They forwarded a monthly retainer. Ten hours a week, a fractional CTO to own the tech. Should you hire a fractional CTO or a freelance developer? A fractional CTO is a part-time exec. They pick vendors and sit in the calls. They don't write the first version. There wasn't a name on who was writing it. I told them to hire a builder.
If the other email is an agency proposal, that fork is a freelance developer or an agency. This one is whether anyone is writing the thing. What one person owns is the line I actually take. I still write a brief before I quote. I don't take the title. I take website work and product work.
How to tell a fractional CTO from a freelance developer
I opened the retainer. Architecture reviews and vendor calls. I asked who was writing the first version. There wasn't a name. I wouldn't quote until there was a name, or until they admitted they needed a developer.
Freelance developer
Someone has to write the product
- You can name who writes it this week
- The job is a URL someone can use
- You email that person, not a forward
Fractional CTO
Someone else is already in the repo
- Someone else is already in the repo
- The week is vendors, reviews, or the board
- You need them on the call, not shipping the URL
The cut
I built DelightLoop. A campaign had to become a gift. That week was in the product, not on a vendor call. It's in selected work. A retainer would have drawn the diagram and left the gift unbuilt. If one person can still ship the first version, that's me.
What people mean by a fractional CTO
The email says they need a CTO. Often they mean a senior developer who will also pick the stack. That person still writes the product. Call them a developer. The other version is they don't know what to build and want to rent a grown-up. That is a brief. I write those. I don't bill them as a CTO month.
The PDF said fractional CTO. The GitHub was the same as any freelancer I know. I have also sat with one who never opened the repo, and that was the point. Look at the hours. Slack about the work is an advisor. A URL is a developer. What to ask before you hire still starts with who writes it.
A room of people is a different invoice. That's the agency page. A fractional CTO is usually one person, part of the week, paid for judgment. You pay for that judgment even if nobody ships. Fine, when the product already runs. Stupid when the product is still a slide.
When a fractional CTO is the right hire
I will tell you to hire them. I will not be them. The job is real when someone else is already in the repo. The mess is who reviews the work, not a missing screen.
You already have people writing
Two developers shipping. Nobody reviewing the work. Nobody deciding which vendor to keep. The founder is still the tech interview. That is a part-time exec. Hiring me as extra hands does not steer the other two. I take builds. I do not run someone else's team on this invoice.
The vendors are the architecture
An agency, a freelancer, a data shop, three logins nobody owns. The product runs. People already pay you inside it. The risk is the pile, not a missing URL. A developer dropped into that starts another app next to the live one. A fractional CTO names who is allowed to touch what. Then you might hire me for one job that has a name.
They need to be in the meeting
A customer contract. A board. Someone has to answer for the stack without writing it that afternoon. That is not a freelance week. I can join a call about a product I am building. I won't take ten hours of stack talk while the repo stays empty. If the meeting is the job, hire the exec.
When a fractional CTO is the wrong hire
People hire a fractional CTO because the last freelancer stalled. Or the deck looks empty without a title. I don't take either. If someone still has to write the first version, hire one person who does that. How much a first version costs is that number. It is not a monthly exec fee.
Nobody is writing the product
There is no URL. There is a slide. The retainer would spend the month writing tickets for a person you have not hired. That is a first version with extra email. Hire the person who ships it. Write the job down first. I scope that before I quote. A discovery month with a CTO title is still a month of guessing.
You wanted the title
Investors like a CTO on the about page. They like a product more. A title on a retainer does not make the app exist. If you need a name for the deck, say you hired a developer. Putting CTO on a slide while nobody writes is how you spend the round on advice and still have no app.
The retainer would be writing anyway
Some fractional CTOs will write the first version because that is the only way the week fills. Then you paid exec rates for a developer job, and you still don't have an exec when a team shows up. If they are going to write it, hire a developer. Pay developer money. Leave the title off the invoice.
The retainer was ten hours. The repo was empty.
Send the retainer. Or the job. Tell me who is writing it this week. I'll tell you if that person should be me.
