You will get One-Hour CTO Strategy Call - Architecture, Stack, and Technical Direction
Project details
You have a technical decision to make and no one on your team to pressure-test it. Stack selection, architecture direction, scaling concerns, build-vs-buy, security posture, vendor lock-in, team structure, or if the platform you've been sold actually fits your problem.
I'm a CTO with 25+ years across healthcare, legal services, and enterprise SaaS. I've built production platforms handling payment processing, identity verification, regulatory compliance, and complex workflow automation. Before technology leadership I spent 20 years in operational roles — I understand what it means to use the system, not just design it.
You get a focused call where I listen to your situation, ask the questions your team hasn't thought of, and give you direct, opinionated answers. No hedging, no "it depends without a conclusion." Within 24 hours you receive written action points you can hand to your developers or share with investors.
Most clients come with one question and leave with clarity on three things they hadn't considered. Some come back for a full architecture review or technical blueprint. Some don't need to — the call was enough.
Either way, you leave knowing what to do next and why.
I'm a CTO with 25+ years across healthcare, legal services, and enterprise SaaS. I've built production platforms handling payment processing, identity verification, regulatory compliance, and complex workflow automation. Before technology leadership I spent 20 years in operational roles — I understand what it means to use the system, not just design it.
You get a focused call where I listen to your situation, ask the questions your team hasn't thought of, and give you direct, opinionated answers. No hedging, no "it depends without a conclusion." Within 24 hours you receive written action points you can hand to your developers or share with investors.
Most clients come with one question and leave with clarity on three things they hadn't considered. Some come back for a full architecture review or technical blueprint. Some don't need to — the call was enough.
Either way, you leave knowing what to do next and why.
Industry
Ecommerce, Financial Services, Health & Medical, Legal, SoftwareWhat's included
| Service Tiers |
Starter
$250
|
Standard
$400
|
Advanced
$750
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery Time | 2 days | 2 days | 3 days |
Live Consultation (Minutes) | 60 | 90 | 180 |
Frequently asked questions
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BM
Brunhilde M.
Oct 1, 2023
Project Lead with Technical Background For Managing App Development
AC
Adrianne C.
Sep 29, 2023
Part-time Webmaster with WordPress Experience
Richard completed a number of WP website projects for us successfully (server migration, add-ons, streamlining a booking process, etc).
He is a good critical thinker and will offer multiple options for solving issues which was much appreciated. I highly recommend him.
He is a good critical thinker and will offer multiple options for solving issues which was much appreciated. I highly recommend him.
JD
Joy D.
Nov 30, 2022
Content migration specialist needed to build and maintain media library
Richard was a delight to work with. If I had to do this project again, I'd certainly give him a call.
JD
Joy D.
Nov 30, 2022
Content migration specialist
Richard was prompt and thorough. He communicated his findings well and was proactive in developing solutions.
DO
Damien O.
Jun 27, 2022
Website/Wordpress/WooCommerce admin person needed (ongoing)
Richard was brilliant, very very detailed and took a step by step approach when approaching any task or project.
About Richard
Fractional CTO | Architecture, Team Builds, Compliance-Heavy SaaS
Drinia, Cyprus - 8:57 pm local time
Last builds: encrypted document processing for an EU law firm. Client portal with Stripe, MS365, role-based access. Zoho analytics across 50+ custom fields. I architect everything first — developers build from my spec.
Drop me a message with what you're building. I'll tell you how I'd architect it, not a sales deck.
My work sits in high-stakes operational environments: payment-heavy systems, identity document handling, regulatory compliance, and workflows where the rules change depending on who the user is, where they are, and what applies to them.
Before moving into technology leadership, I spent 20 years in healthcare. I qualified as a dispensing optician and worked across clinical practice, practice management, and regional operations in multi-site networks. That experience still shapes how I build: I understand what it means to use the system, not just design it. The result is software grounded in real operational roles, interfaces that reduce confusion, and backend logic that reflects how the business actually works.
I'm based in Cyprus with daily overlap across US, UK, and European time zones.
Today I lead technology for a legal services company operating across the US, EU, and UK. My most recent delivery is a 65,000+ line production platform for an Italian law firm handling government application workflows. Citizenship, residency, applicant category, and gender determine which forms are generated, which documents are required, which legal wording is used, and what pricing applies. The system supports 148+ valid output combinations through a rules engine, with Stripe payment lifecycle handling, HMAC-verified webhooks, AES-256 encrypted document processing where decrypted content never touches disk, four-tier SLA escalation, and a multi-role admin model designed so each operator sees only what they need.
Before that, I owned product and led the web team at NHS Supply Chain, an NHS and DHL joint venture. That environment taught me enterprise delivery at scale within a healthcare supply context: complex supplier integrations, high-traffic operations, and governance that still works when the room gets busy and the stakes are high.
**What I do best:**
**Rules engines and eligibility logic.** I build systems where outcomes depend on user-specific conditions such as location, category, jurisdiction, or history. That applies directly to legal services, visa workflows, insurance, clinical intake, underwriting, and any domain where "it depends" is the real business rule.
**Payment systems that handle the unhappy path.** Not just checkout flows, but webhook lifecycle management, idempotency, refunds, disputes, reconciliation, and the operational tooling teams need when something fails outside business hours.
**Security built into the architecture.** Encrypted storage, secure document delivery, audit logging, retention controls, capability-based access, and privacy-aware system design from the outset.
**Operational admin built for real teams.** I build internal systems for the people living in them all day: role-specific views, batch operations, pipeline management, print queues, escalation tooling, and workflows that match reality rather than generic CRUD assumptions.
**Cross-jurisdiction compliance discipline.** I currently work across GDPR, UK GDPR, and CCPA. The frameworks differ, but the operational discipline is the same: data minimisation, consent, auditability, retention, and clear rule application by jurisdiction.
I'm stack agnostic and use the right tools for the problem: PHP/Laravel, Python, Go, WordPress at scale, headless CMS, plus production AI integrations using Anthropic and OpenAI APIs for document processing and workflow automation.
I work comfortably with non-technical stakeholders in legal, financial, and operational environments, and I translate technical decisions into business impact without hiding behind jargon.
A few things worth knowing about how I work. I'm happy to be wrong — if the evidence says the architecture I proposed isn't the right one, I'd rather find that out early than defend it past the point it serves you. And I push. Projects in regulated domains die in the last 20% where the edge cases live, and that's usually where I'm most useful.
If you're building a platform where getting it wrong has consequences, let's talk.
Steps for completing your project
After purchasing the project, send requirements so Richard can start the project.
Delivery time starts when Richard receives requirements from you.
Richard works on your project following the steps below.
Revisions may occur after the delivery date.
Pre-call review
I review your brief and any links or documents you share so we spend the call solving problems, not explaining context.
Strategy call
Live video call focused on your specific questions. Architecture, stack, scaling, security, build-vs-buy — whatever you need clarity on.