While I don't know about this specific person, more likely on HN "CTO" is just a self-appointed "fake it til you make it" title. The amount of times I've casually poked at a "CTO" profile here only to find them to be a recent
bootcamp grad working at a company of 2 with no funding...
The fun part of this exercise is that some people on HN give their real name or a way to find out their real name like the commenter did. They’re part of a pretty small company as far as I can tell. Closer to 25 people.
even in medium-sized companies cto often participates in hiring process for high-level engineers. Basically the rule is if you are hiring person you are gonna interact often, you want to evaluate him yourself