When a Brand Needs a Fractional CTO
Not every DTC brand needs a CTO. But many brands that think they don't need one are already paying the price of not having one — they just don't see it yet.
Here's how to know when you've crossed the threshold.
The Inflection Points
You're Between $3M and $20M in Revenue
Below $3M, you can usually get by with an agency, a freelancer, and some duct tape. Above $20M, you probably need a full-time technical executive. But in between? That's the danger zone.
You're big enough that technical decisions have real financial consequences. You're not big enough to justify a $250K+ salary for a full-time CTO. A fractional CTO fills that gap.
Your Tech Stack Has Grown Organically
You started with Shopify or WooCommerce. Then you added Klaviyo, Recharge, ShipStation, a 3PL integration, some custom apps, a handful of Zapier automations, and a Google Sheet that somehow became mission-critical.
Nobody designed this system. It just... happened. And now nobody fully understands how it all fits together.
When your tech stack has grown without intentional architecture, you need someone to step back and see the whole picture.
Developers Keep Quitting (Or You Can't Hire Them)
Good developers don't want to work in chaos. If you're struggling to retain technical talent — or you can't attract it in the first place — that's a signal that something's wrong at the leadership level.
A fractional CTO can diagnose whether it's a code quality problem, a management problem, a tooling problem, or all three.
You're Spending More But Getting Less
Development costs keep rising. Timelines keep slipping. Yet the output feels smaller every quarter. Features that used to take days now take weeks.
This is the compound interest of technical debt. A fractional CTO can audit your systems, identify the drag, and create a roadmap for paying it down.
Technical Decisions Are Made By Non-Technical People
When marketing chooses the ESP, finance picks the ERP, and ops selects the 3PL — with no technical oversight — you end up with a Frankenstein stack that doesn't integrate properly.
Someone needs to be the technical voice in strategic conversations. That's a CTO's job.
What a Fractional CTO Actually Does
A fractional CTO isn't a developer. They're not going to write your code. Here's what they actually do:
Strategic Planning
- Align technical decisions with business goals
- Create technology roadmaps
- Evaluate build vs. buy decisions
Architecture Oversight
- Design systems that scale
- Ensure integrations work properly
- Prevent technical debt accumulation
Team Leadership
- Hire, manage, or augment development resources
- Set standards and processes
- Remove blockers and improve velocity
Vendor Management
- Evaluate agencies and contractors
- Negotiate with SaaS vendors
- Ensure you're not overpaying or underutilizing tools
Risk Mitigation
- Identify security vulnerabilities
- Plan for disaster recovery
- Ensure compliance requirements are met
The Signs You Don't Need One (Yet)
Not every problem requires a CTO. You might not need one if:
- Your tech stack is simple and stable
- You have a strong technical agency that's truly accountable
- Your revenue is under $2M and your complexity is low
- You have a technical co-founder who's still hands-on
Fractional vs. Full-Time
A full-time CTO costs $200K-$400K in salary, plus equity, plus benefits. They need to be kept busy full-time to justify that cost.
A fractional CTO costs a fraction of that — typically 10-30 hours per month — and brings the same strategic value. You get executive-level thinking without executive-level overhead.
The trade-off is availability. A fractional CTO isn't in your Slack all day. They're not attending every meeting. You're buying strategic guidance, not operational bandwidth.
For most DTC brands in the $3M-$20M range, that's exactly the right balance.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Do you have a clear technology roadmap, or are you reacting to whatever breaks next?
- Can you articulate your technical strategy to investors or acquirers?
- Is your development velocity improving, flat, or declining?
- Do you know the true cost of your technical operations?
- Are technical problems limiting your growth?
If you answered "no" or "I don't know" to more than two of these, you might be ready for a fractional CTO.
The Bottom Line
A fractional CTO isn't about writing code — it's about making sure the right code gets written, by the right people, at the right time, for the right reasons.
If your technical decisions feel reactive, your stack feels fragile, and your development feels slow, it might be time to bring in strategic technical leadership — even if just a few hours a month.