Launching a compliant mental health service in four months.
From joining to the first hub opening, with a full tech stack in place.
First hub opened — 100% success against the initial expectation.
On a buy-not-build strategy, with the delivery date held.
Cyber Essentials Plus and NHS DSPT, built from nothing.
The company
Towards is a mental health business founded by Tim Rideout, who spent his career in leadership roles across healthcare and professional services before starting the company. The ambition was straightforward: build a network of clinical hubs delivering high-quality mental health support, underpinned by a digital platform that would make it possible to scale.
Tim's background is operational, not technical. He knew what the platform needed to do. He didn't know how to build it, how to buy it, or how to hold a supplier accountable for delivering it.
The situation
Towards had already selected a platform — Wellifiy — and had begun conversations with them about configuring it to their needs. The brief was clear. The plan was not. Tim needed someone who could translate between the clinical and operational requirements on one side and the technical delivery on the other.
He also needed to hit a date. The first hub was due to open on 14 July 2025. That was not going to move.
"Technology was never an end in itself."
Tim Rideout, CEO
Why fractional
Towards didn't need a full-time CTO. They needed someone with the calibre of a CTO — the ability to make decisions, hold a supplier to account, and translate complex technical trade-offs into plain language — but only for the duration of the build.
Alex joined as fractional CTO in March 2025. The first hub opened in July.
What we did
- Vendor managementTook ownership of the relationship with Wellifiy, translating Towards' requirements into a delivery plan and holding the supplier to it. Prevented scope creep in both directions.
- Delivery to a fixed dateStructured the work backwards from 14 July. Identified the critical path and ruthlessly de-prioritised anything that wasn't on it.
- Compliance from scratchDesigned and implemented the compliance programme: Cyber Essentials Plus and NHS DSPT, neither of which existed when Alex joined.
- Post-launch buildAfter the first hub opened, transitioned from delivery mode to building the foundation for scale — data architecture, reporting, and the infrastructure to onboard future hubs.
The first hub opened on 14 July 2025 with a full tech stack in place.
Four months after Alex joined. Delivered significantly under budget — a combination of the buy-not-build strategy and the work done with Wellifiy to hold the delivery date.
Compliance ahead of stage
Cyber Essentials Plus and NHS DSPT were completed before the first hub opened. Most organisations at this stage don't have either. Towards now has both — and the processes to maintain them.
Dashboards that changed how decisions get made
The reporting built during the post-launch phase gave the clinical and operational teams visibility they hadn't had before. Tim describes it as a change in how the business makes decisions.
A platform nobody notices
The system works. Staff use it. Patients move through it. Nobody talks about the technology — which is exactly the point.
A technology story for the raise
Having a compliant, documented, scalable platform is now a material part of Towards' investment narrative. It wasn't before.
"The test of technology is that it isn't seen. We just need people to be using it, and it doing the job, without drawing attention to itself."
Tim Rideout, CEO
"Working with Alex felt like working with someone who was genuinely invested in the outcome. Not in a contractual sense — in a personal sense. He cared whether it worked."
"The relationship with Wellifiy could easily have gone wrong. There were moments where it nearly did. What Alex brought was the ability to hold that relationship — to be firm without being adversarial, to push back without breaking things. That's a rare skill."
"An unequivocal success."
Tim Rideout, CEO of Towards
Where this model doesn't fit
Tim is direct about the model's limits. Large, established organisations with substantial IT teams already have what Argo provides. The fractional model works when the need is real but not yet permanent — when you need the calibre without the commitment.
For very early-stage startups where technology is genuinely exploratory, the model can be premature too. "You need to know what you're building," Tim says, "before you need someone to help you build it."
His advice to founders on the fence
"The thing I'd say to anyone considering this is: treat that person as if they are a full-time member of your team. Don't treat them as a consultant you're managing from a distance. The value only comes if they're properly embedded."
Towards plans to bring Alex back as the business scales into its next phase. The work isn't finished — it's just reached a natural pause.