What does it cost to work with you?

It depends. I know "it depends" isn't satisfying, but it's honest: audit, project rescue and fractional CTO have different sizes and timelines. I give you the price in our first call, after I understand what you actually need. What's certain: it's written down before we start, and it's fixed. No quotes that keep growing, no surprises halfway through.

How quickly will I see real results?

Audit: written report in your hands in 2-3 days. Project rescue: first changes live within 1-2 weeks, completion in 2-4 weeks. Fractional CTO: from the first week you have a written technical roadmap and the first decisions made — you don't wait a month to see what's changing.

Do you only work remote or also in person?

Remote, mostly. I come on-site when it actually matters — kick-off, strategic workshops, on-site audits. Veneto, Lombardia and Emilia covered easily; other regions with travel expenses. No theater of mandatory presence.

Do you also work full-time somewhere else?

Yes — I'm a Tech Lead at an enterprise company, and that's exactly where the technical level I bring to your project comes from. That's why I work with very few clients at a time, with clear scope: audit, time-boxed rescue, light monthly retainer. My availability is limited by design, not despite everything. If you need someone full-time every day, you need an in-house dev — and I'll be the first to tell you.

What happens if after the audit we decide not to continue?

Nothing bad. The report is yours, take it home — it contains everything another dev or team needs to act. The initial 30-minute call is free, the audit has a fixed price agreed up front. Zero ambiguity, no hidden clauses.

Do you only work with startups or also with SMBs?

Both. Founders validating an idea, CTOs inheriting a codebase, SMBs with stuck internal software or a developer who stopped replying to emails. I bring value in all these cases — it's not the company size that matters, it's whether you actually need a senior technical reference.

Can I have a fractional CTO while I already have internal developers?

Yes, and it's one of the most common cases. You have devs (internal or external) but no one makes technical decisions or coordinates. That's the role I play: I don't replace the team, I lead it. Direct Slack, weekly call, no disappearances. If there's a promising senior dev, my goal is also to help them grow until they can replace me.

What stacks are you specialized in?

Next.js, TypeScript, Node.js, Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, AWS, Vercel — that's where I'm fastest. But fractional CTO isn't about the stack: it's about picking the right one for your stage and executing. I also work with inherited codebases on other stacks — actually, that happens often. If I think the stack choice is wrong, I'll tell you.

How does invoicing work?

Italian invoice with VAT. Audit and project rescue: 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. Fractional CTO: monthly invoice, renewable quarterly contract (no annual lock-ins). Payment by bank transfer. Clean, invoiced, traceable.

Marco Salatin.Fractional CTO · Software project unblocker

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Software technical audit: find out what isn't working, get a clear path forward.

Code review, architecture analysis, infrastructure diagnosis. Written report with intervention priorities. In 2-3 days.

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€1,500 + VAT · 2-3 days · Remote · Written report with intervention priorities

Who needs it

Who needs a software technical audit.

Non-technical founders

They've contracted out development and have no way to evaluate what was done well.

Inheriting CTOs

They inherit a codebase and need to understand where to start without getting the story from the outgoing devs.

SMBs with internal software

They suspect they're paying too much for a system that delivers too little.

Investors in due diligence

Pre-investment tech DD on a target startup.

Companies in sale

They need to present the technical state of the product to the buyer.

Founders pre-round

About to close an investment round and want to present a solid technical state to investors, before the DD on the other side finds problems.

Definition

What a software technical audit is.

A software technical audit is a systematic analysis of an existing software system's quality. It checks code, architecture, infrastructure, processes and technical debt to identify risks, waste, and intervention priorities.

The result is a written report with concrete evaluations and measurable actions — not a generic opinion, not an endless to-do list.

What I analyze

Six dimensions, one clear direction.

Code

Quality, technical debt, test coverage, readability, module organization.

Architecture

Scalability, coupling, stack choices, alignment with business.

Infrastructure

Security, cloud costs, performance, observability, backup, disaster recovery.

Processes

CI/CD, branch management, code review, deploys, incident response.

Documentation

Onboarding new devs, operational runbooks, Architecture Decision Records.

Team & vendors

Who does what, critical person-dependencies, vendor contracts (if relevant).

Output

What you receive at the end of the audit.

Written report (15-30 pages): executive summary, critical findings, medium findings, intervention roadmap.
Discussion call (90 minutes) to prioritize and answer questions.
Markdown files — you can share internally, edit, update over time.

The report, chapter by chapter

So you know what you're buying before you book, not after.

1
Summary for decision-makers
Two pages, no jargon: the state of the project, the three main risks, and the recommendation. Readable by someone who doesn't write code.
2
Access and ownership
Who currently holds the keys to what: repository, server, domain, database, third-party accounts. Often the most urgent chapter.
3
State of the code
What holds, what's fragile, what's cheaper to rewrite than to fix. With examples taken from your code, not gut-feel verdicts.
4
Architecture and infrastructure
How the system is built, where the single points of failure are, and the hidden costs that grow on their own.
5
Intervention priorities
What to do now, what can wait, what to ignore entirely. Ordered by risk and cost, not by technical elegance.
6
Alignment call
The report gets discussed out loud: questions, decisions, next steps. The document stays yours either way.

What it isn't

Three things an audit doesn't do.

I don't write fix code during the audit (that's what project rescue is for).
I don't manage vendors or devs in your place.
It's not a judgment on the people who worked before — it's an analysis of the system as it is today.

Frequently asked questions

The questions I get most often about audits.

What do you need from me as a client to get started?

Read-only access to the repository, a 30-minute call with you and the current dev (if possible), read-only access to the cloud provider if we want to analyze infrastructure too.

How do we handle code confidentiality?

I sign an NDA before accessing the code. All produced material remains yours and is delivered to a shared folder or dedicated private repository.

What if you find a critical issue during the audit?

I flag it immediately, outside the report. If an immediate intervention is needed, we can decide whether to proceed with project rescue or pass it to your team with the necessary indications.

Can I decide what to focus on?

Yes. Before the audit we align on scope: I can do a full-stack analysis or focus on a specific area (e.g. security only, cloud costs only, backend architecture only).

How much does a technical audit cost?

€1,500 + VAT for the standard audit: 2-3 days of work and a written report that stays yours either way. It's a fixed price precisely because the diagnosis has to be able to end with “there's nothing to buy here” — including from me. If the codebase is very large or there are several systems to look at, I tell you on the free call before we start, not after.

Go deeper

Technical due diligence: what actually gets checked

Before investing in a startup or buying a software product: the red flags that matter and how the review runs.

How to tell if your developer is doing a good job

Seven concrete signals to assess the work, even if you can't read code.

Ready for a technical audit?

First a free 30-minute call to align on scope and timing. Then audit delivered in 2-3 days.

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