Startup without a CTO: which options fit your stage?

Can you really launch a startup without a CTO?

Yes, a startup can launch without a CTO, and plenty do. The job title can wait, but technical decisions show up with the first line of code: picking a stack, deciding whether to build a tool or buy one, approving a quote, hiring the first developer, dropping a feature that would cost three months. When nobody owns them, those calls still get made. The vendor billing for development often makes them for you, and sometimes nobody makes them at all. That's where the risk lies for a startup without a CTO: moving forward without knowing who decides. So the useful question becomes "who carries the tech in the meantime?". The answer depends on your stage, your cash, and how central technology is to what you sell. A software platform doesn't have the same needs as a service where the app is one tool among others.

What does a CTO do in a startup?

A startup CTO's role changes over time. Early on, they write a lot of code and decide everything related to architecture, tooling and security. Later, they hire, organise the team and code less and less. At every stage, they also act as an interpreter: they explain to co-founders, customers and investors what the technology can do, what it costs and how long it takes.

Looking for a "no CTO" setup really means finding who will cover part of these roles. None of the options below covers them all, and that's normal at this stage.

What are your options without a CTO?

1. Find a technical co-founder

It's the classic route: a partner brings the technical side in exchange for equity. When it works, it's the best option, because that person has as much at stake in the product as you do. But you don't recruit a co-founder the way you hire an employee. You need to agree on the vision, the equity split, the roles and the pace of work, and that often takes longer than planned.

The main risk: partnering up too fast. A falling-out between co-founders costs more than a bad vendor. Put a shareholders' agreement in place, with shares that vest over time.

2. Hire a first senior developer

You hire an experienced developer to build the product in-house. It's a good choice when the scope is clear and you can afford a senior salary and payroll costs over time. The knowledge stays in the company, and this person can become the core of the team.

The trap: hiring, on your own, a profile you can't assess. A very good developer isn't necessarily comfortable with architecture, security or hiring the next people. Get help with the technical interview from someone you trust who can read code. Before you publish the job, get the ad itself checked too: free check of your developer job ad (tensionscore).

3. Hand the product to an agency or a studio

The agency takes the project from design to launch. It's often the fastest way to get a first version, at a fixed price. For a custom MVP, market benchmarks run from roughly €20,000 to €60,000 depending on the type of product; the details are in our article on how much an MVP costs. Neodev is itself a studio, so we know the model's pitfalls too.

The flip side is lock-in. If the code, the access credentials and the documentation stay with the vendor, you can neither switch teams nor take back control. Require in the contract that everything belongs to you, and have the technical choices reviewed by someone who isn't paid to carry them out.

4. Work with a freelance developer

On the French market, a senior freelance developer often charges between €500 and €700 a day. You hire them for a defined scope and stop when the work is done. It suits a well-bounded assignment, such as a prototype or an integration with an existing tool.

What usually goes wrong: nobody is steering. A freelancer does what you ask. They have neither the mandate nor, often, the time to tell you the request is wrong. And if they leave without documenting their work, the knowledge leaves with them.

5. Bring in a part-time CTO

A part-time CTO is an experienced technical leader who works one or two days a week, sometimes less, usually for several companies. You'll also hear outsourced CTO, or fractional CTO. They own the decisions nobody else can make in a startup without a CTO: architecture, tools and vendors, quote reviews, security, the profile of the first hire. On the French market, a senior profile often bills between €600 and €1,000 a day, which comes to a few thousand euros a month at that pace, with no employment contract and no equity. We cover the cost of an outsourced CTO in a separate article. The limit is time on the job: they decide and supervise, but they won't write most of the code. So they're usually paired with a freelancer, an agency or a first hire.

6. Get a technical advisor

An advisor is an experienced technical person who advises you a few hours a month, either for free or for a small slice of equity. They're useful to challenge you before a big decision, or to show investors that someone solid is looking at the tech.

The limit: they aren't there day to day. They give an opinion, but they don't review the code or the deliverables. Treat them as a complement to the other options.

Which option fits your stage?

Indicative benchmarks for the French market in 2026. These options can be combined: a part-time CTO steering a freelancer or an agency is a common setup.

Which signs tell you it's time for the next step?

At first, the warning signs are rarely technical. You spot them in the calendar and in the invoices:

• You sign quotes you can't judge, and the amounts climb with every new version.
• Deadlines slip, and nobody can really explain why.
• Your vendor or freelancer is the only one who knows the code, the access credentials and the hosting.
• An investor asks who owns the tech, and you don't have a clear answer.
• You're about to hire a second developer, then a third, and nobody is there to manage them or review their work.
• The same bugs keep coming back in production.

The move usually happens in stages. A freelancer or an agency ships the MVP. A part-time CTO frames the decisions, from day one or as soon as the first signs appear. Then the in-house team grows, and a full-time CTO, employee or co-founder, takes over once tech becomes the core of the business. In between, a senior lead dev as reinforcement can hold the fort while you hire.

Which mistakes should you avoid without a CTO?

• Letting the vendor choose the stack, the hosting and the project breakdown on their own.
• Forgetting to collect the code, the access credentials and the documentation at every stage.
• Hiring a full-time CTO too early, before you have a product and a budget that justify it.
• Giving a large share of equity to the first technical person you meet.
• Aiming for an overly tight schedule. An MVP shipped at full speed is only worth something if someone can keep it evolving; our article on how long an MVP takes gives realistic benchmarks.

And at Neodev?

This is exactly who we work with: startups and SMEs without technical leadership. Our outsourced CTO offer covers the decisions: architecture, vendor choices, quote reviews, hiring. When it's time to build, the collective takes over development, and Adrien Le Breton stays your single point of contact. The first call is free. If another option suits you better, we'll tell you.