Building software products is tough. It requires a laundry list of skills ranging from sales and marketing over product vision to technical prowess.

These talents are scattered among a tiny group of founders and early employees in startups. The CEO can't just focus on the vision. They have to work hard at sales and hiring. And team building. And customer relations.

CTOs (and even Fractional CTOs) are in the same boat. They must also wear multiple hats. Technical visionary, software developer, project lead, customer support, hiring manager, architect, supervisor, etcetera.

CTOs wear multiple hats in a growing team

Those who become technical leaders do so out of the drive to build extraordinary products. They see their software skills as the tool to make that happen. And while they're definitely competent at building, they are often caught off guard by the other obligations that come with growing a software team.

  • They need to design a scalable, maintainable architecture.
  • They need to turn a bunch of developers into an effective team.
  • They need to create roadmaps and maintain realistic plans.
  • They need to communicate with the entire organization, their stakeholders, and users.

At madewithlove, we often see competent technical leaders struggling to balance these responsibilities. After working closely with over a hundred startup teams in the past few years, we know that when tech leaders struggle, the product struggles.

How CTO Sounding Board can help startup CTOs

Our CTOs-ad-interim have extensive experience with building and scaling a team. During our CTO Sounding Board sessions, we'll support your CTO in developing their skillset while growing their teams. And this can be done without anyone on your team noticing.

We'll supply pragmatic advice behind the scenes and act as a sounding board for your technical leader. Your product depends on the success of your technical leader. Giving them a mentor is a powerful and affordable way to boost their level.

Read about more about CTO Sounding Board service to understand how we coach CTOs and technical leaders. As always, feel free to book in a timeslot with our CEO Andreas to discuss all the options.