Services for Non-Technical Founders: Fractional CTO, App Development, and Product Strategy
What We Do
Don acts as Fractional CTO and developer. Steve acts as Fractional Product Lead, covering product and design. Most teams engage with us on a monthly retainer across two lanes: Advise or Build.
When you need to choose what to build
Strategic guidance, technical R&D, and clickable prototypes. Hard truths from people who've shipped real software.
Shape vision & explore tech feasibility through R&D experiments.
Investor-ready demos and pitch materials to test your product story.
Explore: Fractional CTO, Product Strategy
When you're ready to ship
Full product development across web, mobile, and AI. Designers and developers in the same sandbox, working software from day one.
Trusted build partner: lean, AI-driven releases, or prototypes with essential design and code.
Collaborative build partner: build alongside us and we keep your team's work integrated.
Full-stack product partner: brand, UX/UI, development, and go-to-market readiness.
Explore: MVP Development, Flutter App Development, AI App Development, UI/UX Design
What Each Mode Includes
| Advise | Build | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What You Get | Guide | Concept | Core | Plus | Pro |
| Fractional CTO & Tech R&D | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Fractional Product Lead | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| App Mockups & Clickable Prototypes | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Brand Foundation & Deck Design | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Marketing Landing Page | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full-stack App Dev w/Bootstrap UI | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom AI / API Integrations | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weekly 30 min demo/status call | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Enhanced Collaboration | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom UI/UX + Brand Delivery | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
All engagements are monthly retainers. Pause, cancel, or switch anytime. We share specific numbers on a short intro call. See how we work →
After You Launch
Keep your product healthy once it's live. Three support tiers that build on each other, on the same flexible retainer.
Updates, issue investigation, observability, and periodic security reviews.
Everything in Watch, plus delivered bug fixes & patches.
Everything in Fix, plus customer tickets run to resolution, with SLA & escalation.
| Post-Launch | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| What You Get | Watch | Fix | Care |
| Keep software, OS & third-party services up to date | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Investigate issues and tell you what needs to be fixed | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Observability: uptime, error, and performance monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Periodic security reviews | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deliver bug fixes & patches | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer tickets run to resolution, with SLA & escalation | — | — | ✓ |
Strategic Add-On: Half-Day Technical Session
Your tech wishlist reviewed for feasibility, prioritized by complexity and timing, delivered as estimates and a recommended roadmap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who does Eight Bit Studios work with?
We work primarily with non-technical founders building their first real product. If you've got a prototype from Cursor, Bolt, or Lovable and need to turn it into something people actually pay for, or you need a technical partner who can help you figure out what to build and then ship it, we're your fit.
How do Eight Bit Studios engagements work?
All engagements are monthly retainers. Advise covers strategic guidance: Don as your Fractional CTO and Steve as your Fractional Product Lead, plus technical R&D and investor-ready prototypes. Build covers full product development. After launch, three support tiers (Watch, Fix, Care) keep your product healthy. You can pause, cancel, or switch anytime. No fixed-bid contracts, no time-and-materials billing, no long-term lock-in.
What's the difference between Advise and Build?
Advise is when you need help deciding what to build. That includes Fractional CTO and Fractional Product Lead leadership, technical R&D, and clickable prototypes. Build is when you're ready to ship: full-stack web and mobile development, custom AI integrations, and end-to-end product delivery. Within Build, Plus is our collaborative mode, where your team builds alongside us and we keep your work integrated.
What happens after my product launches?
Three post-launch support tiers that build on each other. Watch keeps eyes on your live product: updates, issue investigation, observability, and periodic security reviews. Fix adds delivered bug fixes and patches. Care adds customer support: tickets run to resolution with SLA and escalation. All on the same flexible monthly retainer.
Do you work with enterprise clients or just startups?
We focus on startups and early-stage founders, but we've also done significant work for larger companies like Vivid Seats, Allstate, Cars.com, and Nielsen. Our sweet spot is helping founders ship their first real product or rescue an AI prototype that hit the wall.
What technologies does Eight Bit Studios use?
We build with Flutter (cross-platform mobile), Ruby on Rails (backends and web), and Supabase (infrastructure). For AI, we do custom integrations with OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers, not just thin wrappers. We're stack-opinionated because it lets us ship faster for founders.
Where is Eight Bit Studios based?
We're headquartered in Chicago with a secondary presence in Dallas. We work remote-first with founders across the country, but we're happy to meet in person if you're local.
Getting Started
Tell us what you're working on. We'll figure out the right lane together. And if we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone who is.
Submit & Review
Tell us what you're building. We review your details and reach out to learn more.
Discuss & Align
We talk through your goals and requirements, then align on scope, timeline, and budget.
Agree & Engage
We finalize the agreement and kick off your project. Building starts.