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TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP · AI-NATIVE
CTO as a Service
for Startups
One named senior partner who owns architecture decisions, regulatory alignment, and the technical case in front of investors. Top Netics offers technical leadership for founders across AI, fintech, blockchain, and deep tech who need more than code shipped.
Partners and ecosystems we build with
THE PROBLEM
Technical Leadership Gap at the Post-Seed Stage
Many founders who need a CTO discover that fact at a fundraising round, a security audit. This often creates difficulties on multiple levels at once.
SELF-ASSESSMENT: If the team can't name who is accountable for the architecture decisions already made, and what they would say if an investor asked, technical ownership has been deferred.
01
Architecture decisions made without CTO-level oversight
When undocumented liabilities surface once Series A due diligence begins, founders spend a significant share of their week in technical conversations that fall outside their role.
02
Absence of a named CTO is visible in institutional due diligence
During institutional due diligence, your investors need to know who can defend the architecture, security posture, and engineering roadmap.
03
The first hire gets made without anyone qualified to make it
Without a named technical owner, that hire gets made by whoever is available rather than whoever fits the actual product direction.
04
Technical debt accumulates because no one owns the decision
Technical debt tends to surface as a velocity or fundraising constraint later, often at a worse moment than if it had been tracked from the start.
What Is Technical Ownership?
Every architecture choice, every engineering hire, every answer given in due diligence traces back to one question:
Who owns the technical decisions?
That responsibility is technical ownership. It is not the same as writing code. A technical owner makes the decisions that shape what gets written, by whom, and whether it holds at the next stage.
TOP NETICS'S ROLE
CTO-Level Leadership for Startups
Top Netics takes on the role of startup CTO for the decisions that usually get deferred.
Architecture documented and owned, stack selection, infrastructure, and partnership choices, written to hold up when a board or an investor asks about them directly.
CORE INDUSTRIES
Industries we build in
Fintech
Blockchain
Web3
PropTech
Collectibles
Asset tokenization
Cybersecurity
Q-commerce
Media Production
Health and Wellness Tech
Brand Protection
Fintech
Blockchain
Web3
PropTech
Collectibles
Asset tokenization
Cybersecurity
Q-commerce
Media Production
Health and Wellness Tech
Brand Protection
STAGE MATRIX
Select the Model That Fits Your Stage
The right technical leadership model depends on two variables: what stage the venture is at, and whether the architecture choices that determine the company's future have already been made.
The matrix answers the model question. The initial technical assessment answers the stage question, including whether the architecture decisions that matter have already been made, and at what cost.
STAGE MATRIX
Select the Model That Fits Your Stage
The right technical leadership model depends on two variables: what stage the venture is at, and whether the architecture choices that determine the company's future have already been made.
PRIMARY TECHNICAL CHALLENGE
No architecture exists. First decisions are the most expensive to reverse.
RIGHT MODEL
Technical Co-Founder
The matrix answers the model question. The initial technical assessment answers the stage question, including whether the architecture decisions that matter have already been made, and at what cost.
HOW WE WORK
Engagement Framework
Every stage has a defined output your board can see.
[ DAY 1–2 ]
No-cost technical assessment
A direct conversation with Ihor Arkhypenko or a senior partner. We review your current architecture, team structure, and most pressing technical decisions, and state directly whether CTO-as-a-Service is the right structure for your situation. No scope commitment attached.
Architecture reviewTeam assessmentEngagement fit assessment
[ WEEK 1 ]
Architecture & security audit
A structured technical audit of your existing codebase, infrastructure, and team capabilities. We identify the decisions that need to change before Series A, the risks that aren't visible from the outside, and the quick wins your team can ship in the first sprint.
Architecture documentationSecurity gap reportTechnical debt registerQuick wins roadmap
[ WEEKS 2–4 ]
Technical strategy & team integration
Your CTO takes ownership of the engineering team's priorities, joins the relevant meetings, and begins making the architecture decisions that have been deferred. VARA or regulatory compliance alignment starts here, built in as a product requirement from the start rather than added later.
Technical roadmapEngineering team onboardingBoard-ready technical documentation
[ MONTH 2 AND BEYOND ]
Embedded CTO leadership
Ongoing technical ownership across architecture decisions, hiring involvement, investor communication, and regulatory readiness. The relationship doesn't end at launch. Many engagements continue well beyond it as an ongoing technical co-founding partnership, with a transition to a permanent in-house hire available whenever the company is ready for one.
Ongoing leadershipDue diligence packageHiring supportLong-term partnership
C-LEVEL TEAM
Named Leadership
20 years building and launching startups, most recently the technical strategy behind Top Netics' ventures across AI, blockchain, and fintech. Ihor also serves as Chief Innovation Officer at Dubai Blockchain Center, a role that connects our portfolio to one of the most active technology networks.
