Finding the Right CTO for Your Company: A Hiring Guide

In order to be fundable, your startup team needs to have a technical expert. A good chief technology officer will have the skills to help your company navigate the technical side of your business. However, it can be a tad difficult to find the right candidate for the position. The key is to first know what you are seeking, and then use methods that help you compare a candidate’s purpose to your company’s goals. Keep reading to learn more about hiring a CTO that fits with your company.

How to Find and Hire a Qualified CTO

Determine What You Are Seeking

You want to start off with a complete job description. This description needs to include both skills and personality attributes. This not only ensures that someone will have the right technical and professional skills to move your company forward, but it also helps narrow down the types of personalities that your candidates will have.

To start off, some of the skills you will need are the following:

• Broad technical background
• Strategic thinking skills
• Business sense
• Communication/interpersonal skills
• Zeal for learning

From there, you will need to outline the kind of personality you need. This is, of course, necessary for an effective CTO, but it will also help you locate culturally aligned talent. For example, your job description might state that you are seeking a purpose-driven individual with broad technical experience who is interested in building innovative cloud-storage solutions, with an added note that a healthy sense of humor is a plus.

Matching Your Purpose

Often the best way to find a CTO for your startup is by networking. This allows you to develop relationships and personally differentiate between candidates. To network effectively, start by pulling from your own personal network. Contact people who regularly publish articles connected to your company, and attend networking events hosted by technical organizations.

Another great way to find CTO candidates is through recruitment services. An executive search firm has experience finding, interviewing, and offering jobs to qualified employees. Since they are well versed in the hiring process, they offer a level of expertise to the search process that is hard to match when you don’t have too much experience in recruiting.

However, beware that not all services are the same. It is key to find one that will work with you to make sure that you not only have a good skills match, but also a strong match for personality, purpose, and culture. This requires a purpose-based approach to recruiting.

Ultimately, the key is to make sure you can develop a pool of candidates who have the potential to fit in with your company’s purpose, business goals, and space in the market. This means that you either have to personally meet each potential candidate or utilize recruitment methods that narrow candidates down to those who will fit best with your company.

Whether or not your high-growth company is focused exclusively on developing new technologies, hiring a CTO can help you meet your business goals. The role of a chief technology officer is to develop the technical strategies of you company and make sure they support your overall business strategy. This requires experience with multiple coding languages and platforms, leadership skills to work with development teams, and sound business sense.

Here’s a process to follow for how to hire a chief technology officer:

Determine Goals

Before looking into filling the role of CTO in your company, decide exactly what you will need the CTO to do. Determine what exactly your technical goals are for your company, and then make a map of what skills a C-level executive will need to take you there.

Identify areas of functional expertise:

Generally speaking, your CTO will need both technical and people skills in order to be successful. Your areas of functional expertise might include the following:

• Technical skill: Experience with coding is a must, since a deep knowledge of multiple coding languages and platforms is crucial to being able to develop actionable strategies and goals. At the very least, he or she should be able to learn.
• Lateral Thinking: Given the ever-changing nature of technology today, a CTO will need to be able to implement new platforms and ideas in order to keep the company growing at a competitive pace. The capacity to have new, creative ideas and apply them to new technologies is a must.
• Learner: A CTO must not only have experience with multiple platforms, but be able to learn to use more. Modern technology requires that he or she be able to adapt to new technological needs.
• Leadership: In many cases, your CTO may need to manage different coding and engineering teams in order to make sure technological developments work toward your business goals.

Once you have your functional skills in place, you are ready to go on to recruitment and interviewing.

Recruitment

Utilizing a recruitment firm can help you find the most dynamic and well-qualified candidates that will help your company’s technical and overall growth. While interviewing, ask questions that help you determine the following:

• Does this candidate have strong technical experience?
• Is this candidate a fast learner?
• How well does this candidate work with others?
• Could this candidate be a good mentor for engineering and development teams?
• How is this candidate’s end-user interaction?
• Will this candidate fit well within our company’s culture?

By carefully detailing your technical goals, working closely with recruitment services, and interviewing thoroughly, you will be able to find a CTO who will be right for your high-growth company’s needs.

Y Scouts is an executive search firm that helps nonprofits and social enterprises find exceptional leaders. Contact us if you are looking to find an exceptional leader. To be considered for exceptional leadership opportunities with our clients, please take the first step by joining the Y Scouts Leadership Community.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I hire a good CTO?

A: To hire a great Chief Technology Officer, start by figuring out what your business needs and what the job will require. Write a clear job description that lists the skills and experience you’re looking for. Search for candidates through various channels, then review their resumes and conduct initial interviews. Test their technical skills to ensure they’re up to par. Make sure they’ll fit in well with your company’s culture by assessing if their values and work style match your team’s. Finally, check their references to confirm their past work and reliability.

Q: Where can I find a good CTO?

A: To find a great Chief Technology Officer, check out places where tech enthusiasts and professionals gather. Hackathons, conferences, meetups, and industry summits are all excellent spots to meet potential candidates. These events bring together like-minded individuals and can help you discover someone who could be a perfect fit for your company.

Q: How do you attract a CTO?

A: To attract a Chief Technology Officer, make the role exciting by explaining cool projects and growth opportunities. Offer a competitive salary, and showcase your company’s awesome culture and vision. Don’t forget to mingle at tech events and use professional platforms to catch their eye!