At a glance
Advisory → Embedded → Fractional-in-a-box. Start where the pain is acute.
| Service line | Advisory | Embedded | Fractional-in-a-box | Discovery assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Fractional CTO | $6–9K/mo | $9–14K/mo | $14–18K/mo | $3,500 |
Fractional CIO | $5–8K/mo | $8–12K/mo | $12–15K/mo | $3,500 |
Fractional CISO | $6–9K/mo | $9–13K/mo | $13–16K/mo | $4,000 |
AI Agent Engineering | — | $8–16K/mo | $16–20K/mo | $3,000 |
3-month minimum on all retainers. Pass-through costs billed at cost.
What each tier includes
Advisory
$6–9K/mo
- Architecture reviews and decision memos
- Roadmap oversight
- Hiring support
- 1 live sync/week max
Embedded
$9–14K/mo
- Advisory +
- Ownership of 1–2 initiatives
- Re-platform or scalability work
- Hiring loop ownership
Fractional-in-a-box
$14–18K/mo
- Embedded +
- Owns the engineering function
- Team management
- Board reporting
Technical Assessment
$3,500
Credits toward month 1
Advisory
$5–8K/mo
- Systems architecture guidance
- Vendor evaluations
- Data strategy
- 1 live review/month max
Embedded
$8–12K/mo
- Advisory +
- Ownership of 1–2 initiatives
- CRM/ERP rollout
- Integration layer
Fractional-in-a-box
$12–15K/mo
- Embedded +
- Owns the IT/systems function
- Budget ownership
- Board reporting
Systems & Spend Assessment
$3,500
Savings-share option available
Advisory
$6–9K/mo
- Risk assessments and policy authorship
- Questionnaire responses
- Architecture review
- Async + 1 sync/month max
Embedded
$9–13K/mo
- Advisory +
- Drives SOC 2 / ISO 27001
- Incident response program
- Vendor-risk program
Fractional-in-a-box
$13–16K/mo
- Embedded +
- Owns the security function
- Compliance calendar
- Board security reporting
Security Posture Assessment
$4,000
SOC 2 fixed-fee program also available ($25–60K)
Agent Sprint (single agent, fixed-scope): $12,000 – $40,000
One agent/workflow — design, build, eval, ship. See AI Agent Engineering for details.
Advisory
—
- Not offered at this tier
Embedded
$8–16K/mo
- Multiple agents + shared infra
- Eval harness and observability
- Guardrails and CI for prompts
- Ongoing build cadence
Fractional-in-a-box
$16–20K/mo
- Platform Embedded +
- Owns the agent portfolio
- AI strategy and model selection
- Pairs with CTO line
- + Sprints at $12–40K each
AI Opportunity Assessment
$3,000
Credits toward first Sprint
How pricing works
A few rules that apply across every service line.
Discovery first — every line has a fixed-fee assessment that credits toward the first month or Sprint. De-risks the buyer, qualifies the engagement.
3-month minimum on retainers. Sprints are fixed-scope, not time-and-materials.
Pass-through costs (audit fees, model/inference, third-party tooling) billed at cost, not marked up.
Alternative structures considered case-by-case: equity-for-fee (early-stage CTO), savings-share (CIO vendor consolidation), fixed-fee programs (CISO SOC 2, Agent Sprints).
Bundling across lines for the same client gets a blended rate — not four stacked retainers.