๐ช๐ต๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ป๐ด?
- Kjell Moens
- Jul 24
- 1 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
๐๐ณ๐จ๐ข๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด

This question came from a founder-CTO last week
They'd built the first version of their product.ย
Led a team of 3 engineers to Series A.ย
But now at 15 people, they were coding 60+ hours a week and still felt behind.
The painful reality: ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐'๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ ๐๐ผ๐น๐๐ฒ.
Here's the transition every technical founder faces:
โ ๐๐ป๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ฑ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฏ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ: You write the codeย
โ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ: You enable others to write codeย
โ ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐ถ๐ฐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ: You enable others to write better code
The hardest part isn't learning new skills.
It's accepting that your value has shifted from ๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ฅ๐ช๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ญ๐บ to ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฑ๐ญ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฎ-๐ด๐ฐ๐ญ๐ท๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ค๐ข๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ช๐ต๐บ.
Most founder-CTOs resist this transition because:
โข It feels like stepping away from "real work"
โข They're faster at coding than explaining
โข Technical decisions feel too important to delegate
But here's what I've learned working with scale-ups:
๐ง ๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐ฒ๐ ๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น๐. ๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐.
The moment you stop coding everything is the moment your team starts building everything.
You donโt scale by doing more.
You scale by designing a system that does more โ without you.
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