areas where Seattle and Bellevue founders — most of them one or two years out of a big-tech org — lose the most time and money when they guess. A senior technical owner closes the gap, and is accountable for how.
Tech Stack Decisions
Seattle defaults to AWS because half the city used to work there, and Bellevue defaults to Azure for the same reason. Both are fine. What is not fine is a managed-service bill that outgrows your revenue by month nine. I make the call that fits your product and your runway, not the one your last employer could afford, and I answer for the bill.
Architecture Reviews
Selling B2B out of the Puget Sound region means your first real customer will run a proper security review — and they will run it early, because that is how buyers here are trained. I find the multi-tenancy gaps, auth shortcuts, and data isolation issues, and I own the fix before that questionnaire lands in your inbox.
Hands-on Development
When there is no team, or your team in Seattle or offshore hits a hard problem, I write the code myself. Not 'review and suggest.' Open the PR, write the tests, deploy the fix. The person who made the call is the one who ships it.
Developer Oversight
You managed engineers at Amazon or Microsoft, so you know what a healthy team feels like — but you had a director, a bar raiser, and a whole org reading the code for you. You don't now. I become that layer: I set the bar, review your developers' work, and give you an honest read on whether the velocity you're paying for is real.
Roadmap Planning
Big-tech instincts push founders toward building the platform version of everything on day one. That is the right call at scale and the wrong call at eleven customers. I own the sequence so each sprint moves toward revenue, and so the shortcuts you take now are the ones you can actually undo later.
Seattle founders need one owner — not an advisor and a builder
At Amazon or Microsoft, every technical decision had an owner and you could see who it was. Most early Seattle startups lose that. They hire a CTO-level advisor who can't ship and a senior engineer who won't think past the ticket, and nobody owns the gap between them. I own it. If you have developers, I lead them, set the bar and answer for what ships. If you don't, I am the team, and I build it.
With a team, I lead it
- Stack and cloud decisions sized for your runway, not your last employer's budget
- Engineering standards, and review of your developers' work before it ships
- Developer hiring help — vet candidates from the Seattle, Bellevue, and remote pools
- Security and compliance planning for enterprise procurement reviews
- A roadmap that hits revenue milestones, not just feature counts
Without a team, I am the team
- Ships production features end to end
- Fixes the performance issue your customer just complained about
- Builds the tricky third-party integration nobody wants to touch
- Lays architecture that will survive investor due diligence
- The code and the decisions behind it stay yours
Most fractional CTOs advise and walk away from the consequences. Most developers execute without owning the decisions. In a city where a senior engineer is a $180K hire, splitting the role between the two is the most expensive way to buy it, and the least accountable. One owner who does both removes the translation layer.
Three ways to work together, one person accountable
Founders coming out of big tech usually know which of these they need once they see them side by side. If you have developers and want a technical leader setting direction and reviewing the work, that is Advisory. If the product has to ship and someone has to own delivery, leading your team or building it outright, that is Embedded. If the job is one defined build, such as an MVP, a rescue or a migration, it is a scoped engagement owned end to end.
Technical Health Check · $500
The full fee is credited to your first month of a fractional CTO retainer if you sign within 30 days of receiving the report.
Advisory CTO
From $2,500/month
For founders whose developers or agency need a technical leader setting direction and checking the work.
- Technical strategy and architecture decisions
- Oversight of your developers or agency
- Code and architecture reviews before work ships
Embedded CTO
From $5,000/month
For when shipping the product is the priority and someone has to own it.
- Leads your team, or builds hands-on when there is no team
- Owns delivery: what ships, and when
- Accountable for the result, not just the advice
CTO-led delivery
Quoted per engagement
A scoped build, such as an MVP, a rescue or a migration, owned end to end.
- Architecture through launch under one owner
- Scope and price agreed before work starts
- The code and the decisions behind it are yours
Think of it as a single-threaded owner for your technology: the level of involvement changes, the accountability does not. Not sure which fits? Book the call. In 30 minutes I'll know whether you need ongoing leadership or one scoped build. And if it turns out you don't need a fractional CTO at all, I'll tell you that and recommend what you actually need.
