What is a fractional CTO?

A fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works with a startup part-time — typically one to three days a week — instead of a full-time hire. They own product and engineering decisions: architecture, hiring, technical strategy, AI adoption, and shipping. A good fractional CTO is hands-on and writes code alongside the team, not just an advisor.

Who is Yume Studios for?

Yume Studios works with funded startups (typically pre-seed through Series A) that need senior technical leadership without committing to a full-time CTO hire. Common situations: a non-technical founder who needs a builder partner, a startup between CTO hires, or a team that needs to become AI-native quickly.

Who runs Yume Studios?

Yume Studios is run by Steve Smith, a UK-based fractional CTO with 15+ years of experience and 100+ products shipped across web, mobile, AI and web3. Steve previously co-founded Airbyte (a digital product studio) and led product and engineering at Wildgoose for four years. He is known as a builder CTO — he writes code, designs UX, and ships product alongside founders.

What services does Yume Studios offer?

Yume Studios offers four main engagements: (1) Fractional CTO — embedded technical leadership for funded startups; (2) Fractional CPO — product strategy and roadmap; (3) Strategy and workshop days — scoped engagements with concrete deliverables; (4) AI enablement for product teams — adopting Claude Code, MCP, agentic workflows and pragmatic LLM integration.

How is a builder CTO different from a typical fractional CTO?

Most fractional CTOs are advisors — they review architecture, sit in planning meetings, and make introductions. A builder CTO actually ships product. They write production code, design interfaces, prototype with the team, and hire engineers they will work alongside. For early-stage startups that need to ship — not just plan — a builder is usually the better fit.

Where is Yume Studios based and who do you work with?

Yume Studios is based in London, United Kingdom, and works remote-first with founders worldwide. Most engagements are with UK and European startups, but Yume has supported teams across North America and Asia.

How do I hire Yume Studios?

Email steve@yume.co with a short note about your company, stage, and what you need. The first call is a free 30 minutes to figure out whether the fit makes sense. If it does, Yume proposes a scoped engagement — fractional CTO, fractional CPO, a workshop day, or a longer partnership.

Products backed by over £10M in funding and millions of users

The technical product partner funded founders actually need.

You don’t need another advisor. You need someone who’ll get in the weeds, make decisions, and ship. That’s what I do.

[BOOK A CALL]See what I do ↓

Not for everyone.

I’d rather be honest upfront than waste your time.

This works if:

You’ve raised at least £500k
You need to ship in the next 3–12 months
You’re building something that needs real engineering
You want someone who can build, not someone who only advises

This probably isn’t for you if:

You need long-term system maintenance
You’re looking for a people manager
Heavy governance and long approval chains
You want someone to clear a ticket backlog

Proof.

What colleagues say. What I’ve shipped. What clients raised.

“His skills as a developer really are second to none. Always calm and collected, he could lead many different projects across several systems and languages with ease.”

— Anneka Nicholls, Digital Content Editor · 3 years at Wildgoose

[SEE IF WE’RE A FIT]

[OUTCOME]

Stabilised Hanover CRM through a CTO transition, rebuilt engineering ops, and set the AI-first product direction.

Current engagement · Hanover CRM

“There isn’t anything Steve cannot do. He has been a true MVP with leading tech & product.”

Eugene Luke, Marketing @ Asset Bank

£10M+

raised by clients on products we shipped together

“He was indispensable. Always available for questions and code reviews, providing constructive feedback without hesitation.”

Roberto D’Amico, Senior Software Engineer @ Mindstep

From week one to shipped.

When I’m embedded with a startup, this is the shape of it — three stages that move you from ‘we think we know what to build’ to ‘it’s shipped and the team can run it without me.’

[STAGE 1]

Figure out what to build.

Before any code, we get clear on what’s actually worth shipping. Product decisions, architecture calls, where AI fits and where it doesn’t. The fastest way to waste runway is building the wrong thing, so we don’t start until we know.

What that looks like: a roadmap and scope you can defend to your board, a technical direction that won’t need unpicking in six months, and a clear read on which AI bets are worth making.

[STAGE 2]

Build it, properly.

I write code. Not just architecture diagrams. Production code, real products, shipped to real users — Rails, Phoenix, Next.js, React Native, Swift.

This is where SCAFFOLD comes in. It’s the AI-native infrastructure I’ve built over years of shipping startup products, and it’s how I move at the pace you need without cutting the corners that cost you later. Multi-tenant platforms, API-first design, compliance-aware systems — designed for what you need now and what you’ll need at 10x.

[STAGE 3]

Leave you running without me.

The goal isn’t for you to need me forever. Process documentation, technical specs, hiring support, pricing strategy, launch planning — I build the systems that let your team operate once I step back.

A good engagement ends with you shipping faster than you did before I arrived, and a team that doesn’t need me to keep doing it.

Real engagements. Real outcomes.

Built the entire SaaS platform from scratch: booking engine, operations system for high-growth during Covid, multiple consumer apps. Designed and shipping AI for automated event content generation.

From 0

built dev, product & design team

1M+

app downloads

product verticals

Scaled to one of the UK’s largest learn-to-drive platforms. Revamped the iOS & Android apps into the sector’s leading products. Featured by BBC, TechCrunch, and the Guardian.

300k+

downloads

$10M

funding raised

in sector

Brought in during major leadership upheaval. CTO leaving, team leads departing, business changing hands. Stabilised the team, rebuilt development operations, and now leading AI & product innovation in International Exchange.

Stabilised

in transition

AI-first

product direction

A swamped founder with ideas everywhere and no structure. I helped shape the product roadmap, added process, reviewed code, refreshed the UI, and helped shape the v2 product.

$500k

AUD invested

Roadmap

from chaos

Built the technical architecture, brought in an experienced AI developer to build the product, and now advise on product direction. I bring in product designers and engineers to build customer and marketing flows.

Architecture

designed from scratch

Team

built around product

Three ways to work together.

Scoped engagements with clear outcomes. No open-ended retainers.

Clarity Sprint

1 week

Let’s chat

One week embedded with your team. I audit what you’re building, identify where AI fits (and where it doesn’t), and ship at least one working proof-of-concept. You walk away with a clear technical direction and something already running.

Technical Partner

Ongoing · ~1 day/week

Let’s chat

I make technical and product decisions alongside you. Architecture, hiring, AI integration, and hands-on building when needed. Book a call and we’ll scope it together.

Build Sprint

4–6 weeks

Let’s chat

A specific product or feature, scoped and shipped. Fixed timeline. You get a finished product, not a handoff document.

15 years of building products.

From award-winning product studios to scaling SaaS platforms, I’ve spent my career embedded in startups, making the decisions, building the teams, and shipping the products. I take on a small number of clients at a time so each one gets real depth, not surface-level advice.