Launching a startup is an uphill battle, and the technical challenges can make it a sheer cliff for non-technical founders. If you’re banking on innovation, you need a technical advisor who will translate your ideas into tech solutions — also known as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
More than just an employee, a startup CTO is one of the key stakeholders who can take your startup to the top or leave it stranded on the innovation slope.
But coming by rockstar technical talent is no easy feat in 2024. In this guide, we’ll break down the responsibilities and tech skills your CTO needs and tell you how to hire a CTO for a startup.
What is a CTO?
A CTO is a C-level executive responsible for the technical aspects of a company's development. Depending on the company's specifics, a Chief Technology Officer manages hardware and/or software development and develops a tech strategy for a company.
Contrary to popular belief, CTOs aren't always involved in tech-related operational issues. Their core responsibilities duties include the following:
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 visionary is objective-focused, innovative, and knows how to build a solution at the intersection of advanced technologies and market demands.
The CTO's utmost responsibility 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 an ever-changing startup environment, a CTO is put in charge of setting up an efficient and adaptable product development process that aligns with overall business goals. Thus, a CTO determines an optimal set of technologies for a startup based on the product and its scalability, security, and maintainability requirements. They 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 clicks well with 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 make sure the results align with the 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. These professionals are constantly on the lookout for emerging trends, seeking an optimal way to improve a product with innovation and meet market demands through technologies. A CTO doesn't just spot trends; they champion them.
For a CTO, innovation isn't just about 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 strong people and soft skills to identify and attract skilled developers, designers, DevOps, QA engineers, and competent decision-makers who can lead a team in the short term.
A Chief Technology Officer has the most dynamic and far-reaching key performance indicators (KPIs) out of all C-level managers. The KPIs range from tech-related ones, like maintaining security issues or product and service innovation, to more business-specific metrics, including revenue and return on investments (ROI).
CTO's KPIs can differ greatly by company. For instance, a product-focused CTO will likely measure cost savings, customer engagement, and delivery. At the same time, a CTO driving business development will be assessed in terms of sales and company growth.
What makes a great CTO?
While CTO’s technological prowess comes to the fore, a successful CTO thrives on a blend of hard and soft skills. 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 get this message across to non-technical stakeholders like investors, the CEO, and other departments.
Project and team management skills
A CTO is the one responsible for project development. That's why these specialists 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 throw in the towel. 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 these roles' differences, 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 learning process | Manages 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 have one of the following traits:
- 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 may defer 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, you can hire a CTO to tackle different problems:
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 lend the tech muscle to outline basic system 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 use help from a Chief Technology Officer to set testing standards, outline the deployment strategy, and inform 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 retaining existing users and increasing market share. That's why 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 the CTO talent is scarce. You never know where an ideal candidate is, so we advise trying the following options:
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 and ask people to share.
Hackathons, professional conferences and tech meetups
These events usually gather like-minded people who aim to make technological breakthroughs, including developers, engineers, and potential CTO candidates actively seeking new opportunities. Here, you can directly interact with a future 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 great place to find interested people with the right expertise who might 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 among them.
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. To do that, you don’t need an extensive network. All you have to do is either post a vacancy and wait for applications to flow in or perform a targeted search using LinkedIn’s advanced search filters.
No matter the hiring channel, attracting a strong CTO requires a competitive compensation package that may include a fair share of options (if you already have sales or investments) or an equity share equal to other founders (if you are just starting).
Also, be prepared to face a lot of competition. Like venture investors, CTOs carefully choose a startup to “invest” years of their lives, so choose an appropriate approach, prepare a pitch, and be ready to walk the talk.
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 get access to a wide pool of tech specialists along with a strong tech leader acting 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 your technical vision. We are a mature product development company with 13+ 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.