Anton Golosnichenko, a Fractional CTO with over 12 years of experience, shares insights on fractional leadership, strategic impact, and how this model helps startups scale sustainably.
Anton Golosnichenko is a Fractional CTO and hands-on technical leader recognized for scaling startups from MVP to Series A and beyond. With more than 12 years of experience across MarTech, AdTech, TravelTech, and EdTech, he combines deep architectural expertise with practical execution, from leading monolith-to-modular transformations to building high-performing engineering teams. He previously founded an edtech startup EasyCoders, built the engineering department at Artics – one of Russia’s leading digital marketing agencies – and now serves as Head of Engineering at Tripfusion. Anton’s work spans scalable architecture, AI/ML integration, and technical due diligence for fundraising, making him a sought-after partner for early- and growth-stage companies.
Fractional Insider: How was your transition from a traditional career to fractional leadership/consulting?
Anton Golosnichenko: My transition into fractional leadership started long before I officially called myself a Fractional CTO. My first true CTO-level experience came at Artics, one of the leading independent digital marketing agencies in Russia. Because the agency worked with clients across a wide range of industries – banking, e-commerce, retail, real estate, edtech – I had a rare opportunity to work with many different types of products. I could see how technology behaves in completely different business models, understand industry-specific constraints, and learn what scales and what breaks.
In parallel, I was deeply involved in building Artics’ own AdTech and MarTech products. That experience gave me a strong foundation in marketing analytics, attribution, conversion optimization, user behavior tracking, and automated remarketing – capabilities that every growing startup eventually needs. Any startup that wants to scale must understand its audience, collect the right product metrics, and build feedback loops that drive growth, and these systems were exactly what I helped build.
Over time, all of this formed a kind of “mosaic” of expertise—architecture, analytics, product thinking, and hands-on engineering leadership combined. And working with both large scale organizations and small early-stage startups only reinforced my drive to apply this knowledge more broadly.
That’s why moving into fractional leadership felt completely natural. It allowed me to use my diverse experience across multiple companies instead of being constrained to a single full-time role – helping founders scale faster, make better decisions, and avoid the technical traps I’ve seen many times before.
Fractional Insider: What attracted you most to this model, and what challenges did it bring?
Anton Golosnichenko: What attracts me most to the fractional model is the opportunity to work with different types of businesses rather than being locked into a single product. I enjoy stepping into various industries, understanding their unique constraints, and applying patterns that drive real scalability. I also value the chance to collaborate with different founders, engineers, and cross-functional teams – each with their own culture, challenges, and ways of thinking. And of course, I’m drawn to roles where I can influence key architectural and organizational decisions rather than simply maintaining an existing system.
The challenges are real as well. Supporting multiple companies at once requires disciplined context-switching, structuring my time and attention very intentionally. And with early-stage teams especially, boundary-setting becomes essential – ensuring expectations, priorities, and responsibilities stay clear so the collaboration remains productive.
But overall, the benefits far outweigh the difficulties, and the model allows me to have a broader impact than any single full-time role could.
Fractional Insider: How do you choose the projects and clients you work with?
Anton Golosnichenko: I’m selective with the projects I take on, because the fractional model works only when there’s a strong fit on both sides. The first thing I look for is a clear business problem to solve – whether it’s scaling an MVP, fixing architectural bottlenecks, preparing for fundraising, or building an engineering team.
I also look closely at the team. Great collaborations come from companies that are open to change, transparent about challenges, and willing to work together toward meaningful outcomes. I enjoy working with founders who are decisive, curious, and honest about what isn’t working.
From a technical perspective, I prefer projects where I can influence important architectural or organizational decisions – not just patch symptoms. I need enough ownership to actually move the needle.
At the same time, I evaluate whether the expectations are aligned with the fractional model: realistic scope, clear priorities, and respect for boundaries and time commitments. When all of these elements match, I know I can create real impact and set the company up for long-term scalability.
Fractional Insider: Tell us about a moment when you had a major impact as a fractional leader.
