Stephan Schmidt - December 13, 2025

Interim vs Fractional vs Outsourced CTO

How to Get CTO Help Without a Full-Time Hire

Not every startup needs a full-time CTO - and even if you do, you might not need one right now.

I’ve had this conversation hundreds of times. A founder calls me, convinced they need to hire a CTO yesterday. Thirty minutes later, we’ve figured out they actually need a fractional CTO for two days a week - or sometimes just a coach for their existing tech lead. The “we need a CTO” panic usually masks a more specific problem that doesn’t require a $300k+ hire.

Here’s how to figure out what you actually need.

The Four Options for CTO Help

Most startups under 20 engineers don’t need options 1 or 3. Start with a fractional CTO or coach - you can always scale up.

Interim CTO (iCTO)

An Interim CTO is a full-time, temporary technology executive - typically brought in for 3-6 months during transitions, crises, or while searching for a permanent hire.

When it makes sense:

• Your CTO just left and everything’s on fire - developers are threatening to leave
• M&A due diligence (and you need someone the acquirer will trust)
• The engineering team is in genuine crisis - not “we’re a bit behind,” but “three senior engineers quit last month and production is down twice a week”
• You raised a big round and need to scale from 10 to 50 engineers in 6 months

The reality:

Interim CTOs are expensive. We’re talking $25-50k per month, sometimes more. For that money, you get someone who’s done this before, can make hard decisions fast, and won’t be worried about political consequences because they’re leaving anyway. They brouught many companies from A to B.

The downside? They’re leaving anyway. An interim CTO can stabilize the ship, but they won’t build long-term culture. I’ve seen companies hire interim CTOs who made great short-term decisions that created problems two years later - because they optimized for “fix it now” rather than “build something sustainable.”

Typical cost: $200-400/hour or $25,000-50,000+/month

Fractional CTO (fCTO)

A Fractional CTO works part-time for your company on an ongoing basis - typically 1-2 days per week. Strategic leadership without the full-time cost.

This is what most early-stage startups actually need.

Here’s why: At seed stage, there often isn’t 40 hours of CTO work to do. You need someone to set architecture, hire the first few engineers, and be available when things break. That’s maybe 10-15 hours a week. A fractional CTO gives you experienced leadership at a price you can afford, with the flexibility to scale up as you grow.

Simplified: Lots of expierence for the same money. Twice the experience for the same price. If you need a coder, hire another coder. Don’t hire a CTO to code.

I’ve worked as a fractional CTO for several startups. The best engagements are where I’m deeply embedded for 1-2 days per week - or 4 1/2 days per week, but available on Slack for quick questions. You get the strategic thinking without paying for someone to attend every standup.

Pros:

• Actually affordable for early-stage companies
• Ongoing relationship means they learn your codebase and team
• Can scale up to 3-4 days/week during crunch times
• If it works out, might become your full-time CTO later

Cons:

• Not there every day (might be 1/2 be there for the week though)
• Has other clients, so not always immediately available
• Can’t make deep organizational changes without more commitment

Typical cost: $1,500-5,000/day or $6,000-20,000/month for 1-2 days/week

Outsourced CTO

An Outsourced CTO typically comes from a consulting firm or agency. They provide technology leadership as a service, often bundled with development team oversight.

I’m going to be direct: I’m skeptical of this model for most situations.

When it works:

• You’re outsourcing development and need someone to manage the vendor who isn’t the vendor themselves
• You’re a non-technical founder building an MVP and need someone to translate between you and the dev shop
• You want a structured engagement with clear deliverables and don’t need strategic partnership

When it doesn’t: The agency’s incentives aren’t always aligned with yours. They want billable hours and upsells. A good fractional CTO will sometimes tell you “don’t build that feature” or “fire that vendor.” An agency CTO might not.

That said, I’ve seen it work well when the founder knows exactly what they want and just needs execution oversight. If you’re a non-technical founder who’s been burned by dev shops before, having an independent CTO from a reputable agency review architecture and hold vendors accountable can be valuable.

Typical cost: $10,000-30,000/month depending on scope

CTO Coach

A CTO Coach provides strategic mentoring and guidance - either to you as a leader or to your development team - without taking on operational responsibilities.

This is what I do most of the time now. The difference from fractional CTO work: I’m not making decisions for you. I’m helping you make better decisions yourself.

Best for:

• Planning to promote a tech lead to CTO and need a coach to make it happen
• Tech leads who got promoted to CTO and feel overwhelmed (this is most of my clients)
• CTOs who need a sounding board - someone to talk through hard decisions with
• Companies that have technical leadership but want to level them up
• Technical founders who want to grow into the CTO role rather than hire one

Typical cost: $200-1,000/session or $1,000-4,000/month

Which Option is Right for You?

Forget the decision matrix. Here’s how I’d think about it:

Is your house on fire? (CTO left, team in crisis, major scaling emergency) → Interim CTO. Pay the premium, get it stabilized, then figure out the long term.

Do you have a working team that needs direction? (Early stage, have developers, need strategy) → Fractional CTO. Start with 1 day/week, adjust as needed.

Are you outsourcing development? (Using a dev shop, need oversight) → Maybe an outsourced CTO, but honestly consider a fractional CTO who can give you independent advice.

Do you have a CTO who needs to grow? (New to the role, struggling with the jump from IC) → CTO Coach. This is the highest-leverage investment if you have the right person.

Can You Combine These?

Yes, and most growing companies do.

I’ve seen this progression work well:

1. Pre-seed: CTO coach for the technical founder
2. Seed: Fractional CTO (1 day/week) for architecture and first hires
3. Series A/B: Either the fractional becomes full-time, or you hire a permanent CTO and the fractional transitions to advisor

The key is matching your support to your actual needs, not your perceived status. I’ve met founders who hired a $300k CTO at seed stage because they thought it made them look serious. That CTO was bored within six months.

The Alternative: Do You Need a CTO at All?

Before spending money on any CTO option, ask yourself: Do you even need a CTO?

In my startup model of Prototype → MVP → PMF → Traction, you often don’t need a CTO until you’re showing signs of product-market fit. Getting too senior too early means:

• Paying for capacity you don’t use
• Giving away equity for a role that doesn’t exist yet
• Having an overqualified person get bored and start “improving” things that don’t need improvement

Sometimes the right answer is: not yet.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a fractional CTO cost?

$1,500-5,000 per day, or $6,000-20,000 per month for 1-2 days per week. The range is wide because experience varies. A first-time CTO charging fractional rates is different from someone who’s scaled three companies to exit.

What’s the difference between fractional and interim CTO?

Time commitment. Interim is full-time but temporary (3-6 months). Fractional is part-time but ongoing. The interim CTO is there to fix something specific; the fractional CTO is there to provide sustained leadership.

Can a fractional CTO become full-time?

Happens all the time. It’s actually one of the best hiring strategies - you get to work together before committing. Think of it as a very long, very expensive job interview that actually produces value.

How do I find a fractional CTO?

Your network, first. Ask other founders. LinkedIn. Platforms like Toptal exist but quality varies wildly. The best fractional CTOs usually don’t need to advertise - they get referrals. (And yes, I’m available for fractional work for the right fit.)

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