Growing Indian businesses need someone who understands their software deeply, makes the right technical decisions, and keeps everything running — without the cost and commitment of a full-time CTO or senior developer. Varisya is that partner: dedicated engineering, software implementation, and SLA-backed support on an annual retainer.
No checkout, no per-seat pricing. Every engagement starts with a scoping call.
These are the moments we hear about most often when businesses reach out to Varisya — and the point where a fractional CTO or dedicated software partner makes the most financial and operational sense.
Varisya is not a software subscription. It is a dedicated technology partnership — covering the full stack from implementation through ongoing maintenance and technical direction.
Implementation
Software built around your workflows
We customise a full suite of products — Books, Inventory, Billing, Storefront, Ecommerce, POS and more — to your specific operation. Not configured to defaults. Customised to the exact workflows your business runs on.
Architecture
Technical decisions in your interest
Build vs buy. Self-hosted vs cloud. Integration architecture. Data ownership. A dedicated engineer with CTO-level context makes these calls based on your business — not on vendor upsell incentives.
Engineering retainer
Ongoing monthly development
Dedicated engineering hours each month for new requirements, workflow changes, and improvements. Your engineer carries context from every previous month — you never brief the same person twice.
Support SLA
Issues resolved, not tickets filed
SLA-backed support on phone, WhatsApp, and email. The person who picks up knows your system. Resolution, not escalation chains. Operational issues are resolved in hours, not days.
A fractional CTO is not a sign-up-and-go product. Every growing business carries a different mix of software decisions, vendor relationships, and technical debt — so we start by understanding where you are before we decide what to do. The goal is simple: give you senior technical direction and hands-on execution without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Here is how an engagement actually runs, from the first call to an ongoing retainer.
The first month is the heaviest lift — discovery, roadmap, and the initial execution push. After that, the annual retainer keeps your technology moving forward in step with the business: decisions made when they need to be made, work delivered against a roadmap you can see, and a senior technical owner who is accountable for outcomes rather than for selling you the next module.
Three ways to cover the technical function. Here is how they compare for a growing Indian SME.
| Factor | Full-time CTO / developer | Freelancer | Varisya |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | ₹1.2–5 lakh/month (salary + benefits) | Variable; project-scoped | From ₹39,000/year; unlimited users |
| Technical context | Deep — full-time focus | Low — resets per project | Deep — carries across every month |
| Accountability | Full — direct employee | Limited — deliverable-only | SLA-backed — outcome responsibility |
| Availability on issues | Immediate (during hours) | Unreliable; no SLA | Same-day SLA (Professional); next-business-day (Essential) |
| Data ownership | Depends on setup | Depends on project | Self-hosted on your infrastructure; you own the data |
| Hiring / offboarding risk | High — notice periods, knowledge loss | Low — but no continuity | None — retainer continues; documentation maintained |
| Strategic decisions | Yes — full CTO scope | No | Yes — architecture and vendor decisions included |
What is a fractional CTO and does my business need one?
A fractional CTO is a senior technology leader who works with your business on a part-time or retainer basis — providing the strategic and technical direction of a full-time CTO without the full-time salary. A business typically needs one when it has real software decisions to make (what to build, what to buy, how to automate), but is not yet at the stage where a ₹25–50 lakh/year CTO hire makes financial sense. Varisya functions as a dedicated software implementation partner with a fractional CTO orientation — handling architecture decisions, software customisation, and ongoing engineering for Indian SMEs.
How is Varisya different from a freelance developer or an IT company?
A freelance developer delivers code; they are not accountable for outcomes after delivery. An IT company sells products and support contracts for those specific products. Varisya is a dedicated engineering partner: we are responsible for how the software performs in your operation, not just for writing the code. Your dedicated engineer understands your business workflows month after month, makes architecture decisions in your interest, and carries an SLA for response time and resolution. That is closer to a fractional CTO than to either a freelancer or a vendor.
