Best Fractional CTOs for Small Businesses

Fractional CTO Services for Small Businesses

In cities around the world, small businesses form the backbone of local economies. Whether you’re a boutique tech startup, a niche manufacturing firm, or a service provider scaling your team, you need more than just day‑to‑day engineering support. You need strategic tech leadership. That’s where a Fractional CTO steps in: bringing executive‑level engineering and technology guidance without the full-time cost of a permanent hire.

At Digital Reference, we’ve curated a global list of the best fractional CTOs for small businesses, carefully selecting professionals through a rigorous methodology:

• Extensive research: We comb through LinkedIn, company websites, and client testimonials.
• Evaluation of engineering & business impact: How have they helped small businesses improve engineering maturity, build scalable systems, or manage technical debt?
• Global reach + fractional model: Our list includes freelancers, solo operators, and firm‑based CTOs from around the world who demonstrate measurable engineering leadership success.

🌟 Meet the Fractional CTOs Helping Small Businesses Thrive

🟠 CJ Patrick‍

Partner and Fractional CTO for Small Businesses | Sedulan LLC

 🔗 LinkedIn

CJ Patrick brings over 25 years of industry experience, from web and mobile design through search engine marketing to mobile‑app and custom application development. He has worked across food service, healthcare, banking, manufacturing, and retail industries.  His firm, Sedulen, emphasizes flexible engineering resources, system architecture, and delivering on‑time, on‑budget custom software—including web, mobile, apps and APIs.

💡Key strengths:

👷 Architecture & engineering across multiple verticals (manufacturing, retail, healthcare)
🔌 Flexible resource model: able to integrate with internal teams or provide external development
🪫 Cost‑aware strategies: Sedulen’s business model emphasises lower overhead and competitive pricing

🟠 Michael Kimsal

‍ Fractional CTO / Software Craftsman
🔗 LinkedIn

Michael Kimsal has approximately 25 years of experience with web technologies (especially PHP and Java) and has consulted for both large and small clients. He emphasises rapid prototyping (“get an idea into minimal functional state in under two weeks”), developer productivity improvements (testing, version control, virtualization), and performance/security code reviews.
💡 Key strengths:

👷 Rapid prototype specialist: supports small teams to validate ideas fast
🔌 Developer productivity & quality: helps teams adopt modern tools, testing, and workflows
🪫 Performance/security audit capability: able to review code and infrastructure and identify bottlenecks

🟠 Steve Hong

‍ Fractional/Advisory CTO
🔗 LinkedIn

Steve Hong has a high‑credential engineering background (PhD in Electrical Engineering), co‑founder of high‑tech firms (e.g., Oculii) raising ~$80M+, with leadership experience in sensor/AI systems. While his profile is more ‘high growth,’ for a small business with ambition to scale, Steve provides strategic engineering leadership and future‑proof architecture thinking.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Elite engineering credentials & startup scale‑out experience
🔌 Strategic technology foresight: good for businesses anticipating significant growth or technology complexity
🪫 Engineering culture builder: embeds startup/technical discipline into smaller teams

🟠 Wayne Bayever

‍ Fractional CTO / Principal Engineering Consultant
🔗 LinkedIn

Wayne Bayever has over 25 years of experience in signal processing and engineering consulting and now offers fractional CTO services via WB Optimum, Inc. He brings senior engineering depth and can provide technical leadership, architecture reviews, and process improvement for smaller teams.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Deep engineering background (25+ years)
🔌 Fractional model experience: tailored for smaller engagements
🪫 Engineering process & oversight: helps small businesses bring structure to engineering

🟠 Marc P. Summers

‍ Fractional CTO & Technical Advisor
🔗 LinkedIn 🌐 Website

Marc P. Summers helps companies align engineering, product, and business goals, preparing for growth readiness. His focus is on bridging business and technology, ensuring the engineering team is aligned with what the business needs.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Business‑tech bridge: good at aligning engineering decisions to business goals
🔌 Growth readiness: helping small businesses mature from startup to structured engineering practice
🪫 Roadmap & alignment: builds actionable engineering roadmaps for growth

