15 to 25 hours over 2 to 3 weeks
Discovery Sprint
A practical assessment of the team, roles, product, and platform, with a 90-day action plan.
Fractional CTO · Africa
A trusted technical advisor for your next stage.
I am Abou Koné, an Ivorian American CTO, trusted technical advisor, and player-coach. I help founders structure their teams, make hard decisions, and improve the way product, engineering, and execution move together.
CTO at Pacify · Founder of 100Kode · English and French
Starting point
A Discovery Sprint can usually begin within two weeks of our first conversation.
The right moment
When to bring me in
- Your team is usually 5 to 20 people, and its way of working needs to evolve with the company.
- You need a player-coach who can make technical decisions, help set product direction, and raise the level of the engineering team.
- You need to hire, reorganize, or right-size the team without losing momentum.
- You want to formalize the roadmap, roles, operating rhythm, and accountability so delivery becomes more predictable.
- You are preparing to raise money or for technical due diligence, and need a clear, credible technical story.
Formats
Engagements matched to your stage
Up to 10 hours a month
Pulse
A trusted advisor for hard decisions, key hires, and leadership priorities.
Up to 20 hours a month
Guidance
Team structure, hiring plan, delivery rhythm, and the operating practices that make it stick.
Up to 40 hours a month
Embedded Leadership
An embedded leader to organize the team, establish the right mechanisms, and drive the next stage.
Formats and pricing are set after a first conversation, based on the milestone ahead and the level of involvement that will help.
Experience
How I can help your startup move forward
Grow a team that can deliver
When your company has outgrown informal ways of working, I help clarify roles, priorities, and accountability. At Pacify and Clockwise, I helped teams become more mature and take on bigger goals.
Take back control of your product
If an outside company built your product, I can help you take ownership without slowing down the business. At Pacify, I helped organize the handover and build the internal team that now improves the product every day.
Turn a new idea into a useful product
At Clockwise, I helped build Prism, a new AI scheduling product. I can help turn a promising idea into a clear plan, an organized team, and a product customers can use.
Help your team move faster
I help remove the everyday blockers that slow work down and frustrate customers. At IDDataWeb, Clockwise, and Pacify, I improved how teams deliver, find problems, and solve them.
Hire and grow the right people
I have hired people, supported promotions, and managed performance when it was needed. I can help you decide who to hire, how to assess candidates, and how to develop the people already on your team.
Keep moving through change
After FedEx acquired ShopRunner, I helped teams in the United States, Poland, and India keep delivering together. This experience helps when you are working with several teams or outside partners while the company is changing.
African operating context
International engineering leadership, grounded in Francophone West Africa
My view of the region comes from building, advising, hiring, and staying connected to the people doing the work there.
Modernize a commercial platform at scale
For Sonatel (Orange Sénégal), I led an architecture study to make NeSSICo, its commercial information system for postpaid services, more modular. I brought business and technical teams together, compared delivery options, and defined the architecture, prerequisites, team design, and transformation roadmap.
Built with Ivorian teams
At AKIL Technologies in Abidjan, I led architecture and an engineering team building enterprise products and services. The work included growing Ivorian developers who delivered for Ivorian, US, and French clients.
A current view of Francophone West African talent
I founded Code d’Ivoire, a developer community in Côte d’Ivoire, and co-host TecPatri, a Francophone podcast featuring technology professionals across West Africa. Those conversations keep me close to the skills, expectations, and talent emerging in the region.
Expertise
What I can take on with you
Architecture, product direction, and CEO or board recommendations
Player-coach leadership, hiring, performance, and progression
CI/CD, observability, issue diagnosis, and migrations
Practical AI adoption and agentic workflows
Investor readiness, technical due diligence preparation, and risk framing
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can we work in English or French?
Yes. I work in both languages and can support founders, teams, and international partners in English or French.
Do you work remotely or onsite?
I work remotely, and we can agree on onsite time when it adds real value to the engagement.
When is pricing confirmed?
After our first conversation. We define the format, scope, and fees based on the milestone ahead.
Does this replace a full-time CTO?
Not necessarily. The engagement gives you senior technical leadership at the right level of involvement, then helps you prepare for a full-time hire when the time is right.