From MVP to Market Dominance, Guided by a CTO Who’s Been There
You’ve got the idea. You see the opportunity. But when it comes to building the product, the roadmap is unclear and you don’t even know what questions to ask. That’s where we come in. As your Fractional CTO, we’ll help you navigate the technical unknowns, avoid common early-stage mistakes, and design a plan that actually gets your SaaS to market and ready to grow.
Technical Leadership for Founders Building SaaS
We’ve been the steady hand behind SaaS startups trying to get their first product out the door and the critical voice in the room when scale, security, or revenue challenges emerge. Being your Fractional CTO means owning the entire technical lifecycle, not just advising from the sidelines.
Our team has led platforms in healthtech, fintech, marketing tech, learning systems, and beyond. That means we’ve navigated everything from regulatory audits to sudden infrastructure scaling, all while keeping product teams focused and business priorities clear.
We don’t just help you choose a stack. We help you avoid the distractions that kill SaaS businesses before they ever launch. We define what to build, in what order, for the least waste and the most return. We know how to balance burn rate with engineering velocity, and where to invest for growth versus long-term stability.
If you need to bridge skill gaps early on, we’ll help temporarily but our goal is to build your internal team so you’re never dependent on outside vendors. And when the time comes to hire a full-time CTO, we’ll help you do it, and step aside with pride.
This isn’t a shortcut. It’s serious SaaS leadership for founders who want to go from idea to a real, scalable, resilient product with someone who’s done it all before.
The Red Corner Approach
We’re not career consultants or advisors who’ve watched from the sidelines. We’ve led SaaS teams from the earliest napkin sketch through scaling, replatforming, investor due diligence, and technical firefighting. As your Fractional CTO, we operate like insiders balancing founder needs, product pressures, and real-world constraints. Our approach isn’t just about writing specs or picking frameworks. It’s about protecting your time, your capital, and your vision with the kind of decisions only experienced operators know how to make.
We go way beyond the average CTO-for-hire service because we’ve actually done this with skin in the game
Foundational
The first phase is about clarity, structure, and smart foundations. We’ll define your product architecture, choose the right tech stack, set up CI/CD, and lay out a realistic build roadmap. We’ll help you understand what needs to be built now and just as importantly, what doesn’t. We also document early decisions so future engineers don’t waste time guessing. Everything is designed to move fast without sacrificing quality or flexibility. Because if your foundations are shaky, nothing you build will hold.
1
2
Evolution
With the platform live, we evolve it into a true business engine. That means shifting from “just shipping” to enabling monetization, customer onboarding, analytics, and retention. We’ll work closely with you to introduce usage tracking, identify conversion bottlenecks, and prioritize feature investments based on ROI. This is where we stop being just builders and start being force multipliers for growth, revenue, and real user impact.
3
Growth
Now that the machine is running, it’s time to grow. That could mean expanding features, entering new markets, scaling infrastructure, or building out the team. We’ll be there for all of it not as a vendor, but as your partner. Your FCTO helps you weigh the cost, complexity, and payoff of each move so you scale with intention.
Growth can burn cash or build value. We’re here to make sure it’s the latter.
Here’s what no one tells you: you can do everything right and still be headed straight off a cliff, if your tech isn’t aligned with your business.
A few years back, I got dropped into a Martech company that was already moving fast. Three engineering teams. Three deployment models. Three different stacks. From the outside, it looked like progress. Inside, it was chaos. Each team was doing their own thing. The tech lead was sharp, but he wasn’t working off a unified plan, he was building whatever he wanted, however he felt like building it.
And no one questioned it.
Why would they? The sprints were full, the demos looked good, and deadlines were technically being met. But none of it tied back to what the business actually needed. It was like watching a freight train barrel forward with no one checking the tracks.
By the time I came in, features were colliding, customers were frustrated, and revenue had flatlined. What they needed wasn’t another dev. They needed a leader who could step back, look across the teams, the tech, the market, and ask:
“Where are we actually trying to go?”
I tore it down, not the code, but the assumptions. We rebuilt the system architecture to reflect business priorities. We picked one deployment model. One strategy. I aligned the teams under a single vision, killed the noise, and reconnected the tech to the roadmap that actually mattered.
