Fractional CTO vs Full-Time CTO: Which Does Your Startup Need?
Not every startup needs a full-time CTO on day one. Here is a practical framework for deciding between fractional and full-time technical leadership.
Roles Team
Talent Advisors
The CTO decision is one of the most consequential a non-technical founder can make. Hire too early and you burn cash on a senior executive who does not have enough to manage. Hire too late and you accumulate technical debt that takes years to unwind.
When Fractional Makes Sense
A fractional CTO is the right choice when you are pre-product or at the MVP stage, when you need architecture guidance but not daily management, when your budget does not support a $250K+ hire, when you need help evaluating and hiring engineers, or when technology decisions are not yet a daily occurrence.
A good fractional CTO costs $5-15K per month for one to two days per week. They provide architecture review, technical hiring support, vendor selection guidance, and mentorship for your engineers.
When You Need Full-Time
Transition to a full-time CTO when you have five or more engineers who need leadership, when technology is your core competitive advantage, when you are making daily architecture and infrastructure decisions, or when you are scaling rapidly and need someone embedded in the team.
The cost is significant: $200-350K salary plus meaningful equity. But if technology leadership is a daily requirement, the cost of not having it is higher.
The Bottom Line
Start fractional if you are early stage with limited but important technical needs. Transition to full-time when technology leadership becomes a daily requirement and the team is large enough to warrant dedicated management.
Written by Roles Team
Talent Advisors
