A retainer means I'm on your team (without the hiring overhead). You get priority access to my expertise, someone who understands your systems, and better rates than on-demand because you're committing time.

How It's Different

When you're on retainer, your requests come first. I'm not squeezing you in between other clients. More importantly, I get to know your context: the weird constraints, the legacy decisions that seemed right at the time, the political dynamics that affect technical choices.

That context means I can give you better answers: "here's how to solve X given what I know about your situation."

What I Actually Do

Technical advisory

You run decisions past me before committing

Roadmap input

Help prioritize what to build and when

Fractional CTO work

Technical leadership without the full-time salary

Project oversight

Keep tabs on technical risks and quality

Code and architecture reviews

Fresh eyes on what your team is building

Sometimes that means a scheduled call. Sometimes it's a quick Slack message. Sometimes I dig in and write code or documentation. The hours are flexible. You use them where they add value.

Options

The Setup

We start with a conversation about what's not working or what you're trying to achieve. I'll be honest about whether a retainer makes sense for your situation. Sometimes a fixed-price project is the better fit. Or maybe you want absolute flexibility and prefer on-demand, or just want to test the waters first.

If we proceed, we agree on hours, response time expectations, and what success looks like. Then I get to know your systems and team. The first month is partly investment as I'm learning your context. Month two onwards, you see the real value.

Hours roll over for 3 months.

Terms adjust as your needs change. Scale up, scale down, pause it. If something's not working, we fix it.