And slowly, the machine started moving the right way. Revenue followed. Product velocity returned. The founder got his headspace back.
That’s what Red Corner does. We don’t hand you a spec or some offshore team. We step in as your CTO and lead through the mess, the unknowns, the pivots. We’ve done this before. We’ll do it with you.
If you’re sitting in chaos right now or headed toward it, we should talk.
Oshri Cohen
Founder, Red Corner
Expert Guidance
We’ve done this before multiple times, across industries and growth stages. Our Fractional CTOs have led SaaS platforms in healthtech, fintech, proptech, learning platforms, compliance, marketing tech, logistics, and more. We don’t just code or advise we’ve owned the roadmap, scaled engineering teams, navigated audits, and guided products through investor scrutiny. When we talk about execution, growth, and sustainability, it’s from real operational experience, not theory.
Tailored Solutions
No two SaaS businesses are alike. The market, the team, the constraints, the ambitions they’re always different. That’s why we don’t come in with a generic playbook. We listen, assess, and build around your specific situation.
Your Red Corner CTO will absorb everything, how your customers think, how your team works, what your investors care about and use that to shape truly tailored, high-impact decisions.
Continuous Support
We’re not here for a project. We’re here for the journey. Many of our engagements last years, guiding SaaS businesses through build, launch, growth, and beyond. When the time comes to bring on a full-time CTO, we’ll help you hire them, onboard them, and set them up for success. In fact, we consider it a win when we replace ourselves. Until then, you’ll have an experienced CTO fully committed to your product and your team, every step of the way.
Innovative Approach
Innovation isn’t a buzzword for us, it’s a survival skill. Our CTOs come from startups where you either solve problems creatively or you don’t survive. Sometimes that means rethinking a core system; other times it means duct-taping a fix to hit a critical deadline. We know when to innovate and when to cut through the noise with a practical solution. Either way, we move fast, stay scrappy, and never lose sight of the business need behind the tech.
Technical Leadership for Founders Building SaaS
We’ve made the tough trade-offs, navigated scale issues, responded to outages, and stared down founder questions at 2 a.m. Our value isn’t just technical, it’s operational. We don’t just know how to ship features; we know how to align tech with business priorities, keep burn under control, and protect your timeline. You won’t get fluff or vague strategies, you’ll get leadership that’s been in the trenches and knows how to get through them.
Scaling SaaS Platforms Under Pressure
We’ve grown platforms from scrappy MVPs into resilient, high-traffic systems. That includes optimizing legacy code, migrating infrastructures without disruption, and scaling backend systems to handle usage spikes. We know how to plan for scale early so you don’t pay for shortcuts later.
Building Your Tech Team, Not Ours
We’re not here to sell you an outsourced squad. As your Fractional CTO, we lead the technology, and when the time is right, we help you build your own internal team. If there’s a skill gap, we can bridge it with trusted experts temporarily but the long game is about making you self-sufficient. We’ll guide the hires, shape the culture, and ensure your team is set up to thrive without dependency.
Planning Without the Illusion of Certainty
In SaaS, there will always be uncertainty. The danger isn’t in having no roadmap it’s in clinging to one that gives a false sense of control. We’ve seen teams plan themselves into a corner. A seasoned Fractional CTO knows when to plan, how much to plan, and when it’s time to stop talking and start executing. We balance vision with flexibility, so your product moves forward without drifting off course.
Skip the Sales Call. Get Real Tech Leadership Now
TELEPHONE. 514-777-3883
Founded with Love in Montreal, Canada, but operates around the world :-)
Got questions? Need clarity fast? If you’re ready to move or just want to sanity-check your direction, we’re here. Fill out the form or message us on WhatsApp if it can’t wait.
FAQ
1. What is a Fractional CTO and how is it different from a full-time CTO?
A Fractional CTO provides strategic and technical leadership for your company on a part-time or contract basis. Unlike a full-time CTO, who may carry high salary and equity expectations, a Fractional CTO brings executive-level experience at a fraction of the cost. You get a senior leader who’s actively involved in architecture, hiring, vendor decisions, and roadmap strategy without the overhead of a permanent exec. For early-stage SaaS companies, this offers the flexibility and expertise you need without financial strain.
