𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴?

𝘖𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴

This question came from a founder-CTO last week

They'd built the first version of their product. 

Led a team of 3 engineers to Series A. 

But now at 15 people, they were coding 60+ hours a week and still felt behind.

The painful reality: 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲.

Here's the transition every technical founder faces:

→ 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗿: You write the code 

→ 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿: You enable others to write code 

→ 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿: You enable others to write better code

The hardest part isn't learning new skills.

It's accepting that your value has shifted from 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 to 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮-𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺.

Most founder-CTOs resist this transition because:

• It feels like stepping away from "real work"

• They're faster at coding than explaining

• Technical decisions feel too important to delegate

But here's what I've learned working with scale-ups:

🧠 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆.

The moment you stop coding everything is the moment your team starts building everything.

You don’t scale by doing more.

You scale by designing a system that does more — without you.

#FractionalCTO #FounderCTO #ScalingStartups #EngineeringLeadership hashtag#OrgDesign hashtag#TechLeadership #LettingGo #StartupGrowth #ManagementEvolution #SystemThinking