Intro

If I’d ask 100 CTOs of different companies, I’d get 100 different answers on how they became CTOs.

The details would be vastly unique, but on the high-level, it’d be one of these 12 ways which we’ll go through them today!

In today’s article, I have John Crickett, fellow Engineering Leader and an author of Coding Challenges & Developing Skills with me as a guest. This is our 3rd collab and you can read the first two here (paid articles):

• Become the engineer everyone wants to work with

• Become a better engineer by working on side projects

We’ll be going over the 12 ways how you can become a CTO. Both of us are sharing our perspectives on each way!

This is an article for paid subscribers, and here is the index:
- 1. Become a technical co-founder, taking on the CTO role
- 2. Join an early stage startup (without a CTO) as a founding engineer and grow into the role
- 3. Get hired into the role after being a technical leader in another company
- 4. Get promoted into the role when the existing CTO leaves
🔒 5 to 12 ways to become a CTO

Let’s get straight to the first one!

1. Become a technical co-founder, taking on the CTO role

John: I first saw this happen in early 2002 when I was contracting in London. I met several contractors who had formed their own company.

They were pooling their resources to build their own product and part funding it through contracting.

The most experienced technical member had bagged the CTO role.

Gregor: This has been a very popular way of becoming a CTO over the years. I’ve been at events and meetups where people pitched their ideas and they’ve been looking for technical co-founders to help them build it.

A popular way to become the CTO that way is also to join a hackathon and build upon your idea with the team or work together on the idea with your colleague(s) from school/university or from work.

2. Join an early stage startup (without a CTO) as a founding engineer and grow into the role

John: Typically a founding engineer is one of the first engineers to join a startup and they form the foundation for an engineering team to be built around.

They will be responsible for defining the early technical and cultural choices and setting the bar for the engineers who come after them.

They need to be comfortable with the lack of structure and wearing multiple hats. It is a great stepping stone to becoming a CTO.

Gregor: You are one of the first hires of the startup and you are hired for one main reason - that is to build the MVP of the product. You normally get a salary and a certain percentage of the company.

This is especially for someone who is good at building MVPs. It’s not so important that the code is the most clean or well-structured, but speed is very important.

If the product has found the fit, you would potentially be a candidate for the CTO role, because you already have a good understanding of the product and the codebase.

3. Get hired into the role after being a technical leader in another company

John: This is probably the simplest option, assuming you have been a technical leader in another company and have relevant experience on your resume.

You can find these roles by networking, applying and working with recruiters, much as you will have already done for existing roles.

Gregor: You already have a good experience leading engineering teams and that can translate to being a good CTO. Especially works well for being a startup CTO.

Startups are much more open to hiring candidates who have relevant experience but not direct experience as a CTO.

Scaleups and bigger companies would much rather look for candidates with much more experience either as a CTO or leading bigger teams.

4. Get promoted into the role when the existing CTO leaves

John: If you are in an organization you like and hold a senior technical position this could be the best path for you.

Depending on your source the average tenure of a CTO is between 18 and 24 months which means that if your CTO has been in the role for a year, there’s a good chance the role will be vacant within the next 12 months.

Start building your relationships with the executive team and if possible the board now so you’re well positioned to step up if it happens.

And if it doesn’t you’ll be well-positioned to be hired into another company, having learned to build good relationships at the executive level.

Gregor: This is how I got to the CTO role, I was hired as a VP of Engineering in order to improve the engineering processes in the company.

The company especially needed someone to streamline the process and ensure that the tech team was aligned with the business. That’s exactly one of my main strengths and I fit in very well.

After less than 6 months, the CTO left the company and I was offered the CTO role, which I accepted.

5. Become a Fractional CTO after having had technical leadership experience in other roles...