[vive1]

I have worked with few startups of different degrees. I really think CTO doesn't need to code but should know what code does.

One of our CTO (where I am a developer with) is good at MySQL, PHP and other stuff, he just checks our DB schema or does pull data by himself for any data points or how our recent conversion does affect our sales etc., this really helps so we can still do and focus on our consumer changes rather than pulling data which ofcourse is important but not something relevant to development.

On one weekend one of my code created an issue with cron job and halted sales and he just aware of what might be causing it and just altered a DB value and it run off smoothly and I fixed it over Monday. So it probably helps as a team. But he doesn't do any single code commit. I am very happy with him and love to work with him.

So I really think a CTO need not code but definitely need to know what code does.