As a developer who became this kind of a CTO a decade, maybe two before it became fashionable, I would have agreed with this in the past until I learned why otherwise with companies this size.

All the devs in this comments can do what I share below. 1000%. It’s a different way to make an impact and help make healthier spaces for technical teams to do what they want.

I’ll share one example. Clever architecture and leverage can beat most coding especially in the B2B space. I find I am fast at both architecting and uncovering useful system integration paths for the short and long term along with the flexibility in mind.

That being said, I have also seen a team of 100 devs flown in to write an ERP from scratch and it worked too because the process was fixed.

I won’t rule out a world beating team where 5-10 senior devs can beat a team of 50-100. I have got to be a part of those kinds of teams and also lead them. The caveat is being able to deliver world beating stuff is different than aspiring to it as well. It’s just not always sustainable way to live.

Since A company usually sells to companies the same size or larger. Anyone who comes from scratch can have their goose cooked pretty quick when a new client demand a different level of scrutiny in systems and data if coding from scratch.

Having deep enough experience to poke my head out in this thread both on my own as IC leading the charge, or or taking in my team, the orchestration of internal and third party vendors and resources is a big part of this. I deeply believe in external vendors operating in a client side platform I help implement and leave them with training that works.

A technically functional CTO who is still technical en putty to simplify and leverage to help deliver impact helps bring in different kinds of architectural and framework approaches.

I loving call it what management consultants talk about it don’t do. I’ve made learning and implementing that my craft to leverage solutions for anyone I put my time towards. It’s a life changer. Everyone wants the kinds of devs on YC to help their companies if they can learn a little bit of business.

It works well enough that I don’t need to pursue a public profile (although that is not changing), and warm introductions are a reality.

I share this because it’s possible for anyone who wants it instead of downplaying it. I help clear the path for the doers and builders, as one.

You have a fair indirect point that there’s a lot of different kinds of CTOs too.

If a business wants steady operation while switching over it will ultimately place a heavier loads on their teams.

If a business wants capacity to operate more smoothly to either grow capacity or increase flexibility for other things with their existing workforce.

This kind of thing may not always be built to success with the number of surprises and landmines discovered along the way.

Part of a transformation can become agile, parts of it water fall, all while holding the business and staff increasingly hostage while deciding to do a big bang switch over or daring to run in parallel.

Lots of people side things come up as well when changes happens to them instead of with them. It’s not uncommon for subject matter experts choose not to share information what itself can take some time.