My Track Record
I have completed 10+ Interim and Fractional CTO engagements for PE-backed companies, public corporations, and hypergrowth startups across the DACH region. Every engagement ended with a structured handover to a permanent successor – documented org model, roadmap, metrics baseline, and operating rhythm.
Selected engagements: Semrush Inc. (publicly traded), sevDesk (hyper-growth), Mister Spex (pre-IPO), Searchmetrics, and several PE portfolio companies.
My honest view: you should always aim for a strong permanent CTO. But there are situations where an Interim CTO is the right move – and I’ve seen most of them first-hand.
When to Hire an Interim CTO
Filling a Leadership Gap
When a CTO leaves, the vacuum can stall strategy, disrupt teams, and create uncertainty. An Interim CTO provides stability and direction while you find the right permanent hire. At Mister Spex, I maintained engineering continuity during a 5-month CTO gap – fully remote through COVID – keeping critical initiatives on track and briefing the incoming CTO weekly until handover.
Training and Mentoring
Sometimes you have a promising internal leader who isn’t quite ready. An Interim CTO can stabilize the function while coaching your future CTO into the role. At Productsup, I coached an internal Director into the VP Engineering role over 4 months. At Acrolinx, I developed a team lead into a Director of Engineering for a newly created department.
Specialized Expertise
If you’re entering a new growth phase or facing a major platform decision, an Interim CTO brings focused expertise. I can help with scaling engineering organizations, modernizing architectures, PE tech due diligence, or AI-accelerated engineering.
Change Management & Post-Acquisition
During major transformations – technology overhauls, post-merger integration, or PE-driven value creation – an Interim CTO leads both the technical and organizational change. For a PE-backed financial group, I restructured teams, halved release cycles, and built board-level reporting while recruiting 30+ engineers.
Speed
Interim CTOs start faster than permanent hires. When you need immediate decisions, stabilization, or acceleration of key initiatives, I can be operational within days, not months.
Crisis Management
In a crisis – platform instability, quality collapse, or leadership vacuum – an experienced Interim CTO provides calm, structured leadership: contain, fix, learn, and rebuild trust.
Objective Perspective
As an external leader, I bring a fresh, unbiased perspective on technology, organization, and strategy. This is especially valuable for boards, founders, or investors who want an independent assessment.
Flexibility and Cost
Interim arrangements offer flexibility in scope and duration. For transition phases, restructuring, or pre-/post-transaction periods, an Interim CTO is often more cost-effective than a rushed permanent hire that may not be the right long-term fit.
My Approach
Every engagement follows the same pattern:
- Rapid assessment – understand the situation, technology, team, and business context within the first 1–2 weeks
- Stabilize and execute – provide leadership, make necessary decisions, and drive delivery
- Build for the future – establish processes, develop internal leaders, and recruit a permanent successor
- Structured handover – documented org model, roadmap, metrics, and operating rhythm
For a full overview of what I offer beyond Interim CTO work, see my Services page.
If you think an Interim CTO might be the right move for your situation – let’s talk.
