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What I learned from being CTO

I’m not sure if many people knew this, I became the CTO of Rouxbe. What exactly does that mean? Well, besides being able to boss around a great team (which you find out really isn’t true); I’m also responsible for anything that has ‘technology’ in the paragraph. So it’s a constant journey, let me tell you what I’ve learned so far:

One, you can’t stress out too much. Now, I don’t mean “Let’s keep it all in and tell it to your psychiatrist when you’re 50 years old after you’ve gone on a murderous rampage.” I mean, try not to show your team that you’re stressed out. I say this because, when you stress everyone stresses. Find ways to show them, and release it in a healthy manner (like shooting old ladies with bibi guns walking out of my house).

Two, start-up companies don’t even come close to ICBC. Now, you might think I might be slagging ICBC here, but I’m really not. What I mean is that there are certain processes in place at ICBC that you don’t have the luxury of at a start up. For example, a ready to go development environment and migration processes would normally be set up at ICBC. At a start up, you don’t have a lot of red tape and paperwork. Pros and cons to both sides I think. The point I’m trying to make here is that they’re different. Really different.

Three, accept change and don’t fight it. Yes, change is inevitable. At ICBC change happens every year. New projects, new customers, new portal software, etc. Usually very manageable and infrequent. At Rouxbe, priorities are a moving target. For example, Joe (the CEO) walks into the room and says, “Hey guys, guess what? You know that ‘x’ strategy that we’ve slotted for next release? Yea, we need it tomorrow and all the stuff on this release needs to be in place as well…. like yesterday.” It is a constant battle and I’ve really learned to roll with it.

Four, CTO doesn’t really mean diddly squat. If I were in a big fourtune 500 company, I guess I’d be setting technology strategies, looking at pie charts of R&D time as well as asking my (many) assistants for coffee. Here at Rouxbe, it really means that you get to be ‘help’ everyone. Meaning, if the server guy needs your help for testing. Well you help him test. Coding? Yea, you do that too. Printer not working? Wireless network dropping the connection? Coffee is where I draw the line though. I’m not fetching anyone coffee, that’s where you get the asian intern to… wait… shit!

9:35 am