What does Varisya actually do each month?
Each month your dedicated engineer works a set number of days on your engagement — customising software to your current workflows, handling technical decisions, implementing new requirements, and resolving issues within the SLA. Work is allocated based on your retainer tier: Essential (pooled engineer, ~2 dev-days/month), Professional (dedicated engineer, ~6–8 dev-days/month), or Enterprise (dedicated pod with extended hours). The engineer carries context from every previous session — you never brief the same person twice.
How does Varisya pricing compare to hiring a CTO or a senior developer?
A full-time CTO in India costs ₹25–60 lakh/year in salary alone, plus benefits, equity, and management overhead. A senior developer is ₹12–25 lakh/year but comes without strategic and architecture capability. Varisya's Professional plan is ₹79,000/year (₹9.48 lakh/year) for a dedicated engineer covering software customisation, architecture, SLA-backed support, and ongoing maintenance — with no hiring process, no notice period risk, and no recruitment cost. For most growing SMEs, the retainer is 40–70% less than a comparable full-time hire.
Is Varisya the right fit if we are not a tech company?
Yes — that is the core use case. Varisya is designed for distribution businesses, manufacturers, service companies, and retailers that depend heavily on software but do not have an internal technical team. You do not need to understand the code; you need the software to work the way your operation works. Varisya translates your business requirements into working software and maintains it. The scoping call is where we assess fit honestly — if Varisya is not the right solution for your situation, we will tell you.
How many days a month of technical time do we get?
It depends on your retainer tier, and we set the number explicitly during scoping rather than leaving it vague. The Essential plan (from ₹39,000/year) gives you a pooled engineer for roughly two dev-days a month — enough to keep the system healthy, handle small changes, and stay reachable on support. The Professional plan (₹79,000/year) gives you a dedicated engineer for roughly six to eight dev-days a month, plus architecture and technical-decision involvement — this is the tier most growing SMEs settle on. Enterprise engagements add a dedicated pod with extended hours for businesses with heavier or always-on technical needs. What matters more than the raw day count is continuity: the same person works on your account month after month, so no time is lost re-explaining your business. Strategic input — build-vs-buy calls, vendor reviews, roadmap and architecture decisions — is part of every tier, not billed separately by the hour.
How is this different from hiring a full-time CTO or signing with an IT company?
A full-time CTO costs ₹25–60 lakh/year, expects equity, and carries a notice-period risk that can leave you without technical leadership for months — and most SMEs cannot generate enough full-time CTO-level workload to justify the salary. An IT company sells you specific products and then sells support contracts for those products; their incentive is to keep you on their stack and upsell modules, not to make neutral build-vs-buy or vendor decisions in your interest. Varisya sits between the two. You get senior technical direction — architecture, vendor oversight, roadmap, build-vs-buy, hiring guidance, security and compliance basics, cost control — on a fixed annual retainer, delivered by a dedicated engineer who carries context from every previous month. There is no recruitment process, no notice-period exposure, and no product-upsell conflict of interest, because we are accountable for outcomes in your operation rather than for selling licences.
A fractional CTO on retainer earns its keep when you have real, recurring software decisions but not enough full-time technical workload to justify a senior hire. It is not the right answer for every business — and we will say so honestly on the scoping call. Here is who tends to get the most value from a Varisya engagement.
If you are an early-stage business with no real software complexity yet, you probably do not need a fractional CTO — a good off-the-shelf tool and occasional freelance help will serve you, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a retainer you cannot use. Varisya is built for the point where technology has become central enough to your operation that getting the decisions wrong is expensive, but the workload still does not justify a ₹25–60 lakh/year full-time hire. That gap is exactly where a fractional CTO pays for itself.
A 30-minute scoping call. We'll understand your operation, your current software setup, and what's not working — and give you an honest view of what dedicated software support would look like for your business.
No checkout, no per-seat pricing. Every plan routes through a consultation.