I am the CTO of zero employees and I code all day.
Why I code as a CTO
41–50 of 304 posts
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#42I really appreciated this blog post, John, to know that you're doing what I've been doing without a guilty conscience. I'm a VP eng/research at a startup and also feel like one of the few people apart from the founders who can push major technical initiatives by just doing it themselves, due to: business context, technical chops, architectural judgment, grit, and seniority to pull in cross-functional stakeholders to…
“ how are you able to manage conflict between org builders and your technical vision?”
That for me, is the core of the issue. I have been in a few places where senior management (up to c level) still code and are critical parts of the project team.
The problem is who keeps them to schedules and co-ordination with the other people on the project. Hard to complain about team level issues if the failing person is also the boss of the technical staff.
Build a demo perhaps to illustrate the idea/vision but don’t code, focus on the high level management and direct the ICs to build out the production version.
Both roles (management and coding) are difficult, demanding positions to do well, deserving of respect and commitment.
Just my opinion after bad experiences.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#43Okay, I just have one main question and a follow up. Who is at the wheel of your tech and engineering strategy then? And is staying across everything to make good informed decisions in that space not enough to be a full time job by itself? I can understand some coding can be a good input for deciding strategy but not as described in the article.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I’ve seen that too, but then the VP of Engineering tends to report to the CTO, and not to- say, the CEO directly.
Dotted line reporting is very different. In these instances the VP/E is usually directly interfacing with other executives as the CTO's peer. This is even more true when the budget is managed by the VP/E and the CTO is more customer/sales facing.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#45I have a hard time taking someone with the title of “CTO” seriously if they have no reports and have time to code instead of being concerned with strategy. I’ve had a few “opportunities” to be a “CTO” that were really no more than a glorified, underpaid senior developer with the promise of “equity” that would probably be meaningless
The role of CTO is more about accountability, responsibility and autonomy.
I try to minimize meetings to the minimum necessary to get everyone on the same page with what our next goal is. From there, I'm right there in the trenches with my team working to get these sprints done. sure, it sounds like a senior lead developer and if you're in a small startup, it kind of is. The CTO part comes in twofold, if the project is falling behind, its on me to figure out whats keeping us from hitting the dealing and resolving it. I've let people go who underperformed. Its also my job to see who's getting burned out and making sure they get some time off so that they can come back refreshed and ready to push again.
Ss far as promise of "equity," Im currnetly pretty happy that I maxed out equity at the beginning.
CTOs come in all shapes and forms
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#46[deleted]
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#47I have a hard time taking someone with the title of “CTO” seriously if they have no reports and have time to code instead of being concerned with strategy. I’ve had a few “opportunities” to be a “CTO” that were really no more than a glorified, underpaid senior developer with the promise of “equity” that would probably be meaningless
I'm a CTO that codes. I have zero reports. We also have zero employees and relatively little revenue :-) I think my role would indeed have to shift if we were to employ people and I don't like it, but I think you're not wrong.
The self burn is the best burn.
But yes, I've been a CTO with a zero reports and doing everything while working in a company with > 200 employs. And while revenue was fine %he payment was shit.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#48I have a hard time taking someone with the title of “CTO” seriously if they have no reports and have time to code instead of being concerned with strategy. I’ve had a few “opportunities” to be a “CTO” that were really no more than a glorified, underpaid senior developer with the promise of “equity” that would probably be meaningless
The article could also have been called something like “my job is to write code and I call myself CTO”. I don’t see a problem with that if it works for the org e.g. the business cofounder is CEO and the technical one is CTO and that’s the company.
It feels it bit disingenuous though to act like he’s breaking the mold and continuing to code when his day to day is higher level management stuff. It’s not quite the same as like Tobias Lutke still working on Ruby or something.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#49> I currently manage no direct reports and ship a lot of code. This is a wildly different status than almost all other people with this title. I’m glad this person still likes coding, and they seem to be great at it, but this role doesn’t match up to the title. This doesn’t really matter until he wants to switch jobs and realizes near zero CTO positions outside of this one company will require few meetings and zero m…
It seems possible that most CTOs are in tiny startups, don't have reports and we don't know about them because, having no reports, they don't get a lot of visibility compared to someone at the top of a 10,000 person org chart.
But the article framing is still odd. If the CTO has no reports who is going to do the coding other than the CTO? The reason the CTO is coding is because, being CTO, they want technical things to happen. He can't farm it off to his reports because they don't exist. Case closed. The real question is why doesn't he feel hiring some people to code is a good idea. 1 highly capable report could probably +30%, 40% his productivity.
Re: Why I code as a CTO
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both in my own personal direct experience and in 15 years of consulting, primarily for tech startups, the modal CTO I encountered had in reality a product manager role with a special title that was helpful in important pre-sales meetings --- and they did not tend to be the de facto VP/PM.
what's the most effective model you've seen?
I think CTO as "other, better-defined kind of exec, but with a funny hat" is a perfectly cromulent model. I think CTO as "PM that customers feel flattered to talk to" is another perfectly cromulent model. To me, "CTO" is almost an honorific, or like a title of nobility.