Startup CTO for funded startups in Germany
I am Michael Wutzke, a CTO for funded startups in finance, real estate and e-commerce. In finance the risk is a bank's review, in real estate a property recorded twice, in e-commerce a checkout that loses the order, and I have worked in all three. As CTO I support companies as an interim freelancer or as a permanent employee, remote from Frankfurt with on-site days in Germany, and I advise on business development and go-to-market strategy for an expansion. Book a 30-minute video call. We look at your task, and you find out whether I can help.
What I bring to your startup
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Experience with customers in your sector
For more than twenty years I have built software for banks, for policyholders, for the users of a global real estate database and for online shoppers at Lidl and REWE.
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Technology leadership
As CIO of a Frankfurt fintech I had disciplinary responsibility for business-critical teams, the IT budget and procuration. Earlier I was Managing Director and CTO of a company that built a global real estate database.
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Answers for investors
I have pitched to investors and prepared the IT documents in several due diligences, on the buyer's and the seller's side. I know what an investor asks about the technology before a deal.
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AI coding agents
On a client's platform Claude and Codex work under the same rules as the human developers. The work has produced more than 300 API endpoints and more than 8,000 commits.
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Cloud on three platforms
I am a certified AWS Solutions Architect Associate and have run production systems on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud.
What a startup CTO answers for after a funding round
After a seed or Series A round a startup’s technology has two audiences: the customers who use the product and the investors who paid for the next step. The CTO answers to both. When no founder holds the position, or the founder who held it moves to product or sales, the startup brings in a CTO from outside, for a period or permanently.
Finance, real estate, e-commerce: where the technology risk sits
Each of the three sectors carries a risk of its own, and a CTO plans for it from the first release. The table lists the ones I have met, with the work where I met them. Your product may carry others.
| Sector and risk | What the technology needs | Where I met it |
|---|---|---|
| Finance: a bank’s compliance review stops the contract | Documented calculation methods, and terms that hold legally | Terms, price definitions, manifest and API methodologies of a market data product, 2023 |
| Finance: prices arrive late or wrong | Real-time delivery and a check that flags deviating values | Market data over WebSocket and RPC, with an outlier detection, 2022 |
| Insurance: the product has to fit an insurer’s or a partner’s systems | Interfaces to the CRM and to partner products | A digital insurance manager connected to an existing CRM, in which customers order products of external partners |
| Real estate: one property appears as several records | One identity per object, versions, register codes as a shared key | My research on object identity |
| Real estate: users search large data sets | A search index in front of the database | Elasticsearch over millions of real estate records, with answers within milliseconds |
| E-commerce: customers leave between cart and payment | Short order funnels, the payment methods customers expect, mobile pages | Order funnels with PayPal, WorldPay and Amazon Pay for shops of Lidl and REWE, 2011 to 2016 |
My roles in these sectors, newest first
- Since April 2026: AI engineer in a client’s platform transformation, where Claude and Codex work under rules that bind agents and people alike.
- 2022 to November 2024: Head of Decentralized Finance and Node Operations, then Chief Information Officer from January 2023, at a Frankfurt fintech.
- 2017 to January 2024: editor in chief of an information portal on construction projects, with more than one million readers a year by 2024.
- 2016 to December 2021: Project Manager and Web Developer at Policen Direkt, in the German secondary market for life insurance.
- 2011 to 2016: Project Lead and Developer at Valentins (Burda Digital), with shops for Lidl and REWE and their conversion optimization.
- 2004 to 2010: Managing Director and CTO of a company that built a global real estate database. KfW and the venture capital investor Neuhaus Partners invested several million euros in it.
Who I am
I am Michael Wutzke, and I live in Frankfurt. I hold a training authorization from IHK Frankfurt. At Claude Hacker House I teach prompting, AI-assisted workflows and MCP servers. I build software with Claude and Codex, and I am interested in open-source AI models that a company runs on its own servers. I work in German and English.
How an engagement runs
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Video call
Thirty minutes on your product, your team and what the round is meant to pay for.
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Assessment together
I look at the architecture, the repository and the plan for the coming months with the founders, and we agree on the engagement.
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Quote or contract
For an interim engagement you receive a quote that names the period and the handover date. A permanent position starts with a signed employment contract.
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Sector check
In the first weeks I go through the sector table on this page with the team and write down which risks your product carries.
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Handover or continuation
An interim engagement ends with a handover to the permanent CTO, with the decisions and the open risks in writing. A permanent position continues from there.
Questions companies ask
What does a CTO do in a startup?
The CTO decides how the product is built and who builds it, and answers for both to the founders and the investors. In a small team the CTO writes code as well; as the team grows, hiring and architecture take over more of the week.
Interim or permanent CTO?
An interim CTO covers a period, for example until a permanent CTO starts or after a CTO has left. A permanent CTO stays through the next rounds. I take on both.
Do you work remote?
Yes, from Frankfurt, with on-site days where your team works in Germany. Startups in Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt have pages of their own.
Can you also help with our expansion?
Yes. At a Frankfurt fintech I presented a market data product to decision-makers at banks and stock exchanges. We can agree on the technology, the expansion, or both.
Which technologies do you use?
The ones the product needs. I have built REST APIs specified with OpenAPI, real-time delivery over WebSocket, search with Elasticsearch, databases on PostgreSQL and MySQL, front ends in Angular, and infrastructure on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud with Linux and Docker.
Details on the work behind this page
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CIO and Head of DeFi at a Frankfurt fintech
Node operations, a market-data product, teams, budgets and procuration at a Frankfurt fintech.
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A global real estate database
Managing director and developer of a company funded by KfW and Neuhaus Partners.
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Experienced in conversion optimization
Front ends, back ends, order funnels and payment connections of online shops.
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AI agents under the same rules as humans
Limits at the resource, a blocking check before each tool call, and approvals that only a person gives.
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Career stages
More than twenty years in IT and media: my positions in fintech, e-commerce, and real estate. Know-how and know-why.
Your startup CTO in Germany
I am Michael Wutzke, a startup CTO for funded companies in finance, real estate and e-commerce, based in Frankfurt and working remote across Germany. In a 30-minute video call we talk about your product and your needs, and you learn whether an interim or a permanent CTO fits your next months.
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