Our technical lead left and nothing has shipped. What now?
It depends on getting someone senior to take ownership of the work again, not on hiring more developers to fill the gap. Somebody has to learn what the last lead knew, decide what ships first, and get a small piece of it out the door so the team is moving again. If you cannot justify a full-time replacement yet, a fractional CTO can step in while you work out what you need.
Evidence
More people will not replace the one who left. In How many mediocre programmers does it take to... I argued that no amount of mediocre programmers will ever replace a good one. Each person you add brings more communication and more complexity, and the weaker ones mostly slow the good ones down. When a strong lead leaves, the gap is skill and judgement, not headcount.
Software is not built like a house. In Software development is not like building a house I wrote that programmers are not interchangeable skilled labour, and quoted Brooks' law: adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. Trying to cut a deadline by adding more people will almost guarantee the opposite effect. Keep the team small and give it someone who understands the architecture.
A stalled project is rescued by changing who owns it. In Saving a Bureaucratic Software Project I wrote about the Healthcare.gov rescue. The project had people managing people and nobody owning the result. What turned it around was a small, empowered team that took ownership and worked like a startup, not more staff or more process.
I have stepped in as CTO myself. In A new chapter I described my time with the Rumie Initiative, a nonprofit bringing free learning material to people without it. I started as a consultant building their web app, served as interim CTO, then joined as their full-time CTO, working remotely. When the role needed someone on site, I suggested Rumie start looking for a technology expert who could take over my duties, so the handover was planned rather than a gap.
I build my own software the same way. WASBuilder keeps every piece of work as a ticket on a board, with its plan, its questions and its history written down. Whoever picks it up next can see what was decided and why, so the work does not leave when a person does.
What it takes
Access to everything the last lead touched: the code, the hosting, the accounts and whatever notes they left. Finding out what exists comes before deciding what to change.
Someone on the business side who can say what matters most, so the first thing to ship is the thing the business needs, not the thing that is easiest to finish.
A small first release. Getting one modest change out proves the build and deploy still work and gives the team its momentum back.
The honest limits: a fractional CTO does not write all the code, and a few hours a week will not suit a team that needs someone in the room every day. If that is what you need, I can help you hire the right person and hand the work over to them.
Next step
Tell me what your last lead was working on and where it stopped. As your Fractional CTO I take ownership of the technical work on a part-time retainer, get it shipping again, and make sure the next handover is not a cliff.