Do you actually need a fractional CTO?

Most companies that call me don't need a full-time CTO yet — they need technical judgment at the speed of their board meetings. That's the fractional model: senior leadership a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost.

Three tests before you commit:

1. Can you name the decisions? If the answer is "we need a CTO to figure out what to do," you need an assessment, not a hire. If you can name 5–10 decisions (cloud migration, ERP vs. custom, hiring plan, compliance deadline), a fractional CTO owns them alongside you.
2. Is the work recurring or one-time? Architecture reviews and hiring loops repeat. A due-diligence report for an acquisition does not. Buy recurring leadership, hire one-off projects.
3. Who makes the final call? A fractional CTO is a staff role with authority — you still own the decision. If you're looking for someone to take the P&L of technology away from you, that's a full-time hire, and I'll tell you so on the first call.

What a good engagement looks like: 10–20 hours a month, a written risk register, a roadmap with prices, and a 6-month review where I show you how the engagement made itself unnecessary.