I assist fintech entrepreneurs who lack a CTO but urgently need one. You've created a payment platform, secured funding, and engaged either an agency or a small development team. However, now you're facing issues. Payments are failing without any error messages, your reconciliation is increasingly off by thousands weekly, an auditor just informed you that your "PCI-compliant" system is recording card information in plaintext, or your technical co-founder has departed, taking all undocumented knowledge with them. With over 13 years of experience building and managing payment infrastructure at scale, including processing billions of financial transactions at Wise, reducing payment errors by 90% at SWVL, and driving a 60% revenue increase at Dubizzle, I've witnessed both well-functioning payment systems and those on the verge of failure. As your fractional CTO, I provide the expertise and oversight typically expected from a full-time CTO, but without the lengthy 18-month commitment or equity concerns. In the first week, I will conduct a comprehensive audit of your payment processes, pinpoint the issues, and outline the necessary actions. I will take charge of implementing solutions related to architecture, compliance strategy, team organization, vendor selection, code quality, observability, and development pace—all rooted in genuine fintech expertise rather than generic startup advice. I tackle problems like: - Failing payment infrastructure without identifiable causes - Code from agencies that won't pass PCI audits - Leadership voids following a CTO's exit - Teams that are too slow to meet compliance timelines - Architecture decisions made without knowledge of settlement cycles, reconciliation, or payment processor nuances I collaborate with payment companies, neobanks, lending platforms, insurtech, and wealthtech startups. If real money is involved in your system and there's an issue, I've successfully resolved that type of problem before.