CTO on tap for scrappy startups

Senior tech partner for startups that move fast and build smart.

Black and white portrait of a Nick Davies with a beard, wearing a black T-shirt with a small logo on the chest, standing against a black background.
Gray Virgin Media logo with an infinity symbol containing the text Virgin Media and O2.
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BAFTA logo with a stylized face on the left and the word "BAFTA" in gray letters.
BBC logo with three gray squares containing white letters B, B, and C.
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Your tech should help you grow…

…I make sure it does.

Fractional CTO

A trusted tech partner embedded in your team, without the full-time overhead. A hands-on tech leader who works with you 1–3 days a week. I sit inside your team, help prioritise, guide your engineers, and speak founder-to-founder when it comes to product.

  • Standups + One-to-Ones,

  • Roadmap Creation & Review

  • Tech Strategy + Team Structure

  • Vendor Calls

  • Hiring

Architecture Sprint

Pressure-test your architecture, spot the cracks, and reset your foundations fast. A 4-week deep-dive to get your stack stable, sane, and scalable. Ideal before funding rounds or major product pushes.

  • Infrastructure + codebase audit

  • Bottleneck + scaling review

  • Investor-facing technical slide pack

Tech Due-Diligence

Get your codebase and stack investor-ready with a clear, no-BS report. Investor due-diligence prep or pre-acquisition sanity check. Either way, you get a report you can actually use

  • Code + infra walkthrough

  • Risk matrix + red/yellow/green flags

  • Slide-ready summary

Mentor-in-Residence

Grow and retain your dev team with hands-on mentoring, support, and leadership. I help your engineers grow into leads, and your leads grow into real managers. Support that scales your team without making it slower.

  • Weekly one-to-ones with leads

  • Career ladder + hiring input

  • Pairing & process refinement

  • Optional pairing + async code reviews

How I work with teams like yours

It’s not just about advice, it’s about traction. I drop in, get context fast, and work alongside your team to make real changes.

Diagnose

Find out what’s slowing you down.

Direct

Focus on the team, set the priorities

Deliver

Join the build, clear the path, MOVE THE NEEDLE

Hey, I’m Nick

I’ve spent over two decades leading teams and building tech across telco, media, retail, health, and startups. I’ve shipped code, led squads, pitched to execs, and debugged at 2AM. Now I plug into early-stage teams where the stakes are high and the timelines are tight.

What I care about

  • Shipping things that actually work

  • Making teams faster, not just bigger

  • Helping founders sleep better at night

What makes me different

  • I’ve done this at scale - Virgin, BBC, HSBC

  • …but I work like a startup: fast, lean, no fluff

  • I’m not here for politics, i’m here to help you win.

Book a 15 minute SOS call and I’ll help you figure out your next move - no pitch, no pressure!