Fractional CPO and forward deployed engineer for AI and fintech
I’m Mo Tawfik Khalifa, chief product officer and forward deployed engineer at Instruxi. I also take on fractional work: I lead product for your AI or fintech team part time, and I build the first version myself, with AI at every step.
It suits founders and product teams who need a senior product lead and a hands-on builder for one to four days a week, before a full-time hire makes sense.
The gap I work in is between the demo and production. In August 2025, MIT’s NANDA initiative reported that only about 5% of the AI pilots it studied reached rapid revenue growth, and the rest stalled (Fortune on the report, The GenAI Divide). The model is rarely the problem. Deciding what to build, wiring it into real systems and hardening it is.
Worried a part-timer won’t know your business?
These are the worries CEOs and product leads write down about fractional help, in their own words, and how I handle each one.
“…just because their attention is split into multiple places, they can’t immerse themselves enough in your business.”A founder who tried two fractional executives, Hacker News, August 2026
We agree set days each week before we start, and those days are yours. Week one I spend with your team and your customers, then I write the brief back on one page so you can check I understood the business. After that the work shows up on a live link you can click every week, not in a slide deck.
“I don’t think I have room or budget for a full time person.”Someone covering product alone and falling behind, r/ProductManagement
That is the gap this fills: one to four days a week, with the price fixed in writing after the first call, before work starts. It ends on a date we set at the start, or runs month to month after that.
“It’s getting too expensive and we’re overly dependent on them.”A product lead moving off an outsourced team, r/ProductManagement
I plan for you not to need me. The code, repository, accounts and domain are in your name from day one. You get a written handover with the docs and playbooks, and I help you hire the full-time person who owns it next.
What you get
- Set days each week, agreed before we start.
- A price fixed in writing after the first call.
- A live link you can click every week.
- Everything I build in your name from day one, and a written handover.
- The person who leads the product is the person who builds it.
What does a fractional CPO do?
A fractional CPO owns the product decisions with you, part time: what to build, for whom, in what order, and what to leave out. The way I do it, that decision is followed by a working build, because I write the code too. In practice I cover five things:
- The one number. Pick the metric the product has to move, and check every decision against it.
- The no list. A roadmap is easy. Deciding what not to build is the job.
- A prototype in days. Something your customers can press and break, wired to your real data.
- Hardening. Identity, permissions, limits and an audit trail. This is where most demos die.
- Handover. Docs, playbooks and the person who owns it after me.
Fractional CPO, fractional CTO or forward deployed engineer: which do you need?
A CPO decides what gets built and why. A CTO owns how it is built and run: the stack, the architecture and the engineering team. A forward deployed engineer goes into your systems, finds the problem that matters and ships the fix to production. I wrote up what a forward deployed engineer does through four real builds.
I cover the CPO and forward deployed parts fully, and the CTO parts an early team needs: architecture, the first stack, security basics and the first engineering hires. I have been a CTO, at Consortium9. If you need someone to run a large engineering organisation every day, hire a full-time CTO.
What does an engagement look like?
- Week 1. I sit with your team and your customers, then write the brief back on one page: the one number, who it is for, on which devices, what we build, what we buy and what we cut.
- Month 1. A working prototype on your real data that customers can try, a roadmap with its no list, and a ship list of what has to be hardened before production.
- Months 2 and 3. Harden and ship: identity, permissions, limits, audit trail, deployment, and a test for every claim the product makes, so what it says stays true.
- How it ends. On a date we set at the start, or month to month after that. I hand over docs and playbooks, and I help you hire the full-time person who owns it next.
Every engagement has a different shape. Pick yours below and see the first 30 days.
Try it
Shape your engagement. Pick where you are and what you need.
Fractional CPO who builds, 2 days a week
How it ends: your team owns the product and the playbooks, and I step back to a monthly review or out.
First 30 days
- Week 1Sit with your team and customers. Read the analytics, support tickets and churn notes. Find the one problem that moves your number.
- Week 2A roadmap and no list on one page, while I prototype the first slice on your real data.
- Week 3Put the prototype in front of customers, and feed what breaks back into the roadmap.
- Week 4Ship the first change to production behind a check, with a test for every claim it makes.
A starting shape, not a quote. We set the real one on a first call.
