The Cost Question

A full-time CTO at a mid-market e-commerce company costs $200,000-$350,000 in salary, plus benefits, equity, and the opportunity cost of a bad hire. A Fractional CTO from Fowara starts at $10,000/month — roughly $120K/year — with no equity dilution, no benefits overhead, and the ability to scale up or down as needed.

When Full-Time Makes Sense

Hire a full-time CTO when you have:

  • $50M+ revenue with complex technical operations
  • A 20+ person engineering team that needs daily leadership
  • Board/investor requirements for a named C-suite executive
  • Budget for $300K+ total compensation

When Fractional Makes Sense

A Fractional CTO is the right choice when you:

  • Need senior technical leadership but can't justify $300K+ salary
  • Have a small team (2-10 developers) that needs architecture guidance
  • Are going through a platform migration or major technical transition
  • Need a CTO's perspective for 10-20 hours/month, not 50
  • Want to avoid the risk of a bad full-time hire

What You Get with Fowara

A Fowara Fractional CTO engagement includes: weekly strategy sessions, architecture reviews, code reviews, team mentorship, vendor evaluation, and hands-on development when needed. We're not advisors — we embed in your team and ship code.

Ready to explore? Learn more about our Fractional CTO services or start a conversation.