AI-native software consulting · Fractional CTO
Every AI vendor has a pitch. You need someone on your side of the table.
No technical leadership. Tools that don't talk to each other. Internal software that's been "almost done" for a year. Every decision runs through you — the person with the least time to make it.
Rhize sits on your side: a fractional CTO on retainer who pressure-tests every AI and software decision before you sign, and a team that builds what's worth building. The technical brain your business never hired.
No pitch. Bring the decision you're stuck on.
Every month without one costs you.
Not in some abstract way. In wrong vendors, stalled builds, and hours your team burns working around systems that were never wired together. This is what it looks like when no one technical is accountable.
Six-figure calls on a gut feeling
You're signing off on the CRM, the new software, the integration, the contractor's quote — with nobody in the room who can tell you if it's the right call or an expensive mistake.
Tools that don't talk to each other
Every system you bought solves one thing and ignores the rest. Your team re-keys the same data three times because nobody owns how it all fits together.
Internal software that never ships
The tool that would actually save your team hours has been "almost done" for a year. There's no one steering it, so it stalls every time you look away.
You're the technical escalation point
When something breaks or a vendor over-promises, it lands on you — the least-technical person who can least afford the time. You're guessing, and you know it.
You don't need a $250k hire. You need the brain — on a retainer.
A full-time CTO means a six-figure salary, months of hiring, and a bet that the one person you found is the right one. Most businesses your size don't need that. You need the judgment a CTO brings — in the room when the decisions get made — without carrying the headcount.
That's the retainer: senior technical judgment on call, plus a team that builds and maintains what your business actually runs on. Discuss how the relationship can change, what is delivered and what ongoing support the agreed scope includes.
What you get
Advice on every decision. Software that actually ships.
Two halves of one relationship: the senior judgment to make the right calls, and the build team to turn them into working systems — all on one AI-native stack you own.
Advisory on every software decision
Before you buy, build, or sign anything technical, you run it past us. Vendor pitches, integrations, build-vs-buy, architecture, the contractor's scope — you get a straight answer from someone whose only job is your interests.
Internal tools, built and maintained
We build the software your business actually needs — dashboards, internal apps, the integrations that tie your stack together — the AI-native way. And we keep them running. Not a hand-off-and-vanish project.
The Rhize OS foundation underneath
Everything sits on one connected stack — your data in one place, agents and automations on top. Unlike an agency's deliverables, the foundation gets smarter the longer it runs.
This page is the advisory half of the practice. When you already know you need something built, start with custom AI software development.
What we pressure-test
The same questions we answer about ourselves.
Before you sign with any AI vendor, software company or contractor, we check the things their pitch skips.
Vendor claims vs. evidence
Comparable clients, baselines and results — not demos and adjectives.
Integration and failure handling
What happens to a lead, a booking or a record when something breaks, and who finds out.
Who owns what
Data, prompts, accounts and code. Anything critical that would sit in the vendor's name.
All-in cost and the exit path
Scope boundaries, change fees, and what keeps working if you leave.
How it works
What a month on the retainer looks like
It's a relationship, not a project queue. A scoped engagement set to your priorities — here's the shape of it.
A standing seat at the table
We're in your corner on a regular cadence — reviewing what's coming, flagging what's about to bite, and keeping a roadmap that matches where the business is actually going.
On call for the decisions that matter
When a vendor call or a build decision comes up between check-ins, you reach us. No statement of work, no scoping a new project to ask a question.
Build work, moving every week
The tools and integrations on the roadmap get built and shipped in the background — tested against real work, not a demo — so the backlog stops being "someday."
Reporting tied to outcomes
You see what got shipped, what it changed, and what's next — measured against the business result, not hours billed or tickets closed.
Pricing is a scoped retainer, set to what your business needs — the first step is a 30-minute call to figure out the shape of it.
Proof
This isn't theory. It's how we already work.
Clients run this way — Rhize as the standing technical brain behind the business, weighing in on the decisions and building the tools that keep it moving. Not a one-off project; an ongoing relationship where the systems compound.
That's the difference between hiring an agency and hiring a brain: an agency's work depreciates the day they stop. A system you own, with someone steering it, keeps getting better the longer it runs.
How this is different from the agency that burned you
The retainer model only works if the incentives are straight. So we put the same three things in writing on every engagement.
Ownership and care are separate
Deliverables, account access and ongoing support depend on the agreed scope. Hosting, software, maintenance and fine-tuning have ongoing costs, including after an engagement ends.
Reporting tied to outcomes
We report on what actually moved the business — what shipped and what it changed — not hours logged or activity for its own sake.
Agreed acceptance checks
Agree on acceptance checks and how changes will be handled. Ongoing operation and future improvements are separate parts of the scope.
Stop guessing on every
software decision.
A 30-minute call. No pitch.
Book a 30-minute call and we'll talk through where your business is flying blind technically and what a fractional-CTO retainer would look like for you — whether you hire us or not.
No obligation. No pitch deck.