A principal architect, keeping watch, every day.
25+ years building and rescuing production systems - legacy monoliths, scaling failures, and platforms that outgrew their original design. My agent follows your channels and code continuously; I read what it surfaces and decide what matters - senior judgment, not a block of hours.
What usually brings people here
- Your system works in the demo and breaks in production. Learn more β
- You built it with AI and now nobody is quite sure what is in it. Learn more β
- It has grown past its original design, and every change costs more than the last. Learn more β
- You are about to buy or invest in someone else's codebase. Learn more β
- Your team is building something bigger than anyone there has built before. Learn more β
Why this costs what it costs
AI tools make it cheap to ship code fast. They don't make it cheap to ship code that holds - the result is systems that work in the demo and buckle under real usage, and technical debt compounding faster than anyone budgeted for.
The same shift that caused the problem also makes the fix viable at your size: a senior engineer sitting in your office (the fully-loaded cost of a senior hire in Germany or the Netherlands) runs β¬6,000β9,000/month. Senior oversight through Fracsen starts at β¬1,500/month for continuous attention - my agent follows your channels and code every day, and I review what it finds and decide what matters. That judgment was always the expensive part. It is not discounted here, just no longer locked behind a full-time hire.
Keep you out of a mess, or get you out of one - four ways in.
Technical rescue & remediation
Your system works in the demo and breaks in production - or it's grown past its original design, and every change costs more than the last. I get into the code and the data underneath it - schema, queues, what runs where - decide what needs to change, and make it safe to build on again - without a six-month rewrite.
Learn more βTechnical due diligence
Before you acquire or invest: architecture, key-person risk, IP and licence exposure, and what remediation will actually cost. A clear deal / no-deal view.
Learn more βFractional CTO
The agent follows your Slack, tickets, email and repo; I review what it surfaces and come back with a recommendation - usually the same or next working day.
Learn more βPre-flight review
Before the AI writes a line, I decide what gets built - the datastore, the boundaries, what we're not building. Then I write the checks that prove it ships correctly. The thing that stops the breakage recurring.
Learn more βHow engagements are shaped
Fractional CTO
Typically starts at β¬1,500/mo
Continuous senior oversight - my agent follows your channels and code every day, and I review what it finds and respond, usually same or next working day.
Technical rescue & remediation
β¬2,000β4,500/mo
Active stabilisation of a fragile or AI-tangled codebase. Priced by system size.
Pre-flight review
β¬2,500β5,500/mo
The AI writes the code, I decide what gets built and ships, and I write the checks that prove it before it goes out. Priced by system size.
All engagements are month-to-month - 30 days' notice, no lock-in. Point-in-time engagements (rescue, pre-flight) are priced by system size; the Fractional CTO engagement scales with involvement instead.
Prices exclude VAT. Reverse charge applies for VAT-registered business clients outside Hungary.
Evaluating a system before you commit?
Technical due diligence - a focused review of the codebase, architecture, and key-person risk, plus a clear deal / no-deal view. The entry tier is a written report within 2β3 working days of access being granted and questions answered; larger or more complex deals take longer. Priced by deal size and complexity, from β¬1,500 (credited against a follow-on engagement started within 30 days) up to β¬9,000 for larger or more complex deals.
From β¬1,500 - Ask about due diligence βDecided, not vibecoded
Vibecoding is prompting an AI and shipping whatever comes back. What happens here is different: the AI writes the code, but Postgres or DynamoDB, a queue or a straight function call, where the tenant boundary sits, what we deliberately don't build - those calls are mine. No softening on this one: my calls, my responsibility.
What's included
- Connect what you're comfortable with Slack, email, Jira/Linear, a repo, or a shared inbox - however you already work. Nothing is required; you choose what my agent gets access to.
- Async access Message me when something comes up. I respond within a working day, usually faster. No scheduling overhead for quick questions.
- Regular check-ins Weekly or fortnightly, depending on the engagement: what's been built, what's coming, what needs attention.
- Architecture reviews When a significant technical decision is on the table, I'll lay out the options and give you a clear recommendation with the reasoning.
- Developer support Your team can reach me directly. Code reviews, pair debugging, guidance on getting good output from Copilot and Claude.
What clients say
Architecture meetings with David are a crucible in which bad ideas are burned away and good ideas are refined to great ideas. He always keeps business need front and centre and can manage complexity while maintaining a relentless pressure towards simplicity and effectiveness.
He suggested the change of our hosting provider to AWS, and has helped us make significant improvements to our stability and reduction in costs, in an extremely short time, with minimal downtime. He is an amazing AWS expert that's always up-to-date, but above all he is very diligent and proficient in his work.
Who you're talking to
David Channon
Fractional CTO
25+ years building software - from startups to enterprise, from PHP monoliths to serverless TypeScript, from single MySQL boxes to DynamoDB at scale. The senior engineer you bring in before a system breaks, or call when it already has. Based in Hungary, working with teams across Europe.
LinkedIn profile βFrequently asked questions
How fast can you start?
Usually within a few days of the call. For time-boxed diligence work, faster - tell me the timeline when we speak.
What do you need from me to get going?
Repo access, whoever holds context on the system (even 30 minutes of their time), and an honest read on what's not working. I'll ask for anything else as I go.
Does this replace my dev team or work alongside them?
Alongside. Fractional CTO and rescue engagements both work with your existing team - I'm there to give direction and catch what a team under deadline pressure doesn't have time to catch, not to take over delivery.
What if the codebase is worse than we thought - does the price change?
Rescue and fractional CTO engagements are month-to-month, so scope adjusts with what we find rather than triggering a change order. Due diligence is scoped upfront - the entry tier is a fixed 2β3 working day review; larger or more complex deals take longer, and I'll say so before continuing, not after.
What does handover look like if the engagement ends?
Documentation of what changed and why, a clear picture of system state, and a call with whoever takes over next. No lock-in - that's the point of month-to-month.
Do you sign an NDA before diligence work?
Yes, standard practice before any diligence engagement.
Is this remote-only?
Yes - working with teams across Europe, remote by default.
Start with a 15-minute call
A short call to understand the system and the situation, a scoped proposal within a few days, then we start.
Book a call β