Brian Aznar

CTO as a Service

I’m an Outcome-Oriented Fractional CTO who is passionate about helping startups develop and execute their engineering strategy and VC’s evaluate startups.

I partner with founders, build their engineering teams, transform their ideas into proofs of concept, launch minimal viable products in the market and scale them to demand. As well as VC’s to assess companies they are looking to invest in.

I bring leadership experience from established prominent organizations like Major League Soccer and Conde Nast as well as high-growth, fast-paced and nimble startups still searching for product-market fit.

I know you have questions…

  • A part time engineering leader that fills a gap in a C-suite lacking an experienced engineering leader. Although fCTOs are part-time, they should function and be embedded as a regular CTO. Fractionals exist for most practices (Operations, Product, Marketing, Finance, etc.)

  • The Fractional designation applies mostly to leadership positions across various practices that function similarly to their full-time counterparts only at a part-time engagement. Therefore, fractionals are embedded with everyone in the company and have no fixed end date.

    Consultants are full-time and can apply to any level in an organization.

    Interim CTOs have a fixed end date and Advisors interact only with C-Suites and the board.

  • Usually fCTOs are employed by startups for the following reasons:

    +limited in funds - you can get a fCTO for a rate cheaper or as much as an engineer

    +don’t have full-time need for a CTO

    +founders do not have a deep technical background or do not have time / resources to focus on engineering leadership and oversight.

  • Contact me at brian@baztec.net and we will schedule a 15 to 30-min meeting to discuss your company’s needs and if there is a fit between us.

    For some clients that are unsure, I also offer a free weeks’ worth of discovery and gap analysis where I would sit with your team and understand your business, platform architecture and resources.

    From there, I will produce a technology road map that I would execute on if I were to come aboard and you are free to choose if we move forward. If not, no worries and you get a free tech roadmap ;)

  • Fractional rates are between 2k and 10k a month depending on the level of engagement and your company’s resources.

Areas of Expertise

Organizational & Process Assessment for VC Firms – Evaluate engineering teams and workflows to optimize efficiency, scalability, and execution.

Technology & Platform Due Diligence – Assess system architecture, technical debt, modernity, and intellectual property differentiation.

Hybrid, Remote & Offshore Engineering Leadership – Build and manage distributed teams for high performance and collaboration.

Vendor Selection & Management – Evaluate vendors, negotiate contracts, oversee execution, and transition capabilities in-house.

Technical Program Management – Drive complex technical initiatives from concept to execution with structured planning and execution oversight.

Solutions Architecture – Design scalable, secure architectures for mobile, Web2, Web3, and cloud infrastructure.

Budgeting & Cost Optimization – Manage engineering budgets, optimize cloud spend, and align investments with business priorities.

Executive & Board Advisory – Provide strategic guidance to founders, C-suite executives, and boards on technology and product strategy.

Recent Projects

Republic.com - private investments & rwa

Clearingbid.com - securities as a service platform

Mystandard.io - decentralized job search platform

Web3 Stealth - decentralized identity & social media platform

Experience & Eduation

Fulltime CTO - 2024-Now

Grow engineering team and platform towards blockchain and crypto

Fractional CTO for Clearingbid, Mystandard and Stealth Web3 - 2022-2024

Help startups find product market fit and scale by defining technology strategy matched to company business goals and life stage; Strengthen software development standards through gap analysis of SDLC, architecture, infrastructure, process and communication

VP of Engineering at 21.co. - 2021

Doubled growth of company's innovative crypto exchange traded products (ETP/ETF) in Swiss, Australian and Middle Eastern markets by driving scale and evolution of digital assets management API, increasing product offering from 10 to 30 ETPs and AUM from $1B to $2.5B

VP of Engineering at Block.one / Voice - 2020

Executed a strategic high growth plan for engineering dept by hiring 90 globally distributed engineers and launched an innovative first of its kind blockchain-based social media content platform powered by hybrid decentralized Web2 / Web3 architecture

Head of Engineering at Major League Soccer - 2015 - 2020

Built MLS engineering dept and led teams powering 40 separate branded consumer web and mobile products bringing realtime soccer experience to fans

Head of Engineering at Conde Nast - 2010 - 2015

Led Condé Nast's digital transformation by building engineering dept and executing against a cloud native api first technology vision which produced a new content platform powering a fresh suite of web and mobile consumer digital products for wwd.com, style.com, footwearnews.com and vogue.com

Software Engineer, Tech Lead, Architect, Hands on Manager - 1998 - 2010

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science - 1998 - 2010

Virginia Tech University

Dean’s List

A good engineering practice is agile, aligned with the company's goals and delivers iteratively and consistently with impactful outcomes.

Engineering Philosophy