Launching a startup is an uphill battle, and for non-technical founders, it can feel more like scaling a sheer cliff. To build a strong, future-proof product with a tech moat, startups need a seasoned technical advisor who can translate their ideas into practical tech solutions — that's where a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) pitches in.
A great CTO is more than just a software engineer. They become a strategic partner in shaping the product roadmap, driving innovation, and scaling the solution in a disruption-free way. But landing a top-tier technical leader is no easy feat. In this guide, we'll break down CTO's responsibilities and tech skills — and tell you how to hire a CTO for a startup without blowing the bank.
Key takeaways
- CTOs are not just coders, they decide what needs to be built and why — and handle mission-critical, org-building tasks that shape the company's direction in the long term.
- The exact responsibilities of a CTO depend on the size of the company and the company's product.
- Startups would have to pony up for hiring a full-time CTO, but they can tap into CTO-as-a-Service or bring in a fractional CTO to bring down the costs.
What is a CTO?
A CTO is a C-level executive responsible for leading a company's tech strategy, technical team, and product development. This is the person who understands the tech landscape of the company's niche, whether it's healthcare software development or fintech solutions. Depending on the company's focus, a Chief Technology Officer can be in charge of managing hardware and/or software development.
What are the key responsibilities of a CTO?
During the startup's early stages, CTO responsibilities are usually more hands-on: a startup CTO can be involved in writing code, designing the architecture, and looking for tech talent. As the startup matures, the CTO's focus may shift to more strategic tasks, like shaping long-term product vision, identifying opportunities for new technologies, and leading the team.
Developing a compelling technology strategy and vision
A CTO is a professional who navigates the latest technology trends and keeps a keen eye on the overall market landscape and competitors' activities. This tech visionary is objective-focused, innovative, and knows how to build a solution at the intersection of advanced technologies, market demands, and regulatory requirements. They connect product vision with technical execution.
At the core of the CTO's ability is generating technological strategies that will help achieve business objectives and keep the company ahead of competitors. Besides a clear vision and enthusiasm, this C-level executive should be able to translate the defined business goals and roadmap into a compelling narrative that rallies the entire tech team behind the company's technological vision.
Establishing the product development process
In a hectic startup environment, a CTO is put in charge of setting up an efficient and adaptable product development process that aligns with overall business goals. They identify an optimal set of technologies for a startup based on the product and related requirements for scalability, security, and maintainability. CTOs also take into account factors like cost, team expertise, and potential future integrations when making technology stack decisions.
Along with the right tech stack, a CTO helps emerging companies select a development methodology that fits the project scope and implements the best development practices — including version control, CI/CD, and unit testing — to enhance the quality of the deliverables.
Also, Chief Technology Officers supervise the implementation process and ensure the results align with current trends and the company's ultimate goal. In the lean environment of an early-stage startup, CTOs can even step into the shoes of DevOps specialists and QA engineers.
Constantly seeking innovation
A Chief Technology Officer is more than a tech whiz — they're an innovation engine behind the software product. These professionals are constantly on the lookout for emerging trends and important features, seeking an optimal way to improve the product and boost its market appeal through smart technologies.
For a CTO, innovation isn't about stuffing the product with bells and whistles. It's about striking the right balance between cutting-edge solutions and their real business impact.
Hiring key engineers and technical managers
A CTO needs to have a sharp eye for skilled developers, designers, DevOps, QA engineers, and tech leads who can effectively supervise the team.
A Chief Technology Officer has the most dynamic and far-reaching key performance indicators (KPIs) out of all C-level managers. Key metrics range from tech-related ones, like solving security issues and service innovation, to more business-specific metrics, including revenue and return on investment (ROI).
KPIs can vary by company. For instance, a product-focused CTO will likely be measured by things like how much money the team saves, how engaged customers are, or how fast and smoothly the delivery is. At the same time, a CTO more involved in business development would probably be judged by how much they contribute to sales and company growth.
What makes a great CTO?
While the technological prowess of a CTO is the main deal-breaker, the right CTO should combine hard and soft skills to succeed on their turf. Here is what to look for when choosing a CTO:
Technical expertise
A CTO is an experienced tech specialist with a strong background as a senior developer, architect, or team lead. They constantly expand their knowledge and hone their technical skills, which allows them to make successful tech-related decisions.
Communication and leadership skills
For a CTO, leadership experience and communication skills are as important as technical knowledge. They’re supposed to be architects who guide the team towards creating an innovative solution. To do that, CTOs need to communicate the technical goals and roadmap in a way that engages the team.
