The conversation usually starts the same way. A business owner tells me they're thinking about hiring a CTO. They have 20–80 employees. They're spending £200–400k a year on technology. Things are getting complicated and nobody's really in charge of making the big decisions.
They think they need a full-time CTO.
They don't. At least, not yet. And here's why.
What a full-time CTO actually costs
The salary is the obvious number. Senior technology leaders cost £120k–£200k+ in the UK. But that's not the full picture.
Add employer NI, pension contributions, benefits, and the recruitment cost (typically 15–20% of first year salary for a specialist hire). You're looking at £160k–£260k per year in hard costs before you've asked them to do a single thing.
Then there's the softer cost: the time spent managing the hire, the risk of a bad fit, the 6-month notice period that ties everyone's hands when things don't work out.
For most businesses at the £1m–£20m revenue stage, this is the wrong investment.
What you actually need
What most businesses need is good technology decision-making, available reliably, without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Specifically: someone who can evaluate your current technology, give you an honest assessment of where the risk is, make recommendations on what to build versus buy, manage your development team effectively when needed, and represent technology in board conversations in terms the board actually understands.
That's not 40 hours a week. It's 1–2 days a week, done properly.
The fractional model
A fractional CTO gives you exactly that. Senior experience, genuine accountability, available when you need it — at a fraction of the full-time cost.
There are a few things to look for when considering this arrangement:
Domain experience matters. A fractional CTO who's only ever worked in enterprise software won't necessarily understand the challenges of a 30-person business with legacy systems and a small dev team.
Technical and commercial breadth matters. The value of a CTO is the ability to translate between the business and the technology. Someone who's purely technical can't do that. Someone who's purely strategic can't do that. You need both.
Skin in the game matters. The best fractional arrangements feel like a genuine partnership, not a consulting engagement. Look for someone who's invested in the outcome, not just the invoice.
When you do need a full-time hire
There are situations where a full-time CTO is the right answer. Significant product development, engineering teams of 10+, Series A or beyond where investors expect dedicated leadership — these are contexts where the economics change.
The point isn't that fractional is always right. It's that most businesses jump to the full-time model before they actually need it, and pay the cost accordingly.
I work with businesses as a fractional technical leader from 1–2 days per week. If you're in the situation described here, book a call and we'll work out whether it makes sense.