When, Why, and How to Work with a Fractional CTO

Whether you’re a startup founder (with/without a CTO), or working at a big enterprise company, a fractional CTO (fCTO, or “CTO-as-a-service”) could be very useful for you. There are different cases where you should (and shouldn’t) rely on a fractional CTO. It’s not a silver-bullet solution, and there’s definitely nuance to it.

Let’s review when you should/shouldn’t use a fractional CTO, how to best work with an fCTO, and how many hours (per month) you might need from a fractional CTO, depending on your scale.

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Let’s start with a definition -

What is a Fractional CTO?

A Fractional CTO is a senior technology leader who works with your business on a part-time, contract, and flexible basis. They bring the same expertise as a full-time Chief Technology Officer, but without you having to commit to a permanent salary, equity package, or the overhead of a full exec hire.

Think of them as your on-demand technology strategist—someone who will lead and guide you (and your team) on:

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Software architecture:

Just like buildings, software products need to be architected properly before they are built. This is to ensure that they will scale well, have the correct security practices implemented, the right financial provisions, etc. A fractional CTO will help you with all of the above, and will lead the architecture process from the very beginning.

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Tech stack selection / changes:

You need to use the right tech stack to support your business goals. You need to know which things you should build in-house, and which ones should be provided by 3rd party tools. Additionally, choosing the right tech stack will have a massive impact on your hiring and recruitment pipeline; a niche tech stack could result in insane salaries and big difficulty in hiring the right people. A common, well-supported tech stack (with strong open-source support) will make hiring much easier, and increase your talent pool (which, as a result, will lead to lower salary costs, and a much wider choice of candidates).

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Security updates / best practices:

Especially crucial for software products in HealthTech, Fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, and other regulated industries. If you lack in security, you could end up in the news, and not in a good way. A fractional CTO will help you and your team to avoid security issues and will guide your team on security best practices throughout the build (from a technical and coding perspective!).

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Getting the right certifications:

Assisting your team (from a technical perspective) to get the right certifications (e.g. ISO27001, SOC2, GDPR, etc.). These typically require some dev work to be done in order to be properly compliant. A CTO that has done it in the past will be able to guide you and your team on what exactly you need to do, how the process looks, how much it would cost, etc.

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Building & prioritising the product roadmaps:

(alongside the founders, product owner(s), and other C-level execs.)

Obviously, the tech department in your company exists solely to support the growth of the product and the business. But, which features / areas of the product should you focus on building? How would you prioritise them? How do you know which ones are the riskiest / most complex / will require the most resources (team, money, third-party costs, etc)? Well, a CTO will be able to tell you all of that. And, as a result, you’ll know which features/areas of the product to prioritise, when, and why.

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Hiring, interviewing technical candidates, and team building:

You need a tech team. That tech team has to be good and solid. The people you hire must be competent and well-tested, otherwise you’re wasting time and money. A fractional CTO will help you build your hiring pipeline; from the hiring criteria, through the interview questions, to live coding challenges, whiteboard assessments, and take-home tasks, a fractional CTO will help you define everything you need in order to hire the best candidates for the job.

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Leading engagements with other 3rd-parties/agencies:

Sometimes, you might rely on 3rd party providers and agencies. From experience, if these aren’t managed well and in an efficient way, they could become a terrible money-drain. The only way to avoid that - is to manage these relationships properly, and with a firm grip. A Fractional CTO can help you do that; they will call out any BS they see on other 3rd party sides and agencies, manage the engagement in the most efficient way possible, and demand great deliverables that suit your company. They can also help you negotiate your contract prices (especially tech ones).

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Cloud cost assessment/optimisation:

When a (great) fractional CTO looks at a cloud bill, they will immediately know if the costs are justified or not (based on the product, the business, and the scale). They will also know what needs to be done to bring costs down and optimise your monthly expenses, cloud costs, and tech team costs. So, show a fractional CTO your bills, and, most likely, they’ll have some good ideas on how to optimise those and bring costs down.

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Guiding you on what NOT to do (how to avoid costly mistakes):

Sometimes, even more importantly than what to do, a fractional CTO will guide you on what NOT to do. Some decisions that might seem right to you - could end up costing the world to your business (for example, agreeing to a dev build of a mobile app from an agency that uses a very niche tech stack, or that hasn’t architected the solution properly, which is likely going to result in a full rebuild within a year or two).
A fractional CTO will be able to help you avoid mistakes like these, and save you a lot of headache (and money) as a result.

