Funny little story while trying to hire a fractional CTO
- Thread starter thewordgirl
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- startup y combinator
vesselofhonor
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@thewordgirl Thats a decent amount of money for an Indian dev due to ppp. Would you like to share what you are doing maybe can connect to someone good
thewordgirl
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@rmora The India-based development team is an agency, with over 150 developers. I plan on maintaining a long-term relationship with them for future maintenance and feature development.
My project will have five people on it, including program manager and three senior developers across PHP backend, web, and Flutter.
My project will have five people on it, including program manager and three senior developers across PHP backend, web, and Flutter.
@thewordgirl Choosing PHP suggests there might not be a clear roadmap for your project. It's crucial to pick the right technology, and as an agency, they should have recommended better options. Also, you opted for Flutter, so it's unclear what is for web. If everything is proceeding as planned, what's the issue? Is it solely the code review? Because code review alone shouldn't pose a problem.
pinkroses89
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@thewordgirl But you can't find a CTO on a freelancer platform, am I wrong? Because the platform doesn't allow to communicate with the freelancer outside of the platform (because they want to get paid for every work that they do for you), and you need to work with CTO outside of the platform, right?
thewordgirl
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@pinkroses89 I don’t think this is true. Some of them explicitly advertise fractional CTO positions, and sell their time by the week or month so you can hire someone without breaking terms of service.
tigermoose
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@thewordgirl I highly suggest not doing things this way at all. If you hire a CTO in a startup, you are constrained in the number of people that you can actually pay for. You really need to be working with people,face to face. The CTO needs to be building the mvp, not part of committee of cooks to approve what another set of cooks is doing.
@thewordgirl Firstly, I recommend that you find someone from your own network. Fiverr and Upwork are NOT the places to find a CTO. CTOs can't be found on freelance websites.
The developers who are on freelancing websites earn much more than they are going to earn when they are recruited by you. Also, building a startup is a very different ballgame; you never give up, you have to stick to the project no matter what technical challenges you're going to face.
When I was 20 years old, I was offered the role of cofounder & CTO by an IITian grad(one of the most reputed colleges in India) for a B2B SaaS product. However, I immediately refused because I didn't know the founder in person. We talked on Google Meet a few times, but I was not very familiar with the founder. Regardless of whether I had more technical knowledge than anyone else, experience truly counts. That's why there is a difference between a Founding Engineer and a CTO. I felt I was not ready yet.
The network effect is the only factor that is going to give you someone who is genuine, wants to build a successful startup, has the ability to lead, and has a lot of technical depth.
The developers who are on freelancing websites earn much more than they are going to earn when they are recruited by you. Also, building a startup is a very different ballgame; you never give up, you have to stick to the project no matter what technical challenges you're going to face.
When I was 20 years old, I was offered the role of cofounder & CTO by an IITian grad(one of the most reputed colleges in India) for a B2B SaaS product. However, I immediately refused because I didn't know the founder in person. We talked on Google Meet a few times, but I was not very familiar with the founder. Regardless of whether I had more technical knowledge than anyone else, experience truly counts. That's why there is a difference between a Founding Engineer and a CTO. I felt I was not ready yet.
The network effect is the only factor that is going to give you someone who is genuine, wants to build a successful startup, has the ability to lead, and has a lot of technical depth.
thewordgirl
New member
@thewordgirl So at least you and the fiverr devs are on the same level…. 
1000 hours of coding, trying to outsource CTO on fiverr…I am sure you have all requirements in this nice word doc and the developer JUST needs to code it….and let me guess your idea, it is this AMAZING new APP… you are building FACEBOOK….but wait….it is FACEBOOK for dog owners!!!!!
P.S. You calling yourself a "pre-revenue startup" is like me claiming I'm on vacation in Hawaii because I once looked at a brochure and thought, "That looks nice!"
1000 hours of coding, trying to outsource CTO on fiverr…I am sure you have all requirements in this nice word doc and the developer JUST needs to code it….and let me guess your idea, it is this AMAZING new APP… you are building FACEBOOK….but wait….it is FACEBOOK for dog owners!!!!!P.S. You calling yourself a "pre-revenue startup" is like me claiming I'm on vacation in Hawaii because I once looked at a brochure and thought, "That looks nice!"
thewordgirl
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2daughters
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@thewordgirl I'm a YC alumni. Hit me up if you need help with the cto thing
dogoodfeelgood
New member
@thewordgirl
I looked through the comments on webdev, and this thread. There's a bit less "hostility" in the latter groups because they are full of a variety of people, but many are either non-technical that are out of their element and just shouting into the void on reddit, or successful non-technical people who learned the lesson others are trying to teach you. The skepticism people voice about you being in over your head, making the wrong call with an outsourced shop, needing a full-time CTO that drives this entirely, and keeping the tribal knowledge within FTEs are all quite valid. I'd really spend some time internalizing the hesitancy many folks voice and try to address that. If you came to me for investment with this setup, it doesn't matter if your idea was for the next coming of Jesus, I would pass and recommend others pass. Ideas are a dime a dozen and execution is what creates success.
Source: I'm previously a technical founder and CTO, an angel and LP with several venture groups, and now a high-level technical leader that helped grow a popular startup into one of the largest big tech companies.
I looked through the comments on webdev, and this thread. There's a bit less "hostility" in the latter groups because they are full of a variety of people, but many are either non-technical that are out of their element and just shouting into the void on reddit, or successful non-technical people who learned the lesson others are trying to teach you. The skepticism people voice about you being in over your head, making the wrong call with an outsourced shop, needing a full-time CTO that drives this entirely, and keeping the tribal knowledge within FTEs are all quite valid. I'd really spend some time internalizing the hesitancy many folks voice and try to address that. If you came to me for investment with this setup, it doesn't matter if your idea was for the next coming of Jesus, I would pass and recommend others pass. Ideas are a dime a dozen and execution is what creates success.
Source: I'm previously a technical founder and CTO, an angel and LP with several venture groups, and now a high-level technical leader that helped grow a popular startup into one of the largest big tech companies.
thewordgirl
New member
@dogoodfeelgood Very valid feedback, and duly noted. Thank you.
@thewordgirl Lot of solid responses on here. But the biggest question I have, why would you go on fiver for a CTO? Upwork is still decent (I think?), But Fiverr, God help us all.
And a little tidbid I heard recently from investors. You don't need a 'CTO' at the very start. Based on what you have written, you really want is a head of engineering.
There is a key difference between the role of a CTO and a head of engineering. There is a small overlap, but not much. You might want to be rethink if you really need a CTO or not.
Happy to chat further if you have any questions.
And a little tidbid I heard recently from investors. You don't need a 'CTO' at the very start. Based on what you have written, you really want is a head of engineering.
There is a key difference between the role of a CTO and a head of engineering. There is a small overlap, but not much. You might want to be rethink if you really need a CTO or not.
Happy to chat further if you have any questions.
thewordgirl
New member
@thewordgirl In my experience, CTO usually owns the tech vision & roadmap, builds the engineering brand, plans IP, researches new technologies for internal adoption etc.
Whereas head of engineering oversees team processes, performance, career development, hiring, product delivery, stability, and engineering best practices amongst other things.
How do I know this? I have lead teams before in the corporate world, currently am a fractional head of engineering for a VC backed startup and have similar responsibilities to what you are looking for
Whereas head of engineering oversees team processes, performance, career development, hiring, product delivery, stability, and engineering best practices amongst other things.
How do I know this? I have lead teams before in the corporate world, currently am a fractional head of engineering for a VC backed startup and have similar responsibilities to what you are looking for