Getting Started
When the founder has become the bottleneck for everything that has to happen. Recognisable signals:
Decisions are made and then don't happen. Nobody owns follow-through across functions.
The founder is in every operational conversation and has no time left for the work only they can do.
Growth has broken the systems that got you here - the manual processes, the spreadsheets, the informal handoffs.
Your leadership team runs functions but not the company. No shared operating cadence, no single view of priorities.
You're entering a new market or channel and the existing operation can't absorb it.
A fractional COO typically works 2-4 days a week for 6-18 months: long enough to install the operating rhythm and hand it to your team. Companies matched through Fractionus see a shortlist within 48-72 hours.
When technical decisions start having consequences you can't reverse cheaply. The clearest signals:
You're non-technical and about to commit budget to a build, an agency, or a first engineering hire. A wrong architecture or a wrong first hire costs far more than the fractional CTO who would have prevented it.
Your first engineers have no one to report to. Senior developers left to self-manage optimise for interesting problems, not business ones.
Velocity is falling while headcount rises. That's usually an architecture or process problem, not an effort problem.
You're facing security or compliance requirements such as SOC 2, ISO, or enterprise procurement review, and nobody owns the answer.
You're replatforming or adding AI capability and need someone who has shipped it, not read about it.
A fractional CTO typically works 1-3 days a week: enough to own architecture, hiring, and technical direction without a full-time salary. Many stay through the first 10-15 engineering hires, then hand over to the full-time CTO they helped recruit.
The usual trigger is a decision the founders can no longer model on a spreadsheet. Concrete signals it's time:
You're raising. A fractional CFO builds the model, prepares the data room, and handles diligence questions. Bring them in 3-6 months before you open the round, not during it.
Runway is under 12 months and you don't have a forecast you'd defend to a board.
Revenue is growing but cash isn't. That's a margin, pricing, or working-capital problem nobody has isolated.
You have a bookkeeper and a board but nobody in between translating one into the other.
Multi-entity or multi-currency complexity has outgrown your accountant.
Most startups don't need a full-time CFO until roughly $10M in revenue. Before that, a fractional CFO engaged a few days a month covers the strategic layer at a fraction of the cost. See live day rates for current benchmarks.
Fractionus Ask is a short, paid video call with a vetted fractional expert. It's designed to help you solve a specific problem, clarify scope, or figure out the right role before you commit to hiring. It's not a sales call. It's a working session. If you want execution support afterwards, we can match you with fractional talent to deliver it.
Most companies are matched with shortlisted candidates within 48-72 hours. After you select your preferred match, engagements typically kick off within a few days. We handle the contracting and onboarding so there's no lag between decision and execution.
Recruiters find candidates. We match you with pre-vetted operators who are ready to start in days, not weeks. We also handle contracts, payments, and ongoing support throughout the engagement.
Our talent has already been through a rigorous vetting process before you ever see a shortlist. Less than 3% of applicants are accepted into our network. No job posts. No screening hundreds of resumes. No recruitment fees based on first-year salary.
Companies across SaaS, fintech, healthtech, professional services, retail, ecommerce, and more. Most are growth-stage businesses that need senior leadership but aren't ready for (or don't need) a full-time C-suite hire.
Common scenarios: you're scaling and need a fractional CTO to own your architecture decisions, you need a fractional CFO for a fundraise, or you want a fractional CMO to build your go-to-market engine before committing to a permanent hire.
A fractional executive is a senior leader who works with your company on a part-time or retainer basis. They bring the same strategic leadership as a full-time hire, but without the salary, benefits, and long-term commitment. Common roles include fractional CMOs, CTOs, CFOs, COOs, CPOs, and CROs.
Most fractional executives work across 2-3 companies simultaneously, which means they bring cross-industry pattern recognition that a single-company hire simply can't.
