Hiring the right CTO can make or break a company – especially in VC or PE-backed businesses where the pressure to scale quickly is real and mis-hires are costly. Yet too often, the process is rushed, misjudged or handed off without the proper structure in place.
To get to the heart of what works (and what doesn’t), I spoke with Gareth Thomas, previously CTO at segmentation SaaS platform PeakData, and Geraldine Butler-Wright, a seasoned chief people and culture officer with experience at PayPal and various successful scaleups. Combined with our extensive executive search experience from 20 years helping dozens of growth-stage companies build out senior tech teams.
From job descriptions that actually attract the right candidates, to avoiding the ‘CTO unicorn’ trap – here are eight lessons for hiring a CTO that can actually deliver at your stage of growth.
1 The job description – what to include?
A great job description should fit onto one page and answer four things:
- What is the job and how much does it pay?
- Who is the company and what do they do?
- What will the day-to-day look like i.e. what am I expected to do?
- Requirements – No more than 10 bullet points
2 Evaluate candidates
Be mindful of what is essential versus desirable. Female candidates are often less likely to apply for roles that include ‘stretch’ requirements. Keep the wish list realistic.
Avoid specifying a required number of years of experience. And if the position involves significant cultural transformation, be transparent about it so that all parties approach the role with a clear understanding of the challenges involved.
Create a scorecard, so everyone on the interview panel can benchmark consistently and review the data post interview.
3 Search strategy
Does the company have internal capability to run a full search campaign?
Consider the people/talent team’s bandwidth – do they realistically have the time to drive a thorough search on top of their already stretched day job? If not, you’re likely going to need to outsource to a third-party agency – though you still might want to do this anyway to tap into wider networks and broader knowledge of your competitors.
When choosing an agency to partner with, a previous working relationship or referral is preferred as it comes with trust that stems from previous successful work.
Make sure the agency is geared towards your niche. For example, Series A fintech should work with agencies well connected in this space, versus more corporate networks that typically work with large international companies. It’s a different profile, so parachuting the Silicon Valley CTO into a 50-person company might not be the best fit.
We’re witnessing the ATS (Applicant Tracking System) bot wars of 2024 – candidates are getting lost in the automated filtering process, making it increasingly difficult and time-consuming to successfully hire senior roles like VP Engineering, CTO, or CIO.
4 The interview process
Measure it and set targets. For example, an end-to-end process for one candidate should be done in four to eight weeks, although I can understand wanting to take your time.
Remember this reflects how candidates see your company. Word spreads not just through Glassdoor – the process should reflect your values and be empathetic.
Pick your interview team. Who will be conducting the interviews? Is it HR, the agency, your CEO, the software team, board advisors, or a combination?
Have a clear interview plan and agree in advance who is asking what to ensure a positive candidate experience, with no overlapping of questions asked.
Keep candidates informed about steps in the process, stay on schedule and please aim to respond to candidates post interview.
Have candidate debriefs with panellists so meaningful feedback can be provided.
5 Conducting the interviews + culture fit
It is important you demonstrate your culture both in and outside the process. Is your process aligned? If not, your hires won’t be either.
The right culture fit can learn a new domain, so don’t over focus on previous sector experience; most CTOs can pick up new business domains quickly.
Ideally, your culture is published somewhere on your website and adhering to it in the interview process is straightforward.
And really consider how many rounds of interviews are necessary.
Is it clear ‘what is the culture fit’ – get agreement on this between the hiring panel pre interviews.
Ask the candidate to attend a lunch, with C Suite and Investors. This gives everyone a good idea on what they are like outside of the office to better gauge their social and cultural fit.
6 Presentation
A presentation should happen at the final interview stage, and face-to-face. Videos can only show so much!
7 Try not to look for the CTO unicorn
Hiring for the right stage of the business is key. A founding CTO at a pre-seed stage tech company is a very different person to someone entering in at Series C.
Often you will see requirements at Series B for ‘hands on’ which shows a lack of understanding of not only the complexity and scale of a modern tech stack and how to work efficiently within it, but also of the other demands placed on a CTO at this stage.
Recognise that while someone may have been a ‘unicorn’ in one company, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee they will be a unicorn elsewhere. Many factors, such as the market conditions, product market fit and their previous surrounding team, should be considered. Keep expectations in check.
8 Salary
Benchmark the salary to current competitors, do your research and collate salaries from the search campaign.
Be realistic for your stage, funding and budget. A typical CTO budget in London for a Series A would be £180,000 to £225,000 base, with late-stage blue chip roles paying closer to £300,000-plus so that would immediately tell the marketplace what type of person this would be suitable for.
If budget is an issue until the next round of funding, consider a part-time or fractional CTO to fill the gap and gain their expertise and knowledge going forward.
