CTO Advisory · Dunedin
Dunedin's fractional CTO — senior technical leadership without the full-time hire.
Architecture decisions, engineering hires, vendor and AI calls, and a tech story your board and investors will actually back — embedded with Dunedin founders and leadership teams. Proven operating, not just advising.
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Why Dunedin teams call us
The work you can't afford to get wrong.
Dunedin is a university city with health and manufacturing — CTO-level work here is research-adjacent and rigour-driven.
We're raising and our tech story doesn't survive a serious investor's diligence.
We have engineers but no one senior enough to own architecture, hiring and the hard trade-offs.
Our last CTO left / we can't justify a full-time CTO yet — but the decisions can't wait.
We're being sold AI by every vendor and we have no independent voice in the room.
Our build is slipping and we can't tell if it's the team, the scope or the architecture.
What we do
What a fractional CTO actually owns.
Every engagement starts with a 30-minute call. If we can't tell you something useful in that window, we don't take it on.
Architecture & technical strategy
The decisions that are expensive to reverse: build vs buy, platform choices, data model, AI strategy and the sequencing that keeps you shippable while you scale.
Engineering hiring & team design
Writing the specs, sitting on the panel, designing the org and onboarding the senior hires — so you build the right team, not just a bigger one.
Vendor & AI evaluation
An independent voice across the table from vendors. We run the bake-offs, read the contracts for lock-in, and tell you when the answer is 'don't buy it'.
Investor & board-ready tech story
The architecture narrative, the roadmap and the risk register that hold up in diligence — and the technical due-diligence support when you raise or get acquired.
Delivery & velocity
Why the build is slipping, and the unglamorous fixes — scope discipline, process, the right seniority in the right seats — that get it back on track.
Governance & risk
Security posture, data governance and AI risk framed for your board and your auditors, not buried in an engineering wiki.
Why Dunedin
In your timezone. Onsite when it counts.
Dunedin teams call us when a research-driven, health or manufacturing business needs senior leadership for governed data strategy and architecture, when hiring needs judgement, or when a vendor decision needs an independent voice.
We operate as well as advise, with rigour and explainability as the lens.
What "good" looks like.
We measure ourselves on what your team is doing differently — not on hours billed.
A tech story and risk register that hold up when an investor or acquirer's technical advisor digs in.
Senior engineering hires made on a real spec, with us on the panel — not a costly mis-hire you unwind in six months.
An advisor with no vendor kickbacks, telling you when to buy, when to build, and when to wait.
Embedded leadership at a fraction of a full-time CTO's cost, dialled up or down as you need it.
How we engage
Three ways to start. All begin with a call.
Engagement
Technical Due Diligence
2-week diagnostic of architecture, team, delivery risk and AI readiness — for a raise, an acquisition, or your own board. Fixed scope, fixed fee.
from NZ$10K
Engagement
Fractional CTO
2–4 days a week, embedded. We own architecture, hiring and vendor calls and carry the technical story. Quarterly outcomes, not a retainer for its own sake.
from NZ$12K/mo
Engagement
Advisory retainer
A senior sounding board for your founder/CEO and lead engineers — architecture reviews, hiring calls and the hard decisions, on tap.
from NZ$6K/mo
FAQ
Direct answers to what Dunedin teams ask before they book.
Are you based in Dunedin?
We're an Australian-headquartered firm working trans-Tasman. For Dunedin we work remote-first in your timezone, with onsite visits for kickoff and key milestones. We work with teams across the CBD.
How fast can you start?
A 2-week Technical Due Diligence can start the Monday after the scoping call. Larger engagements typically begin 1–2 weeks out, depending on team availability.
Do you work in NZD and to New Zealand compliance?
Yes — we contract and price in NZD. We design for the NZ Privacy Act 2020, ISO 27001 and SOC 2. We're an official Vanta partner for the evidence side.
How is this different from a management consultancy?
We operate, we don't just advise. We've built and run production systems and our own venture-studio products — so the architecture and hiring calls come from someone who's lived the consequences.
Will you support a raise or an acquisition?
Yes. Technical due-diligence prep, the architecture narrative, the data-room tech materials and sitting in the room for the technical session are core to the engagement.
Research-grade / governed data leadership?
Yes — governance and reproducibility as the lens.
NZ-time delivery?
Yes — remote-first in NZ time, onsite when it counts.
Do you actually build, or just advise?
Both — and we never advise without being willing to build. If we tell you the answer is Apache Superset, we'll stand it up. If we say hire a senior engineer, we'll write the spec and sit on the panel.
Related
Stop benchmarking. Book a call.
Thirty minutes. No deck. We'll either tell you what to do next, or who you should be talking to instead of us.
Book a 30-min call