A strong resume can tell you where a candidate has worked. It can’t tell you what it was like to make hard decisions with them when delivery slipped, a vendor failed, or the board needed a straight answer. That is why reference checks for a fractional CTO deserve more than a quick call at the […]
How to Check Fractional CTO References Before You Sign Read More »
A chief technology officer (CTO) search goes wrong long before the first interview when nobody agrees on what the new leader must own. You may hire an impressive technologist, then discover six months later that the business needed clearer priorities, vendor control, board reporting, or a recovery plan. A mandate is a pre-search decision document,
Write a CTO Mandate Before You Start the Search Read More »
In middle market leveraged buyouts, an add-on acquisition can look small in a purchase model. It can still create a large technology problem. When you combine a target with a platform company, identity, data, vendors, and cybersecurity must work together. Decision rights must also be clear before the promised EBITDA improvement shows up. Private equity
Add-On Acquisitions: A Tech Integration Playbook Read More »
Your managed service provider can monitor alerts, patch systems, manage backups, and respond to tickets. It still can’t decide which business risks your company is willing to accept. An MSP security strategy becomes a real security program when it aligns with your broader cybersecurity strategies. Someone on your side must own the decisions, evidence, priorities,
Your MSP Security Strategy Needs an Owner Read More »
The resignation email lands, and suddenly one person is taking the company’s operating memory with them. They know the systems, vendors, admin accounts, exceptions, workarounds, and risks nobody thought to document. The role transition can expose gaps in access, knowledge, and decision ownership. That’s why IT succession planning is a business continuity issue, not an
IT Succession Planning When Your Only IT Person Quits Read More »
Generational transition turns informal technology decisions into business decisions. You need the technology leadership family businesses can trust when ownership, authority, systems, and expectations change together. The outgoing generation may protect processes that built the company. The next generation may see outdated tools, weak data, and avoidable risk, and call for next-generation leadership. Neither side
Technology Leadership Family Businesses Need in Transition Read More »
Technology rarely becomes a leadership problem all at once. During rapid startup growth or inside a growing scale-up company, it often appears as delayed projects, unclear reporting, vendor pressure, rising spend, and decisions that keep coming back to your desk. A fractional CTO engagement provides technical leadership before you commit to a full-time executive hire.
Your Fractional CTO Engagement: The First 12 Months Read More »
The wrong pricing model can make a good technology leader look expensive. The right one can give you stronger ownership, clearer visibility, and better decisions without rushing into a full-time cto. Fractional CTO pricing is not only about hours or day rates. It is about what your business needs a fractional executive to own, how
Fractional CTO Pricing: Retainer, Project, or Equity? Read More »
A deal can close with a thorough report, a red-flag list, and strong conviction. Then the business goes back to work, and the report starts collecting dust. That is why tech diligence findings often fail to change anything. The findings may be accurate, but nobody has made them part of the operating plan, the budget,
Why Tech Diligence Findings Die After Close — and How Operating Partners Keep Them Alive Read More »
Ending an engagement with a part-time CTO or fractional executive during critical phases of startup growth can still create the wrong kind of risk. If you need to end a fractional CTO engagement, the goal is not a polite goodbye. The goal is to keep ownership, visibility, and momentum inside the business. A strong fractional
Leaving a Fractional CTO Engagement With Control Intact Read More »
