You pay developers or an agency. Who on your side can judge what they propose?
I'm a Fractional (part-time) CTO for non-technical founders. I lead your developers or agency, so you get a technical co-founder's brain and keep your equity.
Book a free 25-minute callYou'll leave knowing what I would fix first.
hello@nicolascava.comI'll reply within one business day.
I'm taking on new clients now.
Track record
- Fractional CTO to 6 software teams since 2025, from pre-seed to Series A and beyond.
- Led 120+ engineers globally.
- Built systems handling 1B+ annual requests.
- Founded five businesses.
“Nicolas is an effective leader who is among those few and far in-between. … His technical background enables him to make informed decisions for an engineering team with the relevant context, and allows him to empathize with engineers on a deep level.”
Worked with: BastionGPT, LevelUp, 8/0, Galvico, DLUX Rides, Fixrli, Cafre, Zendesk, Swile, PixMob, Maple Inside, Crakmedia.
Work with me
Fractional CTO
US$9,500/mo
I own the technical decisions and lead your developers or agency.
Advisory
US$3,000/mo
A weekly working session on what your developers propose, hiring, and AI. Your team stays in charge.
My job is done when your team runs without me. You keep everything we build. Full pricing.
How I work
- Ruthless simplicity. Smaller changes, fewer moving parts, one clear priority at a time.
- Discipline. Capped work in progress and forecasts from real throughput.
- Leadership. Clear direction, written decisions, and people who keep judgment and accountability.
Case studies
- Building a rideshare platform from zero to first deploy
Transportation technology startup
Built the shared sign-in and payments foundation for three apps, and planned the first 42 items of work.
- Transforming an engineering team from ad-hoc work to a steady shipping rhythm
Content analytics platform
Delivered 18 of the 26 roadmap items in six months and handed over a written playbook for how the team plans, builds and ships.
- Hardening a repair marketplace's security before it scales
Property repair marketplace
Audited three codebases, turned the findings into 40 ranked plans, and helped the team close the most serious security risks first.
New notes by email.
A short note when I publish something new. Unsubscribe anytime.
About
I've burned out twice chasing nonstop action, and I still watch founders walk into the same fire. So I keep everything brutally simple, your team included.
I worked at Zendesk and scaled startups. I was the engineer who could not explain the delay, and later the executive who had to explain it to a board. I would rather tell you not to build something than bill you to build it.
I'm based in Quebec City and work remotely with founders wherever they are.
Your developers are busy and the product is stuck?
Book a free 25-minute call to see whether working together makes sense.
Prefer writing? Email me at hello@nicolascava.com. I'll reply within one business day.
Know a founder who needs this? Introduce them to me. If they become a client, you get 10% of what they pay for 12 months.