AI Readiness Assessment
$2,5001 to 2 weeks
Where AI can actually save you money, what can run privately, build versus buy, and a prioritized plan.
Fractional CTO | Technology & AI Strategy
Senior technology leadership, without the $250,000 hire.
I run technology strategy and actually implement AI for small and mid-sized businesses. Where your data is sensitive, I deploy it privately, so nothing leaves your building.
No pitch. If you don't need me, I'll tell you.
The situation
You're making technology decisions with nobody qualified in the room.
Most businesses hit a point where the technology decisions get expensive and there is nobody to ask. Hiring a CTO costs $250,000 and more once you count everything. So the decisions get made by whoever is loudest, or they do not get made at all.
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"Should we be doing AI?"
Everyone is asking. Nobody can tell you what is real and what is a demo.
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Your stack is a mess
Overlapping software, nobody knows what you pay for, nothing talks to anything else.
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You cannot risk the data
Client files, case files, financials. It cannot go into a public chatbot, and you know it.
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Vendors run the conversation
You are being sold to by people who know more than you do about their own product.
What you get
What a fractional CTO actually does
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01
Technology Leadership
Technology roadmap, infrastructure and cloud decisions, cybersecurity posture, vendor and software selection, technology budgeting, and managing the developers or vendors you already use.
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02
AI Strategy
Where AI actually saves money or makes money in your business, and where it does not. Readiness assessment, tool selection, build versus buy, adoption roadmap, and the policies that keep your staff from doing something expensive.
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03
AI Implementation
I do not hand you a strategy deck. I deploy it. Private and on-premise models where the data is sensitive, integration into the systems you already run, workflow automation, and measurement of whether it actually produced a return.
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04
Executive Technology Advisor
The part most people end up valuing most. You stop having to work out "is this vendor legitimate," "should we build this ourselves," "can we put this data into AI," "do we need a new CRM." You just ask.
Private AI
Your data does not have to leave the building.
Most AI consulting ends with a recommendation to send your data to somebody else's cloud. For a law firm, a medical practice, an accounting firm, or anyone holding client files, that is not a small detail. It is often the reason the project dies.
I build AI that runs on your hardware. On your network. Fully offline where it needs to be. Same capability, none of the exposure.
I have shipped this, not theorized about it. My document AI system runs entirely offline from a USB drive, indexes your PDFs, spreadsheets and presentations, answers questions about them with citations, and never makes a single network request.
PUBLIC AI
Documents cross the boundary and leave.
PRIVATE AI
Nothing crosses the boundary. Not once.
FIG 02 / WHERE MOST AI CONSULTING ENDS, AND WHAT I DEPLOY WHEN THE DATA IS SENSITIVE
- Runs on your hardware
- Zero network calls
- Cited answers, no invention
Pricing
Pricing
Published, because you should not have to ask.
START HERE / DIAGNOSTICS
Technology + AI Assessment
$6,5002 to 3 weeks
Everything above, plus a full review of your infrastructure, network and security, an audit of your software spend with overlap detection, and a roadmap with a quantified savings figure.
Either fee comes off your first month in full if you start a retainer within 30 days.
ONGOING
Advisory
$2,500/mo
2 to 4 hrs/week
Monthly working session, quarterly roadmap review, and access when something comes up. For smaller teams that need judgment on call rather than a full engagement.
MOST POPULAR
Fractional CTO
$8,500/mo
~10 hrs/week
I own your technology roadmap. Weekly session, vendor and tool decisions, AI implementation, oversight of your developers, and direct access between sessions.
Embedded
$15,000/mo
~20 hrs/week
Hands-on leadership through a major build, migration, or transformation. Effectively a part-time executive on your team.
3-month minimum, then month to month with 30 days notice. No setup fees. No lock-in.
Founding client
Founding client program
I am building this practice deliberately and taking on three founding clients.
Founding clients get the Fractional CTO engagement at $6,000 a month instead of $8,500, month to month, with no minimum commitment. In exchange, I ask for a testimonial and permission to publish the results as a case study.
I would rather be straight about why the discount exists. I am pricing in the fact that you will be the proof for the people who come after you. Once three are signed, this goes away and the rate is $8,500.
Process
How it works
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A free call, 30 minutes.
You tell me what is going on. I tell you honestly whether I can help. No pitch, and no attempt to talk you into something you do not need.
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An assessment.
Two to three weeks. You get a real document: what you have, what it costs, what is wrong with it, and what to do in what order.
