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Rob Gough

Fractional CTO in Manchester. I help founders and companies make sound technical decisions — what to build, who to hire, and what to actually do about AI.

I also design, build and run my own products, and I write about all of it.

Open to new clients. → How I can help

Consulting

Fractional CTO work for founders and teams who need senior technical judgment, not a full-time hire.

What I do →

Projects

Products I design, build and run solo — StayUpfront, Dictator, Weighted Down, Shot and Tell, Belfry. The day job that keeps the consulting advice grounded.

See what I've built →

Writing

Code, products, weight, and whatever else is on my mind — the blog goes back to 2022.

Read the blog →

Recent writing

2026-08-26
StayUpfront is open

Recent notes

2026-09-29

Opus 4.5 and Sonic 5.5 are sea change level models. Between the increased capability and reduced cost, these things are absolutely insane.

Last weekend, I wanted a project to build while I was out of the house that could really put them through their paces (and didn't seem like my day job). So, for the first time in my life, I asked my computer to build me a game. In fact, the next day, with some tweaks I asked it again. Fair to say I'm absolutely blown away.

I know AI is meant to be the death of creativity, but I think that's nonsense. I can only imagine how fun and creative I would have been if I had access to these when I was a teenager and had all that free time. Now, it's nearly as easy to build a game—your own very specific game—as it is to play one.

2026-09-11

Handy site here from Cloudflare. I'm not sure you actually need to score 100 on this, but it'll be useful to run through for StayUpfront.

Got a technical decision you'd like a second opinion on? hello@robgough.net