How this is priced
The retainer is a flat monthly fee in EUR. There is no hourly billing, no overage, and no usage-tied surcharge. The price covers a defined slice of weekly attention (one to two days per week) plus async availability between calls. Work that exceeds that slice is either scoped as a separate fixed-price addendum or rolled into a Build Engagement.
The 6-month minimum is structural, not a sales tactic. Senior advisory needs sustained context to be useful: the first month is calibration, the second is when patterns become visible, and the value compounds from month three. Engagements shorter than six months tend to deliver the calibration and exit before the compounding starts. The 4-week pilot exists to test the working relationship before a buyer commits to that arc.
The three to four engagements per quarter cap is a quality control. Beyond that load, weekly attention thins to the point where the retainer stops being senior judgment and starts being scheduled meetings. Below the floor (under €6K per month from a senior fractional CTO), the work is usually junior-led and re-titled. Above the cap from a single solo operator, the engagements are usually delegated to associates.
What is included, what is not
Included in the retainer
- Weekly 60-minute call. Agenda is whatever is on the desk that week.
- Async availability between calls. Reasonable response time on Slack, email, or your channel of choice.
- Monthly architecture review on one part of the system.
- Quarterly roadmap review.
- Technical hiring support: job descriptions, screening, final-round interviews.
- Vendor selection support: cloud, observability, payments, AI tooling.
- Investor and board prep on the technical narrative.
Not included
- Hands-on coding. Implementation is scoped under Build Engagement or AI Integration.
- Full-time presence. The retainer is a capped slice of weekly attention.
- Line management of an existing engineering team. Different shape, different hire.
- Daily standups. Async availability covers the day-to-day; the call covers the week.
Full deliverable detail lives on the service page: What is included in the retainer.
The 4-week pilot path
Try the working relationship before the 6-month commit
Most advisory retainers are signed too fast. The pilot exists to find out if the working relationship is right for both sides before either party commits to six months. Same access as the full retainer: weekly call, async availability, one architecture review session.
After 4 weeks, the engagement either converts to the full retainer at €8K per month or both sides walk with no hard feelings. No conversion obligation written into the pilot contract.
Frequently asked
What does the €8K monthly retainer cover specifically?
A weekly 60-minute call, async availability between calls (Slack, email, or your channel), a monthly architecture review session on one part of the system, a quarterly roadmap review, technical hiring support including job descriptions and final-round interviews, vendor selection support, and investor or board prep on the technical narrative. The retainer is judgment, not labor. Implementation is scoped separately under Build Engagement or AI Integration. NDA: signed in either direction, the studio's or yours.
What triggers a price uplift mid-engagement?
Two specific changes. First, scope expansion to roughly 3 days a week of attention crosses into a higher tier with a corresponding price adjustment. Second, scope shifting from advisory into recurring implementation work crosses into a Build Engagement, scoped separately. Inflation, currency drift, and individual call duration do not trigger uplifts inside the 6-month term.
How does escalation pricing work for emergencies and due-diligence sprints?
Inside the retainer, an emergency escalation (incident response, urgent vendor decision, surprise board ask) consumes that week's allocated attention without surcharge. A due-diligence sprint, security audit response, or fundraise-driven technical narrative push that runs more than two consecutive weeks above retainer load is quoted as a fixed-price addendum, typically €5K to €15K depending on scope and timeline.
What happens to fees if I exit before 6 months?
The 4-week pilot at €10K exists for that reason. If a buyer is not certain about a 6-month commitment, the pilot is the cleaner path. After the 6-month retainer begins, early termination is negotiated case by case. The default is that already-billed months are non-refundable and remaining months can be reduced to a 30-day notice window when the off-ramp is mutual. Forced exit due to acquisition, restructuring, or a change in technical leadership is handled without friction.
Who owns the memos, architecture diagrams, and hiring scorecards?
The buyer owns all written deliverables produced under the retainer. Architecture diagrams, technical memos, vendor evaluation scorecards, hiring rubrics, and board-deck technical sections are work-for-hire under the contract. The studio retains the right to use generalised methods and frameworks (a hiring rubric template, a vendor-evaluation checklist) across other engagements; specific company facts, names, and proprietary detail stay with the buyer.
How quickly can the engagement start?
Two weeks is typical from a signed pilot agreement to the first weekly call. The studio caps engagements at three to four at any time, so start dates depend on current capacity. If the pricing band fits and capacity exists, the discovery call to first-call window is usually 10 to 14 days. If capacity is full, the studio either holds a start date for the next quarter or refers out.
Are USD-equivalent prices available for US-based buyers?
Yes. The studio bills in EUR by default for tax and contract simplicity, but USD-equivalent quotes are available on request and the contract can be denominated in USD if a buyer's accounting prefers it. The conversion is done at the prevailing rate at contract signing and held flat for the duration of the term.
Related
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