Strategic technical advisory for founders past product-market fit. The call you make before the rewrite, before the wrong hire, before the quarter spent on the wrong thing.
15 years in startups. 7 years advising. 25+ companies. Seven industries.
Alex Raihelgaus
Strategic Technical Advisor & Fractional CTO
That's where I live. Most technical issues are actually translation issues.
No technical jargon required. You explain the business reality and the friction you're feeling. I ask the right questions.
I synthesize your input into a technical architecture, a roadmap, or a corrective strategy. Complexity becomes clarity.
I hand you a solution that works for your specific constraints—budget, timeline, team capabilities. No generic advice.
I can deliver the roadmap for your team to build. I can supervise as a fractional leader. Or—if the situation demands it—I can build the core myself. The value is in the solution, not just the typing.
These situations sound familiar
"My dev team is busy, but features aren't shipping. I don't know if it's a people problem, a process problem, or a tech stack problem. Something is broken and I can't see it."
"I have a complex business requirement for a new product, but I have no idea how to architect it so it doesn't collapse in six months. I need a sanity check before we start building."
"We're about to make a major infrastructure decision—migration, AI integration, rewrite—and I need someone who has actually done it to validate the plan before we spend the budget."
"Everyone's talking about AI. I know there's value somewhere, but I don't know what's hype and what's real for my specific business. I need someone to cut through the noise."
Flexible engagement based on what you actually need
Short-term consultation. I audit your plans or architecture and tell you where the landmines are. Sometimes one conversation saves months.
I design the system. Your team builds it. I ensure the foundation is solid before a single line of code is written.
I step in to fix processes, mentor seniors, and align the tech team with business goals. Part-time CTO capability without the full-time cost.
When the problem is too complex or critical for the current team, I make execution happen—either hands-on myself or through vetted contractors I manage. You get the solution built, with one accountable owner.
Everyone else — let's talk.
"What consistently impresses me is his ability to tackle any challenge thrown his way—he's truly a problem solver at heart. When you work with Alex, you're not just getting a developer; you're getting someone who will find a way to make your vision reality, no matter how complex the challenge."
Koby Berkovich
Co-founder & CTO at Alison.Ai
"Delivering crucial architecture and feature development work. His deep technical knowledge and meticulous approach made him an invaluable asset during our frontend organization and setup process."
Genady Triffon
Co-founder & CTO at Scalpel
"Developed a comprehensive foundational control library within 3 months. This resulted in a dramatic increase in productivity for our UI developers, using the library like lego to build the screens."
Konstantine Triger
Chief Architect at ChargeAfter
Same patterns, different domains. The fintech rebuild informs the cyber architecture informs the healthtech rollout.
Fintech & Payments
Cybersecurity
AI, Health & Platforms
Eleven of them shown above. The full list is longer.
Opinions, field notes, and the occasional argument with myself.
Your team is busy. Nothing ships. The fix isn't a better stack, a faster build, or one more standup. It's the translation layer between business need and technical execution - and almost nobody is actually working on it.
The OpenClaw CLI boots a full Node.js runtime on every terminal open to generate static shell completions. A simple caching strategy with auto-invalidation eliminates the 3.7-second hit entirely.
A 5-minute profiling session revealed 5 seconds of wasted shell startup time. Three targeted fixes - caching, lazy-loading, and deferred init - brought it down to ~1 second.
Subscribe and I'll send you one piece a month on the practical side of running technical orgs — architecture decisions, velocity diagnoses, hiring traps. The cold path to working together is reading me first.
Your email goes straight to me. No third-party newsletter service. Unsubscribe by replying with the word "stop." That's the whole opt-out flow.
45-minute conversation. No prep on your end. No template questions.
Currently booking conversations for June 2026. Two slots open.