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My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

miguelcarranza.es

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Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#111

Post by elwatto »

dangus wrote: post #102
elwatto wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the whole point of writing this series: to show how my role evolves and what I’ve had to give up. Trust me, if it were up to me, I’d still be having fun coding (even more so these days). There’s an entire section on delegation in this year’s post. I’m not the single DRI for culture at all. We have many strong culture carriers, which has made scaling to 100 people much easier than scaling to 20. That said, cu…

The odd part of this journey to me was basically: 1. We aren’t going to sell. 2. Confiding with your spouse with clear concerns about current levels of stress and time commitment. 3. We can resolve a lot of the stress and sustainability problems by (among other things) raising another funding round!? I did a double take…isn’t that just inviting more stress, more pressure from investors, more expectation to grow and e…

Maybe we are wired differently, but as I wrote in the final part, I’m actually more motivated and see myself going much longer (which is what investors want, as long as there’s growth). It’s linked in the post, but a big part of the round was secondary, which helped reduce financial stress for founders and early employees.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#112

Post by [deleted] »

riazrizvi wrote: post #36
afavour wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has experienced family adversity in my life (health, disability) I couldn’t disagree with you more. Things happen. Expensive things. The security to be able to afford expansive cancer care without worry, to pay for therapy and specialized schooling for your child… these are huge, huge things and they happen to you (or your children, or your children’s children) no matter what you do or don’t do. This i…

Things happen, it’s true. And in the world there are many enterprises that spring up to present solutions as long as you fork over all your cash, and here in the USA, based on the market, that means lots and lots of cash. That’s just a perspective on hardship, it’s not the only way. People deal with hardships with many many tools. My favorite tools are dignity, grace, courage, personal strength, and ingenuity. Money…

[deleted]

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#113

Post by elwatto »

vinnymac wrote: post #108
Sparkyte wrote: post #103

I kind of want to be a CTO somewhere. So much bureaucratic stuff to become one though. You usually have to be someone's friend or start a company yourself.

Same, I am looking forward to starting my own company in the next year or two, and exploring the CTO role, especially after so many years as a Staff+ operating as an arm of CTOs and learning the ropes.

Check out the earlier posts in the series. They’re probably more relevant for that stage. What I’ve learned over the years is that the CTO role varies a lot depending on the company and personal context. I just tried to share my journey.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#114

Post by ulfw »

charlie0 wrote: post #107
nickelbob wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn't this live under the VP of Product?

No, product shouldn't be the head of an engineering team.

So you're argueing "prototyping greenfield projects and exploring innovative ideas" is something that should come solely out of engineering with no Product input?

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#115

Post by pavlov »

cebert wrote: post #85

I’m a big fan of the idea of an Office of the CTO group reporting directly to the CTO that helps with prototyping greenfield projects and exploring innovative ideas. I believe a group like this would be beneficial for larger organizations, like the one I work in. There are numerous opportunities for market disruption, but it becomes increasingly challenging to make bold bets as the company expands. If I had the power…

Nokia had exactly this kind of CTO office during the 2005 - 2012 years when they lost the entire smartphone market.

The CTO fiddled with greenfield projects that had no path to products while the house burned down.

The best that can be said about it is that inventions outside of the product helped beef up Nokia’s patent portfolio, which played a role in the company surviving the post-phone years and transforming into a pure network company. But they lost a trillion-dollar opportunity and shrunk into an average B2B enterprise.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#116

Post by elwatto »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #83
airstrike wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not "insisting on a sale". Selling for the right amount of money is literally the right decision to make!

The entire submission is about someone who doesn’t want to be acquired even at “the right price”. You don’t have that option when you take outside investors.

Not at all, we believe the asset is worth a lot more :)

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#117

Post by Yiin »

pavlov wrote: post #115
cebert wrote: post #85

I’m a big fan of the idea of an Office of the CTO group reporting directly to the CTO that helps with prototyping greenfield projects and exploring innovative ideas. I believe a group like this would be beneficial for larger organizations, like the one I work in. There are numerous opportunities for market disruption, but it becomes increasingly challenging to make bold bets as the company expands. If I had the power…

Nokia had exactly this kind of CTO office during the 2005 - 2012 years when they lost the entire smartphone market. The CTO fiddled with greenfield projects that had no path to products while the house burned down. The best that can be said about it is that inventions outside of the product helped beef up Nokia’s patent portfolio, which played a role in the company surviving the post-phone years and transforming into…

well you say that, but blackberry did exactly what you're saying Nokia should have done and we see how much that helped. Truth is iPhone was so far ahead technologically, no other company had a chance. At least Nokia still exists today, which can't be said about majority of other mobile phone manufacturers of that era.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#118

Post by throw-12-16 »

Sparkyte wrote: post #103

I kind of want to be a CTO somewhere. So much bureaucratic stuff to become one though. You usually have to be someone's friend or start a company yourself.

If you enjoy building its kind of a pain in the ass.

I've been the CTO twice in my career, and am in a pure engineering role now and get a lot more satisfaction out of my job.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#119

Post by throw-12-16 »

riazrizvi wrote: post #12
fourseventy wrote: post #3

Unless you are already worth billions if an exit would net you 9 figures its a no-brainer to sell.

Is it? So you can what? Buy exotic vehicles? Buy extra houses? Buy surgeries? Buy expensive experiences? All you find is stuff, presented as super valuable, and people very very keen to sell it to you. They’ll do whatever you want. It attracts a certain kind of person. The people who have the means for this lifestyle seem mostly disappointed. It’s not the situation this guy has created for himself. His life has meani…

Absolutely hilarious take.

Re: My role as a founder-CTO: year 8

#120

Post by FreakLegion »

afavour wrote: post #45
riazrizvi wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things happen, it’s true. And in the world there are many enterprises that spring up to present solutions as long as you fork over all your cash, and here in the USA, based on the market, that means lots and lots of cash. That’s just a perspective on hardship, it’s not the only way. People deal with hardships with many many tools. My favorite tools are dignity, grace, courage, personal strength, and ingenuity. Money…

With respect, those words feel very empty. Face the prospect of, say, chemotherapy you can’t afford or death. See how you feel about dignity and grace then.

We're deep in a thread questioning a founder's choice not to sell their company. a) The company is 8 years old, b) the founder's stake is 9 figures, and c) they've done at least one secondary, meaning d) the founder has almost certainly cashed out $10m exempt from federal taxes (founder has held shares > 5 years for QSBS treatment, and $10m Your hypotheticals simply aren't relevant here.
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