Fractional CTO and technical advisor

I build at the frontier, and bring what works to you.

I spend my time hands-on with early-stage startups, building with the newest tools as they land. Then I bring the parts that are genuinely ready into established businesses that have outgrown their technology.

Thirty minutes, no pitch, no charge.

Worked with
ING
Ticketmaster
interactive investor
LendInvest
Ani
Services

Find out what is worth building before you spend on it.

What you get
  • 01Discover: your technology, data and workflows, and what they cost you today
  • 02Problem fit: the problems worth solving, confirmed with the people who live with them
  • 03The riskiest assumption behind each opportunity, and the cheapest way to test it
  • 04Quick experiments where we can, so decisions rest on evidence rather than opinion
  • 05A ranked list: build, test further or drop, with effort, cost, value and whether your team can build it
  • 06Written memo and a 60 minute readout with your leadership team
If after the readout you don't think it was worth the fee, don't pay it.

Fixed fee. Two reviews available per month.

Selected work
ING · Loan Optics

ING's Innovation Lab wanted new revenue in corporate banking. We started with a blank page: no product, no team and no customers.

We ran it through the bank's gated venture process, earning every funding round with customer evidence. When our riskiest assumption failed testing, we pivoted to capturing loan data upstream, inside the law firms' drafting platforms. I built the product and the team, led a 12-bank, three-law-firm working group through a live digital loan simulation, and ING spun Loan Optics out to vc trade in 2023.

Naturally inclined at shaping digital products and ventures that can meet real users' needs, and very good at communicating with non-tech people.

Giacomo Monti, design lead

Start here£5,000, two weeksFrontier ReviewBest if you suspect your technology is holding you back but don't know where to start.What you get (6)
  • 01Discover: your technology, data and workflows, and what they cost you today
  • 02Problem fit: the problems worth solving, confirmed with the people who live with them
  • 03The riskiest assumption behind each opportunity, and the cheapest way to test it
  • 04Quick experiments where we can, so decisions rest on evidence rather than opinion
  • 05A ranked list: build, test further or drop, with effort, cost, value and whether your team can build it
  • 06Written memo and a 60 minute readout with your leadership team
If after the readout you don't think it was worth the fee, don't pay it.

Fixed fee. Two reviews available per month.

Selected work
ING · Loan Optics

ING's Innovation Lab wanted new revenue in corporate banking. We started with a blank page: no product, no team and no customers.

We ran it through the bank's gated venture process, earning every funding round with customer evidence. When our riskiest assumption failed testing, we pivoted to capturing loan data upstream, inside the law firms' drafting platforms. I built the product and the team, led a 12-bank, three-law-firm working group through a live digital loan simulation, and ING spun Loan Optics out to vc trade in 2023.

Naturally inclined at shaping digital products and ventures that can meet real users' needs, and very good at communicating with non-tech people.

Giacomo Monti, design lead

From £20,000Build SprintBest if you know what to build and want one working thing in production, fast.What you get (5)
  • 01Six to eight weeks, scoped up front
  • 02Built alongside your team, not instead of them
  • 03Architecture decisions documented as we go
  • 04In production, used by real people, not a prototype
  • 05Handover plan so your team carries it on
Milestone-gated flat price. I stay until the milestones are hit.

Flat fee per engagement, scoped before we start.

Selected work
VyBlee

A dispatch and fulfilment idea for commercial kitchens and hotels, with no platform behind it yet.

Took it from concept to a production platform on Laravel, Svelte and AWS with a seven-person team. Transaction volume grew by more than 400%, and the business exited within a year.

He gave the team a clear technical direction, trusted us to own our parts of the product, and was always quick to unblock things. A pragmatic, supportive CTO who really knows how to ship.

Zac Flynn, engineer at VyBlee

From £1,250 per dayFractional CTOBest if you need CTO-level judgement every week, but not a full-time hire.What you get (5)
  • 01One to two days a week, embedded with your team
  • 02Technical direction and architecture ownership
  • 03Hiring, and building the team that outlasts me
  • 04Security and compliance posture, including ISO27001 readiness
  • 05Hands-on delivery, because I still write code
Monthly rolling. No long tie-in, and no notice games.

One to two days a week, minimum three months.

Selected work
Ani (formerly BYOB)

A boutique AI workforce product that needed to become something hedge funds, family offices and wealth managers could buy.

Joined as interim CTO, then stayed on. Built a seven-person engineering team across product, data, infrastructure and delivery, and sharpened product-market fit around AI-enabled workflows for finance teams.

Oliver has both the technical and leadership skills you need for a development team, and is not afraid to push boundaries on what is technically possible.

Vasi Logeswaran, CTO at Ani

About

Most businesses running on ageing technology don't need a strategy deck. They need someone who can build.

The two halves of my work feed each other. Startups keep me current on what is genuinely ready, not just what demos well. Established businesses taught me governance, security and what enterprise buyers actually demand before they sign. You get both, without the experiments that waste a year, and your team keeps everything I learn.

  • 0115+ years building and leading engineering teams
  • 02Multiple CTO roles, from founder-built prototype to acquired platform
  • 03Co-founded Loan Optics at ING and took it from blank page to spin-out
  • 04Delivered ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus
  • 05Shipping production AI: retrieval, vector search, agentic architectures
  • 06Angel investor in six early-stage startups
  • 07Still hands-on: Laravel, TypeScript, Python, Go
Portfolio

Where I put my own money.

I am an angel investor in six early-stage companies. This is how I stay current, and it is why I know what is genuinely ready before I bring it into your business.

  • 01AniInvestor
  • 02ReStyleInvestor
  • 03AlterddInvestor and advisor
  • 04WeCoffee (Othership)Investor
  • 05GluuInvestor
  • 06CoInvestorInvestor
Contact

Start with a conversation.

Tell me where your technology is holding the business back, and I will tell you what I would do about it. Thirty minutes, no pitch.