Meet Your Fractional CTO & CFO
Built by Operators,
for Founders
Codenest is two executives, not one generalist. A CTO who has scaled the systems, and a CFO who has scaled the numbers.
Ankit Rana
Fractional CTO
Fifteen years building and scaling technology platforms. Consumer-scale Java at Rated People and Rightmove, then leading engineering at Rungway. Since 2017, through Codenest: regulated delivery for the Ministry of Justice, Tesco Bank, HSBC and AstraZeneca, a near seven-year payments transformation at Opayo by Elavon, and now agentic AI platforms. Has led engineering teams from 5 to 50+, and sat on the receiving end of technical due diligence.
Scaled Rungway from 5 to 1,000+ concurrent users
Ankit on LinkedInMichelle Rana FCCA
Fractional CFO
Chartered accountant (FCCA) and strategic finance leader who took a multi-site business from 6 to 27 locations and £35m to £165m revenue while improving EBITDA margin by 4%. Has built and led a 20+ person finance function, owned Board and investor reporting, held a company's cash together through COVID-19, and supported founders through fundraising and investor due diligence.
£35m → £165m revenue, +4% EBITDA margin
Michelle on LinkedInWhy We Started Codenest
Too many startups fail not because of bad ideas, but because of avoidable mistakes: architecture that doesn't scale, financial models that fall apart under scrutiny, technical debt that slows everything down.
We kept seeing the same patterns. Founders who needed senior guidance but couldn't justify a full-time CTO or CFO. Startups that hired dev shops and got code, but not strategy. Companies that grew revenue but couldn't answer basic questions about their unit economics.
Codenest exists to fill that gap, and to fill it properly. You get an engineer who has actually run the platform and an accountant who has actually owned the P&L, rather than one generalist doing a passable impression of both.
What We Believe
- Build it right the first time. Technical debt is a tax on every future decision. Start with solid foundations.
- Know your numbers. Great products fail without financial discipline. Understand your unit economics before investors ask.
- Hire for where you're going. The team that gets you to product-market fit isn't always the team that scales you to Series B.
- Move fast, but don't break things. Speed matters, but not at the cost of quality. You can have both.
Beyond Advisory
In rare cases, for exceptional opportunities, Ankit considers deeper partnerships, including technical co-founder roles. If you're building something truly ambitious and looking for a committed partner, not just an advisor, let's talk.
Two Careers, One Practice
Where the technical and financial track records were built
Ankit Rana
Fractional CTO
Foundations
Java and platform engineering at the University of Leicester, Muddyboots, then Rated People (2013-2015) and Rightmove in 2016 — consumer-scale systems, and the habits that come from being on call for them.
Leading Engineering
Lead Software Engineer at Rungway with the scope of a CTO: rebuilt the platform, took it from 5 to 1,000+ concurrent users, and ran a zero-downtime database migration. The last engagement before Codenest.
Codenest: Regulated Delivery
The firm's first engagements: the Ministry of Justice, then Tesco Bank, then Deloitte Digital delivering for HSBC and AstraZeneca. Government, banking and pharma — where the compliance bar is set before the first line of code.
Codenest: Payments at Scale
A near seven-year platform transformation at Opayo by Elavon — AWS EKS migration, GitOps and Infrastructure as Code, moving a payments monolith to microservices without dropping a transaction — alongside a 0→1 identity platform for LDN Labs (Hitachi).
Codenest: Agentic AI Platforms
0→1 backend and AI infrastructure for Frekkel, then the Regeno engagement: a company brain over the client's own records, and an AI factory that drives a ticket to a merged pull request unattended, with bounded review loops and a ledger of every decision.
Michelle Rana FCCA
Fractional CFO
Commercial Foundations
Pricing and commercial analysis at Ryder and Select Service Partners — negotiating contract hire deals over £1m and partnering with senior leaders across a £67m revenue budget.
Multi-Channel Finance
Omni-channel finance manager at Oasis & Warehouse, owning reporting and budgeting for franchise, wholesale, licensing and distribution, and delivering Board packs to CEO and CFO.
Scale-Up Finance
Head of Strategic Finance at Dishoom through the 6-to-27-site expansion: five-year strategic model, rolling forecasts accurate to ±3%, CapEx governance, £6m in procurement and contract improvements, and month-end close cut from 14 days to 8.
Technical & Financial Expertise
Deep experience across the full stack: technology and finance
Cloud & Infrastructure
- AWS
- GCP
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- GitOps
Engineering & AI
- Python
- Java
- Node.js
- Microservices
- Agentic AI & LLM Systems
Planning & Reporting
- Financial Modelling
- Rolling Forecasts
- Scenario Planning
- Board & Investor Reporting
- Fundraising Support
Controls & Commercial
- Financial Controls
- Margin Optimisation
- Procurement & Cost
- CapEx Governance
- Cash Management