CTOs often come from engineering backgrounds and, particularly when newly promoted, tend to focus on what they know best, the technology. While this is understandable given their previous success, technology is rarely the hardest part of the CTO role.
Early-stage startups want full-stack unicorns who can do it all on a tight budget, but asking one dev to wear every hat is less strategic hiring and more duct-taping a rocket and hoping for the best.
AI adoption fails when treated as a tool rollout. This guide covers the decision framework, team dynamics, economics, and mistakes from 190+ technical audits.
Vibe coding or AI-assisted development? The choice isn't binary, but getting it wrong at the wrong stage will cost you. This piece breaks down when to embrace speed over architecture, when to take back control, and why the best teams don't pick sides.
AI coding agents draft code, write tests, and open pull requests autonomously. This guide covers the tool landscape, readiness signals, a phased rollout plan, and the team dynamics that make or break adoption.
Micromanagement rarely starts with bad intent. It usually starts with silence. When nobody knows what you are working on, meetings multiply, trust erodes, and focus disappears. This piece shows how clear, boring communication is your best defence.
Code reviews improve more than code quality. Done well, they shape better problem-solving, expose edge cases, and spread knowledge across teams. Learn how small, focused reviews and AI support help teams ship faster with confidence.
Hiring to fix velocity often multiplies your problems. Reduce avoidable mistakes first: tighten decision-making, align product and engineering, and put foundations in place that make a small team dangerous in the right way.
If you believe what you see on LinkedIn, startups don't need employees anymore, real founders just have agents building their companies. You write a prompt, fire off the agent, and wait for customers. In reality, you get a vague workflow that produces a mediocre demo at best.
Outdated myths about developers—like “they hate meetings” or “only care about code”—create friction, missed context, and rework. Learn how to build healthier collaboration across engineering and product.
AI is not replacing developers, but it is replacing developers who refuse to use it. The real skill lies in how well you steer, validate, and challenge the model. Fundamentals matter, but today’s best engineers treat AI as an amplifier, not a crutch.
What can investors do about legacy code to prevent your startup from failure? What is the difference between legacy and technical debt?
Tired of git blame pointing to useless formatting commits? Learn how to ignore revisions with --ignore-rev or .git-blame-ignore-revs to keep Git history accurate and helpful.
What can theatre teach startups about silos? That rehearsed collaboration beats chaos every time. madewithlove supports SaaS companies with CTO coaching, audits, and software engineering: discover how to keep your teams working together at the heart of your business.
Building diverse tech teams takes more than good intentions. From job ads and interviews to flexible work and international hiring, discover how we try to embed inclusion into every stage of the hiring process, subtly, sustainably, and deliberately.
