I'm Andreas Scharf, a fractional CTO for founders who need senior technology leadership now and a way out of needing one later. 15+ years across telecom, HR tech, AI/SaaS, audio streaming, and ML platforms. Austria-based, remote across Europe.
Retainer-based, 2-4 days/week, 6-18 month commitment, 30-day mutual notice. Discovery call free, scoping deliverable paid.
A fractional CTO is a senior technology leader who joins a company part-time to own architecture, engineering leadership, hiring, and technical decision-making without becoming a permanent executive. I work 2-4 days per week and build toward a planned handover.
Hire a fractional CTO when technical decisions are slowing product, investors need credible answers, a team lacks direction, or a full-time CTO hire would be premature. The work is most useful during 0-to-1 builds, funding preparation, and scaleup transitions.
The engagement starts with a two-week assessment, then moves into a 6-18 month retainer. I join leadership and engineering rituals, make architecture decisions, mentor the team, and leave once a permanent lead or operating model is in place.
Technical due diligence covers architecture, scalability, security, code quality, infrastructure, team capability, process maturity, and risk. The output is an investor-readable assessment with prioritized recommendations and the evidence behind them.
Your product is gaining traction, but the architecture was built for last year's user base. Things keep breaking in production, releases slip, and your team is firefighting instead of building.
You're a non-technical founder, or your CTO just left. You need a peer who can challenge your assumptions, translate between business and engineering, and help you make calls you can trust.
Investors are asking hard technical questions. You need your architecture documented, your tech debt mapped, and a credible technology roadmap, fast. And someone who can present it with you.
Your engineering team is working hard, but deadlines keep slipping. Quality is inconsistent. The roadmap says one thing, reality says another. It's a leadership gap, not a talent gap.
You're prioritizing features based on gut feeling, not feasibility. Build vs. buy debates go in circles. You need someone who understands customers, product, and engineering, and can connect the three.
I sit in your leadership meetings and push back on product direction, prioritization, build vs. buy, and go-to-market timing. You get a peer who understands both the business and the tech, not someone who just takes orders.
I align your architecture, stack, and roadmap with your product vision and what your customers actually need, not with what's trendy. You stop making expensive technology bets based on guesswork.
I introduce the processes, standards, and culture that turn chaotic sprints into reliable delivery. Agile done right, CI/CD, code review, and clear ownership.
LLM integration, agent orchestration, RAG architectures, workflow automation. I turn AI from a slide deck talking point into shipped features with measurable business impact.
Due diligence reports, architecture documentation, and a roadmap that non-technical stakeholders can actually understand. I also join investor calls and board meetings to represent the technical side, as a peer, not a presenter.
I hire, mentor, and structure your engineering team toward an explicit handover. By month 9-12 you have a permanent technical lead, hired and onboarded by me, or a clear-eyed decision that you don't need one yet. Either outcome ends the retainer. 15+ engineers mentored from IC into management roles.
A 30-minute conversation to understand your challenges, team, and goals. No pitch, no slides, just listening. You'll know within this call if there's a fit.
I review your codebase, talk to your engineers, map your architecture, and audit your processes. You receive a written assessment with prioritized, actionable recommendations. No fluff.
I join your team on a flexible retainer: attending standups, making architecture decisions, unblocking engineers, and shipping code when needed. Typically 2-4 days per week.
As your team grows, I help hire your full-time CTO and ensure a clean handover. The goal is to make myself unnecessary.
Every engagement is structured around a defined exit: your full-time CTO hired by me, your team operating without one, or you walking away after the assessment. The retainer is the bridge, not the destination.
Written deliverable. You can stop here.
Architecture, hiring, processes, shipping. I'm in your standups, your board calls, your repo.
I run the search for my replacement, or we agree you don't need one. I document the handover. I leave.
Non-technical founders needed to go from idea to AI-powered recruiting platform with no tech team and no CTO.
CTO from day one. Shaped the product vision together with the founders, designed the architecture, and built the core platform.
0-to-1 product launch. 10x sourcing throughput.
CTO and sparring partner for 2 founders.
Built the MVP from scratch. Developed the data engine and multi-search-provider architecture for the AI-powered sales intelligence platform.
0-to-1 MVP launch. Laid the foundations of the tech.
Build the world's most scalable realtime audio streaming cloud platform from scratch.
CTO and sparring partner for founder. Promoted from Sr. Software Engineer to CTO within 1 year. Designed and implemented the platform. Built P2P and server/client streaming across web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and integrated hardware. Coordinated and mentored a team of around 10.
Realtime audio streaming platform shipped. Cross-platform streaming at global scale.
Build and ship the world's first unified data science platform and win enterprise clients.
Head of Engineering. Developed the core architecture across frontend, backend, and ML infrastructure. Worked directly with leadership on product strategy and customer requirements.
0-to-1 product shipped. Adopted by Fortune 500 customers.
I'm Andreas Scharf, founder of int32 solutions GmbH. 15+ years as CTO, Head of Engineering, and technical co-founder, from real-time audio streaming to AI-powered recruiting. My work has never been purely technical: I've shaped product strategy alongside founders, sat in investor meetings, challenged business assumptions, and translated between boardrooms and engineering teams. Austria-based, remote across Europe.
I work 100% remotely with startups and scaleups across Europe. My fractional CTO model is structured around a defined exit. Engagements run 6-18 months. Every contract has 30-day mutual notice from day one. Discovery call is free. Scoping deliverable is paid.
I have led engineering from 0-to-1 product launches through enterprise adoption, including architecture, hiring, delivery processes, stakeholder communication, and the handover work that makes the engagement end cleanly.
LINEAPP, talentmonkeys, Erium, PrimeTwin, RCSBoost, Liebherr, Burgenland Energie AG, Effectas, and other companies across telecom, energy, construction, HR tech, marketing tech, and sales intelligence.
What I'm building besides consulting.
Executive search for tech leadership. Tech leaders hired by peers, not recruiters.
AI intelligence platform for executive search. Automated candidate sourcing and matching.
I provide part-time, senior technology leadership: architecture decisions, technology strategy, team building, vendor evaluation, and engineering culture. Typically 2-4 days per week. But I also go beyond the technical: I challenge product direction, help with business decisions, and act as a thought partner for founders and executives. I embed with your team and take ownership of outcomes, not just advice.
Yes. That's exactly how most of my engagements work. I'm not just the person who manages your engineers. I'm the person you call when you need to pressure-test a product idea, rethink your go-to-market, or prepare for a board meeting. I understand both worlds and I communicate in whatever language the room needs.
A consultant writes a report and leaves. I join your standups, sit in your leadership meetings, make architecture decisions, hire engineers, review code, and stay accountable for results, like a full-time CTO, but on a flexible basis.
We renegotiate explicitly. The default contract has an exit. Staying past 18 months is a deliberate decision both sides make in writing, not a retainer that quietly renews.
Engagements run 6-18 months. We start with a 2-week assessment phase, then move to an ongoing retainer. Either side can end with 30 days notice from day one.
I can typically start within 1-2 weeks. The first week is focused on listening: reviewing your codebase, talking to your engineers, and mapping your technical landscape.
My primary focus is Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, but I work 100% remotely and have supported companies across Europe. If the timezone overlap works, we can make it work.
That's one of the most common scenarios. Your team has talent but lacks direction. I provide the architecture, processes, and mentorship that turn a group of developers into a high-performing engineering team.
Book a 30-minute call. No pitch, no commitment. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you.