Most founders we talk to think they need a fractional CTO when they actually need their first senior engineer. A few think they need a senior engineer when they actually need a fractional CTO. Here’s how we tell the difference.
You need a fractional CTO when the questions on your plate are about technical strategy: build vs buy, hire vs outsource, monolith vs services, ship-this-quarter vs invest-in-the-platform. Those are leadership questions, and a senior engineer typically isn’t equipped to answer them at a level a board will trust.
You need a senior engineer when the question is execution. You know what to build. You don’t need help deciding. You need someone with hands on the keyboard.
You need a full-time CTO (not fractional) when engineering is the company. When the technical strategy is the strategy. When the cadence of decisions exceeds what a 1-day-per-week engagement can serve.
Most early-stage companies need a fractional for 6–18 months and a full-time hire after that. We design our engagements with that arc in mind — we help recruit our own replacement, and we step back to advisory once the in-house leader is up to speed.
Written by the brainiac/studio team. We publish original work from the engineers, designers, and marketers who do the work — never outsourced to a content shop.