High-stakes code
Fractional CTO for Web3 and Crypto Startups
Web3 is the one market where a single line of code can lose every dollar in the contract, permanently, in public. I came to it from cybersecurity research, which is the right direction to come from.
Most of the failures I have seen were not exotic cryptography problems. They were ordinary engineering problems (an unaudited upgrade, a key on a laptop, an admin function with no timelock) in an environment that does not forgive them.
What I'm hired to own
The decisions that are cheap now and expensive later
Audits treated as a certificate rather than a process
One audit before launch, then six months of unaudited changes. I set up the security process (internal review, invariant testing, fuzzing, staged audits on anything touching value) so security is continuous rather than a PDF you can point at.
Key management is usually the actual attack surface
Deployer keys, admin keys, treasury access. Multisig thresholds, hardware custody, and a documented recovery path are boring and they are what actually stops the catastrophic loss.
Upgradeability decisions that cannot be revisited
Proxy pattern, admin powers, timelocks, governance. These define both your security posture and your credibility with users. I make the call explicitly and document the reasoning, rather than inheriting whatever the template did.
Everything hard is off-chain
Indexing, reorg handling, transaction retries, chain state that disagrees with your database. This is where most Web3 product bugs actually live, and it is ordinary distributed systems work that on-chain specialists often skip.
Wallet UX quietly caps your growth
Signing flows, gas abstraction, failed-transaction states. If your product is only usable by people who already understand wallets, your market is smaller than your model assumes.
How an engagement runs
Week one, month one, month three
Week 1
I find out what is actually true
Architecture review, codebase read, and honest conversations with every engineer you have. You get a written assessment at the end of it: what is solid, what is risky, what is going to break, and what it costs to fix each one. No slide deck, just a document you can act on.
Month 1
The bleeding stops and the roadmap becomes real
I fix or contain the things from week one that were actually urgent, and rebuild the technical roadmap so it has dates you can believe. If you are hiring, the role is written and the interview loop exists. If you are pre-launch, scope gets cut, usually by a lot.
Month 3
It runs without me in the room
Ship cadence is predictable, the team knows the standard, security and infrastructure are at the level your customers expect, and the decisions are documented. If the engagement is a bridge to a full-time CTO, this is where I start hiring my replacement.
Why me, for this specifically
Experience, not a capabilities deck
Plenty of people can advise on web3. Fewer have shipped in it, been wrong in it, and had to fix it with their own name on the commit. Here's what I'm bringing.
- Web3 venture experience across multiple products
- M.Tech in Cybersecurity with published research; smart contract risk is adjacent to my field
- Full-stack: I build the off-chain systems as well as review the contracts
- Honest about scope: I will tell you when you need a specialist audit firm instead of me
Pricing
Priced at $50 an hour. Not counted at it.
My standard rate is $100 an hour; until December 2026, or until I join a new venture full time, whichever comes first, I am holding it at $50 and the retainers are sized from that. The hours are a floor I commit to rather than a cap I bill against. If a week needs more, it gets more. A full-time CTO in the US runs about $260,000 a year before equity; I'll do that job for $30,000 at 150% commitment. Three-month minimum, then month to month.
It does not all have to be cash. The split is negotiable, from a small equity component up to roughly half and half, depending on your stage and how long we expect to work together.
Technical Advisor
$750
per month
Minimum 15+ hours a month
A senior technical brain on call. For founders who mostly need the big decisions checked rather than someone in the codebase.
Fractional CTO
$2,500
per month
Minimum 50+ hours a month
Around 50 hours a month as your acting CTO, usually two days a week. I own technical direction, and the roadmap ships because someone senior is accountable for it.
Embedded CTO
$4,000
per month
Minimum 80+ hours a month
Around 80 hours a month, usually three days a week, hands on the keyboard. Everything above, plus I build the hard parts myself instead of delegating them.
Questions
Web3, specifically
Do you audit smart contracts?
I review them and set up the security process, but for a formal pre-launch audit of a contract holding meaningful value you should engage a dedicated audit firm. I help you choose one and make sure their findings actually get fixed.
Do you take equity or token compensation?
Equity yes, in the right technical co-founder situation. Tokens I evaluate case by case and generally prefer a cash retainer, because it keeps my advice honest.
Is Web3 still worth building in?
In specific places, yes. I will give you a straight answer on whether your particular idea needs a chain at all. Sometimes the honest answer is that it does not, and that is a useful thing to hear before you spend a year on it.
More general questions about cost, commitment, and how this compares to a full-time CTO are answered on the main fractional CTO page.
Earned, Not Claimed
What the founders and teams I build with say
Kunal Vohra, founder of Panicletech, has been an incredible technology partner and a great friend. His dedication is rare. Whether it's solving an unexpected challenge, brainstorming a complex feature, or stepping in when something needs urgent attention, Kunal is always there. He approaches CashMyCell as if he were building his own business, and that level of commitment has been invaluable.
Jitendra Mansharamani
Founder, CashMyCell
Kunal is one of those technical leaders whose work you can't help but follow. Even without having worked directly alongside him, the impact of his engineering vision and the standard of execution he brings to the tech community are clear. He consistently demonstrates what high-level technical direction should look like: sharp, innovative, and focused on real business value.
Raman Sawhney
AWS Architect
We worked with the Panicle team in our early stages. They've been helpful and collaborative. They understood our early requirements and helped us go live.
Jeevant Sarma
Co-Founder, Thought Pudding
Building in web3? Let's talk.
Thirty minutes. Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck, and I'll give you a straight answer on whether I can help.
Book a 30-min callSend me a message