Case Study: Fractional CTO

From Scrappy to Scalable: Getting the CTO You Need Without the Full-Time Hire

Client Mota Hub Inc.
Service Fractional CTO
Engagement 5 days/month
Industry VFX / Data / Recruitment

Mota Hub Inc had a clear product vision and a fast-moving opportunity in the VFX, data and recruitment space. What they were missing was senior technology leadership: someone to make the right architectural calls, own the roadmap, and translate business ambition into a platform that could actually scale. This is what happened when Kurt MacLachlan brought in a fractional CTO instead of hiring one.

A great product, held back by patchwork technology

Like many growth-stage businesses, Mota Hub Inc was running on a combination of tools that had accumulated over time rather than been designed. Their website didn't reflect the quality of the product. Onboarding flows created friction before a customer even got started. And a technology roadmap lived in people's heads rather than in code.

Hiring a full-time CTO wasn't the right move at this stage. The need was real, but so was the cost, risk, and time-to-hire of a permanent appointment. They needed the judgement of a CTO without the overhead of one.

"Stop thinking about it and just do it, you won't regret it."
Kurt MacLachlan, Founder, Mota Hub Inc.
Five days a month. Immediate impact from day one.

The engagement started at five days per month, structured around business priorities rather than a fixed schedule of meetings and reports. The first focus was immediate, visible impact: the website and onboarding forms were overhauled, bringing the front-door experience in line with what the product actually delivered. These aren't glamorous changes, but they matter.

Once the immediate priorities were addressed, the engagement moved into a longer planning horizon. What does Mota Hub Inc need to build, in what order, and how should it be architected to support where it is going? The answer was a suite of four interconnected platforms, each addressing a distinct operational need in the VFX crewing and workforce space.

Four bespoke platforms. One coherent technology stack.

The specifics of each platform are commercially sensitive. At a strategic level, they address the full lifecycle of VFX workforce and crew management, designed to work together and scale as Mota Hub Inc grows.

Platform 01

Intelligence Hub

A centralised data and insights layer giving the business cross-operational visibility: the kind that spreadsheets and disconnected tools simply cannot provide.

Platform 02

CRM

A purpose-built customer relationship platform designed around the client's specific workflows. Not configured from generic off-the-shelf software that doesn't quite fit.

Platform 03

Recruitment Platform

End-to-end recruitment tooling built for the complexity of VFX and specialist workforce hiring, where requirements differ significantly from standard recruitment software.

Platform 04

Crewing Platform with Automated Job Matching

Automated matching logic that connects the right crew to the right opportunities, reducing manual effort and improving placement speed and accuracy.

Five days became ten. The engagement grew with the progress.

The engagement doubled from five to ten days per month, reflecting the pace of progress and the value of having consistent senior technology leadership embedded in the business. Key outcomes to date:

Senior leadership at a cost structure that fits your stage

Mota Hub Inc didn't need a permanent CTO in an office five days a week. They needed the judgement, the architecture decisions, and the commercial clarity that a great CTO brings, applied at the right moments, on a schedule that fit the business rather than the other way around.

That is fractional CTO engagement: senior technology leadership, commercially focused, with no wasted overhead.

The Fractional CTO Model

Typically 2 to 5 days per month. Structured around your priorities. No long-term commitment required to get started. The right arrangement scales up as the engagement proves its value, and it did here within the first few months.

Ready to bring in senior technology leadership?

If your business is at the point where technology decisions are being made without enough senior input, or where the gap between your ambition and your current tech stack is widening, a fractional CTO engagement might be the right next step.

Company WebuildYourAI
Get in touch