When “CTO” Means Too Many Things in Early SaaS Products

Many early-stage SaaS founders hit the same wall.

They try working with cheaper or short-term developers and end up frustrated:

• the developer disappears or becomes unavailable
• context is lost and has to be rebuilt
• no one feels responsible for the system long-term

So they assume the solution must be a technical cofounder. Someone who cares deeply, adopts the product, and stays involved long-term.

But that creates a false choice.

Either they accept short-term execution with little ownership, or they bring on a technical cofounder and commit to a long-term partnership before they’ve had enough real work together to know the fit is right.

What’s usually missing is a middle ground.

Early SaaS products don’t actually need a cofounder title. They need long-term technical ownership:

• someone who stays involved long enough to understand the product
• someone who guides architectural decisions as the system evolves
• someone who is accountable when tradeoffs and mistakes surface

Cheap or short-term development rarely provides this.
A technical cofounder sometimes does, but only after months spent trying to find the right person and with the risk of discovering too late that the working relationship isn’t actually a good fit.

That’s where many founders get stuck.

If this sounds familiar, you don’t need to decide anything yet.

There are a few common ways teams handle this:

• a technical cofounder
• an early technical hire
• long-term technical leadership provided by someone who stays accountable over time

Which one makes sense depends on your stage, constraints, and how much uncertainty you want to take on early.

If you want a second opinion, describe your situation below. I’ll read it and reply in writing with what I think you actually need right now, and why, even if that answer is “use an overseas dev for now and accept the tradeoffs.”

— Joshua Dwire
US-based SaaS technical lead

So what does this mean in practice?

When “CTO” gets stretched across strategy, architecture, and execution, the risk isn’t confusion about titles. It’s that no one is clearly responsible for technical direction day to day.

That gap usually shows up gradually—decisions get deferred, shortcuts pile up, and earlier tradeoffs become harder to revisit as the product grows.

Below is how I typically help founders bring clarity, accountability, and forward momentum back into that role.