--- title: "A fractional product team for stretched CTOs | Fluff Software" description: "A fractional product team for CTOs and technical co-founders at growing SaaS companies: senior review, CTO planning time, no hiring and no employment risk." url: https://www.fluff.software/for/stretched-ctos/ updated: 2026-10-23 publisher: Fluff Software --- # For the stretched CTO. The senior role has been open for months, the board wants SSO and audit logs, and you review pull requests at 11pm. We become your second senior team, from January. [Book a 20-minute call](https://www.fluff.software/contact/) [See pricing](https://www.fluff.software/pricing/) _Image: A developer working at a desk_ ## What we hear. - **“We’ve had a senior role open since June.”** Offers lost to better-funded companies, and every empty month is a month the roadmap slips. - **“Sales sold a feature to close a deal, and it isn’t built.”** A signed customer is waiting, and the renewal date doesn’t move. - **“My best developers are stuck on small stuff.”** Integrations and customer tweaks pull your seniors off the core roadmap. - **“I’m the only person who reviews anything properly.”** Quality depends on how much energy you have left at the end of the day. - **“If I hire wrong in January, I can’t easily undo it by July.”** From 1 January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months and compensation is uncapped. ## How a fractional team helps. ### A second team from January You skip the recruiter fee and the notice period, and take on no employment risk. Embedded Plus is £48,000 a year against about £88,000 for a first-year senior hire outside London. ### Deal-blocking features, shipped in pieces The feature goes in the queue as a run of smaller releases, so you can show the customer progress every week. ### Your seniors get the roadmap back Integrations and customer requests move to our track. You order the queue; we work in your repositories. ### A second senior opinion Senior review on every release, plus a half-day CTO and planning session each month on Embedded Plus. For most CTOs we’d recommend [Embedded Plus](https://www.fluff.software/pricing/). Planning to grow the team fast after your next raise? [Partner](https://www.fluff.software/pricing/) adds more tracks and a named lead developer. What you asked for “Add single sign-on so we can close the enterprise deal.” What we shipped SSO for the signed customer first, then self-serve setup, then an audit log. Three releases, progress every week. *SAML for their identity provider* Self-serve setup Audit log - **Asked why.** The customer needs SAML with their own identity provider, not a social sign-in button. - **Spotted.** Existing sessions have to survive the switch, or every user is logged out on launch day. - **Sequenced.** Release one unblocks the signed customer. The rest follows without holding it up. An example of how one request changes once a senior team has reviewed it. ## Relevant work. - [ _Image: EAL_ EAL ### A grading engine an awarding body can stake its reputation on EAL needed final grades for a brand-new qualification calculated correctly, for every candidate, every time. We designed it so the engine stays right even when everything around it changes. Grading thousands of candidates](https://www.fluff.software/work/grading-engine/) - [ _Image: iMaintain_ iMaintain ### iMaintain: from a founder’s idea to an AI maintenance platform iMaintain’s founders knew maintenance inside out but weren’t developers. We acted as their product team: discovery first, a two-week proof of concept, then a production MVP built sprint by sprint alongside them. Discovery to MVP in six months](https://www.fluff.software/work/imaintain/) - [ _Image: HeadX_ HeadX ### HeadX: monitoring head impacts in youth sport, from headband to report HeadX needed accurate, real-time head impact data on the touchline and proper analysis afterwards. We built the whole chain: headband firmware, a pitch-side app and a web app for review. Firmware, mobile and web](https://www.fluff.software/work/headx/) ## Questions we hear. Why should we trust you over someone running Claude internally? AI tools write code. Turning code into a product people can use takes UX experience, product strategy and production know-how, which is what we bring, and we answer for every release. Can you work on our existing software? Yes, and most clients start that way. We review the codebase early so we understand it before we change anything. Why not just hire a developer? You could. It will probably take months to find the right person, you carry the cost if it doesn’t work out, and you get one person’s skills. With us you get senior developers, product thinking and CTO-level judgment, usually starting within a week or two of signing. ## Worth reading. [The real cost of hiring a developer 2026 numbers, and why January 2027 changes the risk.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/real-cost-of-hiring-a-developer-uk/) [Fractional CTO or product team? Where each fits, and why the answer is often both.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/fractional-cto-vs-product-team/) [How to clear a software backlog A prioritisation method that works on a Monday morning.](https://www.fluff.software/guides/how-to-clear-a-software-backlog/) --- Fluff Software, a senior product team embedded in your business. Book a call: https://www.fluff.software/contact/ or email contact@fluff.software. Agents: see https://www.fluff.software/llms.txt and https://www.fluff.software/AGENTS.md.