Chief Technology Officers bridge the gap between technology and business by explaining how specific technological decisions can benefit broader business goals. CTOs also need to convey this message to non-technical stakeholders, including investors, the CEO, and other departments.
Project and team management skills
A CTO is the one responsible for project development. That's why a dream CTO should possess excellent project and time management skills, helping the team to allocate resources and achieve the desired results on time effectively.
Passion
A CTO should care about your project as much as you do. When faced with challenges, a passionate CTO won't back down. Instead, they will use their enthusiasm and experience to keep the project moving forward.
What is the difference between a CTO and a CIO?
A CTO is sometimes called a Chief Information Officer (CIO), but the roles differ. While a CTO's primary duties revolve around external customers, tech trends, and product engineering, a CIO is responsible for internal users, core systems and infrastructure, and business automation. To better understand how these roles differ, check out the table below:
| CTO | CIO |
|---|---|
| Designing | Implementing and operating |
| Externally and mission-focused | Internally and customer-focused |
| Future business needs | Immediate business needs |
| Manages the learning process | Manages the execution process |
| Unknown customers | Known customers |
| Roadmaps | Documentation |
| Long-term planning | Short-term planning |
| Focus on unanticipated successes | Focus on unanticipated failures |
| Emerging technologies | Proven technologies |
| Prototypes and disruptive innovation | Projects and sustaining innovation |
Is CTO a must-have or maybe-later for startups?
For a startup, the need for a CTO depends on a few factors, including their product stage, the tech complexity of the solution, and available resources. Here’s when having an experienced CTO makes a difference for your company:
- If you’re a tech-first startup — having a CTO on board is vital when your product or service is rooted in technology and innovation. CTOs will help formulate your tech vision, assemble the right development team, and make sure you leverage technology effectively.
- If you’re developing complex products — the expertise of a tech guru in architecture, scalability, tech stacks, and inherent risks is instrumental in navigating sophisticated software or hardware development processes.
- If your startup is in the growth mode — when you enter a rapid growth stage, a CTO makes sure the architecture and tech foundation of your product can accommodate your growing needs.
Some companies can manage without a dedicated tech visionary leader. Typically, such companies share one of the following commonalities:
- They are at an early stage of product development — a full-time CTO may not be necessary for those in the initial phase of concept validation or at the MVP stage.
- They have a simple technology stack and a well-defined vision — startups with a straightforward tech stack often choose to hold off on hiring a full-time CTO.
How can a CTO help a startup during different startup stages?
Whether you are just starting or continuing your project, a CTO can bring more technical clarity into each stage of product development:
Idea
In the early days of your startup, a CTO can help assess an idea's viability and define a cost-effective way to build out the technology capabilities for its development. Early-stage startups can also tap into the expertise of a tech pro to outline basic product architecture. At this stage, most startups turn to the tech co-founder or CTO as a service to make the most of their limited resources.
Development
From defining the tech scope of a minimum viable product to ensuring efficient development, there’s a lot to do for a CTO during the development stage. A CTO can also help estimate development costs, identify potential technical risks, and communicate the technical roadmap and vision for the product to investors and stakeholders.
At this stage, startups can tap into a CTO's tech muscle to set testing standards, outline the deployment strategy, and steer future product development.
Product-market fit
After the MVP release, a CTO is primarily responsible for expanding existing functionality and improving the overall user experience. If the startup needs to pivot, a CTO guides the team through the transition by outlining a revamped technical roadmap.
Scaling
During this phase, the main focus is on retaining existing users and increasing market share. A CTO monitors the market to ensure the company stays on top of tech trends and outperforms its competitors. At this stage, your CTO also oversees the scalability efforts, prioritizes features for growth, and manages the growing development team.
While founders steer a startup in the right direction, CTOs keep it humming, no matter the startup's stage. From early ideation to scaleup, CTOs bridge the gap between vision and reality. They translate ideas into technical roadmaps, troubleshoot challenges before they become hurdles, and ensure you launch a product that's not just innovative but secure, scalable, and built to last.
Veaceslav Gaidarji, CTO at Orangesoft
Where and how can you find a Chief Technology Officer?
Finding a CTO for a startup is an initiative peppered with challenges, as CTO talent is scarce. You never know where an ideal candidate is, so we advise casting your nets wide:
Networking
Don't underestimate the power of social media. If you already have a vast professional network on Twitter or LinkedIn, you can make a post about your search and ask your connections to spread the word.
Hackathons, professional conferences, and tech meetups
These events usually gather like-minded people, including developers, engineers, and CTOs, under one roof. This is a great venue for finding tech experts who thrive under pressure and think out of the tech box. Here, you can connect with a potential CTO and assess their skills in action.
