4 ms·

I think that provable deep expertise in some niche is a pre-requisite to this kind of positioning. Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? W

I think that provable deep expertise in some niche is a pre-requisite to this kind of positioning. Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Who is the target audience?

geekuillaume 8y ago
I'm working on a new consultant biz, oriented toward "freelance CTO" for early-stage startups. It's general purpose but provide a non-technical client a better view of the technical aspects of their product. I'm convinced it has a lot of value for this kind of clients.
- nkohari 8y ago
  I tried this a bit myself. You are right that you can provide tremendous value, but early-stage startups either don't have, or aren't willing to spend, the money that you deserve for the value you'd provide. Maybe there's a niche you can target that I was unaware of. Hopefully you have more success!
  - icebraining 8y ago
    Seems actually a better use case for paying in stock (compared to regular employees). You only work a short time for them, so you can spread your bets more like a VC, and your influence can have a decisive impact on their success, so it's not just a lottery ticket.
    - kjksf 8y ago
      Those days startups take ~10 years to get to IPO. Even if we assume that they are willing to part with stock for consulting engagements, can you afford to wait years to get paid? Can you afford to pay taxes on that income this year? (to you it's paper money that might never to turn into real money; to IRS it's as good as payment in cash).
      - sokoloff 8y ago
        Restricted and illiquid shares are rightly valued at a discount to the same shares with a liquid market, so while you pay taxes on them, it's on their fair market value (which can be low as above).
  - dustingetz 8y ago
    Same, this business model is broken. Tremendous value is relative to the size of the business. Nontech founder = small business = high stakes work for low absolute comp. You make way more as an actual CTO (cash, equity, whatever) because you can grow the size of the pie, often rapidly.
  - weliketocode 8y ago
    I'm not so sure about the lack of funding. A number of startups really start having this issue once they start seeing some traction. Maybe they're actively looking for new or additional senior technical leadership or just scaling the team. Either way the opportunity is certainly there for companies to hire temporary technical leadership.
    - acconrad 8y ago
      I've also done this and can agree with the parent of this comment. The problem here is once they have traction and funding, they likely have a full-time CTO. Fractional CTOs are generally needed at the seed stage when the technical solution hasn't really come together and they don't have this skill-set in house. They also don't have money. It's a slippery slope, and you're better off being a technical advisor (low effort, low equity, low risk) than working underpaid and overworked.
  - rorykoehler 8y ago
    This is why I decided to offer the same fractional CTO service but to focus on small cap listed companies.
maxxxxx 8y ago
What I have seen is that some people/consultants have the ability to talk to C*O or VP level in their own language. Once you get these people to trust you, you can hire people with expertise you need. You can probably also get contracts because of your specific domain expertise but I believe the ability to communicate with high level management is more important for a successful consulting business.
- llampx 8y ago
  Do you have any tips on how to do that or to grow the ability to talk to C-level in their own language? I feel that that's what's holding me back at the moment.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    No, I have been struggling with my whole life. Let me know if you find out something.
nness 8y ago
> Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Certainly is, as indicated by the continued success of for Accenture, McKinsey Digital, Deloitte Digital, IBM, EY, KPMG, PwC, Aon Hewitt, and probably a million more smaller consultancies and agencies. Its certainly a suitable career choice if you enjoy a mix of technical solutioning, ideation and development work across a range of clients, geographies and technical domains. The caveats of course being sometimes your skills stagnate or the work-life balance isn't there when comparing service-organisations with product-organisations. But, depending on where you want to build your career, this kind of work for those kinds of places can be quite an accelerator.
- hypnotist 8y ago
  These companies/people are paid not for their general purpose skills/consulting. They are paid for trust/brand. """No one got fired for choosing McKinsey/BCG/Deloitte/IBM/MS etc"""
  - nsomaru 8y ago
    Except in South Africa where Bain etc are under heavy fire for facilitating government corruption on an unprecedented scale during the Zuma years
  - nness 8y ago
    I feel that "no one gets fired for choosing X" is such a pervasive non-sequitur. A brand's goodwill (trust and so forth) is a function of its ability to deliver success for the client. Success establishes that trust. People who run projects internally, and use consultancies or agencies, still have business requirements like any other team (whether internal or external). I can't imagine a team would be immune to scrutiny of a project failure (i.e. from shareholders) simply because they relied on a third-party. The same argument doesn't make sense if Amazon AWS suffered downtime, for instance? I can't imagine a CTO or VP of Engineering turning around to a team that failed to deliver as a result of poor partner selection, and saying "nah, you're all good, we'll blame them." As blaming a third-party doesn't re-coup the millions in lost opportunity, shareholder backlash, press, etc.

