Do You Really Need a CTO?

Maybe, but maybe not

At what point does an e-commerce or retail brand need a CTO? It’s a question that comes up again and again as brands grow past the £50m mark and start looking seriously at scaling operations, teams, and systems. But here’s the uncomfortable truth:

Most brands don’t need a CTO. At least, not yet.

The title might feel like a signal of maturity or investment readiness. But in practice, bringing in a CTO too early can stall progress rather than accelerate it. Because what you really need isn’t a C-suite title, it’s leadership.

The Tech Talent Gap (and Why Titles Won’t Fix It)

When brands hit that £50m point, it’s common to look around and think: we need someone to own our tech. Someone to take the reins. The logic makes sense. But what often happens is a mismatch: hiring a CTO from a larger enterprise who’s used to 70-person tech teams, detailed business cases, and long roadmaps.

Drop that person into a two-person team with a Monday-to-Friday turnaround culture, and they’ll struggle to adapt, or worse, slow everything down.

It’s not their fault. It’s just the wrong context.

What Fast-Growth Brands Actually Need

At £50m, most brands aren’t struggling because they don’t have board-level tech leadership. They’re struggling because no one in the business speaks tech fluently and understands how to make commercial decisions.

You don’t need a CTO. You need a bridge.

Someone who can connect your creative, marketing, and operations teams with the right tech strategy. That might look like:

• A systems admin who keeps things running and solves issues quickly

• A product owner or head of tech to manage third parties and integration partners

• A flexible, experienced consultant who’s scaled brands like yours before

When a CTO Does Make Sense

We’re not anti-CTO. There’s a point where it makes total sense. Usually it’s when you’ve got:

• A 10+ person tech team in-house

• A growing BI or data function

• Multiple systems, tools, and processes that need ongoing internal ownership

• A board that needs confidence in long-term tech direction

That typically happens closer to the £100m-£200m mark, not at £50m.

Until then, focus on getting the right tech leadership, not the right title. Because what matters isn’t what’s on the org chart. It’s whether your systems and team are set up to scale.

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Need help building that bridge? That’s where we come in.