[iamflimflam1]

I would suggest that a lot of the negative feelings you may be having come from being in a failing startup.

The problem you have in a failing startup is you don’t have any scope for bringing in help for yourself. Can you hire a VPEng or Head of Engineering to take on a lot of the day to day management and delivery responsibilities? You can move yourself into a much more technical/R&D role.

Another thing to remember is that “CTO” can encompass many different things depending on the size of a company.

Very small early stage startups - the CTO is generally the most prolific IC. It may be that this the sweet spot for you.

Businesses often require different CTOs for different stages and there’s nothing wrong with being a particular type of CTO. You can say - “the role has evolved and I’m no longer the right person”. Or “my strengths are in these areas, I need people to fill in these gaps”.