Interview Your CTO

Have you interviewed your CTO lately?

I was reminded recently of some advice that I gave recently on Vator.TV.  The advice is that you always need a “Starsky to your Hutch.”  Meaning that you always want a business guy/gal combined with a technical guy/gal in a technology startup. 

I was reminded the value of this when I talked to the WidgetBucks’ CTO, Greg Harrison.  We’re working on a super interesting optimization technology and I realized that there are some many valuable insights when you constantly talk to your technology “Hutch.” 

I often have technology “Charlie Rose-like” interviews with Greg so that I make sure that the technology matches the business needs. 


I often find the following:

• We find holes – each of us find either technology our business holes in our product strategy.  By walking through the requirements, constraints, and roll-out we often build a better product.

• B.S meter – We will often clarify capabilities that are too much of a stretch from a positioning perspective. C'mon we all know that engineers always tell the truth.

• Gold nuggets can be found – often times I find little nuggets of capability that are important from a business perspective than what the tech guys believe that are important.

If you are a startup CEO, please interview your CTO.  You and the business will be wiser for it.