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Why I code as a CTO

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Re: Why I code as a CTO

#21

Post by peter422 »

tptacek wrote: post #5

Articles like these are kind of hard to parse because there's no well-defined meaning to the title of "CTO". Our "CTO" codes, probably more than anybody in the company, but that's because he's got a founder-inherited CTO title that mostly just means "he can do whatever he wants" --- we're happy with that, what he wants is practically always great. That's one definition of a CTO. Another CTO type is the opposite: "the…

The only title that a founder can have that matters more than "founder" is a CEO.

He calls himself a CTO, and that's fine, but he's really just a technical cofounder, and that's what he's acting like (and it sounds like it's a very positive thing for the company).

The CTO title and the whole point of the article are not really relevant, this entire situation would not be possible if he weren't a co-founder.

I think it is a good lesson that founders shouldn't necessarily be pigeon holed into roles they don't want, but the CTO title really has nothing to do with it.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#22

Post by aidos »

Question for people who have gone through the journey of being tech founders that have grown a company. At what size of org / engineering team would you expect the founder to not code at all anymore?

Edit: relatedly - at what size do you need a cto?

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#23

Post by tptacek »

Cpoll wrote: post #15
orliesaurus wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

really? like who?

I've been at several companies that have a CTO and a Director of Engineering. The CTO sets the strategy, and the Director of Engineering handles the execution. In theory the Director "reports" to the CTO (I.e. is under in the org chart), but not necessarily. Sometimes the Director reports to the CEO, and/or takes a more collaborative role with the CTO.

This does not apply at my current company, where the CTO has their title as an artifact of how the founding team was structured, but if I was founder/early at a company, progressed to a senior role, and then was told that I should take a role where I "set engineering strategy", I would immediately conclude that I was being managed out. "Strategy", in particular, is the kiss of death.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#24

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #19
dijit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a terribly hard time understanding the effectiveness of a CTO who has no reports, especially in a technology company.

What is it that you think a CTO does? There isn't a standard answer to this question.

[deleted]

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#25

Post by tptacek »

aidos wrote: post #22

Question for people who have gone through the journey of being tech founders that have grown a company. At what size of org / engineering team would you expect the founder to not code at all anymore? Edit: relatedly - at what size do you need a cto?

It depends on what that founder wanted to do! Lots of founders code for the whole ride.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#26

Post by kjgkjhfkjf »

tptacek wrote: post #19
dijit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a terribly hard time understanding the effectiveness of a CTO who has no reports, especially in a technology company.

What is it that you think a CTO does? There isn't a standard answer to this question.

CTO is usually the exec responsible for the entire tech org. The CTO reports to the CEO, and the top managers and maybe a few ICs in the tech org report to the CTO.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#27

Post by tomnipotent »

kjgkjhfkjf wrote: post #26
tptacek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that you think a CTO does? There isn't a standard answer to this question.

CTO is usually the exec responsible for the entire tech org. The CTO reports to the CEO, and the top managers and maybe a few ICs in the tech org report to the CTO.

It's very common to see a VP of Engineering managing the day-to-day operations while the CTO acts in a capacity like this.

Re: Why I code as a CTO

#29

Post by tptacek »

kjgkjhfkjf wrote: post #26
tptacek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that you think a CTO does? There isn't a standard answer to this question.

CTO is usually the exec responsible for the entire tech org. The CTO reports to the CEO, and the top managers and maybe a few ICs in the tech org report to the CTO.

You're saying "usually" about something that has definitely not been a norm in my career. It seems like there's really only two ways to interpret that arrangement: either the CTO is in fact the EVP/E (fair enough! lots of CTOs are other exec roles with a funny hat), or the CTO has a single top-level manager report, in which case what really happened is that the org hired a pro to run engineering and put the "CTO" out to pasture.
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