Fractional CTO + AI Lead · $10–50M operators
A senior technology leader on your executive team — without the executive hire.
I’m Todd Adams. 25 years of shipping SaaS, building production AI since 2022, before GPT-4. We set the strategy, ship production systems, and graduate your team to ownership.
Todd Adams
Founder — Principal Engineer to Vertical President
- 25 yrs
- SaaS leadership, Principal Engineer to Vertical President
- 2022
- Building production AI since 2022, before GPT-4
- 4+
- Production SaaS products operated in parallel
- ~70%
- Routine inquiries resolved without humans in one deployed system
Practice
Three ways we engage
Strategy, production AI, and team education for $10–50M operators. We embed as your fractional CTO, ship the work, and graduate your team to ownership — retainers with quarterly objectives and a stated graduation horizon.
Two to three weeks. We assess your stack, map vendors, ship one production AI prototype against your real data, and end with a 12-month roadmap and an executive readout.
Functional prototypes, MVPs, and full-stack custom applications for founders and teams who need a single senior builder. AI integrated where it matters, not where it's a buzzword.
Engagement model
How we work: STE
Every engagement delivers three things — and ends with your team owning the work, not paying us forever. This isn’t a sales framework. It’s the engagement model.
Strategy
We help you understand strategy with AI and tech. Roadmap, vendor map, build-vs-buy calls, board-level framing — rooted in your actual business model and stack, not a generic deck. You'll have a defensible plan you can take to your team and your board.
Transformation
We deliver the transformation. Production AI systems integrated into your stack — real components shipped, KPIs moved. Not prototypes. Not slides. Working software in production, with the architecture, security, and observability that make it durable.
Education
We educate your team so you can continue. Internal champion identified, runbooks written, evals in place. By month nine to twelve the system runs without us. The retainer compresses to strategy-only, converts to advisory, or sunsets — whichever serves you. Graduation is the goal. Not lock-in.
Featured work
Systems running in production
After-Hours Triage Automation for a Consulting Firm
Claude Opus 4.6 · OpenAI Realtime API · Vapi · +4
Built an AI-powered voice and triage layer that handles after-hours inbound calls for a professional services firm — answering, qualifying, routing, and surfacing what actually matters before the team is back at desks.
After-hours inbound calls answered live in real time; ~70% of routine inquiries resolved without human involvement; urgent matters escalated to on-call partners within 60 seconds with full call context; first-line triage moved from next-business-day to real-time
Lamplight Technology — Production SaaS Portfolio, AI-First
Next.js · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · +3
A parallel SaaS practice — multiple production products in market, operated solo, AI-native end to end. Proof that the same engineering brain delivering NT0 fractional engagements also ships and operates real software at scale.
Four production SaaS products operating in parallel with NT0 client work — proof that the same engineering brain delivering fractional CTO engagements also ships and operates real software at production scale.
Tenantwise — AI-Powered Tenant Communications
Next.js · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · +5
Built an AI automation layer for tenant management — handling voice, text, and email responses — that started as a custom client engagement and is now a product taking on private clients.
Automated tenant communications across voice, text, and email; now serving private property management clients
I’m Todd Adams — 25 years of SaaS, Principal Engineer to Vertical President. I also build and operate my own production SaaS portfolio at Lamplight Technology, the engineering practice that keeps this one honest.
“Most consultants won’t say ‘graduation is the goal’ out loud. I say it because it’s the right outcome — the strategic work you’ll keep needing is different from the implementation work that should sunset.”
Writing
Latest thinking
Why I Sell Graduation, Not Retainers
The honest version of how a fractional CTO engagement should end. Why I structure every retainer to compress over time, how the math works for both sides, and what most consultants won't say out loud.
What Aftermarket Operators Are Getting Wrong About AI in 2026
Pattern observations from twenty-five years in vertical software and four years building production AI — specifically what mid-market aftermarket distributors are missing as the consultants flood in.
NT0 Is Now a Fractional CTO + AI Practice
A month ago I rebuilt Networkzero around AI-native development. Here's what changed in the next four weeks of conversations, and where the practice is actually landing.
Not sure where you stand?
Thirteen questions, four minutes, an instant score — and a written report on the three moves that would matter most in your seat.
Start with a 20-minute intro call.
We'll tell you what's possible, what it'll take, and how fast we can move.