Tell us the role you need and what outcome you're after. We match you with vetted fractional leaders from our network, typically within 48-72 hours. You review a shortlist, pick the right fit, and start in days. We handle contracts, payments, and onboarding so you can focus on the work.
For Companies
Yes. A meaningful share of our network has operated inside large, complex organisations - regulated industries, multi-country structures, and businesses with procurement, security review, and formal governance.
It's worth being deliberate about which you need. Enterprise-seasoned operators bring stakeholder management, compliance fluency, and the ability to move work through a large organisation. Startup-seasoned operators bring speed and comfort with ambiguity. The wrong direction hurts either way: an enterprise leader can over-process a 20-person company, and a startup operator can stall in an environment that runs on governance.
Tell us the environment, not just the title. We match on operating context - company size, industry, governance model, and the specific problem - across a network of 5,000+ vetted leaders in the US, UK and Australia. Common enterprise-background requests include fractional CPOs, CTOs, and CFOs for businesses selling into or scaling toward enterprise customers.
Start a search and you'll see a shortlist within 48-72 hours.
Pick someone who has closed a round at your stage and in your structure, not simply someone with CFO on their CV. Raising is a specific skill, and finance leadership experience doesn't automatically include it.
Rounds actually closed. Ask which raises they ran end to end, at what stage, and what the outcome was. Seed diligence looks nothing like Series C.
Investor-side exposure. Someone who has sat through diligence from the other side anticipates the questions you'll be asked.
Model ownership. They should build and defend the model themselves, not outsource it and present it.
Data room discipline. Messy diligence kills momentum. Ask how they've structured a data room and how long it took.
Sector fit. SaaS metrics, marketplace economics, and hardware working capital are different conversations with investors.
Timing matters as much as the person. Bring a fractional CFO in 3-6 months before you open the round, so the numbers are clean and the story is tested before investors see it. Hiring one mid-raise usually means paying for cleanup under time pressure.
The difference is whose bench you're hiring from, and how the economics work.
A fractional firm employs or partners with a fixed roster of executives, usually within one function, and matches you from inside it. Depth is good, range is narrow. If your need sits outside their bench, you get matched to the closest available person rather than the right one.
A platform matches across a wider network and multiple functions. Fractionus draws on 5,000+ vetted fractional leaders across the US, UK and Australia, which means we can match against the specific problem rather than against who happens to be free this month.
Check the fee model before you choose either. Some platforms charge companies a placement fee, an ongoing margin, or both. Fractionus charges companies no recruitment or placement fee - we operate on a revenue share with our talent, so the rate you're quoted is the rate you pay. See how it works.
A consultant diagnoses. A fractional COO runs it.
An operations consultant is engaged for a defined project: map the process, find the bottleneck, deliver recommendations. The engagement ends with a document, and implementation becomes your problem.
A fractional COO takes ownership of the operating rhythm week after week. They hold the team accountable, run the leadership meeting, own delivery, and stay long enough to see whether the change actually held. Most engagements run 6-18 months at 2-4 days per week.
Choose the consultant when you have a specific, bounded question and a team that can implement the answer. Choose the fractional COO when the real problem is that nobody owns execution - when things get agreed and then don't happen. That's a leadership gap, not a diagnosis problem, and a report won't close it.
The terms overlap in practice, but the distinction that matters is embedded strategic ownership versus a delivered finance service.
"Outsourced CFO" usually means a firm provides finance leadership as a service, often bundled with bookkeeping, controller work, and month-end close. You're buying a function, and the individual assigned to you may change.
A fractional CFO is a named senior operator who joins your leadership team for an agreed number of days. They sit in your board meetings, own your forecast, and answer to you directly. They're not managing a compliance workflow, they're making capital, pricing, and hiring decisions alongside you.
If you need clean books and reliable reporting, outsourced finance is usually the cheaper fit. If you're raising, restructuring, or facing decisions the founders can't model, you want a fractional CFO. Some businesses run both: outsourced bookkeeping underneath, a fractional CFO on top.