Anton Golosnichenko: One of the biggest impact moments for me happened at Tripfusion. When I joined, the product’s architecture was built for an MVP, but the company had already started to grow rapidly – new clients, increased traffic, and heavier load. The architecture simply wasn’t prepared for that level of scale, and we were reaching the limits of what the original system could handle.
To address this, we took a deliberate and controlled approach:
- We began a gradual migration toward a modular architecture, creating clear boundaries between domains so the product could eventually be split into microservices when needed. This allowed us to scale without risking stability or starting from scratch
- We redefined roles and ownership inside the engineering team. Each developer was not just writing code, but fully owning a specific part of the product – its quality, stability, and long-term roadmap.
- We invested heavily in knowledge sharing and coaching. Regular sessions, pair programming, and structured learning helped several engineers grow into true senior-level contributors.
The result was a team and a product fully prepared for the next stage of scale – without downtime, without rewriting everything, and with a completely controlled, step-by-step migration path.
Fractional Insider: What are the main differences between being a full-time executive and a fractional one?
Anton Golosnichenko: Time and Presence. A full-time executive lives inside the company – 40+ hours a week, fully available, involved in every meeting and every decision. A fractional leader works in highly focused 10-20 hour blocks, which means being extremely intentional about where to engage and where not to.
Scope and Focus. Full-time roles own everything: strategy, execution, team building, and daily operations. A fractional leader focuses on direction, architecture, frameworks, and coaching – while execution is handled by the in-house team. I am the architect, not the day-to-day builder.
Relationship Dynamics. Full-time executives are fully embedded in the culture, rituals, and internal politics. Fractional leaders operate with a bit more distance, which actually helps maintain objectivity and avoid being pulled into unnecessary complexity.
Success Metrics. Full-time roles are measured on both output and long-term outcomes – shipping features, hitting KPIs, growing teams. Fractional roles are measured on strategic impact: Did the team level up? Did the core bottleneck get resolved? Did the company become more scalable?
Mindset Shift. The hardest adjustment is letting go of full visibility and full control. As a fractional leader, you must trust the team to execute your strategy while you stay accountable for outcomes – guiding, not owning every detail.
Fractional Insider: How do you explain the value of a fractional leader to a skeptical CEO?
Anton Golosnichenko: Risk Mitigation. A fractional leader is actually lower risk than a full-time hire. You get proven C-level expertise without the 18-24 month commitment and significant cash burn of a full-time executive. If it’s not working, you can adjust quickly. This is especially valuable when you’re not 100% sure of the exact shape of the role yet.
Time-to-Value. Fractional leaders have typically solved your exact problem 5-10 times before at other companies. They bring battle-tested frameworks, playbooks, and can spot issues in week one that might take a new full-time hire six months to identify. You’re essentially compressing years of learning curve into immediate impact.
Strategic Economics. Most companies at certain stages don’t need 40 hours/week of executive-level strategy – they need maybe 10-15 hours of high-level thinking and the rest is execution that others can handle. Why pay $200K+ for full-time when you can get that strategic value for a fraction, then invest the savings in the team members who’ll execute?
The key is positioning it as a ‘right-sizing’ solution, not a compromise. For many growth-stage companies, fractional is actually the optimal choice, not a budget alternative.
Fractional Insider: What are the most common mistakes companies make when working with fractionals?
Anton Golosnichenko: The most common mistakes I see companies make when working with fractional leaders fall into a few clear patterns:
- Unclear Scope and Mandate. Bringing someone in “to help” without defining what success looks like, what decisions they’re empowered to make, or who they report to. The fractional spends the first weeks trying to decode their role instead of delivering value.
- Treating Them Like a Full-Time Executive. Expecting them to join every meeting, respond instantly, or handle daily operational fires. That burns their high-leverage time and leads to frustration. Fractionals need a full-time counterpart to execute the plan.
- No Internal Owner for Follow-Through. Without a VP/Director-level partner inside the company, progress stalls between sessions. Fractionals provide direction, someone internal must drive execution.
