What's a fractional cto?
It’s a part-time CTO
They are much like a maestro who guides a complex symphony of innovation, strategy, and management.
It’s often sold as a way out for CTOs and leaders who want change, but it comes with unique challenges.
Who needs this?
I’m going to be real here. There is only one use case:
- A failing relationship internally
It’s often sad and it’s not easy to change that type of relationship in a company.
Often fractional CTOs have to sell themselves as coaches: can you imagine your co-founder calling another CTO to help you?
There are a lot of power dynamics at play.
That requires an insane level of emotional intelligence to adapt to the new company fast enough to save the ship.
How much does it cost, what do I get?
It’s around $10,000–$20,000. But the best ones will only tell their prices when they feel invested in the mission.
You get weekly checks, monthly retrospectives, and quarterly reviews.
And there is a lot in there…
The wrong quarterly goals and you lose (nb_people x salary + opportunity cost) / month
One wrong sentence and people get mislead into the wrong direction..
My opinion
Look, it works. But these guys are even rarer than honest salesmen.
There are many CTOs that get kicked out of startups and call themselves fractional CTOs.
Developers that had too much coffee and think they can skip 10 years of people constantly missing deadlines with their name is on the line.
And CTOs that are meant to function in corporations with 500+ devs.
For me, this makes sense for startups and the CTO needs to be hands-on.
Call references and validate everything on their resumer.
Check with a friend.
It’s the type of hire that happens whitout being in a formal meeting / setting.