An agency executes campaigns. A fractional CMO decides which campaigns are worth running, and owns the result.
An agency is a vendor. You brief them, they deliver channels - paid media, content, SEO - and they optimise within that brief. They don't set your positioning, price your product, choose your channel mix, or hire your marketing team. A fractional CMO sits inside your business and does exactly those things. They're often the person who briefs and manages your agency.
Use an agency when you know your strategy and need execution capacity. Use a fractional CMO when you're not confident the strategy is right, when spend isn't converting, or when you need someone accountable for pipeline rather than deliverables. Plenty of companies run both: the CMO sets direction, the agency executes it.
Cost is comparable. A fractional CMO retainer typically runs $8,000-$22,000 per month, similar to a mid-size agency retainer. The difference is ownership, not price.
Most fractional executive engagements run between 6 and 18 months. Shorter project-based scopes (3-4 months) are common for specific outcomes like fundraise preparation or a go-to-market launch. Some businesses keep their fractional leader on retainer for 2+ years as a sustained strategic partner.
There are no mandatory minimums. You scale up, scale down, or wrap up based on what the business needs.
If the match isn't right, tell us. We'll work with you to understand what's not clicking and find a replacement quickly. The goal is the right outcome, not just filling a seat.
Fewer than 3% of applicants are accepted into the Fractionus network. Every candidate clears the same three-stage process:
Track Record Review - We verify previous roles, the companies they operated in, and the measurable results they were accountable for. Titles are easy to claim; outcomes are what we check.
Skills Assessment - We review work samples, platform and tooling experience, and domain depth specific to their function. A CFO who has run a capital raise is assessed differently from one who has run a finance team.
Live Interview - We assess communication, strategic thinking, and how they work through an unfamiliar problem in real time.
Vetting doesn't stop at acceptance. We match on the specific problem rather than the job title, and we stay close to every engagement. If a match isn't working, we replace it.
Our network spans 5,000+ vetted fractional leaders across the US, UK and Australia. Start a search and you'll see a shortlist within 48-72 hours.
Yes. We regularly build fractional teams across multiple functions. If you need a CTO and a Head of Design and a Growth Marketer, we can match and coordinate all three. Most multi-hire builds are complete within a week.
Fractional executives across every major function: CMOs, CTOs, CFOs, COOs, CPOs, CROs, CHROs, CIOs, CDOs, and CAIOs. Beyond the C-suite, we also place senior specialists in engineering, marketing, design, operations, sales, data, HR, legal, and AI.
If you need senior leadership or specialist expertise on a flexible basis, we likely have the right person in our network.
For Talent
Yes. You set your own rate. We provide market benchmarks and help negotiate the best price on your behalf, but the final number is yours.
Fractionus operates on a revenue share partnership. You keep the majority of the engagement revenue, and we take a share that covers sales, marketing, contracts, onboarding, and monthly payment management. Companies see a single rate. You focus on delivery.
Yes. Most fractional leaders in our network work with multiple clients simultaneously. That's the point of fractional work. As long as you can deliver on your commitments, how you structure your portfolio is up to you.
Fractionus operates on a revenue share partnership with our talent. Companies pay Fractionus directly, and we pay you monthly. You never chase invoices, negotiate payment terms, or have awkward billing conversations with clients.
We handle all sales, marketing, contracts, onboarding, and monthly payments so you can focus on what you do best: delivering the work. In return, we take a share of the engagement revenue. You keep the majority. It's a partnership, not a fee.
We handle it. When a company needs your expertise, we make the introduction. You focus on the work, not on finding clients.
Fractionus manages the entire commercial side: sales, marketing, contracts, onboarding, and monthly payments. It's a revenue share partnership. You deliver the work, we handle everything else.
Apply through our website. We review every application against three criteria: track record, skills, and communication. If you've delivered measurable results in senior roles, you're the kind of person we're looking for. Less than 3% of applicants are accepted.