2. When should a SaaS startup hire a Fractional CTO?
You should consider a Fractional CTO when you don’t have a technical cofounder, your MVP is stalling, your development team lacks strategic direction, or you’re preparing to scale and feel out of your depth. A Fractional CTO helps you avoid early mistakes, define a sound roadmap, and build systems that don’t break under pressure. It’s especially critical when product complexity increases or investor scrutiny grows, and you need someone who can lead both the tech and the conversations around it.
3. What services does a Red Corner Fractional CTO provide?
At Red Corner, we offer full-lifecycle technical leadership. That includes defining your MVP architecture, selecting the right stack, setting up your CI/CD pipeline, and establishing scalable infrastructure. We also guide hiring, manage vendors, establish dev workflows, and help you evolve your platform toward monetization and scale. Whether it’s launching version one or preparing for enterprise-readiness, we’re with you from first commit to long-term growth.
4. How is Red Corner different from an outsourced agency?
We don’t sell outsourced development teams—we lead your technology from the inside. As your FCTO, we embed in your leadership team, set direction, guide execution, and build your in-house capabilities. Our job is to make ourselves obsolete by helping you hire, train, and mature your own internal tech team over time. Unlike agencies that profit from dependency, we focus on your long-term independence and success.
5. Can you step in temporarily while we hire developers?
Absolutely. Many of our clients start without internal technical staff. We can bring in trusted engineers or consultants to bridge skill gaps while you grow. But we treat these interim solutions as just that, temporary. Our real goal is helping you identify the right hires, onboard them properly, and transition technical ownership to your team in a way that sets them up for long-term success.
6. How long do engagements usually last?
Red Corner engagements typically span 6–24 months, and often longer. We’re not a quick-hit consulting firm. We stay involved through your company’s evolution from MVP to growth, from team-of-three to Series A and beyond. Once you’re ready to hire a full-time CTO, we’ll help you make the transition and hand over leadership with full documentation and continuity.
7. How do you handle uncertainty and roadmaps?
We know the biggest risk to a SaaS company isn’t a lack of planning it’s false confidence in plans that don’t reflect reality. Roadmaps are only useful if they remain flexible and focused. Our CTOs know when to plan deeply, when to stay agile, and when to stop planning altogether and just build. We’re comfortable operating in ambiguity, and we help founders move forward with clear, adaptable decisions.
8. What industries do you specialize in?
Our team has led SaaS platforms in healthtech, fintech, proptech, compliance, learning platforms, marketing tech, logistics, and more. These industries come with their own regulatory and technical complexities from HIPAA and SOC2 to API integrations and growth-stage scaling. We’re not limited to one vertical, but we bring battle-tested patterns and domain sensitivity to every engagement.
9. Can you help with investor due diligence or board presentations?
Yes. We prepare the technical materials investors and boards expect to see architecture diagrams, security policies, infrastructure overviews, hiring roadmaps, and documentation on process maturity. We also coach founders on how to explain the tech side of the business in language investors trust. We’ve been in those rooms. We know what to say and what not to say.
10. Do you work with internal or external development teams?
We work with whatever setup you have. If you’ve got in-house developers, we’ll lead them. If you’ve got an agency or freelancers, we’ll align their output with your roadmap. Our role is to ensure cohesion, quality, velocity, and accountability across your entire technical ecosystem, no matter how it’s structured.
11. How do you balance speed and quality?
You don’t have time to build things twice but you also don’t have time to over-engineer. We balance these forces by focusing on what truly matters right now, while leaving a path open for future optimization. We use CI/CD, documentation, and decision logs so your team can move fast and smart. We know how to say “not yet” to features or tech layers that sound good but slow progress.
12. Will you help us hire a full-time CTO eventually?
Yes. In fact, we view that as the best outcome of a successful engagement. When the company matures and needs a full-time CTO, we’ll help define the role, evaluate candidates, participate in interviews, and train your new leader. We want to be the bridge that sets up your next phase, not a bottleneck you’re stuck with.