Business incubators and accelerators
Startup incubators like Y Combinator or 500 Startups offer more than just a path to investors. They are also a hub for top-tier talent with the right expertise who might also be interested in joining your startup as a CTO, either full-time or as a mentor.
Online communities
There are also online platforms dedicated to connecting entrepreneurs and tech professionals. CoFoundersLab, AngelList, Indie Hackers, and the co-founder subreddit are goldmines for discovering tech talent, including your future CTO.
Job boards
You can also search for tech talent on Glassdoor or Indeed. These job boards are a good option for finding a CTO since these sites aggregate resumes from numerous sources.
LinkedIn is a powerful platform for connecting with tech professionals of all stripes. You can either post a vacancy and just wait for applications to flow in, or run a targeted search using LinkedIn's advanced search filters.
How much does IT cost to hire a CTO?
Like venture investors, CTOs carefully choose a startup to “invest” years of their lives in — and the bar is usually very high. With that said, the costs of hiring a CTO can vary based on experience, location, and the stage of the startup. Early-stage startups offer lower cash salaries but make up for this by giving equity or stock options. Later-stage startups attract CTO talent by offering higher salaries, albeit with smaller equity packages.
Overall, the average annual salary for a US-based Chief Technology Officer ranges from $281,000 to $343,000+. Along with salary and equity, hiring a CTO may come with overheads like benefits, bonuses, recruitment fees, and relocation expenses if necessary.
What alternatives are there to having an in-house CTO?
If you're looking for an in-house CTO and are unwilling to spend half a year on the search, partnering with a tech agency can be a great alternative. An experienced team of professionals will become your fully-fledged technical partner who considers all your business needs and puts their backs into your company’s development.
By partnering with a tech agency, you gain access to a diverse pool of tech specialists and a strong tech leader serving as an external CTO. CTOs from outsourcing companies have broad industry experience that comes from hundreds of projects. This option is quite popular among startups since it's often more time- and cost-effective than investing in a full-time CTO.
Your other questions about a CTO, answered
Through our collaborations with startups, we've identified the most frequently asked questions from founders and provided clear and actionable answers to the most common of them.
We are founders of a tech startup, but we aren't technical specialists. Are we doomed?
You can test initial hypotheses, launch an MVP, collect metrics, and experience a couple of pivots without technical expertise on board. However, developing an in-house team or building long-term relationships with an outsourcing company without a technical co-founder will be a mistake.
In-house IT specialists require an experienced IT leader who can set up and manage their teamwork. By developing a product with an outsourcing company without a CTO, you risk getting a black box that may do what you expect, but with hidden defects snowballing into a huge technical debt.
We have a talented senior developer on our team. Can they become a CTO?
This type of promotion is a standard practice and doesn’t raise any red flags for startups. In this case, lack of professional experience as a CTO will be compensated by proven engagement, deep product knowledge, and well-established connections with other team members.
You can spot the right candidate for the CTO position inside your team by answering these simple questions:
- You need a quick tech-related consultation. Which developer will you turn to?
- Conduct one-to-one meetings with a team of developers. Who do they consider the most proficient, and whose advice do they heed?
- Imagine you are to choose a company's CEO, but you can only select from the developers. Who will it be?
Those developers who consistently appear in the answers to all three questions will be the right match for the CTO position. But keep in mind that a CTO takes time to mature. So, if you need an immediate technical partner, consider interim solutions like bringing in an outsourced CTO.
I am a CEO and proficient enough in technology to take on a CTO role when necessary. Will this save us money?
While your tech knowledge is a valuable asset for your startup, spreading yourself too thin can result in complications for your business. Taking on the CTO role requires you to supervise your development team, which may often overlap with your core business meetings and tasks.
Regular extra work may temporarily create an illusion that you can wear multiple hats. In reality, balancing tech leadership with other responsibilities can limit the time you have for in-depth planning. Chances are high that you’ll become a bottleneck to your own company, hindering its development.
How can Orangesoft help your startup?
If you are looking for a CTO to guide your development process, Orangesoft is ready to help you elaborate on your technical vision. We are a mature product development company with 14 years of experience and a cross-functional team of tech experts.
Collaborating with us, you gain:
- Deep software expertise across various domains
- Technology-agnostic approach and a diverse tech stack
- Strategic product development support
- Business-led tech decisions based on your unique project requirements
- A balanced, self-managed team to take over your project from A to Z
- Continuous testing and quality assurance at all stages
- After-release support and consulting
Based on your needs, you can book a consultation with our senior software engineers or get professional advice from our CTO.