Fractional CTO Illia Shkirenka: Why Every Attempt Paves the Way to Success

Many well-known firms started out as small businesses; yet, the process of generating an idea, debuting it, and keeping a consistent path is very tough. Teams often find themselves devoid of managerial as well as technical knowledge; thus, hiring a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is sometimes outside their restricted financial means. Having served as a Fractional CTO, Illia Shkirenka has revealed how his position helps new companies and what aspiring entrepreneurs should concentrate on at every stage of their project’s development.

Fractional CTO Illia Shkirenka is a seasoned specialist in technological entrepreneurship with a focus on mentoring businesses. He has created his own distinctive approach to assessing startups and mentors several worldwide business accelerators. (Source: Techbullion)

Illia presently works in a fractional capacity, thus interacting with businesses in designated blocks of time or on a project-by-project basis instead of committing to a full-time post. With this flexible arrangement, he may manage contracts with several businesses at once.

The path Illia’s career takes as he becomes a Fractional CTO is remarkable

His professional path started 14 years ago as a front-end developer at Jazz Pixels, a little web studio in Minsk. He started developing back-end technologies as he rose through his career. His devotion and talent won the confidence of the company’s founders, and after eight or nine years, he rose to the CTO position.

The European digital company Mediapark bought the firm as it developed, and he actively participated, therefore opening its Minsk branch. Along with the branch CTO, he took up the Tech Lead position. Having spent around two years in this role, he decided to pursue his real interest: technical leadership and cooperation with startups. Though he was not prepared to start a full-time job once more, he hoped to share his knowledge while also getting fresh experiences. This drove him to investigate the benefits of the fractional approach.

As a technical consultant, advisor, and fractional CTO, Illia Shkirenka started collaborating with several businesses. Over the years, he has held various responsibilities, benefits including DevOps specialist, full-stack engineer, solution architect, and CTO. This range of experiences provides several advantages, allowing him to combine product and startup insights with technological knowledge. It helps him evaluate ideas from many viewpoints, which helps him make more judicious and efficient choices.

The positions of advisor and Fractional CTO provide him with great fulfilment, allowing him to leverage the knowledge and skills he has amassed over 14 years. This model lets him learn continuously, broaden his horizons, and gain great knowledge across a variety of fields. He keeps his attention and maximizes his efficiency by confining his engagements to two or three projects.

The chief advantages of the Fractional CTO paradigm for startups and small enterprises, according to Illia 

Startups sometimes begin their path by working with an outside vendor to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Many lack the requisite knowledge to create technical procedures, even while the MVP is properly launched, and they want to continue with independent development. In larger companies, this responsibility falls to a CTO or Tech Lead; yet, startups normally lack the funds to employ experienced engineers or a CTO; hence, obtaining such personnel rapidly might prove challenging. This is where a Fractional CTO is absolutely invaluable.

A fractional CTO establishes procedures that enable the growth of the company and provides necessary technological expertise. The team may decide to recruit a full-time CTO or keep using a fractional expert as the startup’s revenue increases. A Fractional CTO also usually has more knowledge as they supervise several projects concurrently. As a result, especially in fields like artificial intelligence, they can help a turning point in internal CTO.