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VP Engineering Vs CTO - AVC

avc.com · 74 words · saved by 1 readers

Last week on MBA Mondays I posted about the difference between CFO and VP Finance. In the comments to that post, I was asked about VP Eng vs CTO and I figured that had the makings of a good post too. So here we go. Like VP Finance & CFO, the differences in the two positions are not just about seniority. In fact, in the case of CTO and VP Eng, seniority is often a non-factor. They are often peers. A VP Eng can report to a CTO. And a CTO can report to a VP Eng (although this last one is less frequent). A VP Engineering is ideally a great manager and a great team builder. He or she will be an excellent recruiter, a great communicator, and a great issue resolver. The VP Eng's job is to make everyone in the engineering organization successful and he or she needs to fix the issues that are getting in the way of success. A CTO is ideally the strongest technologist in the organization. He or she will be an architect, a thinker, a researcher, a tester and a tinkerer. The CTO is often the techni

Fred – nice post. By CEO/VP Product, I assume you mean Product Manager, correct? If so, I’m in 100% agreement – one addition, is the technical co-founder should be very cognizant of what they are really good at. If they aren’t strong as a CTO, don’t take the title just because it has a ‘C’ in it. Mark Suster wrote a similar (albeit longer!) post on this same topic, with similar themes – http://www.bothsidesoftheta…

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