Geeks Who Lead Podcast

Why Building for Flexibility is the New Paradigm with Julien Lemoine

17 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Sites like Squarespace and Shopify have simplified the design and engineering process for people who either don’t have the technical skills or the r...

Building Robust Commerce Platforms with Justin Dean

10 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Justin Dean was placed as a network engineer in the Marine Corps, he had no idea that this would lead to a career helping legacy and emerging bus...

Effective Mentorship in Early Stage Startups with Rob De Feo

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Rob De Feo has spoken to more than 500 startups over the last few years in his role as a startup advocate. These experiences have given him insider kn...

Attracting Great Talent with Ashish Aggarwal

27 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re a startup or any company that doesn’t have vast name recognition, attracting top talent can be a key concern. Ashish Aggarwal cut his te...

Why Customer Centricity is Key to Company Culture with Raj Sethuraman

20 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

According to Raj Sethuraman, good technology cannot be a successful technology unless it solves customer problems and drives great business outcomes. ...

Growing Individuals on Your Team with Greg Thomas

13 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Greg Thomas is the author of the book, Code Your Way Up. Over the course of his 20 years in software development, he found that there was a void when ...

Improving Communication between CEOs and CTOs with David Subar

06 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In any industry, communication is a key factor in a team’s success. For CTOs navigating complex problems, effective communication between all stakeh...

Building a Team of 10x Engineers with Fleming Shi

30 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Fleming Shi has been with Barracuda Networks for more than 15 years. In that time, there has been a profound shift and evolution in the tools and secu...

How to Build a Data Science Team with Jon Morra

23 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Data science has increasingly become an integral part of the technical makeup of organizations. However, most CTOs don’t have experience building a ...

What Does a VP of Engineering Do With Alexandra Paredes

16 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

VP of Engineering is an expansive position. But what is it really like on the granular level? Alexandra Paredes is the VP of Engineering at Code Clima...

Tackling Burnout as a CTO with Andy Skipper

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Working nonstop without delegating is not a sustainable way to live or work. Such habits often lead to burnout. CTOs in particular struggle with this ...

Managing Technical Debt with James Smith

02 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

According to James Smith, CEO of Bugsnag, caring about customer experience is what makes for a better software developer. This is especially important...

How to Enact Change Within a Company with Andrew Fawcett

25 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Let’s say you join a new organization. How would you spend your first hundred days if you were to figure out how to enact change and implement your ...

Using Engineering Metrics in a Healthy Way with Dalia Havens

18 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

We all want our companies to succeed so it’s easy to get fixated on numbers that we believe will help us judge our efforts. However, according to Da...

A Playbook for Starting a Startup with Bob Friday

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of startups we think of charismatic entrepreneurs plugging away on their passions. But what does it really take to form a startup? Our g...

From Private Company to IPO: Managing through Transformation with Rachana Kumar

28 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When companies transition from private to IPO, there are bound to be challenges and learning curves. Rachana Kumar has worked in five countries, two o...

Continuous Learning in Engineering with Kwame Thomison

21 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Learning doesn’t end once you’ve earned your degree. Developers and engineers must stay up to date with their skills and emerging technologies. Bu...

Remote Programming During a Pandemic with Kaj van de Loo

14 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When COVID-19 hit, UserTesting was already at a unique advantage: the team was already mostly working remotely. However, as the stay at home orders ha...

Multiplayer Design and the Future of Work with Kunal Anand

07 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kunal Anand has an interesting background for a CTO. Despite majoring in business, Kunal got his start at JPL (an offshoot of NASA). From there he wor...

How to Hire 100 Engineers in a Year with Cat Miller

30 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hypergrowth is what every startup dreams of, but actually filling the seemingly unlimited positions available is incredibly taxing on employees. Cat M...

10 Mantras for Productive Meetings with Douglas Ferguson

23 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Now that everyone is working remotely, people are starting to realize how much they took meetings for granted. Our guest this week on CTO Connection i...

