About Fractional CTO work, and why I stopped
I was a Fractional CTO (fCTO). I no longer offer the service to new clients, and here is why and what I’ve learned.
The beginning
In the summer of 2023 I started learning about the concept of fCTO work, and like many laid-off technical executives, I thought it could be an interim solution until I found a full-time role. The more I learned about it and consulting, the more excited I got, so I pursued it with focus.
My Thesis
A fCTO made sense to me for start-ups and mid-size companies that use technology, but aren’t technology companies. I’m thinking about e-commerce businesses built on top of Salesforce Commerce Cloud or Shopify. They don’t run their own core e-commerce system, but might have some custom plugins or themes or tools.
Situations like the above and others might benefit from a CTO, but an full-time one would be overkill. So instead of being limited to who they can afford full-time, they could get someone with a lot of experience and knowledge. I would dedicated a day a week, and be able to get all the focused work done for that client in that day. With 4 clients, I’d be set.
Reality
I was able to land two clients quickly, and was off to the races. Then lost one (market tanked) and struggled to find more.
The term fCTO was unfamiliar in North America, so I found myself explaining what it meant. Educating the potential client in this way introduced a lot of friction in the sales process. Over time the “fractional movement” picked up steam, and potential clients knew the term, but with different definitions.
I encountered:
- Startups with no money and wanted to pay with equity. This really means I am becoming an investor, investing time and effort and taking a huge risk for a pay out.
- Startups that pay a fractional fee but expect full-time time and responsibility set. Fractional means fractional.
- Folks that think fCTO means founding engineer. Or technical co-founder. It doesn’t.
- Folks that think a fCTO wants to start as fractional and then become full-time when funding is available, or at some future date. That wasn’t me: fCTO work was the goal, not a stepping-stone to something else.
During my journey I witnessed many others starting fCTO work, and accepting/pursuing the above four misconceptions. This confused the market and introduced a lot of competition, effectively commodotizing the role.
Other challenges
With the title and concept of a fCTO, companies that already had a CTO were completely excluded. But I could and wanted to help them. With my experience I could support and mentor them. The positioning prevents it.
With the educational re-educational of what the role is, it made the sales process tougher than it could be. It often didn’t feel like I was ‘serving an existing need people are actively looking for’.
Throughout the years, many Fractional executive communities popped up and disappeared. I signed up for many of them, and ultimately landed zero opportunities through any of them.
I found that a common model for fCTO work is to manage an overseas team to do implementation. I need strong work time boundaries, and big time zone differences directly conflict with this. Plus I don’t think the time zone compensation is healthy for the overseas team either, so it’s a clash of values.
Conclusion
I learned I strongly prefer the advising/strategy side of the fCTO role. This is more aligned with strategic technology advisory work.
Even if I was to continue fCTO work, I noticed the need to specialize and narrow scope for maximum impact and value. I didn’t have focused positioning and that made marketing and sales more difficult.
I thought there would be more opportunities to help with hiring engineers. I formed some partnerships and had some leads for this, but they didn’t happen.
The market is full of fCTOs who are “dipping their toes”, moonlighting, or trying fCTO work for a limited time. Perceptually there is a lot of competition. On the opportunity/demand side, I noticed much more market interest for fCFO and fCMOs.
In the end, I learned a lot and found a path forward that works better for me.
Resources
If you are interested in hiring a fCTO or are one, here are some resources:
If you’re interested in pursuing fCTO work and are in the USA, make your banking/tax/etc life easier with:
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