The person who makes the call ships it
Advice and execution. One owner.The fractional CTOs available in Seattle are often ex-big-tech leaders who last shipped code before their first management promotion. They'll review your architecture, recommend a vendor, and leave the consequences with you. I own them. When your team is stuck, I open the editor and ship the fix myself.
I am CTO at Get Cover, a US insurtech whose warranty platform serves 32,000+ clients. I also bring 4+ years leading IT as Executive Director of IT at Jacana Warranty, where I built the tech function from zero, hired and managed the team, and reported directly to the CEO. A single owner for a technology function is not a theory to me. It is the job I hold.
13+ years shipping production software across B2B SaaS, fintech, and warranty platforms. I know what breaks as a product grows, because I write and review the code that has to survive it. Not in a deck. In production.
- CTO at Get Cover
- Sitting CTO of an insurtech serving 32,000+ clients
- 4+ Years Leading IT
- Executive Director of IT, Jacana Warranty
- 13+ Years
- Shipping production software
What clients say
“Nikhil was a game-changer for GetCover. He understood our B2B vision and built a platform that processes over $1M in warranties.”
“As Executive Director of IT, Nikhil built our entire technology infrastructure over 4+ years. His vision transformed Jacana Warranty into an industry leader.”
“Nikhil transformed our decade-old Excel system into a modern warranty platform. His RBAC solution revolutionized how we manage warranties.”
Fractional CTO for Washington startups
I work with founders across Washington, not only inside the Seattle city limits. Seattle and Bellevue are where most of the conversations start — B2B SaaS, cloud tooling, healthtech, and fintech, usually selling to companies that run a real security review before they sign. Tacoma and Spokane founders tend to be building for industries with actual operations behind them: logistics, healthcare services, manufacturing, insurance. Both need the same thing early, which is architecture decisions that will still hold when a serious customer starts asking questions.
Because the work is remote and Pacific-aligned, where you sit in the state changes nothing about the engagement. There is no travel premium for Spokane and no in-person retainer for Seattle. You get the weekly call, the code reviews, and the same-day weekday response wherever you are.
What that produces is worth judging on output rather than on a promise. The products shipped under my technical lead are the honest version of what one accountable technical owner delivers — real platforms, live users, and the architecture decisions that kept working after launch.
This is NOT for you if…
I take a maximum of five fractional clients at a time, so I'd rather decline a bad-fit engagement than take the slot and disappoint you. Read these honestly. If any sound like you, we're probably not a match — and I'll save us both the call and tell you that upfront.
You're validating a weekend idea, not building a startup
If there's no business model, no plan to charge, and no first conversations with potential customers, you don't need a fractional CTO. You need a weekend, a notepad, and 5 customer interviews. Come back when there's a real reason to invest in engineering.
You want a technical co-founder for equity
Co-founders take equity, take risk, and commit to the company for years. I'm a paid fractional CTO: cash, not stock. If your pitch is "work for free until we raise," I'm not the right person, and I'd be skeptical of anyone in Seattle who says yes to that.
You want a 'set it and forget it' build
I own the technical decisions and the code. The product calls and the tradeoffs stay yours, and the founders I work with successfully show up to the weekly call and decide fast on Slack. If you want to disappear and come back to a finished product, an agency will take the brief. They'll quote you a price, build exactly the wrong thing, and you'll have nobody to blame but the spec.
You expect engineering to fix a market problem
If your SaaS isn't getting customers, the answer is rarely "more features." It's usually positioning, sales, or product-market fit. I can build whatever you describe, but I won't take your money to build version 4 of a thing the market already rejected at version 2. Be honest about what's actually broken.
Questions Seattle founders ask before hiring fractional
Direct answers from someone who works with Pacific-time teams remotely. No pitch.
A full-time CTO in Seattle runs roughly $220K–$320K base plus equity and benefits, and the search takes 6–9 months because every candidate worth hiring is already being paid more than that by Amazon, Microsoft, or a well-funded Bellevue startup. All-in, year one clears $400K. A fractional CTO gives you senior ownership of the technology without making that hire: the same strategic decisions and team oversight, from someone accountable for them, without the search or the dilution. Advisory starts at $2,500/month and Embedded at $5,000/month; scoped builds are quoted per engagement. And unlike most fractional CTOs, I don't stop at advice. With a team, I lead it. Without one, I am the one writing the code.
