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| About Brad Feld |
| Brad Feld is currently a Managing Director at Mobius Venture Capital and has been with the firm since 1996. Prior to Mobius, Brad founded Feld Technologies, which was sold to AmeriData Technologies in 1993, where he became Chief Technology Officer. Brad currently serves on the boards of a number of private companies, including Atreus, Comergent, ePartners, FeedBurner, Gold Systems, Judy's Book, Klocwork, NewsGator, Quova, Rally Software, and StillSecure. In addition, he is on the board of The National Center for Women & Information Technology, The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, and The Colorado Conservation Trust. Brad has previously been a member of the board of directors of the Young Entrepreneurs Organization and founded the Boston and Colorado chapters. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. |
Recent Article:
Lighten Up / Tighten Up
- For more on Brad Feld visit www.feld.com
As I was writing my previous post about The Constipation of Scale I got an email from a co-investor talking about a CEO / CTO conflict. It had an interesting phrase in it that I realized applies to many CEO / CTO relationships – “CEO needs to lighten up and CTO needs to tighten up.”
While this isn’t always the order (sometimes the CEO needs to tighten up!), the source of conflict like this is pretty predictable. I’ve seen this over and over and over again – as an investor you see the natural (and healthy) tension between CEO and CTO. If the CEO and CTO don’t know how to play together (or are both experiencing their roles together for the first time) this healthy tension often continues to evolve until armageddon looms. One day you wake up and realize you’ve got an issue.
Ironically, it’s an easy one to address. Our friendly neighborhood CTO needs to tighten up and our CEO needs to lighten up. Now – I said it’s easy to address – not “to solve” as this behavior change often feels like a chinese finger trap – they harder you work at it, the more ensnared you get.
As I reflect on this, these situations spiral out of control more frequently when the CEO and CTO are not co-founders (e.g. one or the other is hired in after the company is founded.) As CTO’s are natural technical founders, this dynamic often appears when a CEO is hired – even very early (e.g. < 10 people in the company), especially if the CTO / founder never actively acknowledges the dynamics between a CEO and CTO (e.g. the CEO is the ultimate boss.)
The success cases are ones where the CEO and the CTO work hard on their relationship from the start, recognize that they are different people, have different styles, have different roles, and actively engage in figuring out an effective working relationship.
Like most things that are out of balance, you can get in balance quickly by shifting your behavior a little. This doesn’t just apply to CEO / CTO relationships – it applies to negotiations, political views, marriages, and even relationships with your dog. If you are naturally “tight”, try lightening up. If you are naturally “light”, try tightening up. In either case, it’s a lot easier than dealing with a meltdown.
Read this post in Brad's blog.
Lighten Up Tighten Up - To learn more about this author, visit Brad Feld's Website.
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