Launchpad so - you want to be a CTO...

Confidential & Proprietary


So - You want to be a CTO...Frank Fischer


Who is this guy??


Were we all start… ● Tech loving● 30-40% Geek / 60-70% Nerd● Academic (STEM)● You are essential!!!


Business

Vision People

Mgmt

Tech-

nology

Coding

Archi-

tecture

Strategy

Budgets

Culture

Hiring

Goals

Firing

CTO

Product

Mgmt


Business

Vision People

Mgmt

Tech-

nology

Coding

Archi-

tecture

Strategy

Budgets

Culture

Hiring

Goals

Firing

CTO

Product

Mgmt


Time

Comfort Zone

Prototype-Get shit done

First Product

IterateProduct

IterateProduct

IterateProduct


Leaving the Comfort Zone...● Product is more important than technology…

○ Choose tech so it supports the product○ Choose tech that is long living and supported by large corps○ Choose tech that is productive○ Choose tech that makes it easy to hire the team

● Quality versus Agility○ Documentation gets important○ Maintainability○ Onboarding○ Architecture

● Licenses, SLAs...○ Open source libs come with licenses - check Copyleft


Coding … no more...● Keep your muscles trained…● ...know the soon to be latest and greatest...● ...but be ok with leaving coding to others.

● … I mean: Leave it to others.● They will make mishaps… fine● They will do it differently… fine● They will have their own ideas… fine


Business

Vision People

Mgmt

Tech-

nology

Coding

Archi-

tecture

Strategy

Budgets

Culture

Hiring

Goals

Firing

CTO

Product

Mgmt


Engineering != Product ManagementEngineering is EXTREMELY important but…

...yet another role!!

● Consult (Feasibility, costs, time, additional ideas…)

● Technical quality is your extreme…

Know where your company is heading to and reflect this in the team!!!


Business

Vision People

Mgmt

Tech-

nology

Coding

Archi-

tecture

Strategy

Budgets

Culture

Hiring

Goals

Firing

CTO

Product

Mgmt


Know what you need, know what you want...● Strategy and product define needs● Think buy versus build!!!● You will almost never find the perfect person!! But people can learn… so can

you!!● Think senior versus junior

○ As a startup, you can hardly offer security, aka look for <30 and >45 people

● Employer branding & marketing○ Hackathons, Meetups, GitHub...

● Hiring is everybody’s job… and yours especially!!!



You are part of two teams:

Executive management

Engineering

If in doubt, executive wins!!


Business

Vision People

Mgmt

Tech-

nology

Coding

Archi-

tecture

Strategy

Budgets

Culture

Hiring

Goals

Firing

CTO

Product

Mgmt



Manage your Manager -

Decision Briefing

Auswertung des Auftrag

http://www.mc.edu/rotc/files/8413/1471/7313/MSL_201_L08a_Effective_Army_Briefing.pdf


Some Business Tricks of Trade● Do budgeting… you have to anyways● Try to be transparent to the business and the investors

○ The good, the bad, and the ugly

● Learn the meaning of some key figures and check them regularly● Force others to obey the same quality to their work as you ask your team to

obey to● Politics is shit!! But there will never be more than 5 people in a room without

it. Remember the agent problem!!!● Your team deserves tough love. Constructive criticism combined with

senseful loyalty is the highest gift you can give.


The last nugget on your way...Think like an Economist!!

Principle 1: People respond to incentives

Principle 2: There is no such thing as a free lunch

Principle 3: Nothing is only one thing

Principle 4: The law of the unanticipated influences

Principle 5: The law of the unintended consequences

Principle 6: No one has complete control



Leadership means Style...This is mine…

● Be predictable, never surprise negatively● If it’s bad, it was me. If it’s good, it was the team.● Think longterm● My team is somewhere between acquaintance

and friends● Share, share, share…● Be respected but always listen, learn, and react● Be big and bold, energize, confident, visionary● Be a human being



Grazzi Hafna...