- Poor Communication to the Team. Dropping a fractional into the organization without context creates confusion or tension. Teams wonder who’s in charge or whether roles are shifting. The CEO must clearly articulate the fractional’s responsibilities and authority.
- Using Fractionals for Low-Leverage Execution. Hiring a fractional CTO to write code or a fractional CFO to do bookkeeping is a misalignment. They exist to set direction, build systems, and elevate the team – not to fill operational gaps.
- No Knowledge Transfer or Exit Plan. If the fractional leaves and takes all the context with them, the engagement has failed. Sustainable success requires documentation, frameworks, and training from day one.
- Optimizing for Price Instead of Fit. Choosing the cheapest fractional often results in no real impact. A great fractional pays for themselves through clarity, speed, and strategic decisions.
- The core issue behind most failures is simple: companies hire a fractional when what they actually need is a full-time leader or full-time execution. The model works extremely well – when the problem matches the solution.
- Fractional Insider: How do you see this career model evolving in the coming years?
Anton Golosnichenko: Here’s my perspective on where fractional leadership is headed:
Fractional is moving from “emergency measure” to “strategic choice.” As remote work normalized what was once seen as unconventional, fractional leadership will become a standard part of the talent playbook. Within 3-5 years, having fractional executives will be as unremarkable as hiring contractors or dev shops for specialized projects. Younger executives will intentionally build portfolio careers rather than seeing fractional as a “semi-retirement” model. We’re moving from “careers as a linear climb within organizations” to “careers as a portfolio of expertise applied across organizations”. And the most important – currently most traction is in startups, but larger enterprises will start using fractionals for transformation projects, new initiatives, or filling gaps during transitions. The stigma at the enterprise level will diminish.
Fractional Insider: What advice would you give to a senior professional considering becoming fractional?
Anton Golosnichenko: For senior professionals considering a shift into fractional work, here’s the advice I’d give based on what I’ve seen (and lived):
- Fractional income is uneven. You might land three clients one month and none the next. Build 6–12 months of runway so you’re never making decisions out of fear. And remember: you may work in March and get paid in May. Cash-flow discipline is essential.
- Pick a very specific problem at a very specific stage that you’ve solved repeatedly. Clear positioning like “I help B2B SaaS companies scale from $2M to $10M ARR by building their GTM tech stack” outperforms “experienced technology leader” every time. You want certain companies to say: “This is exactly what we need.”
- Start Before You Quit Your Job. Take on a small advisory or part-time engagement while still employed. Test the model, refine your offering, and collect your first testimonial. The transition feels far less risky when you already have proof of concept.
- Set up contracts, invoicing, tooling, templates, and insurance before you launch. Clients expect professionalism from day one – not someone improvising their business processes as they go.
- Fractional work flows through relationships. Activate your network 3-6 months before you officially transition. Let founders, VCs, and peers know what you’ll be offering. If you don’t yet have that network, you’re not ready to rely on fractional income.
- You won’t be in every meeting or making every micro-decision. You’ll lead through others, not by doing everything yourself. If you need constant visibility or hands-on involvement to feel effective, fractional work will frustrate you.
- Decide your minimum engagement size, hours, contract length, and payment terms before you start. It’s difficult to enforce boundaries once you’re hungry for clients. Establish standards you’re willing to stick to.
- Consider pairing with complementary leaders – CTO + CPO, CFO + COO – it opens up bigger opportunities and shared deal flow. Collectives are more resilient and allow you to deliver broader, more integrated value.
- Document Everything. Your impact isn’t just what you deliver – it’s what remains after you leave. Build playbooks, frameworks, and repeatable processes. These become valuable assets for both clients and your own practice.
- Be Honest. Don’t use fractional work as an escape from burnout. It’s not “less stress” – it’s different stress: multiple stakeholders, context switching, inconsistent revenue. Make sure you’re choosing the model because it energizes you, not because you’re running away from something.
- Anton Golosnichenko’s journey clearly shows that fractional leadership is not a compromise, but a strategic choice for companies aiming to scale intelligently.
