Fractional CTO • Strategic Technical Leadership • Games • XR • AI

Strategic technical leadership for high-growth games, XR, and AI ventures.

For investor-backed ventures grappling with missed technical milestones, delivery instability, or difficulty turning ambitious creative vision into reliable execution.

Capabilities

What I deliver

Senior technical intervention designed to de-risk delivery, strengthen engineering teams, and create a clearer path to milestones that matter.

Technical Delivery De-risking

Stabilises delivery pipelines, identifies timeline and budget risks, and creates more predictable execution.

Strategic Technical Roadmapping

Translates ambitious vision into a practical roadmap aligned with product goals, growth plans, and investor expectations.

Engineering Team Optimisation

Assesses team structure, capability, and process maturity to improve output, cohesion, and execution quality.

Investor Confidence & Delivery Assurance

Provides objective technical oversight that helps founders, boards, publishers, and investors gain confidence in delivery.

Methodology

The 3-Pillar Technical Health Diagnostic: 60-Day Reset

A rapid audit and intervention programme designed to identify and resolve the technical, team, and process issues that create delivery instability.

01

Code & Architecture Audit

Review technical architecture, code quality, debt, scalability risks, and future-readiness.

02

Team Dynamics & Leadership Audit

Assess engineering structure, leadership gaps, team cohesion, and the human factors slowing delivery.

03

Engineering Processes & Workflow Audit

Improve the path from development to deployment with stronger workflows, quality gates, and delivery discipline.

Ideal client

Who I help

Investor-backed early-stage and scale-up companies in games, XR, and applied AI, as well as publishers and investors supporting portfolio companies facing delivery risk, technical debt, or engineering scale challenges.

Engagement

How we work together

Engagements typically start with a fixed-fee intensive 60-Day Reset, followed by fractional CTO support, advisory retainers, or project-based engagements tailored to the venture’s next growth phase.

Track record

Proven results

Headcast Lab • Mobile App

Robust video messaging app delivered in six months

Built and delivered a new product on a compressed timeline, with infrastructure resilient enough to handle major traffic spikes from celebrity users.

Anagram • XR / AR / VR

High-profile immersive application delivered to Meta

Kept delivery on track through creative-corporate tension, meeting strict QA and milestone requirements without compromising the creative vision.

Maze Theory • Games Studio

Engineering transformed and delivery stabilised within 60 days

Interventions reduced sprint cycle times by 50%, improved on-time milestone delivery by 25%, and increased engineering output velocity by 75% while strengthening technical leadership structure.

Background

About Mark Ripley

Mark is a seasoned fractional CTO and technical founder who specialises in guiding founders, CEOs, and boards through high-uncertainty delivery environments. His work spans complex systems, engineering team scale-up, technical strategy, and turning ambitious product visions into executable roadmaps.

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