How does the CTO role change as a company grows? (The 8 types of CTO)

The CTO of a startup is a very different professional than the CTO in a scale-up or an enterprise.

Here I lay out the 5 core CTO roles and the 3 spin offs of the role as they happen in reality, from my experience working with CTOs.

Level 1. Startup: <10 engineers

CTO role: Build PoC (Proof of concept) or MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Level 2a. Late Stage Start-up or Series A, has clients but still establishing PMF: 10–50 engineers

Here is where the start-up CTO gets a state of what it’s actually like to be an executive CTO. If they still decide to be focused on code/tech and don’t enjoy people management or take on the role of being the translator between business and engineering, they are moved sideways to a chief technical role, but not a business role (which is what the CTO role is about — making executive/business decisions.) Therefore the company hires a new CTO to lead engineering to deliver more, with a bigger team. When the founding CTO wants to hold onto the title, the company hire a VP Engineering, or SVP/Director/Head of Engineering. When the founding CTO is happy to change title, they are shifted into a Chief Architect or Chief Science Officer or a Chief Engineering Officer.