Moving to a Cloud Native Architecture with Tolga Tarhan

16 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tolga Tarhan got his start single-handedly running all the technology in his high school. Fast forward to today in which his experience during the dot...

Chaos Engineering with Kolton Andrus

09 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are few jobs where you’re encouraged to break things, but Kolton Andrus has made a career out of “failure as a service.” Kolton is the CEO...

How to Interview Candidates Remotely with Shannon Hogue

02 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last few weeks, many companies have switched to remote work. But for companies that are hiring and candidates that are looking for new opport...

Building and Managing Fully Remote Teams with David Blair

26 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Before Covid-19, many companies had work from home policies in place, but the vast majority still expected employees to mostly work in an office. Now ...

Making Better Decisions with Denise Iglesias

19 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When you join a team in a management role, you may find yourself grappling with bad decisions made by your predecessors. Today on CTO Connection, Deni...

Creating a Successful Labs Program with RC Johnson

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Incubator or labs programs tend to come with various issues. How do you navigate failure? How do you source engineers? RC Johnson has helped create an...

Giving Effective Feedback with Chelsea Troy

05 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Feedback is an integral part of work performance across all industries. Effective feedback can help an employee improve at a job or skill. But at the ...

How to Build an Inclusive Culture with James Turnbull

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Many companies see the benefits of diversity and inclusion but don’t know that their own policies and culture are often the reason that women and pe...

Creating Inclusive Workplaces with Joann Anderson

20 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Joann Anderson, VP of Engineering at Scoop Technologies, had a unique childhood in that her mother was a programmer so it never seemed abnormal to Joa...

Breaking Codes, Designing Jets, and Building Teams with Randy Shoup

13 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Randy Shoup has led engineering teams at a range of top companies including Oracle, eBay, and Google, as well as newer startups like Stitch fix and We...

Creating a Better Product using Tactical Empathy with Andrea Goulet

06 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There are many routes to c-suite but Andrea Goulet has taken one of the most non-traditional paths we’ve seen on CTO Connection. As the Co-Founder a...

Cultivating Cross-Functional Teams with Cai GoGwilt

30 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cai GoGwilt took a fast-tracked, non-traditional road to becoming a CTO at Ironclad. As a non-traditional CTO, Cai sees his role as helping others on ...

Balancing Coding and Management with Dhruba Borthakur

23 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Dhruba Borthakur is the Co-founder and CTO at Rockset but still manages to write code, on a good week, 50% of the time. In today's interview, Dhr...

Trust, Delegation and Managing Managers with Raghavendra Prabhu

16 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

According to Raghavendra Prabhu, CTO of Thumbtack, making the transition from programmer to manager isn’t too much of a stretch since you already un...

Balancing Engineering Craft with Customer and Company Needs with Ryan Graciano

09 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Graciano got his start working for a small company that was acquired by IBM. Having been on the employee side of a large merger, Ryan has been ab...

Challenges Facing CTOs of Large Organizations with David Schwartz of Ripple

02 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Tech organizations with more than 100 employees have a unique set of challenges. When you’re in the business of innovation, it can be hard to say no...

How to Build a Culture of Security with Nick Streaker

26 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it’s private communications or a product that handles sensitive information, every company needs to foster a culture of security. Our guest ...

From Engineer to General Manager with Mike Reust

19 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Reust never pictured himself in management. But after several years at Betterment, the opportunity presented itself. Mike joins us this week on C...

Engineering Apprenticeships and Ongoing Education with Andy Britcliffe

12 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The customer service reps at Holiday Extras spend their days talking to customers on the phone. Andy Britcliffe, CTO of Holiday Extras, had a wild tho...

Transforming Education Through Technology with James Kenigsberg

05 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When James Kenigsberg immigrated to America, he quickly found that technology could make learning easier and more fun. This desire to create education...

The Importance of Technical Due Diligence with Jason Mongue

28 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Technical due diligence is the process of studying a technology product and evaluating its value and feasibility. You’d think that such an important...

