Frequently Asked Questions

CTO stands for Chief Technology Officer.

A CTO is generally responsible for ensuring the technology requirements for a company or organization are properly met. For a startup, this often means being responsible for making sure the products and services are built, tested, and rolled out to operations/sales. It can also mean building internal tools for a company so it can be more efficient. A good CTO, though, will innovate and push the boundaries of the company with technology to help it grow and succeed.

Really, all the same things as a full-time CTO, but they simply don't dedicate as much time. You can also think of a Fractional CTO as a part-time CTO for your business. We found this to be fairly advantageous for many startups and companies who don't need a tech person full time to accomplish their goals. This helps save the startup money. In our experience, this means we spend more time at the beginning of the relationship to get things up and running before to transitioning to "maintenance mode" where tasks and actions are taken on in a less demanding basis. 

Key thing, experience. We have experience working with a wide range of technologies in a range of industries. This leads to a second point, vision. GenOne CTOs like to engage with the vision of our companies and actively think about how technology and business intersect to provide value to customers. We like to take a real role in the companies we work with to make sure they have the best chance of succeeding. Finally, we have many resources at our disposal. From years of product development work, we've built relationships with many industry sectors. This allows us to leverage resources to get work done faster and more cost-effectively. If your business needs a team of 1, we can help. If it needs, a team 20, we can pull together those resources. After the size of 50, it does get a bit unruly we may need to transition out.

Hiring a GenOne CTO takes into account two methods of payment: a monthly retainer and equity. The equity is subject to a 4 year vesting clause. Contracts are signed on a 6 month and 12 month basis.

​

We never accept just equity as a form of payment but we do discount the pricing for more equity. In the same way you are choosing us, we will also be choosing you. We need to believe that you have a path to success before we take on the CTO role.

​

For Enterprise clients, we do consider non-equity terms if we deem the project to be interesting and impactful.

We understand that not everyone has access to capital. For that, we suggest raising a friends and family round. It is good practice in putting together a pitch deck and convincing others to take a stake in your company. At the end of the day, if you cannot convince friends and family to invest, it will be much harder to get investors, who are complete strangers, to invest.

​

We do want to note that we are willing to serve as advisors for just an equity stake for socio-economically disadvantage groups. This means monthly or bi-monthly meetings where we help guide you do start your business.

The gatekeeping questions is whether our skills meet your needs; if we don't have the expertise to help then that is a show stopper. From there, we need to determine if the right person has the bandwidth to join you as a Fractional CTO. We then evaluate the potential success of the company with the following criteria:

• Market opportunity (how big is the market? who are the current players?)

• Impact (will providing this service help people and make positive change in the world?)

• Team (do we believe you and your team are equipped to bring this idea to market if we handle the tech? if this is their first venture, are they open learning? do they have a growth mindset?)

• Previous funding (have they raise a friends and family round? do they have investors in the wings? do they already have an investment?)

The stronger the company, the more equity we are willing to consider.

We understand that enterprise clients and established businesses may not want to part ways with equity. We are willing to consider projects that are strictly based on a retainer business. Those projects, though, will be subject to the same review process as startup clients.

​

In these cases, GenOne CTOs serve as intrapreneurs for you company. The CTO will come in and review your offerings and internal systems. We'll consider your current customers and find ways to provide them more value. We'll also consider other potential markets.

All of this will be done with disruption in mind. How can we help you be the disrupter rather than being the disrupted?