Not every company needs a Fractional CIO. Let me tell you when it's NOT the right move.
If you're under $10M in revenue and your IT needs are basic (email, file sharing, maybe a CRM), you don't need me. You need a good MSP and clear vendor relationships.
If you want someone to run your help desk or fix printer issues, I'm the wrong hire. That's operational IT, not strategic leadership.
If you're looking for someone to just rubber-stamp decisions leadership has already made, save your money. My job is to ask hard questions and sometimes tell you what you don't want to hear.
But here's when fractional leadership makes sense: You're growing fast and technology decisions are getting expensive. You're planning a major system change or cloud migration. You're pre- or post-acquisition and need integration expertise. Your IT spending has crossed $500K annually and you can't articulate the ROI.
The sweet spot? Companies doing $20M to $100M in revenue who need strategic IT direction but don't have 40 hours a week of strategic work. You need someone who's been through this before, who can see around corners because they've already made the turns.
I'm not for everyone. But for companies at that inflection point where IT decisions start having serious business consequences, 10-15 hours of experienced guidance beats 40 hours of figuring it out as you go.
When did you realize you'd outgrown "figure it out ourselves" IT?
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