Fractional CTO for Ecommerce
Senior, ex-Shopify technical leadership on a part-time basis. Architecture, hiring, vendor decisions, and a roadmap, for brands not ready for a full-time CTO.
There is a stage where an ecommerce brand is making genuinely expensive technical decisions, what to build, what to buy, who to hire, when to replatform, but is not ready to commit to a full-time CTO at six figures and equity. A fractional CTO fills exactly that gap: senior technical leadership, part-time, priced to your stage.
Our CTO, Alex Massaad, spent over a decade at Shopify building the merchant tools your store runs on. We have built exclusively on Shopify for 14+ years, with ex-Shopify engineers on the team and three of our own apps in the App Store. That is the difference between a generic fractional CTO who knows software leadership and one who also knows the exact platform your business depends on.
This is not theoretical for us. We served as fractional CTO and full-stack developer for CartCapture, a Shopify cart-abandonment app: we shipped an MVP in two weeks and a production-ready app in the Shopify App Store in under four months. That is the kind of revenue-bearing system where the technical decisions, how exit intent is detected, when the offer fires, how recovery is measured, directly change what the business earns. The work below is the work we have actually done.
The CTO Seat, in Practice
Real engagements, named where the client allows it.
MVP in two weeks, App Store in under four months
AppSumo's Head of Growth had been thinking about the app for months. We took the CTO seat, designed it, and built it end to end: exit-intent storefront behaviour against live commerce data.
See the CartCapture project →
Plan, then phased buildManual order routing, eliminated
A team with limited technical background needed a plan before code. We phased the automation into digestible workstreams with weekly calls, then built routing on metaobjects, live carrier rates per origin and automated label dispatch.
See the Swiss Water project →“I hired Alex as a fractional CTO to help build a custom Shopify app that I had been thinking about for months and he has been nothing short of incredible. This is the guy you want in your corner when trying to do anything in the world of Shopify, if you get a chance to work with him absolutely do it.” more about CartCapture
Who you'll work with
You scope the project with the people who build it. The developer on the kickoff call is the developer on launch day.
Book a Strategy Call
Tell us what you're building, what the current stack looks like, and whether you need strategy alone or strategy plus execution. We'll come back with an honest read and a fixed monthly scope.
What a Fractional CTO Actually Does for You
The title sounds abstract. The work is concrete, and it is the work that keeps small ecommerce teams from making costly technical mistakes:
- Architecture and platform decisions. Whether to go headless, when Shopify Plus is worth it, how to structure integrations so they do not become a liability.
- Build versus buy. When a custom app is justified and when an off-the-shelf one will do. We build apps, so we can tell you honestly when not to.
- Hiring and oversight. Writing the role, running the technical interviews, and holding your developers or agency to a real standard.
- The roadmap. A short, prioritized plan that your team can actually execute, with the low-value work cut out.
Strategy, or Strategy Plus Execution
Some brands want pure direction while their own team builds. Others want us to lead the build too, since we run a Shopify development and app development team. Both work. We are comfortable directing other people’s developers, and we will not insist the work come to us when it should not.
Where the CTO Role Connects
Technical leadership touches everything. A replatform or migration is one of the biggest technical bets a brand makes, and the wrong call is expensive. Shopify SEO and retention both depend on technical decisions made upstream. If your needs are more about strategy than the stack itself, an ecommerce consultant engagement may be the better fit, and we will tell you which one you need.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Swiss Water came to us with a complex automation roadmap and a team that didn’t have a technical leader to sequence it. We phased the work into six-week workstreams with clear timelines and weekly calls, and their marketing manager’s words after launch were that our insight was “invaluable in determining the best plan to build out our automation projects.” That planning-first approach is the CTO engagement in miniature. Read the full case study.
Not Sure You Need One Yet?
Read what a fractional CTO does and when an ecommerce brand needs one before you decide. If the decisions in front of you are not that expensive yet, we will say so.
Book a Strategy Call
If you are making technical bets without anyone senior to pressure-test them, that is the moment to talk. Book a strategy call and we will give you an honest read on what your stage actually needs, or browse our portfolio to see the kind of work we lead.
What's included
- Technical strategy and architecture decisions
- Vendor, platform, and build-vs-buy calls
- Engineering hiring, review, and team oversight
- A roadmap your team can actually execute
How it runs
- 1Assess
We review your stack and roadmap, talk to your team, then find the technical risks and the highest-leverage moves.
- 2Prioritize
A short, honest plan: what to fix now, what to defer, and what to stop spending on.
- 3Lead
Ongoing technical direction: architecture calls, vendor decisions, hiring, and oversight of the people doing the work.
- 4Hand Off
We build toward your team owning it, not toward keeping you dependent on us.
Guarantees
Real ex-Shopify engineering leadership, not a generalist
Plain-language advice your non-technical team can act on
We will tell you when you do not need us
Built toward your independence, not our retainer
FAQs
What is a fractional CTO?
A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works with your company part-time, providing the strategy, architecture decisions, and engineering oversight a full-time CTO would, without the full-time cost or commitment. For an ecommerce brand, that usually means owning the platform and integration decisions, guiding or vetting the developers, and translating technical reality into business terms the founders can act on. We cover this in depth in our guide to [what a fractional CTO does](/blog/what-is-a-fractional-cto-ecommerce/).
When does an ecommerce brand need a fractional CTO instead of a developer?
A developer executes. A fractional CTO decides what should be executed and why. You need the latter when the technical decisions are getting expensive: choosing a platform, planning a replatform, deciding build versus buy on a custom app, hiring engineers, or untangling a stack that has grown by accident. If you find yourself making six-figure technical bets without anyone senior to pressure-test them, that is the moment.
What does a fractional CTO cost?
Less than a full-time CTO, which on the ecommerce side typically runs well into six figures and equity. Fractional engagements are scoped to a set number of days or hours per month and priced accordingly, so you get senior judgment at the cadence you actually need. We scope it on a call based on your stage and the decisions in front of you.
Do you just advise, or do you actually run the engineering?
Both are on the table. Some clients want pure strategy and oversight while their own team or agency builds. Others want us to also lead the build, since we run a Shopify development and app team. We are honest about which one you need, and we are comfortable directing other people's developers rather than insisting the work come to us.
Why you as a fractional CTO for ecommerce specifically?
Because our CTO spent over a decade at Shopify building the tools your store runs on, and we have built exclusively on the platform for 14+ years, including three of our own apps in the App Store. Generic fractional CTOs know software leadership. We know software leadership and the exact platform your business depends on, which means fewer expensive lessons learned on your dime.
Can you help us hire and vet engineers?
Yes. Hiring is one of the most expensive things to get wrong, and most ecommerce founders are not equipped to evaluate senior engineers. We write the role, screen candidates, run the technical interviews, and set up the review practices so the people you hire are held to a real standard.
