You're growing. Revenue is up, the team is expanding, and technology is becoming more central to how you operate. But something feels off.
Decisions about software, vendors, and infrastructure are being made by people who aren't technical. Or worse, they're not being made at all—just deferred until something breaks.
You don't need a $300K/year CTO. But you do need someone who can see around technical corners before you walk into them.
Here are seven signs it might be time for a fractional CTO.
1. You're About to Make a Big Technology Decision
New ERP system. Platform rebuild. Major vendor selection. These decisions lock you in for years and cost six or seven figures to undo if you get them wrong.
If you're evaluating options based primarily on sales demos and vendor promises, you're flying blind. A fractional CTO can:
- Cut through vendor marketing to assess actual technical fit
- Identify integration challenges before you sign contracts
- Negotiate from a position of technical knowledge
- Structure deals that protect your interests
One bad platform decision can cost more than years of fractional CTO fees.
2. Your Development Team Has No Technical Leadership
You've hired developers—maybe contractors, maybe a small internal team. They're writing code. But who's making sure they're building something that will scale? Who's reviewing architecture decisions? Who's ensuring you're not accumulating technical debt that will cripple you in two years?
Without technical leadership:
- Shortcuts become permanent architecture
- Security vulnerabilities go unnoticed
- Performance problems compound silently
- Knowledge walks out the door when developers leave
A fractional CTO provides oversight without the overhead of a full-time executive. The question of fractional vs full-time CTO often comes down to the volume of decisions and daily presence required.
3. You're Spending More on Tech But Getting Less
Your software budget keeps growing. You're paying for more tools, more licenses, more subscriptions. But productivity isn't improving. If anything, your team is spending more time fighting systems than using them.
This is a common pattern:
- Tools get added to solve immediate problems
- Nobody evaluates overlap or integration
- Complexity compounds
- The stack becomes unmaintainable
A fractional CTO can audit your technology spend, consolidate where possible, and build a coherent strategy instead of a collection of point solutions.
4. You've Been Burned by Technical Decisions Before
Maybe you built an app that had to be thrown away. Maybe you chose a platform that couldn't scale. Maybe you hired developers who delivered something that technically "worked" but was unmaintainable. Perhaps you tried to build an MVP without proper technical guidance and ended up with something that needed rebuilding.
If you've been burned, you know the cost of bad technical decisions. The question isn't whether you need technical guidance—it's whether you can afford to make the same mistakes again.
A fractional CTO brings pattern recognition. They've seen what works and what doesn't across dozens of businesses.
5. Your Vendors Are Running the Show
When your software vendors know more about your systems than you do, the power dynamic is broken. They control the roadmap. They set the prices. They decide what's possible.
Signs you've lost control:
- You can't get data out of your own systems
- Customisations require expensive professional services
- You're paying for features you don't use but can't remove
- Contract renewals come with significant price increases
A fractional CTO can rebalance this relationship—providing technical counterweight to vendor recommendations and ensuring decisions serve your interests, not theirs.
6. You're Planning for Growth That Technology Needs to Support
You're projecting 2x or 3x growth over the next few years. Your current systems barely handle today's volume. What happens when order volume doubles? When your customer base triples?
Growth exposes every technical weakness:
- Manual processes that worked at small scale become bottlenecks
- Databases that were "fast enough" start crawling
- Integrations that occasionally failed now fail constantly
- The team that could manage everything is suddenly overwhelmed
A fractional CTO helps you build for where you're going, not just where you are.
7. You Need Technical Due Diligence
Raising capital? Acquiring a company? Being acquired yourself? Technical due diligence is now standard in any significant transaction.
Investors and acquirers want to know:
- Is the technology sound or a liability?
- What's the technical debt situation?
- How dependent is the business on key technical people?
- What investment is needed to scale?
A fractional CTO can either prepare your technology for scrutiny or evaluate someone else's on your behalf.
When You Don't Need a Fractional CTO
Not every business needs one. If you're:
- Pre-revenue with a technical co-founder
- Running a simple business with off-the-shelf tools that work fine
- Already have strong technical leadership internally
Then you probably don't need external technical guidance. Save your money for when you do.
What a Fractional CTO Actually Does
The role varies based on what you need. For a comprehensive breakdown, see what a fractional CTO actually does day-to-day.
Strategic guidance: Technology roadmap, vendor evaluation, build vs. buy decisions, architecture review.
Team leadership: Hiring guidance, developer oversight, process improvement, technical mentorship.
Execution support: Project oversight, vendor management, technical due diligence, crisis response.
Board/investor communication: Translating technical reality for non-technical stakeholders.
A good fractional CTO adapts to your needs rather than forcing you into a fixed engagement model. Once you've hired one, learn how to work effectively with a fractional CTO to maximise the value.
How to Evaluate a Fractional CTO
For a comprehensive vetting guide, see our questions to ask before hiring a fractional CTO. Here's the quick version.
Look for:
- Relevant experience: Have they worked with businesses like yours?
- Communication skills: Can they explain technical concepts to non-technical people?
- Pragmatism: Do they recommend appropriate solutions or over-engineer everything?
- References: What do their previous clients say?
Avoid:
- People who want to rebuild everything from scratch
- Those who can't explain their reasoning simply
- Anyone who's never actually built and shipped software
- Consultants who create dependency rather than capability
The Cost of Waiting
Technical problems compound. The longer you wait to address them, the more expensive they become to fix.
A system that needs refactoring today needs rebuilding in two years. A security vulnerability that's a risk today is a breach tomorrow. A vendor relationship that's merely expensive now becomes extractive later.
The question isn't whether you'll need technical leadership eventually. It's whether you'll get it proactively or reactively—and reactive is always more expensive.
Not sure if you need a fractional CTO? Book a call and we'll help you assess. Sometimes the answer is "not yet"—and we'll tell you that honestly.
