There’s continuing confusion about whether a CTO is a “business role” or a “technical role“.
I’m not sure why this get’s confused. Any C-level role is a business role because every C-level role is strategic.
But the value of any C-level hire is their ability to judge whether a strategy is good or not – that’s literally what you are paying for.
If I hire a CFO, I’m not expecting them to spend all day in front of Xero typing in expense claims.
But I am expecting them to have done that at some point in their career.
If I hire a CMO, I’m not expecting them to log in to every social media platform and export the stats and then produce a report.
But I am expecting them to have done that at some point in their career.
I’ve noticed when I do posts like this there seems to be a trend towards homogenisation of roles in the senior teams at early-stage businesses. Your senior specialists need to have done the nitty gritty of the job they’re trying to lead for, ideally, most of their career before they get to you.