flâneur

From Founder to CTO

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The post resonated with me a lot. It was the first honest perspective I'd seen that shared the 'guts' of the CTO role. You start off writing a bunch of code and knowing how all the systems work. You're on-call 24/7. You're the go-to person when there's a big production issue. Over time, you start giving away your Legos. And as the team grows, there's this big existential question that starts to pop up: What should a CTO even do? Most corporate roles are relatively well defined. The CEO fundraises and hires the exec team. The CFO manages the cash balance of the company and sets the budgets. The COO ensures the processes at the company work effectively. The CRO owns a sales number. But the CTO role is more nebulous. In the early days, CTO is more or less equivalent to "the most technical co-founder" (that's how we decided the title, anyway). But as the org grows, the role has to change. I've talked with a bunch of early-stage founders about the 'technical founder' role. Most of them seem

Years ago, my friend Greg wrote about his progression from one of Stripe's first hires to its CTO. The post resonated with me a lot. It was the first honest perspective I'd seen that shared the 'guts' of the CTO role. You start off writing a bunch of code and knowing how all the systems work. You're on-call 24/7. You're the go-to person when there's a big production issue. Over time, you start giving away your Legos. And as the team grows, there's this big existential question that starts to pop up: What should a CTO even do? Most corporate roles are relatively well defined. The CEO…

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