Here are some common traps that VPs of Engineering can fall into: 1. Focusing Too Much on Technical Details: VPs of Engineering are often highly technical individuals who may be tempted to spend too much time working on technical tasks rather than managing their team. While it’s important for VPs…

I wrote a post about why many startups dethrone their CTOs when they get to series B, C I said I’d share how to prevent this from happening to you, if you are a CTO in a growing startup right now and you want to do something about it. Step 1 — Gain self awareness of what it is that you actually want: What type of CTO do you want to be, do you even want to be a CTO in a bigger company, or perhaps a Chief Architect in a company of 200 people is the perfect fit for…

“I see people promoted as a first time VP/CTO type role. Then they leave and struggle to find a new role: it’s hard to find a new senior/leadership role, but also people think they can’t be a developer anymore either so they struggle to find even a permanent senior dev/tech…

Yes, your ego as a founding CTO is bruised, because your CEO asked you to work with this fractional CTO to bring engineering back on track. Yes, you feel insecure and upset because this fCTO is here. Yes, it feels demeaning and humiliating. Yes, you want to fight very strongly…

Here are 3 signs that you are a Startup CTO or Startup VP Engineering who is not yet a strategic CTO or VP Engineering — who’s likely in danger of being replaced by your board in the next 3–5 years: 1. You feel like you are not working. You spend…

“Are they trying to get rid of me, or is this a normal thing that happens as the company grows?” is the question I had from 3 different CTOs in the last 3 months alone. They asked this because their board either: ✓ asked them to change their title to…

The biggest fears of a CTO Vs the biggest fears of a VP Engineering — Here’s the pattern I’ve observed: CTO Fears: ✓ Risk of technological obsolescence With technology advancing at a crazy rate, it can be a daunting task to stay on top of emerging trends and ensure that…

What does it look like when they’re a toxic leader? First time CTOs often doubt and second guess themselves. I usually find that the CTOs who do that are often the most open to growing into the role and becoming good leaders. There are however CTOs who often were the…

“I feel like a second class C Suite member” said a #CTO recently. Why? #1 He has zero budget under his control. He has to ask for budget approval: ✓ to buy resources (eg Azure, AWS, Google Cloud) for engineering, ✓ for budget for tech training ✓ for his coaching, ✓ and permission every…