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We work together, or we do not.
If a retainer makes sense, the assessment fee comes off your first month. If it does not, you keep the roadmap and go do it yourself. That is a completely acceptable outcome.
Qualification
Who this is for and who it is not for
This is for you if:
- You have 10 to 200 people and technology decisions are piling up
- You are being asked about AI and do not have a confident answer
- You handle confidential client data and cannot use public AI tools
- You are paying for software nobody can fully account for
- You have developers or vendors and nobody technical enough to manage them
- You need judgment more than you need another pair of hands
This is not for you if:
- You want someone to write code full time. That is a developer, not a CTO.
- You are pre-revenue and pre-product. Come back when there is something to run.
- You want a strategy deck. I implement, and if you only want the deck we will both be frustrated.
- You need 24/7 on-call support. That is an MSP, and I will happily recommend one.
- You want the cheapest option. I am not it.
Comparison
Compared to the alternatives
| Criterion | Full-time CTO | Agency | Generic consultant | This |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | $250,000+ loaded | $15,000+/mo | $200 to $500/hr | $2,500 to $15,000/mo |
| Time to start | 3 to 6 months | 2 to 6 weeks | Days | About a week |
| Accountable for outcomes | Yes | Sometimes | Rarely | Yes |
| Actually implements | Yes | Yes | Usually not | Yes |
| Private / on-prem AI | Depends who you hire | Rarely | Rarely | Yes |
| Commitment | Permanent employee | Project contract | Per hour | Month to month after 3 |
Credibility
Who you are actually hiring
I have been doing this for over 25 years, which in this field means I have watched my own decisions get old enough to judge honestly.
I have run a Proxmox virtualization environment continuously since around 2012, across several hardware generations. I have replaced a dozen consumer routers with managed switching and proper firewalls. I have built and shipped desktop software, a fully offline document AI system, and a local inference stack running multiple models.
That combination is the point. Plenty of people can talk about AI. Fewer have run the infrastructure it has to live on, and fewer still have shipped something that works with no internet connection at all.
I work with a small number of clients at a time, on purpose.
- 25+ years
- 14 years running Proxmox
- Shipped offline AI
- Multi-model inference stack
Reviews
What clients say
Brian is very compassionate and focused on the work you ask for with percision and attention to detail. His work is professional. He has a brilliant mind.
Brian helped me launch my new law firm from the ground up, including logo design, full website development, automation systems, and strategic marketing campaigns. He understands both the tech and business side of running a business, which is invaluable.
At one point, I accidentally deleted my entire website while trying to make edits. Within hours, Brian restored everything. His technical skill, responsiveness, and forward-thinking [...] have been instrumental in helping my firm grow.
Verified reviews on Google. Read them there.
FAQ
Questions, answered
A fractional CTO is an experienced technology executive who works with your business part time, typically around 10 hours a week, instead of being hired full time. You get senior technology judgment, roadmap ownership and vendor decisions, at roughly a fifth of what a full-time CTO costs.
My rates are published above: $2,500 a month for advisory, $8,500 for the standard fractional engagement at around 10 hours a week, and $15,000 for embedded work at around 20 hours. Market rates for fractional CTOs generally run $5,000 to $15,000 a month depending on hours.
A consultant usually produces a recommendation and leaves. I own the outcome. I make the decisions, implement them, manage the vendors and developers, and stay accountable for whether it actually worked.
Yes. That is the part I specialize in. I deploy AI models that run on your own hardware, on your own network, with no external network calls. I have shipped a document AI system that runs fully offline and answers questions about your files with citations.
Yes, but the deployment model matters enormously. Public chatbots are usually the wrong answer when you hold privileged client material. Private on-premise models let you get the capability without the exposure. That is the first thing an assessment works out.
Usually within a week of the first call.
Retainers have a three month minimum so there is time to actually produce something, then run month to month with 30 days notice. Founding clients have no minimum at all.
Typically 10 to 200 people. Below that the advisory tier usually makes more sense than a full engagement.
Then start with an assessment, or book the call and say so. If a one-off piece of work is genuinely all you need, I will tell you that rather than sell you a retainer.
You describe the situation, I ask questions, and I tell you honestly whether I can help. If I cannot, I will usually be able to point you at who can. There is no pitch and no follow-up sequence.
Let's find out if this is a fit.
Thirty minutes, no cost, no pitch. Bring whatever is currently bothering you about your technology.
Or email