When Spain announced their line-up to the 2012 European football championship final one key detail stood out as an elephant in the room - there was no striker.
This wasn’t the first time in the tournament Spain made this decision, however in one of the biggest games in sport, how did they fare without one?
They defeated Italy 4-0.
The reality is that the decision had to take the following information into account:
The world-class players in the team that were good at finishing (scoring)
The footballing philosophy of the manager, being possession based allowing more clear chances to be created
The opposition they were facing, for some games in the tournament Spain played with a striker
What we can learn from Spain is that when someone asks the valid question of whether a position should exist in your team, context is essential.
Today’s article is aimed at tackling the question of how essential a technical co-founder, director or leader is for a startup.
We’ll cover:
Starting Without a CTO
What is Technical Leadership?
Avoid Pseudo-CTO Politics
What makes a Qualified CTO?
Where can we find one?
Starting Without a CTO
Founding teams without Chief Technical Officers (CTOs) find themselves having to justify to investors, stakeholders and even users why they lack a technical leader.
The concern of potential stakeholders is valid, as they are looking to build technology without someone who has a technical background in their core team.
The reality is for small teams and pre-seed startups it’s common for a couple, family or group of friends to have an idea they are excited about and decide to pursue it.
If no one in these teams has a technical background that fits the profile of a co-founding CTO, the team finds itself with some choices:
One of the team learns enough about technology to build a prototype
The early technical work is outsourced to freelancers or consultants
After raising money, engineers are hired internally and managed by the (non-technical) founding team
These are all valid options, and I have seen/worked in startups that have navigated all three of these options to the point of a successful product launch.
Not having a technical co-founder initially does not mean there is no technical ownership - the technical work is owned by one or several members of the team.
What is Technical Leadership?
Without a CTO in the original team, the responsibilities are often distributed amongst other directors and employees.
The following diagram shows an example of a structure of a founding team including a CTO (highlighted in purple).
In this simplified example, our CTO’s role may involve the following:
Technical design work
Ensuring team members have appropriate support
Ensuring deadlines are met
Managing costs to report back to other directors
Key decision making about technical features
An example of a team structure without a dedicated CTO is shown below - with technical leadership roles now highlighted in purple.
In this example the CTO responsibilities listed above can be distributed as follows:
Technical design work - Engineer, developer, consultant
Ensuring team members have appropriate support - COO, consultant
Ensuring deadlines are met - COO
Managing costs to report back to other directors - COO
Key decision making about technical features - COO, with support from the rest of the team
The above is just an example of a team that manages technical work without a CTO, but what is key here is how important the delegation of tasks is by the COO.
The non-technical co-founders will have the final say on key decisions and task delegation, so having C-level team members with the right culture and philosophy is critical to technical team members’ morale.
Avoid Pseudo-CTO Politics
A Band-Aid solution to investors requiring technical leadership, is to give someone the job-title of CTO without the appropriate responsibility.
As discussed at the beginning of the article, some founding teams can be criticised by prospective investors for not having a CTO on board.
Companies need cash to survive, and the need to raise money brings with it the pressure to make high-impact decisions, like giving someone the job-title of CTO without the full responsibility.
As well as in startups, large companies can also promote a senior engineer to the “role” of CTO so that they can take on the responsibility of delivering technical work on time and budget, without having the authority of making key decisions.
Although it is easy to criticise the decision to bring a CTO into a team to satisfy investors, doing so can work well so long as:
They are qualified for the role (more on this later)
The non-technical founders take the CTO’s opinions seriously
The CTO shares the same long-term vision as the rest of the founders
Bringing someone C-level into a leadership team is a critical decision, which is why it is not uncommon to see pseudo-CTOs being brought into teams.
Being patient and having the right character, personality and technical background in your team will pay-off hugely in the long-run.
What Makes a Qualified CTO?
Navigating both the startup world and building technology involves reacting to and foreseeing setbacks.
Setbacks, risks and time sinks come from scenarios that are difficult to foresee without having experienced them in advance.
Scheduling timelines, distributing budget and reacting to technical bugs is challenging for non-technical founders and often results in engineers who are frustrated by decision they disagree with.
A well qualified CTO has generally experienced the same categories of setbacks that we go through, and are happy to lean on others’ expertise for areas of technology they have not explicitly worked in.
This is not to say that someone young and ambitious should not attempt the technical co-founder role, it just means they need to learn, iterate quickly and manage the challenges as best as they can for their experience.
The best CTOs I have worked with are not only technically experienced, but are great communicators, care for their team and good to work with.
Engineering is abundant with problem solving, and what can be overwhelming under some leadership, can be great career-building experiences in a good culture.
Where Can You Find One?
Platforms exist to find technical co-founders, and old-school networking can be just as productive.
As discussed the value of having a CTO is specific to you. If you decide to bring one in, knowing where to look is important.
Before searching for technical co-founder, identify what type of technical skillset they require and be open to it being different to what you had in mind when speaking to possible candidates.
For example, in a project that entails building an electro-mechanical system candidates could have mechanical or electronics engineering background. If they are strong communicators, they will be able to lean on team members who have expertise in the other domain.
What’s tempting for some founders is to find someone they know and trust well, compromising on technical or managerial skills.
Trust is important, however being open to meeting new people and building new relationships is important. Managing new working relationships can be done with trial periods and robust legal documents when the time comes for them.
As well as networking, going to events and meeting new people in person, there platforms and programs designed to match co-founders including:
Y-Combinator, (the first and most renowned accelerator, known for having a famous portfolio of startups including Reddit, Uber, AirBnB and several others) have their own online co-founding matching platform.
Entrepreneur First is an accelerator program based around matching commercial and technical co-founders together without either having a specific idea in mind at first.
Like with any accelerator, ensure if going down this path you do due diligence on the share agreements.
Like with any new relationship, being introduced by others is a great way to validate their character, however meeting new people at events or platforms can work for a lot of people.
Do What is Best for your Project
The purpose of this article was not to give generalised advice on whether a technical co-founder is needed by everyone.
The online media world today is full of broad business advice.
The economy of social media is based on attention, clicks and comments and therefore it is in the interest of thought-leaders to either make intentionally controversial opinions, or lean on hyper-popular business stories starring the likes of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk.
The reality is that advice drawn on entertaining anecdotes almost always lacks relevant context, and can fall victim to survivor bias - where a high-risk decision can be seen as genius years later, by virtue of the fact it worked out.
My article aims to draw on my own experiences combined with higher-profile case studies, without telling you what I think you “should” do.
Ultimately, like most questions in life, the answer is within - understand your team, project, needs and be open to what issues are present. Making the decision on authentic analysis will give you the best chances of success.
If you’re reading this and disagree with anything I have said, feel free to comment, share with your opinions or message me directly as the dialogue is important!
Resources
A great article showing the inside story of Fitbit’s early days
An incredible podcast by Lex Fridman interviewing Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iPod
A Diary of a CEO podcast featuring Marc Randolf the co-founder and first CEO of Netflix
Does co-founder matching work? - An article outlining Y-Combinator’s co-founder matching platform