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I have extensive experience hiring fractional talent at our company over the past 2 years (CMO, CFO, CTO). I’m currently spending $250k/yr on fractionals. To a

by cj 2y ago

I have extensive experience hiring fractional talent at our company over the past 2 years (CMO, CFO, CTO). I’m currently spending $250k/yr on fractionals. To avoid disappointment 2-3 months into the engagement, my #1 recommendation is to have a very specific and well written statement of work that you mutually agree on so that it’s perfectly clear what your expectations of them are. When our fractionals didn’t work out, it was always because we had expectations that the fractional wasn’t able to live up to. And in hindsight, simply spelling out the work in a SOW would have avoided the misalignment. In general, there are a lot of fractionals who don’t like to roll their sleeves up to do real work. IME most fractionals could simply be described as “paid advisors”. For our company, when we’ve had fractionals not work out it was always because the fractional simply didn’t want to do anything other than join meetings and advise. Again, all solvable by simply having a clear SOW and making sure mutual expectations are clearly communicated. It’s extremely tempting to just engage a fractional because it’s easy and quick, especially when you’re desperate to get someone in the door. Don’t make that mistake and take your time.

dave2299 2y ago
Thanks for sharing. Any thoughts on hiring a fractional CTO? I’m a barely-technical founder, working w/ no code/low code tools like Airtable, Copilot for my product and services but want to outsource work and move towards more technical product but have been striking out trying to hire more technical people than I am directly and don’t want a cofounder. Where to find a fractional CTO, how to go about it, etc. thanks
- bretcindy 2y ago
  [dead]
- yehudabrick 2y ago
  I’m curious why you’ve been striking out? What seems to be the issue with the people you’re trying to hire. I’m looking to get into being a fractional CTO and would love to talk with you if you’re interested. You can reach me at the email in my profile.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- hipadev23 2y ago
  Why do you think you need a CTO? Contract a full-stack dev.
- tbird24 2y ago
  Hey Dave, I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io , if it's helpful you can book a time with me through the website and I can talk you through the pros / cons of hiring a Fractional CTO (and then help you hire one if you want our help). You can click the "Hire Fractional" button on the website to book a time with me. FWIW you're describing a great use case for a fCTO.
- Gamemaster1379 2y ago
  I just learned about fractional jobs. I've bounced around my company for a while and also led some independent projects. I'd like to break into this space. I'd be curious to know what was causing your CTOs to strike out to know what pitfalls I could avoid (Also open to discuss your role specifically if you're interested in someone trying to get their feet wet in fractional work, but am comfortable in the engineering space)
ajb 2y ago
So I'm curious- I can understand why you'd want a fractional CFO or CMO, but what does a fractional CTO even do? In my mind a CTO is either someone who manages multiple teams,or someone who manages a team that does 'de novo' deeply technical work. It's difficult for me to see how either of those would work part time, or really that that their skill set would be applicable to a company that can only afford part of their time. In a small team,why would you hire a fractional CTO as opposed to just making sure your most senior engineer is able to mentor the juniors?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- tbird24 2y ago
  [I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io] You'd hire a Fractional CTO when you don't have the need for (or the budget for) a full-time CTO, but still want that level of technical expertise. It's really as simple as that. If you have a senior engineer that can flex into that role and that's good enough for you, then great. We help a couple companies a month hire Fractional CTOs though for the reasons I stated above. When it works, it can work exceptionally well but its NOT right for every use case.
tbird24 2y ago
Hey CJ, I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io . Very cool to hear about your experiences on the hiring side. I'd love to ask you more questions about your ideal SOW, as I'm working on something to directly improve this for hirers (so would love your feedback). LMK if you're interested and the best way to contact you (or you can reach me at tc at fractionaljobs dot io)
brightball 2y ago
I actually do this with my own Fraction CTO pricing. I use tiers. The Advisor tier is essentially exactly what you describe. I join meetings and advise for up to 10 hours / month and then have an hourly rate after that. It's most appealing for companies who essentially want to make sure they aren't steering down a path that's going to lead to a lot of pain later on. CEO's who are looking to bounce ideas off of somebody to help refine them, etc. This is also month to month. The next tier is up to 30 hours / month with a slightly discounted hourly rate for more, minimum 2 months. The final is up to 70 hours / month with a greatly discounted hourly rate for more, minimum 3 months. I started doing this to set clear expectations with clients as well after having a client frustrated with me at the 10 hours / month rate when he wanted me to run his entire dev and operations team without going over the baseline hours. That wasn't clear until after I started and the engagement didn't last long. Clear expectations work much better and I really like the work that I do. I get to work with execs, product, devs, operations, support, QA. I get to put together a clear picture of what is working and what isn't. Map out potential solutions. Coach people at different levels on implementations without being disruptive. Mob with dev teams around performance or architectural needs. Teach technical people how to put things in terms that the non-technical folks they work with will understand. It's very rewarding work and the flexibility has been good for my family during our current phase of life.
- svilen_dobrev 2y ago
  This is exactly what i have been looking for as setup. Short / shallow things at price X, longer / deeper things at X * 0.8 , and even longer and deeper things at X * 0.6.. (example coefficients). Whether as CTO on the technology/ strategy/ ideating front, or somewhat deeper as Auditing , or as Mentor of some team/s, or even deeper as Lets-Hack-this-or-that.. (with diff.price if it's for yesterday..) Thanks for assuring me that such thing is possible :) - i mean, there are those who would pay for it. have fun
kirso 2y ago
Informative. I almost tend to think there should be a division between advisors and hands-on work fractionals.