Ihor Arkhypenko
Founder and CEO
15 years across blockchain, AI, and business analysis. Serhii builds decision systems for Top Netics' ventures, turning operational data into automated decisions, and leads our firm's work on digital twins for businesses that need a live technical model of their operations.
Serhii Nikolaiev
Co-founder and CTO
CTO who keeps the portfolio's ventures live, shipping, and secure. Twenty years in software, from hands-on development to leading AI-native engineering teams.
Michael Guchakov
Vice President of Engineering
PROOF OF BUILD
Portfolio
Production systems with users, regulatory standing, and named partners, built by the same team.
Crypto Attention
LiveAICrypto
AI venture scoring real-time crypto media attention and market signals. News aggregation, AI-driven directional forecasts, coin-level alerts, and price-volume analysis in one mobile dashboard.
Tallata
LiveUAELivestreamMarketplace
Livestream auction platform for luxury watches, real-time bidding mechanism, connecting collectors and sellers, notifications about the bidding progress.
Global Attention
LiveAIMedia IntelligenceGlobal
AI venture tracking real-time news attention across every country and language. Continuous source monitoring, story clustering, sentiment scoring, and ranked attention signals across global topics.
YOU ASKED, WE ANSWERED
How CTO as a Service Is Priced
There is no fixed package. CTO as a Service pricing follows the shape of the engagement, decided during the initial technical assessment, not before it.
Advisory work
Priced hourlyDirect access to a senior technical partner for specific decisions and reviews, billed hourly with no minimum commitment or retainer required.
Defined technical projects
Fixed feeAn audit, an architecture review, a specific build — scoped and fixed as a fee before work begins.
Ongoing fractional or interim leadership
Priced monthlyA named CTO embedded in your team part-time or full-time, owning architecture, hiring, and investor readiness, billed as a fixed monthly retainer.
Cost comparison
Cost savingsEach structure costs meaningfully less than a full-time CTO hire once salary, equity, and search time are accounted for.
Top Netics is flexible on structure. Depending on stage and fit, engagements can run as a cash retainer, a hybrid with equity, or another commercial framework agreed before the engagement begins.
READY TO BUILD
The ventures that make it don't have fewer hard calls.
They have someone who made them early.
That's the role Top Netics plays across 20 ventures in seven countries.
Send us a message for a direct technical assessment scoped to your architecture and stage. No commitment required.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions?
Get a direct answer from a senior partner — most questions are answered the same day.
CTO as a Service gives startups access to senior technical leadership, architecture, roadmap, team management, and investor-facing technical strategy, without hiring a full-time, in-house CTO. It can be structured as fractional (ongoing part-time), interim (temporary full-time), or project-based.
There isn't a meaningful difference between the two as commonly used; fractional CTO describes one specific structure within CTO as a Service, not a separate, competing model. CTO as a Service is the umbrella: it can run fractional (ongoing part-time), interim (temporary full-time), or project-based, depending on what the engagement actually requires.
The difference is the level of ownership, commitment, and equity. A technical co-founder joins at the earliest stage with a founder-level stake and no planned exit: the co-founder stays. A CTO as a Service engagement provides the same technical ownership on a defined term.
It depends on the structure: advisory work is priced hourly, defined projects are scoped and fixed as a fee before work begins, and ongoing fractional or interim leadership runs as a retainer. Every structure costs meaningfully less than a full-time CTO hire once salary, equity, and search time are accounted for.
It starts with a discovery call and technical audit, followed by a roadmap aligned to your business goals, then ongoing or project-based execution, with your CTO embedded in your team for as much or as little time as your stage requires.
Yes, and it's often the more common starting point. Most engagements begin with a team already in place: the CTO reviews the current architecture and team structure during the Day 1–2 assessment, then integrates directly into the engineering team's priorities and meetings from Weeks 2–4 onward.
As soon as technical decisions start affecting fundraising, product direction, or team hiring, often well before a startup can justify or afford a full-time CTO.
Yes, this is one of the most common reasons startups engage CTO as a Service specifically. Technical due diligence typically tests for a documented architecture, a named person who can defend it in the room, and a clear account of technical debt and security posture, exactly what an unowned technical function usually can't produce. The engagement includes a Series A due diligence package as a defined output, and the CTO can attend investor conversations directly rather than leaving the founder to relay technical answers secondhand.
Neither is the right answer when the venture needs bounded execution rather than ongoing ownership. A freelancer or agency covering a specific feature, a security audit, or an API integration is the right answer for a task with a defined scope and a defined end.
Yes, this is Top Netics' core focus. Our CTOaaS partners are primarily AI, blockchain, and fintech founders, and our team has direct, hands-on experience building products in exactly these categories.
We're flexible on structure. Depending on stage and fit, engagements can run as a cash retainer, a hybrid with equity, revenue share, or another commercial framework agreed before the engagement begins.