🟠 Ima Miri

‍ Fractional CTO & AI‑Driven Tech Strategist
🔗 LinkedIn / 🌐 Website

Ima Miri leads the practice at AiPoint, specializing in helping organizations leverage AI, machine learning, and modern data‑driven engineering. For small businesses ready to lift their tech game into data/AI territory, she brings transformation plus execution.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 AI/ML + data‑driven engineering: helps bring modern data capabilities to small businesses
🔌 Architecture for scale: modern architectures, cloud‑native data pipelines, microservices
🪫 Practical for SMEs: although advanced tech, she emphasises accessible solutions for smaller‑budget clients

🟠 Rick Ataide, MBA

‍ Fractional CTO & Technical Growth Advisor
🔗 LinkedIn /🌐 Website

Rick Ataide combines technical leadership with business growth strategy (MBA) via BlueTeam Advisors. He helps companies align engineering, product, and growth in a disciplined way—ideal for small businesses that must balance tech and business simultaneously.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Tech + business leadership: blends engineering with business strategy
🔌 Growth‑engineering alignment: uses engineering as a growth lever
🪫 Structure & process focus: sets up metrics, governance and growth frameworks

🟠 John Caballero

‍ Fractional CTO / Engineering Advisor
🔗 LinkedIn

John Caballero is a seasoned engineering executive who now offers fractional CTO/advisory services. His strength is in overseeing engineering teams and aligning tech vision and execution ideals when a small business already has developers but needs leadership.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Strong engineering leadership & oversight
🔌 Fractional/advisory mindset: fits small team contexts
🪫 Aligning engineering & business: ensures technology roadmap aligns with company strategy

🟠 Stephen Morris

‍ Fractional CTO
🔗 LinkedIn

Stephen Morris is a fractional CTO with engineering leadership experience and a focus on building technology roadmaps and execution capabilities for small to mid‑sized businesses.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Engineering roadmap design and execution
🔌 Fit for lean teams: designed for small‑business engineering maturity
🪫 Affordable fractional leadership: appropriate for smaller budgets

🟠 Claire Ryan, MBA

‍ Fractional CTO / Engineering‑Business Consultant
🔗 LinkedIn / 🌐 Website

Claire Ryan brings both engineering leadership and business acumen, with an MBA and consultancy background via Fusion eConsulting. She helps engineering organizations align to business goals, structure their operations, and scale effectively.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Engineering & business fusion: brings tech and business together
🔌 Governance & structure: good for small businesses moving from reactive to proactive engineering
🪫 Framework‑oriented: aligns closely with the engineering reference mindset of Digital Reference

🟠 Ceri Shaw

‍ Fractional CTO / Tech Strategist
🔗 LinkedIn / 🌐 Website

Ceri Shaw runs Thistle Labs and helps businesses adopt technology, build engineering strategy and scale with discipline—but without over‑engineering. Her pragmatic style is a strong fit for small business engineering teams.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Practical tech strategy: focus on actionable solutions
🔌 Small‑business friendly: experienced with lean teams and budget constraints
🪫 Tech adoption & change management: helps shift team culture and workflows

🟠  Ken Baxter

‍ Fractional CTO / Engineering Consultant
🔗 LinkedIn

Ken Baxter has a strong engineering leadership track record and now consults as a fractional CTO for organizations that want to scale their engineering practice. For a small business growing its engineering team, Ken provides senior guidance.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Engineering leadership across multiple teams
🔌 Fractional consulting model: reasonable for small business budgets
🪫 Scalable architecture & mentorship: supports junior engineers and builds while aligning with business

🟠 Dan Branco

Fractional CTO / Technical Advisor
🔗 LinkedIn /🌐 Website

Dan Branco is a technical advisor and fractional CTO who helps businesses align their technology roadmap with business goals, evaluate stacks, and set up execution. His experience suits small businesses that are in an early stage or want to build foundational tech.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Technology portfolio review & stack selection
🔌 Early‑stage alignment: roadmap + business strategy fit
🪫 Budget‑conscious senior guidance: good for small business resource constraints