I think that provable deep expertise in some niche is a pre-requisite to this kind of positioning. Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Who is the target audience?

geekuillaume 8y ago

I'm working on a new consultant biz, oriented toward "freelance CTO" for early-stage startups. It's general purpose but provide a non-technical client a better view of the technical aspects of their product. I'm convinced it has a lot of value for this kind of clients.

nkohari 8y ago
I tried this a bit myself. You are right that you can provide tremendous value, but early-stage startups either don't have, or aren't willing to spend, the money that you deserve for the value you'd provide. Maybe there's a niche you can target that I was unaware of. Hopefully you have more success!
- icebraining 8y ago
  Seems actually a better use case for paying in stock (compared to regular employees). You only work a short time for them, so you can spread your bets more like a VC, and your influence can have a decisive impact on their success, so it's not just a lottery ticket.
  - kjksf 8y ago
    Those days startups take ~10 years to get to IPO. Even if we assume that they are willing to part with stock for consulting engagements, can you afford to wait years to get paid? Can you afford to pay taxes on that income this year? (to you it's paper money that might never to turn into real money; to IRS it's as good as payment in cash).
    - sokoloff 8y ago
      Restricted and illiquid shares are rightly valued at a discount to the same shares with a liquid market, so while you pay taxes on them, it's on their fair market value (which can be low as above).
- dustingetz 8y ago
  Same, this business model is broken. Tremendous value is relative to the size of the business. Nontech founder = small business = high stakes work for low absolute comp. You make way more as an actual CTO (cash, equity, whatever) because you can grow the size of the pie, often rapidly.
- weliketocode 8y ago
  I'm not so sure about the lack of funding. A number of startups really start having this issue once they start seeing some traction. Maybe they're actively looking for new or additional senior technical leadership or just scaling the team. Either way the opportunity is certainly there for companies to hire temporary technical leadership.
  - acconrad 8y ago
    I've also done this and can agree with the parent of this comment. The problem here is once they have traction and funding, they likely have a full-time CTO. Fractional CTOs are generally needed at the seed stage when the technical solution hasn't really come together and they don't have this skill-set in house. They also don't have money. It's a slippery slope, and you're better off being a technical advisor (low effort, low equity, low risk) than working underpaid and overworked.
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  This is why I decided to offer the same fractional CTO service but to focus on small cap listed companies.

maxxxxx 8y ago

What I have seen is that some people/consultants have the ability to talk to C*O or VP level in their own language. Once you get these people to trust you, you can hire people with expertise you need. You can probably also get contracts because of your specific domain expertise but I believe the ability to communicate with high level management is more important for a successful consulting business.

llampx 8y ago
Do you have any tips on how to do that or to grow the ability to talk to C-level in their own language? I feel that that's what's holding me back at the moment.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  No, I have been struggling with my whole life. Let me know if you find out something.

nness 8y ago

> Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Certainly is, as indicated by the continued success of for Accenture, McKinsey Digital, Deloitte Digital, IBM, EY, KPMG, PwC, Aon Hewitt, and probably a million more smaller consultancies and agencies. Its certainly a suitable career choice if you enjoy a mix of technical solutioning, ideation and development work across a range of clients, geographies and technical domains. The caveats of course being sometimes your skills stagnate or the work-life balance isn't there when comparing service-organisations with product-organisations. But, depending on where you want to build your career, this kind of work for those kinds of places can be quite an accelerator.

hypnotist 8y ago
These companies/people are paid not for their general purpose skills/consulting. They are paid for trust/brand. """No one got fired for choosing McKinsey/BCG/Deloitte/IBM/MS etc"""
- nsomaru 8y ago
  Except in South Africa where Bain etc are under heavy fire for facilitating government corruption on an unprecedented scale during the Zuma years
- nness 8y ago
  I feel that "no one gets fired for choosing X" is such a pervasive non-sequitur. A brand's goodwill (trust and so forth) is a function of its ability to deliver success for the client. Success establishes that trust. People who run projects internally, and use consultancies or agencies, still have business requirements like any other team (whether internal or external). I can't imagine a team would be immune to scrutiny of a project failure (i.e. from shareholders) simply because they relied on a third-party. The same argument doesn't make sense if Amazon AWS suffered downtime, for instance? I can't imagine a CTO or VP of Engineering turning around to a team that failed to deliver as a result of poor partner selection, and saying "nah, you're all good, we'll blame them." As blaming a third-party doesn't re-coup the millions in lost opportunity, shareholder backlash, press, etc.