Managing Large Remote Teams with Asana’s Prashant Pandey

21 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As products and companies develop more name-brand recognition, expansion is inevitable. Prashant Pandey has experience working at companies large and ...

Balancing Delight and Metrics in Product Design with Adam Nash

14 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

On CTO Connection, we mostly focus on the engineering side of tech, but today, we’re taking a break to look at product. Our guest Adam Nash, Vice Pr...

Staying Immersed in Technology as a Tech Leader with Hector Aguilar

07 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

According to Hector Aguilar, President of Technology at Okta, if you get too far away from technology, you can’t be an effective leader of technolog...

Setting Up Infrastructure to Scale with Adam Miller

01 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

When Adam Miller joined the Roblox team as the Vice President of Engineering, he assumed everything would just get saved to the cloud. Instead, he fou...

Investing in Your People Pays Dividends with Scott Parker

18 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Scott Parker has seen a lot over his 15 year career having transitioned from engineer to manager to executive. In this episode of the CTO Connection p...

Learning and Developing as an Engineering Leader with Stacy Gorelik

28 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week Peter invites long-time technology leader and CTO Summit speaker Stacy Gorelik to the podcast. Stacy is currently the Director of Engineerin...

Attracting and Developing Engineering Talent with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director @ Mapbox

22 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Johnny Austin, Engineering Director of Navigation at Mapbox, to discuss the best and...

Engineering Team Cohesion at Scale with Han Yuan, SVP of Engineering @ Upwork

24 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Peter Bell is joined by SVP of Engineering at Upwork, Han Yuan. Han and Peter dive into what it’s like to run an engineering team that sp...

Building a truly global engineering team with Rebecca Parsons, CTO @ ThoughtWorks

11 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Rebecca Parsons, CTO of Thoughtworks, to discuss managing a large, truly global engi...

Creative Product Delivery at Scale with Colin Bodell, CTO @ Groupon

25 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Colin Bodell, Chief Technology Officer of Groupon, to discuss how to balance being o...

Scaling Leadership in a Growing Tech Organization with Nick Caldwell, Chief Product Officer @ Looker

12 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of CTO Connection, host Peter Bell sits down with Nick Caldwell, Chief Product Officer of Looker, to discuss the challenges of scaling...

Welcome to the CTO Connection Podcast!

07 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the CTO Connection Podcast!StartupCTO.io was an amazing podcast, but Kevin and Miles got busy with their many other projects, so they decid...

Gitcoin — Grow Open Source w. Kevin Owocki / Changelog

01 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are posting an interview for The Changelog that StartupCTO.io host Kevin Owocki recently did.  From The Changelog:We’re joined by Kevin Ow...

Optimize Your Learning Velocity w. Scott Carleton, Andela

01 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

[from the archives] Our guest today is Scott Carleton.Scott has a passion for building communities and empowering self-growth through education. Scott...

Blockchain is like Sriracha. It’s delicious on everything — Clay Collins & Nick Gauthier of Nomics.com

01 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Clay Collins & Nick Gauthier are founders of Nomics will be “Yahoo Finance for Crypto” and the internet’s home page for Bitcoin, Ethereum, a...

Hire for Vigilance & Excellent Practical Judgement — Quin Hoxie w. Swiftype

01 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is co-hosted by Jacob Ablowitz.  We are honored today to be interviewing  Quin Hoxie, founder and CTO of Swiftype.   This episode cove...

Sustaining Open Source w. Eric Berry, CodeSponsor.io

23 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we are honored to have Eric Berry, founder of CodeSponsor.ioCode Sponsor is a matchmaking platform for software developers and open source proj...

Blockchain Nerdery w. Matt Walters & Rhys Lindmark

01 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

We are joined this week by Matt Walters (Blockchain Engineer at Consensys, former Techstars CTO), and Rhys Lindmark (Independent Blockchain Engineer) ...

The primacy of the network & Web 3.0 — Vince Horn & Ryan Oelke of CryptoMind

03 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is a cross-post from Vincent Horn’s new podcast, Crypto-Mind.  With permission, I’ve reposted it from  Crypto-Mind podcast....

