Hello! I have been getting a lot of requests to be a fractional CTO and needed advice on how the model works? Any Fractional CTOs here, do you usually charge $$ or take equity (how much should I be thinking?) or both? I’ll be working with seed, series A and B funded startups. Thanks!
I like the audit/discovery package mentioned earlier. Avoid hourly, define the scope and craft a retainer package around it. I avoid hourly because its too easy to become the dump truck of duties (we dont want to hire X, you can do it) instead of the true goal of getting access to my full experience at less than full price.
As for equity, I’m assuming we are talking early stage startups. I craft a separate advisor agreement for that. I think having some long term upside in the company is in both of our best interests but it shouldn’t come at my personal expense. Most equity is worthless.
Have an ideal steady state in mind and work towards that. For me, its 2 10-hour-ish retainers and a handful of advisor spots. This gives me time to pursue my own projects, ends up close enough to market, and gives me a handful of lottery tickets.