Ask HN: What is it like being CTO?

I've been a "CTO". I've known lots of "CTOs".<p>First bit of advice: change your title to something else.<p>Among tech entrepreneurs the term "CTO" carries some of the same connotations as "architect" does among enterprise developers: people paid extra to do nothing.<p>Second: figure out where on the org chart you've just been placed.<p>Are you the kind of CTO that's intended to do nothing at the top of the engineering organization? That's what you're expect, right? But more CTOs that I've known were instead expected to do nothing at the top of the marketing organization; in particular, to serve as the "spiritual head" of the product management team. The reason for this: the "CTO" is inherently customer-facing (impressing customers with pronouncements from the CTO is one of only two benefits obtainable by your company by naming a "CTO", the other being "retaining you even after your coworkers decide they want to remove your commit privileges").<p>Third: is your company big enough to have a C-anything?<p>Even if you (smartly) rechristen yourself "director/research" or "director/product" or "director/engineering", if you're working at a 4 person company, you can make yourself look dumb --- not just at your company, which is like all companies likely doomed, but on <i>your resume</i>, where you'll flip the bozo bit on people evaluating you for their team by allowing yourself to be labeled with a grandiose title.<p>The reality is that in small startups, particularly pre-revenue startups, and <i>particularly</i> when your employers have conceded to you a title ostensibly meant to communicate some authority, you can probably do anything you want. Pick one thing, do it extraordinarily well (clue: you are not doing it extraordinarily well until it hurts to keep doing it that well), and keep doing it. Things a "CTO" (please don't call yourself that) can do:<p>* While maintaining a role in the peloton of committers on your team†, become the arbitrator of all tech controversies (not the decider, the <i>arbitrator</i>).<p>* While maintaining that committer role, build the engineering team by recruiting talent (note: this only works if you recruit people who turn out to be awesome <i>for the business</i>) and retaining it.<p>* Become the marketing face of the company, which can work if your company's audience is nerds (or if you sell direct to other companies, but you don't appear to be doing that).<p>* Become the head of product management, which means you spend virtually all your time engaged with customers (either directly or by measurement and testing) and almost zero time building.<p>† <i>DO NOT GIVE UP COMMIT. Corrollary: you must keep committing, meaningfully, or it will become easy to take commit from you.</i>

It sounds like you're a talented engineer who's comfortable working on the technical side of the house. If that's true, the biggest challenge you're likely to face is managerial.<p>Being CTO in an agile environment is about managing the technology roadmap and making sure the technical team is shipping code as efficiently as possible.<p>Your first goal should be fostering the creation of lightweight engineering processes that allow your team to operate without procedural roadblocks.<p>Resist the temptation to "superman" your way through technical problems that could be delegated to slower team members. The CTO needs to remain focused on the big picture.<p>I'd recommend 2 books:<p>The E-Myth - which talks about how most small business (especially true of software companies) are started by "technicians" who must balance that trait with being an entrepreneur and a manager. I found it helpful for my transition.<p>Now, Discovery Your Strengths - discusses how important it is to identify and play to the strengths in your employees and co-workers -- rather than trying to fix their weaknesses, which is a losing battle.<p>Best of luck. With the open and humble attitude you're displaying, I'm sure you'll do great!

Here are some helpful links: <a href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/10/vp-engineering-vs-cto.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/10/vp-engineering-vs-cto.html</a> <a href="http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2007/07/the_different_cto_roles.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2007/07/the_different_ct...</a> <a href="http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2007/10/cto-vs-vp-engineering.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2007/10/cto-vs-vp-engineerin...</a>

There are no titles at a small startup. You are all founders. And being a CTO of a small startup is absolutely nothing like being a CTO of a midsize company.<p>You should focus on what your current at hand skills are and how to get the company to succeed.