Strategic Advisory Services

Fractional CTO & VP Engineering Support

You need an experienced technical leader who understands your specific challenges and can help you navigate them.

A different approach: Get access to a fractional CTO/VP Engineering who’s built AI teams from scratch and shipped production systems.

Advisory Offerings

Choose the level of support that fits your needs. All engagements include strategic guidance on team structure, hiring, technology decisions, and shipping AI products to production.

Executive Partnership

8 hours per month of dedicated leadership support

What’s Included:

  • 4 strategy sessions per month (60 minutes each)
  • Async support via Slack/email
  • Review of key decisions, documents, and plans

Best For:

  • Early-stage startups building AI teams
  • Companies scaling from 2-10+ engineers
  • Organizations navigating major technical decisions

Investment: $8,000/month (3-month minimum)

Book Discovery Session ($1,000)

Strategic Advisor

4 hours per month of focused guidance

What’s Included:

  • 2 strategy sessions per month (60 minutes)
  • Email/Slack support for urgent questions
  • Guidance on hiring, structure, and process decisions

Best For:

  • Companies with existing strong leadership
  • Teams needing periodic strategic input
  • Organizations facing specific growth challenges

Investment: $4,450/month

Book Discovery Session ($1,000)

What You Get

Strategic Guidance

  • AI team organizational design and structure
  • Hiring strategies and role definitions
  • Technology stack decisions (build vs buy, infrastructure choices)
  • Process design for shipping AI products

Hands-On Support

  • Interview training and candidate evaluation
  • Technical due diligence for acquisitions or partnerships
  • Infrastructure and architecture reviews
  • Team performance and process optimization

Who This Is For

✓ Perfect For:

  • Early-stage startups building AI teams (you need executive-level technical leadership but aren’t ready to hire full-time)
  • Companies scaling AI capabilities from 2 to 10+ engineers
  • Organizations facing specific technical challenges requiring an experienced outside perspective

✗ Not Right For:

  • Companies needing full-time leadership (if you can afford a full-time exec, hire one)
  • Teams looking for implementation work (I provide strategic guidance, not hands-on coding)

How It Works

1. Paid Discovery Session ($1,000) 60-minute deep-dive to understand your challenges, assess fit, and provide immediate strategic guidance. You’ll walk away with actionable recommendations regardless of whether we work together long-term.

2. Engagement Kickoff (for ongoing partnerships) If we decide to work together, we’ll formalize the engagement and establish our regular cadence.

3. Ongoing Partnership Regular strategy sessions and async support on your schedule.

Frequently Asked Questions

“How do we engage you?” Email me or sign up for a Discovery Session. All consulting services are provided through Dan Gerlanc LLC.

“What if we’re not sure which offering is right?” The paid discovery session helps us explore your challenges together and determine the best fit—whether that’s Executive Partnership, Strategic Advisor, or another option. You’ll receive strategic guidance during the session regardless of next steps.

“Can you help us hire?” I don’t do recruiting, but I can help you design the hiring process, define roles, evaluate candidates, and build your interview process.

“Do you sign NDAs?” Yes, absolutely. All advisory engagements include standard confidentiality agreements.

“Can we adjust the engagement level over time?” Yes. Many clients start with Executive Partnership and transition to Strategic Advisor as their team matures, or vice versa based on changing needs.

Ready to Get Started?

Book Discovery Session ($1,000)

Questions? Get in touch by email.