13. How do you measure ROI on your engagement?
We start by identifying what success looks like, faster time to market, lower cost per feature, improved retention, more reliable uptime, or investor confidence. Then we tie every decision to those outcomes. We track performance and proactively suggest adjustments. You’ll always know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how it’s moving your business forward.
14. Are you hands-on, or just advisory?
We’re in the trenches. We write and review code, manage sprints, shape architecture, and drive production. We’re not here to present slides we’re here to build, fix, guide, and grow alongside you. You’ll see us in GitHub, Notion, Slack, and investor decks—not just at strategy meetings.
15. What does it cost to work with a Red Corner FCTO?
Pricing depends on scope, hours, and involvement level. A lean weekly advisory engagement might be a few thousand a month. A deep hands-on CTO role could range from $5k–$25k/month. The key is flexibility you get executive-level leadership at the level that makes sense for your stage and resources.
16. Do I retain full ownership of all deliverables?
Yes. You own everything, architecture, strategy documents, codebases, infrastructure, and more. We prioritize transparency and documentation so you can run your business with confidence and control, whether we’re there for six months or three years.
17. What if our needs change mid-engagement?
We expect that. Startups pivot, teams evolve, funding changes. We adjust accordingly shifting roles, hours, or direction. Our agreements are flexible because we know real business conditions don’t follow rigid scopes.
18. Can you fix or take over a failing tech project?
Yes. We’ve stepped in to rescue failing MVPs, unscalable systems, and misaligned vendor relationships. We quickly assess the situation, prioritize critical issues, and bring calm, structured recovery without throwing everything away. It’s not always pretty, but we get you back on track and moving again.
19. Do you support compliance and data privacy requirements?
Absolutely. We’ve helped teams pass SOC2, implement GDPR features, and design systems for HIPAA compliance. If your product operates in a regulated environment or is heading that way, we’ll ensure your tech is audit-ready and future-proof.
20. Why choose Red Corner over another Fractional CTO firm?
We’ve lived the SaaS grind. We’re not consultants looking to maximize billables we’re operators who step in, lead with honesty, and build systems that make sense. We help you build your team, scale your product, and hand over cleanly when it’s time. We earn your trust not with promises but with progress.
Other Services We Offer
Custom Headless E-Commerce Solutions, Designed for Growth
Red Corner delivers high-performance headless e-commerce development backed by expert Fractional CTOs. We design systems that handle real-world scale, from product drops to high-velocity campaigns, ensuring your storefront stays fast, integrated, and built for growth.
Build MVPs with a FCTO Who Thinks Like a Founder
Red Corner offers MVP development led by experienced Fractional CTOs who guide startups from idea to launch without wasting time or money. We don’t just code, we help you define the right MVP, avoid costly mistakes, and build only what matters. Whether you’re validating a new idea or preparing for investor rounds, our FCTOs ensure your product is stable, scalable, and ready to evolve.
Get Reliable, Always-On Data Engineering Without Hiring In-House
Struggling with unreliable pipelines or outdated dashboards? Red Corner offers fully managed, real-time data engineering for SMBs, no hiring, no downtime. We set up and maintain your private data stack with a dedicated fractional CTO who ensures your data is always accurate, always flowing, and always ready to power decisions.
Healthcare Software Built by Proven HealthTech Leaders
Red Corner provides custom healthcare software development led by HealthTech CTOs, not contractors. We design and scale compliant, interoperable platforms across EHR, telehealth, and clinical systems. From HIPAA and PHIPA to HL7 and FHIR, we handle complex integrations and build tech that works in the real world.
Independent Advisory for Selecting and Managing Software Agencies
Most dev agency projects fail due to poor oversight. Red Corner provides experienced, impartial CTOs who guide you through vendor selection, scope definition, technical management, and delivery, ensuring your investment leads to real business results.
Custom Web Development - CTO Led
Red Corner offers CTO-led web development services tailored for startups and growing businesses. Our fractional CTOs and engineering teams build scalable, maintainable platforms with long-term product success in mind. No fluff, no bloat, just web systems that work and keep working.