Pricing & Costs
Top-tier management consulting firms bill $3,000-$10,000+ per day for senior partner time, with minimum engagements often exceeding $250,000. A fractional executive costs a fraction of that, is embedded in your team, and is accountable for outcomes, not just recommendations.
No. Fractionus operates on flexible retainer agreements. You can scale up, scale down, or wrap up an engagement based on what the business needs. No lock-in periods. No exit penalties.
No. There are no recruitment fees, placement fees, or upfront costs for companies. Fractionus operates on a revenue share partnership with our talent. We handle sales, marketing, contracts, onboarding, and payments. The talent keeps the majority of the engagement revenue, and Fractionus takes a share that covers everything we provide.
For companies, the price you see is the price you pay. Nothing hidden.
A full-time executive in the US costs 28-35% more than their base salary once you add FICA, health insurance, and 401(k) match. A $300,000 base salary executive typically costs $380,000-$420,000+ in total employer cost.
Fractional executives are independent contractors. No employer taxes, no benefits, no insurance. A fractional retainer typically saves 40-65% compared to the true cost of a full-time hire. And with Fractionus, the price you see is the price you pay. No hidden fees.
Fractional executive retainers in the US typically range from $8,000 to $22,000 per month, depending on the role and scope. Fractional CFOs and CHROs tend to start at the lower end, while CTOs, CMOs, and CROs with full strategic ownership can reach the higher end.
Day rates for senior fractional executives typically sit between $1,500 and $3,500 per day. Monthly retainers are usually more cost-effective for ongoing strategic leadership.
Our talent sets their own rates. We help negotiate the best price on their behalf and provide market benchmarks, but the final number is theirs.
How we work
Our primary market is the United States. Our talent network is global, which means we can match you with fractional leaders who operate in your time zone regardless of where they're based. We also support companies in the UK and Australia with local cost and compliance guidance.
Start hiring and we'll match you with talent in your region.
Absolutely. Many fractional engagements evolve into full-time hires once the business is ready for the commitment. Your fractional leader already knows your team, your systems, and your strategy. It's the lowest-risk way to make a senior hire.
Most fractional work is delivered remotely. Some engagements include periodic on-site days depending on the role and company preference, but remote-first is the default. This is one of the reasons geographic rate differences have compressed significantly in fractional hiring.
Yes. Fractionus handles everything behind the scenes so you and your fractional leader can focus on the work.
Contracts: we provide clear, flexible agreements that protect both sides. Payments: companies pay Fractionus directly, and we pay talent monthly. Onboarding: we make sure your expert is briefed, aligned, and ready to deliver from day one.
Need to scale up, extend, or wrap up? We handle that too. See how it works.
That depends on the role and the company's needs. Most fractional executives work 2-4 days per week with each client. Some engagements are structured as retained days, others as sprint blocks or outcome-based scopes. The format is flexible and agreed upfront.
Legal & Contracts
Fractionus is a revenue share partner and services platform, not an employer of record. We connect companies with independent fractional professionals and manage the full commercial relationship: sales, marketing, contracts, payments, and ongoing support.
The fractional leader operates as an independent contractor. Fractionus handles everything on the business side so the talent can focus entirely on delivery. Learn more about how we work.
Confidentiality is built into every engagement. Our standard agreements include NDA provisions. If your company requires specific IP assignment or non-compete terms, we can accommodate those in the scope of work.
Fractionus provides the agreements. We use a clear, flexible contract structure that protects both sides. You don't need to draft anything from scratch or involve your legal team unless you want to. Most companies sign and start within days.
Fractional executives engaged through Fractionus are independent contractors, not employees. In the US, they're classified as 1099, not W-2. This means the company pays zero employer FICA, provides no health insurance, contributes no 401(k) match, and has no state unemployment tax obligations on that individual.
Learn more about how fractional engagements work.
