The engagement started in January 2025 as a monthly fractional CTO retainer covering technology leader coaching, weekly CEO direction discussions, and ad hoc support to the wider leadership team. The board pack was reshaped at the same time so that operational updates from internal Slack threads were synthesised into plain English suitable for non technical readers.

As trust built, the scope expanded. In mid 2025 ScaleAround took on the preparation of the company’s R&D tax credit claim for the 2025 tax year, drafting the technical narrative against HMRC guidelines and supporting the financial side with the company’s accountants. In parallel ScaleAround led the Innovate UK Innovation Loan application targeting £500,000 across rounds, drafting the technical, market and project management sections and supporting the financial modelling.

The engagement broadened into a wider operational remit. We picked up oversight of newly onboarded engineering resources in Brazil and India, supported the CEO in defining and implementing senior team role changes, and provided ongoing guidance to push the product engineering team toward higher delivery efficiency by year end. Roadmap and architecture decisions came under structured oversight, with rightsizing and execution advice running alongside the CEO’s direction setting.

From May 2026 ScaleAround moved into a separate implementation and oversight remit on top of the existing retainer. That covers operational rollout of the AI usage guidelines and the supporting connector approval workflow, ownership of the Cyber Essentials remediation action tracker through to formal assessment, and product and release oversight working alongside the technology leadership. A monthly written update lands in the board pack covering progress, risks and decisions required.