🟠 Donald (Don) Milligan

‍ Fractional CTO / Cloud & Architecture Specialist
🔗 LinkedIn /🌐 Website

Don Milligan runs Pathfinder Services and focuses on cloud architecture, scalability, and fractional CTO engagements. For small businesses migrating to the cloud or modernizing their infrastructure, Don provides senior architectural leadership.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Cloud‑native architecture & migration specialist
🔌 Scalable infrastructure for small business: modernising legacy systems
🪫 Cost & scalability focus: aligning cloud strategy with budget and growth

🟠 Mario Meyer

Fractional CTO / Tech Innovation Consultant
🔗 LinkedIn / 🌐 Website

Mario Meyer heads Reyem Tech and provides fractional CTO services focused on innovation, architecture, and engineering discipline. For small businesses with product ambitions and a desire to build IP, Mario offers the right mindset and execution.

💡 Key strengths:

👷 Innovation‑centric architecture & product engineering
🔌 Scalable foundational tech: building from early stage toward growth
🪫 Product‑led engineering: aligning engineering discipline with business vision

How to pick the right fractional CTO for your small business

Here are a few tips to help you choose from among the above (or others):

🧩 Match to your current stage: If you’re very early (just launching product, few engineers), pick someone comfortable with rapid prototyping and lean teams (e.g., Michael Kimsal, Ceri Shaw). If you’re scaling fast and need high-growth architecture, pick someone like Steve Hong or Ima Miri.
🎯 Cultural fit counts: Small business engineering is different from large enterprise; you want someone who is comfortable working lean, making trade‑offs, and iterating fast.
📋 Define scope clearly: Decide what “fractional” means (hours per week, deliverables, KPIs).

🔍 Look for measurable outcomes: Ask for case studies—did engineering velocity improve? Technical debt reduced? Infrastructure stabilized?
🤝 Ensure business alignment: Technology decisions must map to business outcomes (growth, cost, risk reduction). Make sure the CTO candidate is comfortable with that.
📅 Engagement model works for you: Flexible hours, clear deliverables, transparency. Fractional is meant to be nimble.
💡 Stay future‑aware: You want someone who not only handles today’s issues (bugs, backlog) but also sets you up for tomorrow (scalability, architecture, team maturity).

Why Digital Reference?

Here at Digital Reference, we specialize in helping organizations, especially small and mid‑sized businesses, navigate, select, and integrate executive‑level functions (like fractional CTOs) in a structured and outcome‑oriented way. We believe in teaching you how to reference frameworks, empowering you to execute with clarity, and connecting you to the right experts when you need them. Our positioning is uniquely tuned to the engineering industry: we understand architecture, dev teams, and product engineering workflows—not just high‑level buzzwords.

Wrap-up: Fractional CTOs Driving Small Business Engineering Success

Each of the professionals featured above brings a unique approach to engineering leadership—from rapid prototyping to AI/data strategy to full‑scale downstream architecture and cloud optimization. By hiring a Fractional CTO, small business leaders gain:

• Strategic tech leadership without a full‑time C‑suite salary
• Scalable engineering systems and processes
• Better alignment between engineering, product and business goals
• Improved engineering maturity, lower risk, and faster time‑to‑market
  

At Digital Reference, we don’t just list consultants; we curate professionals who shape industries, apply engineering reference frameworks (our own Digital Reference methodology), and deliver results for small businesses with big aspirations. From fractional CTOs to fractional CFOs, CMOs and HR experts—we help small businesses connect with the right leaders to scale smarter, faster, and with confidence.

Unlock your next level of growth with real-world insights. Learn more from Digital Reference:

🔶 Best Fractional Chief Information Officer (CIO) Services in Canada
🔶 Best Fractional Chief Data Officer Services in the United Kingdom
🔶 Best Fractional Chief AI Officer Services in Australia‍

Engineering growth isn’t just about writing code—it’s about vision, architecture, team, culture, and execution. With the guidance of a fractional CTO, you can navigate growth with clarity, craft sustainable systems, and stay aligned with your mission.