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Yanis Ghidouche · Fractional CTO

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Does your startup actually need a CTO?

Eleven questions to assess your needs, internal capacity and the right form of technical leadership. You may not need any external service.

Find the right level of leadership.

How to read your results

4 steps · 11 questions

Do you need a CTO? Describe your situation.

Your company

Start with your current situation. An estimate is enough.

Your technical decisions

Start with your current situation. An estimate is enough.

Growth and challenges

Start with your current situation. An estimate is enough.

Your biggest technical frustration right now? select all that apply

Mandate, capacity and duration

Start with your current situation. An estimate is enough.

Consider the person’s skills, decision-making authority and available time.

Consider technical leadership decisions about priorities, architecture, hiring or risks.

Calculated in this browser. If you share the result, its link contains your answers.

Understanding your assessment.

Your profile

Your organisation can remain autonomous

You report that a capable person has both the mandate and time, with no frequent blockers or stated frustrations. These answers do not justify an external service. Review upcoming decisions and risks with that person.

Prepare decisions with your team
Start with an internal action

Start by clarifying internal responsibilities and capacity. Give the responsible person an explicit mandate, remove tasks where needed and address an observable blocker. Reassess capacity afterwards; buying a service is not the first conclusion.

Clarify responsibilities
Clarify the need before choosing

Internal capacity, frequency or duration is still unknown. Complete those three answers before choosing a format. An older shared link may omit them: its answers are reassessed using this method rather than preserving the previous recommendation.

Prepare the missing answers
Consider a focused engagement

Your answers suggest a bounded problem or an uncovered temporary need. Define the intended outcome, internal owner and exit condition before considering external help. The index proves neither the cause nor that an engagement would resolve it.

Indicative budget — Focused project: quoted on request, at €550 excl. VAT per day. The number of days depends on the scope.

Explore focused engagements
Assess fractional leadership

You describe an ongoing strategic need arising occasionally or weekly, without available internal capacity. Fractional leadership is an option to assess with your team: decision scope, agreed availability and follow-up responsibilities still need defining.

Indicative budget — Fractional CTO: €550 excl. VAT per day. The pace, from a few days a month to a weekly rhythm, is agreed together.

Assess fractional CTO support
Consider an internal technical leadership role

You describe an ongoing, daily strategic need that nobody has enough time to cover. Consider internal progression or hiring after checking the workload and mandate. Temporary support may help with the transition, without automatically replacing the role.

Prepare the role and hiring

Signals to watch

  1. You do not identify an owner for architecture decisions.
  2. You have no formal technical roadmap.
  3. Technical decisions often or constantly block the business.
  4. You are considering at least three developer hires.
  5. Your technical team has more than fifteen people.
  6. You selected at least three frustrations.
  7. You report security concerns.
  8. You report architecture limitations.
  9. A capable person needs an explicit mandate.
  10. The person capable of leading technology is overloaded.

Address risks promptly · Check against actual work

Method

How the test assesses your technical leadership needs.

The test reads eleven answers. The first eight produce three indicative indices out of 100. The last three assess internal capacity, decision frequency and duration, so a score alone cannot prescribe a service.

Reported facts, without automatic diagnosis

The report keeps zero to three facts in the order below. It does not fill a healthy report with artificial signals. Team size or hiring plans do not establish poor organisation.

  • You do not identify an owner for architecture decisions.
  • You have no formal technical roadmap.
  • Technical decisions often or constantly block the business.
  • You are considering at least three developer hires.
  • Your technical team has more than fifteen people.
  • You selected at least three frustrations.
  • You report security concerns.
  • You report architecture limitations.
  • A capable person needs an explicit mandate.
  • The person capable of leading technology is overloaded.

How the three indices are calculated

Indicative indices out of 100, based on self-reported answers: not probabilities, benchmarks or a company diagnosis.

The original eight answers keep their weights for continuity. Points are divided by the model’s maxima: 28 for strategy, 25 for operations and 26 for urgency, then rounded. No technical cofounder or a founder handling architecture affects these historical indices, without establishing a lack of competence. The recommendation also considers mandate and available time.

Recommendation rules, in order

The first applicable rule wins. Urgency above 70 out of 100 calls for addressing risks promptly without changing the suggested format. Thresholds of 40 are model choices, not scientific cut-offs.

  • Unknown capacity, frequency or duration requires clarification.
  • A capable person with mandate and time supports autonomy; a frustration, frequent blockers or an operational index of at least 40 first calls for internal action.
  • A capable person without an explicit mandate first needs internal clarification.
  • Without available capacity, a strategic index below 40 suggests a focused engagement if the operational index reaches 40, otherwise internal action.
  • With a strategic index of at least 40, a temporary need suggests a focused engagement.
  • An ongoing daily strategic need calls for considering internal progression or hiring.
  • An ongoing strategic need arising occasionally or weekly allows fractional leadership to be considered.

Check before acting

Review the answers with whoever currently leads technology. List pending decisions, the time they require and which can be delegated. The test does not inspect budgets, actual skills or contractual commitments. It cannot replace that assessment.

Hiring a CTO: your questions.

  • CTO or lead dev: what’s the difference?

    The lead dev runs delivery: code quality, reviews, technical choices within the product and support for developers. The CTO owns the company’s technical direction alongside leadership: a roadmap tied to business goals, architecture trade-offs across projects, team organization, hiring, risk and security. In a small team, one person often holds both roles. The need for a CTO appears when the lead dev alone carries decisions that commit the company. I went through that shift at Ipedis, from lead developer to CTO, growing the product team from 5 to 25 people: the change had less to do with code than with understanding the business.

  • Can a senior developer act as CTO?

    Yes, if their skills, mandate and available time support it. The title alone does not decide: check their ability to make decisions with leadership, organise work and explain risks. The test prioritises internal capacity before considering a service.

  • A fractional CTO before hiring one?

    Fractional leadership is an option when an ongoing need does not require daily involvement. If someone internally can cover it, start with their mandate and workload. If the need is daily and ongoing, consider internal progression or hiring.

  • How much does a fractional CTO cost?

    My rate is €550 excl. VAT per day. The budget therefore depends on the pace we agree on, from a few days a month to a weekly rhythm, which we scope during a first 30-minute call, with no commitment. If you prefer to start with a fixed amount, the Tech & Organization Diagnosis takes 5 days for €3,000 excl. VAT. Based in Mauritius, I invoice without VAT.

  • Does the test replace a diagnosis?

    No. Eleven self-reported answers provide an initial direction to check with your team. They do not measure actual skills or decision workload. An older link missing the three context answers asks for clarification rather than prescribing a service.

  • Are my answers stored?

    No. The calculation runs in your browser: your answers are neither stored nor sent.

Want to discuss this?

Your answers start a conversation. The situations the team has in mind matter at least as much as the scores.

Ask for a review of your situationExplore the right support

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