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What does it mean to be a CTO for a startup? Should a startupCTO spend their time programming? The role of a CTO varies as the company matures. Here’s a graphic from Socal CTO that illustrates the roles as they change over time: In its earliest days, a startup’s top need is often to produce a product.
Dear SaaStr: What Makes a Bad CTO? While there is no legal definition for CTO or bright line between CTO and VPE, I’d suggest a start-up CTO really only has to do a few things — which are very hard: Assemble a small team (3–9) of very good engineers. A “bad” CTO doesn’t care about growing very, very quickly.
You really need a great CTO, not just a good business team. A mediocre tech team, a part-timeCTO, or even just a decent CTO just doesn’t get you there. Wait until you find a great partner here. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the startup. It’s just too competitive today.
The first type is the kind of management team hired by second+ time founders. They often staff up their teams with folks they already know and have been successful with at their last startup. Often folks they convince to once again be a VP of Eng or VP of Sales. The director that wants a shot at VP.
For me, it took a while to build up the experiences and confidence to get there: First, I worked with enough startups and CEOs to “get it”. I had a chance as a startup lawyer working in “Silicon Valley” to work with 20+ startups. Second, I joined the best startup that would have me, as a Director and then Senior Director.
To some extent, if you have the hottest startup in the world, the full package, you can play some games with investors. 99% of startups aren’t that. No one has time to have coffee with all of those folks. For 99% of startups, when you want money, tell VCs you want money. 2 “Give the VP of Sales more time.”
It means reducing choices amongst engineering teams and standardizing technology, so our team can spend as much time as possible delivering value to customers. Rich Archbold , Senior Director of Engineering, has been at the forefront of codifying and scaling this philosophy over the past few years.
As part of the run up to 2021 SaaStr Annual in the SF Bay Area Sep 27-29 , we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite classic sessions. (And Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah shared with us how they got there — and the top mistakes they made — just 3 quarters after their IPO. You’ll find out tomorrow.
Julian Lemoine, Co-Founder, and CTO of Algolia will share his lessons learned on how to stay focused and innovative as you scale while also avoiding the innovation for innovation’s sake pitfalls. Julien Lemoine | Co-founder and CTO @Algolia. So I’m Julien, Co-founder and CTO of Algolia. Want to see more content like this?
On day one as Reddit’s new VP of Engineering, Nick Caldwell faced a dilemma. He had just spent 13 years at Microsoft, most recently as the head of 300 engineers. At Reddit, he led a team of 35 – none of whom knew how to manage other engineers. Short on time? Nick Caldwell: I’m VP of engineering at Reddit.
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