The core offer

Your technical leadership, without the full-time hire.

For businesses that want to build properly but don’t need, or can’t yet justify, a full-time CTO. I take ownership of your technology function: architecture decisions, vendor management, team oversight and long-term platform strategy.

Start with an Ideas sessionFrom R1,950 a month · month to month, no lock-inor talk to me first

What it actually means

I’m not a consultant who produces reports. I become part of your leadership team: I join strategy sessions, make the architectural decisions, manage your tech vendors, and make sure your technology spend lines up with where the business is going.

You get senior technical leadership without the salary, benefits and retention risk of a full-time hire. For bigger builds I bring in collaborators I trust, always under my direct oversight.

Engagement
Month to month. No lock-in, cancel any time.
Role
Fractional CTO / Technical Director
Price
Three tiers: R1,950, R6,500 or R14,500 a month. Month to month, no lock-in. Ad-hoc work without a retainer: R750 per hour, quoted before I start.

Three tiers, one price each

Month to month, no lock-in.

  • Advisor

    R1,950 a month

    • Email and async support
    • One 1-hour call a month
    • An AI-assisted monthly note on the health of your technology

  • Partner

    R6,500 a month

    • About a day a month
    • Two calls a month
    • Oversight of your vendors and development team
    • A technology roadmap

  • Lead

    R14,500 a month

    • About two to three days a month
    • Small builds and automations from a shared backlog, prioritised together every month

Ad-hoc work without a retainer: R750 per hour, quoted before I start.

Start with an Ideas session

What a retainer covers

How much of this you get depends on the tier.

  • Fractional CTO

    Senior technical leadership for board presentations, investor due diligence, team reviews and strategic planning.

  • AI adoption roadmap

    A prioritised, costed plan for bringing AI into your operations: what to automate, when to build or buy, and how to manage the change.

  • Vendor management

    I own the relationships with your SaaS providers, hosting and specialist contractors, and take technical procurement off your plate.

  • Architecture governance

    A quarterly review of your stack against growth plans: technical debt, single points of failure, and what to consolidate.

  • Team oversight and hiring

    Technical leadership for your internal developers. If you’re hiring, I define the roles and evaluate candidates.

  • Continuous platform evolution

    Ongoing development from a shared backlog, prioritised together every month. No separate briefs, no change orders.

What I can lead or deliver for you

Who it’s for

Current CTO partnerships

  • Mabili Skills Mabili sources, develops and maps digital skills, helping international organisations build verified, SFIA-aligned remote teams.

  • Growth Predictor Growth Predictor’s technology measures a company’s capacity to grow, predicting its future revenue and growth rate for investors, lenders and exchanges.

  • Nicole Barlow Nicole Barlow is an independent South African journalist and podcaster, publishing investigative articles, videos, the NicoleB Show and books.

Who’s making your technology decisions right now?

If the honest answer is ‘nobody’ or ‘me, reluctantly’, let’s talk. We’ll start with an honest look at your current stack and what good technical leadership would change.

Book an Ideas session

1 hour · R650, credited if you go ahead within 60 days · remote or in person, same price

or email henry@erzo.co.za

South African time (SAST, UTC+2). I reply to every message myself, within 24 hours.