What have I built that looks like your problem?
I built all of these, but most of my work at Instruxi is under NDA, so I can’t name the clients. These are the builds I have written up, with the proof you can open.
Allow, deny or stop and ask the person, with spend caps, loop detection and a hash-chained record of every decision. It works with Cursor, Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Grok.
Fintech · BanksDigital dollars and gold for community banksA bank-in-a-box for a listed gold company, a partner-bank app and a cross-border payments demo, each one a page a bank can press instead of a slide deck.
Identity · PrivacyHow to prove who someone is without seeing who they arePrivate identity built three times: a zero-knowledge player ID, a game login whose keys stay in the browser, and a licence clinicians share without their whole file.
Solo build · AICan one person with AI do a whole team’s work?Laqtaa, built alone with AI: about 100 wedding guests on the day, nothing broke, about $46 a month to run. And what still needs a team.
Before Instruxi I led a 24-person team of developers, designers and producers at Napster, led technology at Consortium9 as Director, then VP, then CTO, ran growth across Europe as head of growth at OKX, and led a team of 12 at Expo 2020 Dubai. If your product is 3D, a game or a digital twin, see 3D web experiences.
Who is this for, and who is it not for?
A good fit
- AI or fintech startups that need their first product lead, and someone who can build the first version.
- Teams with an AI pilot stuck at the demo stage.
- Banks and fintechs that can buy the rails but need the decision layer: who can do what, with which limits, and a record.
- Teams putting AI agents to work on real systems, who need guardrails first.
Not a fit
- You want slides and no build.
- You need a large engineering organisation run every day. Hire full time.
- You need someone in your office five days a week.
- You want extra hands to close tickets on a roadmap someone else owns.
How much does a fractional CPO cost?
Fractional roles are usually priced in one of three ways: a day rate, a monthly retainer for a set number of days a week, or a fixed price for a defined sprint such as a prototype. Days per week drive most of the cost.
- A fractional executive marketplace’s April 2026 guide puts senior fractional executives at £1,200 to £3,000 a day in the UK and $1,500 to $4,000 a day in the US (Fractionus). Its US rate index averages $1,576 a day for a fractional chief product officer across 60 rates. More in what a fractional CTO or CPO costs.
- UK contract CTO roles advertised in the six months to 14 October 2026 had a median day rate of £635, down from £900 a year before. That is a small sample of 16 ads (IT Jobs Watch).
I price each engagement after a first call, from the days a week, the length and how much I build. If you are hiring full time instead, I am open to that too.
How these builds work, in detail
- Agentic AI: what it is, costs and how to ship it and what an AI agent is
- MCP server: what it is and how to build one and the MCP security checklist
- AI agent governance: a practical framework
- Vibe coding: how to ship it safely
- What is a stablecoin? and stablecoin payments vs SWIFT
- Verifiable credentials and zero-knowledge proofs
- Need hands-on AI help rather than product leadership? See AI consultant who ships.
Questions people ask
What is a fractional CPO?
A chief product officer who works for you part time, usually one to three days a week, on a monthly arrangement. You get senior product leadership before you can justify a full-time hire.
What is the difference between a fractional CPO and a product consultant?
A consultant reviews and recommends. A fractional CPO owns the product decisions with you, week after week, and answers for the result. I also build, so the decisions turn into working software.
Do you work with UK companies, and remotely?
Yes. I work with UK teams and teams elsewhere, remote or on site. I have led teams across countries, on site and remote, for more than eleven years.
Can you build, or only advise?
I build. I come from coding and design and I ship with AI at every step: prototypes in days, then the hardening that gets them to production.
Do you offer fractional CTO services?
For early teams, yes: architecture, the first stack, security basics and the first engineering hires. If you need someone to run a large engineering organisation every day, hire a full-time CTO.
Are you open to a full-time role?
Yes. I am open to full-time product leadership roles as well as fractional work and end-to-end AI builds.
- 30-minute call. Your goal, your users, what is stuck.
- A written plan in 48 hours. What to build first, how long it takes, the risks.
- Start, or not. Use the plan with your team or with me. I reply to every email within one working day.
If you need an AI or fintech product led and built, write to m@tawfik.tv with where you are and what is stuck.