Fractional CTO Studio  ·  Australia

Built for founders who build.

YOUR
TECHNICAL
PARTNER.

NorTech Labs embeds with Australian seed-stage founders at the moment the build gets serious. We own the technical outcome: strategy, architecture, and working code.

Book a scoping diagnostic How it works

$3,500 · 2 weeks · credited against your first month if you proceed

When founders reach out

The moment of inflection.

You need us
right now if…

01

You have funding or proven traction

You just closed a seed round, or you're bootstrapped and generating real revenue. Either way, you're ready to build seriously and you can't afford to get the technical foundation wrong.

02

You just came out of an accelerator

Antler, Startmate, Hyper. You have funding, a validated idea, and a deadline. You need a technical partner who can own the build from day one, not someone who needs six months to get up to speed.

03

Your MVP needs a rebuild

You vibe coded your way to early traction. Now the codebase is a liability. It needs to be rebuilt properly before you scale, without taking the product offline.

04

An agency burned your budget

You paid for months of work and received something that doesn't hold up in production. You need someone to take ownership of the path forward.

The studio

Not a vendor. A partner.

A technical
partner.
Not a
consultant.

NorTech Labs is a fractional CTO studio. A senior fractional CTO leads every engagement, embedded in your team, writing production code, making architecture decisions, and taking equity alongside cash. Around each engagement, we staff the right specialists: engineers, designers, data, infrastructure, and mobile, matched to what the build needs.

Not a consulting firm delivering slide decks. Not an agency managing juniors from a distance. Not an advisor on a monthly retainer who is not accountable for outcomes.

We stay selective. We run 3 to 5 engagements at any time. When we take one on, we are all in on it.

Technical lead

Founding partner

Senior fractional CTO. Architecture, production code, team direction.

Specialist bench

Per-engagement

Engineers, data, infra, and mobile matched per engagement.

Design partner

Klime Studio

klime.studio: Brand, UI/UX, product.

vs. agency

The senior person is in the room, not managing juniors from a distance

vs. advisor

We don't just recommend. We build and own the outcome

vs. full-time

A fraction of the cost, available now, equity only when trust is built

Engagement tiers

Select your configuration.

How we work together

6-month minimum. Every engagement begins with a Technical Scoping Diagnostic.

Navigator

$9K/mo

For founders who have developers but need senior technical judgment running alongside them.

  • ■1 day/week embedded
  • ■Architecture ownership
  • ■Weekly 90-min session plus async support
  • ■Code review on critical components
  • ■Quarterly technical audit

Equity optional: 0.25 to 0.5%

Operator

Flagship

$15K/mo

For founders with no technical lead who need someone to own the build end-to-end.

  • ■2.5 days/week embedded
  • ■Architecture plus production code
  • ■Technical team management
  • ■Hiring support
  • ■Weekly written technical update
  • ■Board-ready technical narrative

Equity option: $2K/month off per 0.5%

Partner

$22K/mo

Full CTO accountability for post-seed founders actively scaling or fundraising.

  • ■4 days/week embedded
  • ■Everything in Operator
  • ■Board presence plus investor relations
  • ■Fundraising technical narrative
  • ■Full technical hiring plan

Equity always included: 1 to 2%

Every engagement starts with a Technical Scoping Diagnostic

$3,500 · 2 weeks · credited in full against your first month

Book your diagnostic

Case study

Rebuilt from the ground up.

PRX Vault

FinTech · Cashback platform · Ongoing

Situation

PRX Vault had been through one development agency before coming to us. What was delivered carried significant technical debt. The code worked in demo conditions but couldn't hold production load and couldn't be extended without unravelling what was there. The platform needed a full rebuild before it could scale.

What we did

We took full technical ownership. Rebuilt the architecture from the ground up while keeping the product live. Introduced production-grade infrastructure and deployment practices, and built the team processes needed to sustain it at scale.

Users scaled to

4M

Audit

Passed

Duration

27 mo

Delivery

On time

Selected work

Across industries. At scale.

Built for complexity.

BHP

Mining · AI

AI-powered safety compliance platform for live mining operations. Geospatial data, computer vision, and predictive risk modelling to identify hazards in real time. Client: Australia's largest ASX-listed company.

InspectRealEstate

PropTech

New features, mobile app improvements, and bug fixes across their full product suite. Platform subsequently acquired.

Lucky Bet

iGaming

Full-stack crypto-powered online casino and sports betting platform built from the ground up. Currently estimated at $50M.

Personalised Plates QLD

Gov

Complete rebuild of PPQ's frontend and ecommerce experience for one of Queensland's largest government ecommerce platforms.

GWI Digital

Gov · Consulting

Data transformation and public register platforms for QLD government: Dept. of Environment and Science, Offsets Mining, and TMR.

LivFree

EdTech

Life skills platform targeted at high school students. Full-stack EdTech build from architecture through to production deployment.

Publicis Groupe

Consulting

Frontend and ecommerce rebuilds for enterprise clients within the global Publicis network.

PRX Vault

FinTech

Full rebuild of a cashback and loyalty platform after agency tech debt. Scaled to 4 million users. See full case study above.

FinTech iGaming PropTech EdTech Mining AI Government eCommerce Consulting
Navid Ahmed — Founding Partner, NorTech Labs

Navid Ahmed

Founding Partner · NorTech Labs

Brisbane, Australia

Cloud partnerships

Azure AWS GCP

Founding partner

"I've been the engineer in the room when things needed to actually ship."

I'm Navid Ahmed, founding partner at NorTech Labs. I lead every engagement as fractional CTO and bring the right team with me: specialist engineers, contractors, and design partners depending on what the build requires.

Before starting the studio, I built production systems across mining, government, fintech, edtech, and iGaming. I worked with BHP on safety compliance infrastructure. I built across the InspectRealEstate product suite before its acquisition. At Publicis Groupe and GWI Digital, I delivered large-scale digital builds for enterprise and government clients across Queensland.

The work was always hands-on. Architecture, production code, and the decisions that are hard to undo. I rebuilt PRX Vault end-to-end after an agency left it in poor shape. Took it from a liability to a platform handling 4 million users. That engagement has been running for 27 months.

At NorTech Labs, we own the technical outcome. Not the strategy document, not the weekly status call. The code, the architecture, the team. We take equity alongside cash because the incentives should match yours.

We run 3 to 5 engagements at any time. We are selective about which ones we take.

How to start

Every engagement starts the same way.

Start with a scoping diagnostic

Every engagement begins with a 2-week Technical Scoping Diagnostic.

We review your codebase, map your technical risks, understand your business objectives, and produce a written recommendation covering which engagement tier fits and what the first 90 days look like.

If we are not the right fit, you walk away with a clear technical picture of where you stand. No retainer. No commitment.

1

Apply

Tell us about your situation. 15 minutes.

2

Discovery call

We scope the diagnostic together. 30 minutes.

3

2-week diagnostic

Deep review of your codebase, architecture, and risks

4

Written recommendation

Full report and engagement proposal if we are both confident

Begin the process.

Book your diagnostic

$3,500 · Credited in full against your first month if you proceed.

admin@nortechlabs.io Schedule a call →

Cloud partnerships

Azure AWS GCP
Listed on Australia's National AI Directory ↗

Availability is limited

We run 3 to 5 engagements at any time.

Ready
to talk?

Book your scoping diagnostic