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by geori 2069 days ago
I worked as CTO of two companies for about a year. I tended to work a full day for one company then a full day for the other to lessen the context switching. It was hard work, but it was fun and very beneficial to both organizations. You really do focus on editing (what projects matter, what solutions matter, which candidates do we offer, coaching w 1x1s) which has much more of an impact than IC work. In fact, the only issues I ever had were classic time x resource tradeoffs, since I so little time for IC work.
2 comments

Both companies understood you were fractional? For those wondering, vCFOs and vCISOs are a thing where one senior level person serves several companies none of which could afford their services full time.
How did the two companies do? I never understood how someone could hold two c level jobs at the same time. How do you handle all the work?
And what was the size/maturity/stage of the company ? Being "CTO" of a 5 person is very different from a 50/500/5000/50000 org.

And what was the focus of the company. Being CTO of "Algolia", or CTO of "Dollar Shave Club" doesn't really mean the same thing. (Both are great companies, but their tech needs are not comparable)

the trick is that the C work is delegated.