What is a fCTO? (fractional CTO)

Smile :), it's just a perspective. It's something I wish I had had when I was a founder of a venture-backed startup (RIP Meenta.io - Techstars 2018). Startups are almost always working with limited funding, limited time, and limited staff.

Having a trusted reference who has experience building systems and solutions would have made a huge difference in how I approached tech challenges.

The mission of a startup is always large and game-changing. Any founder who wants to take on a problem is facing headwinds, from day one.

---

What did I need? (...when I was an active founder)

When I was selecting a startup technology stack for my last startup, I used what I knew best. This is just practical. When new challenges came up, I defaulted to the solutions that I could implement fast, and customize quickly.

In retrospect, what I needed was a framework to think about the tech stack as set tool and patterns that would change to meet the stage of the company, and would change with different perspectives. I needed a better way to approach those early decisions.

What would I have done differently?

Simple answer. I would have outsourced some of the decision-making. Just a bit. Assuming I had been given (a gentle push), I would have gone to my network sooner (LinkedIn, Advisors etc). Often CEOs have advisors. CTOs and technical founders are heads down, in the weeds, and don't socialize their tech challenges. The mental exercise of scoring my decisions, even if these decisions seem small and trivial, would have helped lay the foundation. In a startup, small decisions have large impacts.

How to get this perspective?

There are several simple things I recommend for a founding team:

1. Review our network of advisors and investors for people who can either provide technical feedback or make introductions to helpful (and responsive technical founders). (A fast way to find these people is to ask your investors for introductions to their technical due diligence people. Every investor has someone)
2. Outline your tech stack in non-technical terms. Make your tech stack, in some form, something that your CEO and founding team can describe. (Or brag about). This does not mean they need to know the pros/cons of a specific technical requirement, you just need to surface the tech stack into a team/founder-level set of conversations.
3. Set up a framework to score your tech decisions. I will be honest, this is not easy, as it will seem like a distraction. But just like learning to drive your organization with OKRs and performance metrics, putting the time into how to make tech decisions can have a huge impact over time. Expect to iterate on it over time. Expect to tweak your scoring for your industry and funding stage.

...or hire a fractional CTO.

Impact?

The simplest sign that this approach is working, is that your job descriptions will get shorter. Seems strange, but the better you understand the ROI of tech decisions, the clearer and more concise your hiring, either via Upwork, Freelancer, or a plain old FTE developer.

Advanced Stuff

The preceding is fairly general, intentionally. Your business will have specifics that add complexity. Your moat and competitive advantage is serious work. Getting intentional about your tech decisions does not happen overnight, it takes time and needs to get battle-tested. The good news is there the growth of fractional resources has grown, and the gig economy has expanded into this area.

You will know you are done, and have a mature framework for making these decisions, and then you prepare for your first cybersecurity audit. If you have done the work, you will find the answers, and have a clear sense of ROI, risk, and recovery process on your business. Your SOC2 auditor will love you!

And your AWS/GCP bill (might) be lower!

How I help

I offer fractional CTO services (aka fCTO). This can range from advisory work to SOC2 prep, all the way to full MVP and POC solutions to help with fundraising or proving a concept. I am a coder at heart, and firmly believe that the connection between people and tech is the domain of the CTO, and an important perspective for startups.

I am happy to do an introduction call and help you answer your questions.

  Schedule a Call