How To Know When You Truly Need A Fulltime CTO

Picture this: Somewhere between beer pong and hacky sack on the quad, you and your college roommate came up with a great Minimum Viable SELLABLE Product. 

Now you’re been building your company out of the garage – like many of the greats – and it feels like it’s time to get serious about your team. You’ve got a bunch of contractors and you know that – theoretically – you and your buddy could steer the ship on your own.

But do you want to?

And is that the best use of your time, energy, and talents?

Would you benefit from an outside perspective?

Is it time to hire a CTO? And is it time to hire a full-time CTO? 

I’m so glad you asked! Let’s talk through it.

What does a CTO actually do?

A Chief Technical Officer (CTO) is the person responsible for the technological direction of a company. For tech startups, having someone with a deep understanding of technical architecture  is a must-have for long-term growth and scalability. 

A CTO doesn’t just oversee product and development; they’re the visionary behind the technology. A CTO makes sure the product you’re building is scalable, adaptable, and secure.

But what exactly does a CTO do? They manage tech teams, yes, but they’re also the decision-makers. They strategize on tech stacks, database architecture, server configurations, and how best to optimize performance based on predicted user growth. 

A good CTO will shape your startup’s future

A startup’s CTO is the backbone of its technology decisions. As founders, it’s super easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day; a good CTO will make sure you’re thinking beyond today’s challenges. They’ll help future-proof your product for scalability and long-term success. 

Let’s say you’ve developed an app that’s serving a few hundred users today, but it could explode into serving millions tomorrow – think about what happened to Zoom during the early days of Covid! A CTO keeps that possibility in mind and they’ll help you lay the groundwork so you won’t need to overhaul your system architecture when you become wildly successful.

(They’ll also believe in your company and the likelihood of it becoming wildly successful!) 

Here’s an example: a CTO would be the person who decides whether to use traditional server space (AWS EC2) or an auto-scaling solution like AWS Lambdas. 

In a situation where a product’s usage fluctuates a lot – like an app that experiences high traffic during events – a CTO might recommend Lambdas. Lambdas can automatically scale resources up or down depending on user demand. This kind of decision optimizes both performance and cost, since you only pay for what you need rather than maintaining oversized, expensive infrastructure​.

Support for the risk averse!

What’s that? You don’t want to risk losing months of work and tens of thousands of dollars? Weird.

A good CTO will oversee your startup’s technological decisions. They’ll make sure you’re using the best tech stack, database configuration, and scaling methods.Without a CTO, startups often have to rely on contractors or development teams to make these decisions.

Is this a cheaper solution? Yes. Is it more likely to result in wasted time and money in the long run? Also yes.

In the worst case scenario, relying exclusively on your development team for tech direction can lead to misaligned priorities. A development team might push for a solution that suits their expertise but isn’t the best fit for the company’s long-term needs​. They might encourage you to build your site on a low code platform (more on when the right time to use a low code platform here) because that’s what they know, when in reality,you’d be better served by a custom coded, full tilt web application.

Your CTO will also provide a layer of accountability. When you work with contractors, there’s always the risk that they’ll make decisions that benefit them, not the company. A CTO keeps contractors in check, ensuring the business’s interests come first. They’ll guide the technical direction, making decisions based on what’s best for the company’s product and future growth … rather than what’s easiest for the development team​.

Equal parts strategy and execution

A good CTO does more than just manage your tech teams and analyze your tech stack, they think strategically – both in terms of short-term fixes and long-term growth. They’ll nudge you to consider the bigger picture when you’re stuck in the weeds.

Let’s say your app needs to operate efficiently under a heavy load. You might be thinking about building your app in Rust rather than JavaScript since Rust is closer to binary code so it offers faster performance.

But, your CTO knows that JavaScript is much more common so it’s a lot easier to hire JavaScript developers than Rust developers, so they steer you in that direction. These sorts of insights are invaluable to any startup that’s interested in performance and long-term flexibility​ – which, frankly, every startup should be!

But does your startup need a full-time CTO?

CTOs are great and your startup doesn’t necessarily need a full-time CTO (or the time and financial commitments that come with full-time employees.)

If your product is relatively straightforward, and the tech decisions are mostly clear, a fractional CTO can be a smart alternative to a full-time one. A fractional CTO can step in to provide strategic direction, oversee the architecture, and ensure everything is built for scalability, but they don’t need to be involved full-time. 

This can be particularly useful when budgets are tight, and it can give you access to top-tier talent without the overhead costs of a full-time hire.

Yes, you probably need a CTO, even if they’re fractional

It’s also worth noting that, at a certain point, investors will start asking hard, technology-based questions and even doing due diligence processes. If your company is going to the Series A round, you will need a CTO – even if they’re fractional.

So if you’ve read this far, you probably won’t be surprised with my recommendation that, yes, your startup probably needs a CTO – even if they’re fractional. They’ll save you time, money, and energy and help you avoid common pitfalls.

And they’re not just tech oversee-ers! They’re strategic leaders who make sure your product is built to scale, stays competitive, and operates efficiently. Whether full-time or part-time, having a CTO is one of the smartest investments you can make in your business and, honestly, your quality of life.

Interested in learning more about our fractional CTO services? Grab a spot on my calendar and let’s chat! You’re about to free up so much time and energy!