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When to Hire a Fractional CTO

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Pre-seed / Idea stage:

You’ve got an idea and maybe even a prototype, but you don’t have the technical background to make key decisions. A fractional CTO can help you scope an MVP properly, avoid over-engineering, and choose the right stack. They could also help you pitch the product and be present on your pitch deck as your CTO.

Time commitment: 8–16 hours per month is often enough at this stage.

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Seed / Early growth stage:

You’ve raised some funding and need to scale beyond the MVP. Now you need proper architecture, basic security, and a technical hiring plan. A fCTO can interview developers, set the tech & coding standards for your startup, and align your tech roadmap with your business goals. They’ll help you prioritise what to build and when, based on your capital and team availability.

Time commitment: 10–24 hours per month depending on complexity.

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Series A onwards / Scaling stage / Enterprise (SME/SMB):

You’ve got users, revenue, and pressure from investors to grow fast. From this point onwards, you’d use a fractional CTO in one of two ways;

• For “missions” - well-defined pieces of work that need to be done without you having to worry about them (e.g., a specific feature/project that needs to be built and has to be overseen by an experienced CTO, or a pentest/security audit alongside any improvements that have to be made) [Time would differ per ‘mission’]
  
  
• For ongoing coaching - if you’ve got a CTO / Head of Development / Tech lead that could use another pair of eyes, and ongoing advice from a seasoned fractional CTO [typically 8–16 hours per month].

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When NOT to Hire a Fractional CTO

It’s just as important to know when not to bring one in:

1. If you already have a strong, full-time CTO, and do NOT have a ‘mission’ to outsource to a fCTO.
   
   
2. If your business has no real tech dependency (e.g., a local shop without plans for digital transformation).
   
   
3. If you’re only looking for hands-on coding: a Fractional CTO is not a replacement for developers. They’re about leadership, strategy, and direction. They won’t spend their time coding.

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How to Work Best with a Fractional CTO

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1. Set clear goals: Don’t just say “we need tech help.” Be specific with the mission that you need the fractional CTO to sort for you: MVP launch, scale readiness, ISO certification, etc
   
   
2. Give them a seat at the table: They need visibility into business decisions, not just technical ones. You’ll need to share the financial situation, runway, burn rate, fundraising updates, and everything else with them, so that they could advise you correctly.
   
   
3. Communicate openly, write things down: Don’t rely on remembering things (and ensure that the CTO doesn’t do that either). Make sure everything’s written down; clear missions and requirements, meeting agenda, “homework” for both parties to do between calls, etc.
   
   
4. Respect their scope: Don’t expect them to do developer-level coding; that’s not their role.

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Why Metamindz

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Let’s start with a quick & personal intro;

I’m Lev, the founder & CTO @ Metamindz UK. I’m lucky enough to be a technical founder who understands both “business” and “tech.” However, most of the founders I know and work with typically focus on the business side of things (as they should!) and often lack the necessary tech background. As a result, I’ve seen founders making terrible mistakes and wasting a lot of money on things that could have been prevented in a single call with a fractional CTO. So, being a fractional CTO for a while and going through the fundraising & scaling journey (in my previous B2B SaaS venture, as well as in my career before that), I decided to start Metamindz, and, from day 1, offer fractional CTO services as the basis for all engagements. We’re now working with some of the best and most promising startups and enterprises in the UK and across the world. We are also working with investors (typically angels, though VCs as well) on tech due diligence, prior to capital deployment (investments) and acquisitions. In our “little black book” of talent, we have the best CTOs with the most transparent, accountable, and straight-to-the-point approach to building a startup and overseeing a tech build. Plus, we’ve built an amazing tech team (developers, designers, QA) and a recruitment team (tech recruiters) that support our CTOs and our clients in building and implementing what needs to be done, so it becomes a full-service engagement, led by a fractional CTO, end-to-end. Whichever industry you’re in (B2B SaaS, Healthtech, e-comm, edtech, fintech, WHICHEVER!) - do not hesitate to get in touch, and we’ll help you out.