CTO-as-a-Service

A fully packaged solution for startups and scaleup to access the best technology leadership talent on a cost effective partnership basis.

What is CTO-as-a-Service?

There is a Catch 22 when building a tech company – the desire to start small and be as nimble as possible results in delaying getting key tech leadership to the company; at the same time the first thing investors look at are the credentials of the tech team and the quality of technology vision proposed, both of which require a confident tech leadership team.

To bridge that gap, building on years of experience working with technology products, teams and investors, TSF offers a CTO-as-a-service, a fully packaged solution for startups and scaleup to access the best technology leadership talent on a cost effective partnership basis.

Your company will be represented by our own CTO, who in turn is  backed by our own team of experts – taking ownership of the technology strategy, roadmap, product design and recruitment, while supporting the founder with investor communications, marketing and sales activities, complementing the founders business and domain knowledge with technology expertise and gravitas.

Who is a CTO-as-a-Service for?

  • Founders

    A trusted technology adviser to accompany you on the startup journey, CTO is a critical role for the success of the tech startup. Some founders have technical co-founder who would take on this role in the early phase – if not, not to worry, TSF CTO-as-a-service is here to help.

    As a technology voice for your startup, our CTO will help you shape technology vision for the company, and communicate the highly technical ideas and concepts to your stakeholders and potential investors.

     

  • Scale-up companies

    So you have successful tech product, maybe even a team working on the next release. You are at the stage where you need a board-level CTO, to enable strategic thinking about role of the technology in the business, shape technology vision and product roadmap, and assist assembling the team to scale up the company and its tech capabilities.

    Finding a good CTO, with a good communication skills as well as technical hands-on expertise can be hard and take time – TSF’s CTO-as-a-service is here to help you bootstrap the CTO role and achieve the goals, while on the lookout for the long term permanent CTO.

  • Investors

    As an investor, you’ll know full well the importance of credibility of leadership team for a startup – even more so when it comes to technology and a tech-focused company. Sometimes, you can see a potential in the idea as an investors, but feel that the leadership team would benefit from additional experience to be able to execute the strategy to achieve the founder’s vision

    CTO-as-a-service, headed by our CTO and supported by the TSF tech team, can inject new energy into the startup technology team, help them pivot or simply review ideas and process to enable faster and more efficient development of the product.

What does a CTO-as-a-Service involve?

Our CTO will represent you and your company as interim-CTO for specific activities until there there is a permanent appointment.

  • Review technology vision and build tech strategy for the company going forward
  • Mentor existing tech team so they can focus on the key aspects on their roles,
  • Represent the company at board-level meetings, presenting the technology and its role for the startup to stakeholders and investors in a clear and focused manner
  • Assist in the hiring process, identifying the gaps in the team, relevant roles and candidates to fill them

The Process

  • 1

    Step 1

    Identify the need for the CTO-as-a-service within the company. This is usually done as part of the Due Diligence and Technology review process. At this stage CTO/CEO/founder relationship is established with clear role and responsibilities within the extended leadership team

  • 2

    Step 2

    We’ll act as a part of the leadership team, taking responsibility and advise on technology vision and strategy, take part of board meetings as well as participate in stakeholder and investor communication.

    Hands-on technology development will still be done by the engineering team, but with the full oversight of our CTO, on the part time bases on a few days a week.

  • 3

    Step 3

    Once the key processes and practices are in place, and the permanent CTO role has been fulfilled, we’ll start easing off CTO involvement, while mentoring and guiding newly appointed CTO to take on all responsibilities of this important role.

    If there is a mutual benefit, TSF would stay involved as a trusted adviser to the board, sharing ideas and continuing support to the company and the leadership team

  • “The ability to understand not only the technical side, but the commercial application as well, is rare. tsf.tech take the time to understand the business itself and the vision for the future”

    Russell King

    CEO, Paycasso

We’re ready to talk...

Wherever you are on your startup journey, get in touch and let’s unpack your thinking together and see where we can help turn your idea into a reality.