All my engagements are remote and time-zone aligned, and Washington is one of the easier states to serve that way — a single weekly video call on Pacific time plus async Slack covers almost everything. The work is the same whether you're in Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, or Spokane: weekly call, same-day weekday response, code reviews on your repo, and I show up to your standup if you run one.
I work US business hours, and for Washington clients that means Pacific. The weekly call is booked on your calendar, not mine, and Slack messages you send during your working day get answered during your working day. If a launch, a security review, or an incident needs me on your hours for a stretch, I am on your hours for that stretch.
Sometimes no, and I will tell you when the answer is no. If you have not talked to customers yet, or there is no plan to charge, spend the money on neither me nor a developer. Where it does pay before a raise is when you are already paying someone to build — an agency, a contractor, an offshore team — and you have no way to judge what you are getting, or when the architecture decisions you make in the next two months are the ones an investor's due diligence will read. Both are common in Washington because so many founders here come out of Amazon, Microsoft, or a Bellevue enterprise with the market knowledge and a budget but no technical counterweight. That is what the first call is for: working out which case you are in before either of us commits to anything.
A senior full-stack developer in the Seattle metro runs $150K–$200K base, and Bellevue is at the top of that range because it competes directly with big tech for the same people. Add benefits and a recruiting cycle. That buys someone writing code, not someone owning the decisions about what to build and answering for them. My engagements are priced by how much I own. Advisory CTO is from $2,500/month: strategy, architecture, oversight of your developers, and reviews before work ships. Embedded CTO is from $5,000/month: I lead your team, or build hands-on when there is no team, and own delivery. CTO-led delivery is a scoped build, such as an MVP, a rescue or a migration, quoted per engagement with scope and price agreed before work starts. I take a maximum of five fractional clients at a time.
Often yes, and for a reason that surprises people. Big-tech experience gives you excellent judgment about what good looks like — you've seen real design reviews, real on-call, real scale. What it does not give you is practice making the early decisions yourself, because at that size the platform, the stack, the CI, and the security posture were all decided before you arrived. Those are exactly the decisions that are permanent at eleven customers. If you can already pick the stack, review the code, and interview engineers yourself, you don't need me. If you can describe the product perfectly but can't tell whether the person building it is doing a good job, that gap is the whole engagement.
Yes — and in Seattle it's one of the most valuable parts of the engagement, because you are hiring against the highest-paying employers in the country. Competing on salary is not a strategy for a young company, so the work is to write a spec that attracts the right person, screen properly, and run a technical interview that actually predicts performance instead of testing for interview practice. I write the spec and the screening rubric, run the technical interview, and review the take-home. The hires are yours — the process gets someone behind it who has built and hired a technology team from zero, instead of guessing.
You do. Whether I am leading your developers, building it myself, or running a scoped build such as an MVP or a rescue, the code and the decisions behind it stay yours. Scope and price are agreed before any work starts, and there is no hourly billing.
With a 30-minute call. If a fractional CTO is the right answer, we agree the engagement, the scope and the price before any work starts; if it is not, I say so. If you already have a product, the usual first step is the Technical Health Check: a written review of your codebase within 5 business days of getting access.
I help you make that hire well. I write the role with you, run the technical interviews, and hand over a codebase and a record of the decisions behind it that a strong candidate will want to inherit. A fractional engagement carries you until a full-time technical leader is justified.
Based in a different state? I also work with founders in San Francisco & the Bay Area, Texas (Austin, Dallas & Houston), and Los Angeles & Southern California.
Outside the Pacific Northwest? Start with the national overview of my fractional CTO for startups.
Let's Give Your Seattle Startup a Single Technical Owner
Book a call. 30 minutes, on Pacific time. Tell me where you are — Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Spokane, or anywhere else in Washington — what's stuck, and what you're trying to reach. I'll tell you whether a fractional CTO is the right answer for your stage, and if it is, how much of the technology I should own.
I take a maximum of five fractional clients at a time.