Your technical cofounder, without the equity
The technical cofounder role, filled: strategy, architecture, and hands-on code.The hardest part of starting a company is finding someone to build the product with you. The right technical cofounder is rare, expensive, and usually wants a big slice of equity for a company you've already started without them. I fill that role instead: I work as your technical cofounder (product thinking, architecture, and code that ships) on a fractional basis. You keep full ownership.
What a technical cofounder does, I do
When founders work with me as their technical cofounder, this is the job I take on:
Product & technical strategy
We turn your idea into a real product plan: what to build first, what to defer, which technology makes sense, and how it scales when you grow.
Hands-on development
I write the code myself. Not advice from the sidelines: architecture, features, and production software that ships.
Delivery rhythm
Roadmaps, priorities, and shipped milestones. Most startups fail on momentum, not talent.
Hiring your future team
When it's time to grow, I help you hire and lead the engineers: interviews, onboarding, and standards that stick.
Investor & partner credibility
Technical due diligence, demo-ready builds, and straight answers that hold up when you're raising or selling.
Why this beats the usual options
Founders usually end up choosing between bad deals. Here's what I'm comparing against:
Full-time CTO hire
Six figures, months of searching, and often equity on top. For most early companies, it's more than you need before product-market fit.
Development agency
They build what you ask for and leave. Nobody owns the technical direction, the roadmap, or the outcome.
Equity-for-code technical cofounder
A stranger takes a large slice of your company and may or may not deliver. The stakes are the highest possible, and the accountability is often the lowest.
An advisor
Advice from the sidelines, a call every few weeks. Useful, but someone still has to build the thing.
How it starts
Introductory call
A 30-minute conversation about your product vision, team, and current technical roadblocks. Honest, direct, and zero pitch.
Technical roadmap & alignment
We define the architecture, milestones, and deliverables tailored to what your startup actually needs.
Hands-on execution
Direct technical leadership, architecture reviews, team mentoring, and code shipped directly to your repository.
Relevant projects
B2B Dashboard for Thinkific Teams
WooNinja
A team management dashboard that lets companies buy seats, manage learners, and track progress, all from one place.
Read the full story →Therapy Practice Platform
WooNinja
A multi-tenant hosting platform for therapy practices, built on Laravel and Cloudflare.
Read the full story →OpsCamp
WooNinja
Field operations SaaS for oilfield services companies in North America.
Read the full story →Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up equity to work with you?
No. You keep 100% of your company. I work on a paid, retainer basis, which means I'm accountable for delivering, and you never hand over ownership to make it happen.
What's the difference between a technical cofounder and a fractional CTO?
Not much in practice. A technical cofounder is expected to own the technical side of the business day to day; a fractional CTO does exactly that without being a full-time hire. You get the role covered without the equity and salary of a cofounder.
I already have developers. Can you still help?
That's often the best time to bring me in. I lead the technical direction, set standards, review the work, and unblock the team, so your developers ship faster and the architecture stays coherent.
What if I need someone full-time later?
When you're ready to hire a full-time CTO, I'll help you define the role, interview candidates, and hand over clean: architecture, docs, and standards included.
What technologies do you work with?
Laravel, Livewire, and Tailwind CSS for modern SaaS; WordPress, WooCommerce, and Thinkific for ecosystem work; SAP Hybris for enterprise; plus SSO and identity (Okta, Auth0, SAML), Stripe, and cloud infrastructure on Cloudflare and Hetzner.
How fast can we start?
Usually within a week. We start with an introductory call to discuss your goals and align on scope before kicking off.
Looking for a technical partner who ships? Let's talk through your product.