My Life as a CTO - Intro

Since I left Facebook in 2020 and took on the title of CTO, and now over four years later as I step down from this role, I still can't fully grasp what this title truly entails. When I first left Facebook, I was just a Tech Lead. I knew how to code, how to build products, and how to lead a small engineering team. But a CTO? Chief Technology Officer—a grand title that seemed like a heavy burden was placed on me, and yet no one had ever told me how to do this job. I Googled countless times and asked numerous people, including a very impressive mentor I was matched with at the Sequoia Surge accelerator. I directly asked him what being a CTO really meant, but the answers I got were honestly quite vague. The most common responses were about leading engineering teams, designing technical frameworks, and introducing new technologies, but what did any of these have to do with my day-to-day activities? Surely, I wasn’t expected to design and change the latest tech frameworks every day?

I groped around for a long time, and even now, I still don’t have a very good answer. However, looking back at these four years, I gradually see some clarity in the path I stumbled through. I’m beginning to concretize those terms I Googled, slowly discovering the potential forced out of me by this burden and the rewards that these efforts have brought.

Thus, I’ve decided to record them—not to say that I’ve completely understood what a CTO should do. Every company needs a different type of technical leader with different responsibilities, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. But at least, these are things a CTO at one of the startups in the world has done, as well as the experiences and reflections I've accumulated over the past few years. I hope to light a lamp in this incredibly difficult and dark world, to illuminate a bit more of the path ahead. But please don’t take these writings as the definitive answers. I also welcome anyone to prove me wrong and add more to the discussion. These are, at most, just my personal experiences.

Before I get into the main topic, I must say that none of this would have been possible without the team, and credits go to everyone who has helped Cooby become a better version. In terms of technology, a special thanks to all the engineers I’ve led (TH, Leo, Henry, Pinkie, Marko, Conrad, Cruz, Jiawei, Justin); you taught me a lot and it was only through the best teamwork that we were able to create such a great product.

The following articles will mainly be divided into two topics: (1) Technology (2) Leadership. Technology will focus on aspects that a CTO or tech leader in a software company can emphasize, divided into things to worry about on the first day and things that need to be worried about every day. Leadership will mainly focus on my personal leadership style: trust leadership, sharing some of the values I adhere to. I also had plans to talk about Process, sharing experiences related to the sprint process, performance reviews, team culture, etc., but writing these two major topics has already drained some of my energy, so I’ll save that for later 🤣

Ready? Let’s go!