by cj 2y ago

dave2299 2y ago

Thanks for sharing. Any thoughts on hiring a fractional CTO? I’m a barely-technical founder, working w/ no code/low code tools like Airtable, Copilot for my product and services but want to outsource work and move towards more technical product but have been striking out trying to hire more technical people than I am directly and don’t want a cofounder. Where to find a fractional CTO, how to go about it, etc. thanks

bretcindy 2y ago
[dead]
yehudabrick 2y ago
I’m curious why you’ve been striking out? What seems to be the issue with the people you’re trying to hire. I’m looking to get into being a fractional CTO and would love to talk with you if you’re interested. You can reach me at the email in my profile.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
hipadev23 2y ago
Why do you think you need a CTO? Contract a full-stack dev.
tbird24 2y ago
Hey Dave, I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io , if it's helpful you can book a time with me through the website and I can talk you through the pros / cons of hiring a Fractional CTO (and then help you hire one if you want our help). You can click the "Hire Fractional" button on the website to book a time with me. FWIW you're describing a great use case for a fCTO.
Gamemaster1379 2y ago
I just learned about fractional jobs. I've bounced around my company for a while and also led some independent projects. I'd like to break into this space. I'd be curious to know what was causing your CTOs to strike out to know what pitfalls I could avoid (Also open to discuss your role specifically if you're interested in someone trying to get their feet wet in fractional work, but am comfortable in the engineering space)

ajb 2y ago

So I'm curious- I can understand why you'd want a fractional CFO or CMO, but what does a fractional CTO even do? In my mind a CTO is either someone who manages multiple teams,or someone who manages a team that does 'de novo' deeply technical work. It's difficult for me to see how either of those would work part time, or really that that their skill set would be applicable to a company that can only afford part of their time. In a small team,why would you hire a fractional CTO as opposed to just making sure your most senior engineer is able to mentor the juniors?

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
tbird24 2y ago
[I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io] You'd hire a Fractional CTO when you don't have the need for (or the budget for) a full-time CTO, but still want that level of technical expertise. It's really as simple as that. If you have a senior engineer that can flex into that role and that's good enough for you, then great. We help a couple companies a month hire Fractional CTOs though for the reasons I stated above. When it works, it can work exceptionally well but its NOT right for every use case.

tbird24 2y ago

Hey CJ, I'm the founder of https://fractionaljobs.io https://fractionaljobs.io . Very cool to hear about your experiences on the hiring side. I'd love to ask you more questions about your ideal SOW, as I'm working on something to directly improve this for hirers (so would love your feedback). LMK if you're interested and the best way to contact you (or you can reach me at tc at fractionaljobs dot io)

brightball 2y ago

I actually do this with my own Fraction CTO pricing. I use tiers. The Advisor tier is essentially exactly what you describe. I join meetings and advise for up to 10 hours / month and then have an hourly rate after that. It's most appealing for companies who essentially want to make sure they aren't steering down a path that's going to lead to a lot of pain later on. CEO's who are looking to bounce ideas off of somebody to help refine them, etc. This is also month to month. The next tier is up to 30 hours / month with a slightly discounted hourly rate for more, minimum 2 months. The final is up to 70 hours / month with a greatly discounted hourly rate for more, minimum 3 months. I started doing this to set clear expectations with clients as well after having a client frustrated with me at the 10 hours / month rate when he wanted me to run his entire dev and operations team without going over the baseline hours. That wasn't clear until after I started and the engagement didn't last long. Clear expectations work much better and I really like the work that I do. I get to work with execs, product, devs, operations, support, QA. I get to put together a clear picture of what is working and what isn't. Map out potential solutions. Coach people at different levels on implementations without being disruptive. Mob with dev teams around performance or architectural needs. Teach technical people how to put things in terms that the non-technical folks they work with will understand. It's very rewarding work and the flexibility has been good for my family during our current phase of life.

svilen_dobrev 2y ago
This is exactly what i have been looking for as setup. Short / shallow things at price X, longer / deeper things at X * 0.8 , and even longer and deeper things at X * 0.6.. (example coefficients). Whether as CTO on the technology/ strategy/ ideating front, or somewhat deeper as Auditing , or as Mentor of some team/s, or even deeper as Lets-Hack-this-or-that.. (with diff.price if it's for yesterday..) Thanks for assuring me that such thing is possible :) - i mean, there are those who would pay for it. have fun

kirso 2y ago

Informative. I almost tend to think there should be a division between advisors and hands-on work fractionals.