The Ethereum Ecosystem w. Raine Revere, Lead Architect at Prism

01 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Raine Revere is the Lead Architect at Prism — The world’s first trustless portfolio market platform.Join Raine and special guest co-host Kevin Sea...

Ch-ch-changes (Announcements)

03 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Miles & Kevin announce some changes to the podcast:Miles will be winding down his involvement in the podcast.The show will be once a month (instea...

People First Organizations w. Dave Zwieback

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

[from the archives] Our guest today is Dave Zwieback,  the author of Beyond Blame: Learning from Failure and Success and an engineering leader in va...

Bootstrapped Developers

20 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

So you can build it… but, do you know what to do once it’s built? How to monetize it? How do you make enough money to live off of while your compa...

How to CTO w. Kathy Keating

13 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our Boulder Startup Week episode streak continues.  Today, we’ve got Kathy Keating, CTO of Apostrophe on the show.Kathy has helped build several su...

How to CTO w. Ed Johnson

06 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our Boulder Startup Week episode streak continues.  Today, we’ve got Ed Johnson, CTO of Goally on the show.Ed and his co-founders at Goally are on ...

How to CTO w. Nick Cheever

29 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our Boulder Startup Week episode streak continues.  Today, we’ve got Nick Cheever, VP of Technology at 10-4 on the show.Nick has over 15 years of e...

Boulder Startup Week 2017 Dev War Stories

22 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Hi and welcome to a very special Boulder Startup Week episode.This week we’ve got some stories from a session entitled “Dev War Stories”. If you...

How to CTO with Andy Pai, Full Contact

15 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s guest is Andy Pai, VP Engineering at FullContact. FullContact is the most powerful, fully-connected contact management platform for prof...

AI, Automation, Jobs & The Economy w. Jeff Rose of ThinkTopic

08 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jeff Rose presenting in a very special Boulder Startup Week 2017 talk.   Artificial intelligence is undergoing a renaissance, with the number of rele...

Programmable Money w. Piper Merriam

01 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Cryptocurrencies have the potential to be TCP/IP of money. What does the future look like if they do to money, what the internet did for information? ...

Crypto and the Law with EFA Colorado

25 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

EFA Colorado presenting in a very special Boulder Startup Week 2017 talk. What is Cryptography, and why does it matter? What is the history of cryptog...

Understanding People is a Superpower; @rands, VP Engineering at Slack

18 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.  Michael Lopp (also known as @rands) is a Silicon Valley-based engineering leader who builds both people a...

Engineering Values Roundup

11 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.We ask each of our guests what their engineering values are. What we love about this question is that the an...

Great Engineering War Stories

04 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.  Last week, @owocki’s startup released a new product — The battles last week during this release remin...

Your Startup is a Pirate Ship w. Jack Dietrich & Ryan VanMiddlesworth

27 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guests this week are Jack Dietrich and Ryan VanMiddlesworth of Fount Studio.   Join the partners of Fount as they explain The Pirate Code Of Star...

Advancing Your Career is like Playing Great Chess w. Chris McAvoy

20 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.We are joined this week by Chris McAvoy to talk about growing your people & their careers.   Learn why ...

Reinventing the Organization w. Dan Kador, CTO of Keen.io

13 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.Dan Kador is the co-founder & CTO of Keen.io.  He’s responsible for building the technology and team ...

Optimize Your Learning Velocity w. Scott Carleton, Andela

06 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today is Scott Carleton.Scott has a passion for building communities and empowering self-growth through education. Scott is currently the VP...

Building for Massive Scale w. Tim Jenkins, CTO of SendGrid

30 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode is from the archives.We are honored to be joined by Tim Jenkins, CoFounder & CTO of SendGrid.   SendGrid solves problems for...

Find a Niche and Be The Best w. Courtland Allen of IndieHackers.com

23 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this week is Courtland Allen; MIT graduate, Y Combinator alum, full-stack web developer, and professional designer. He’s spent over 8 year...

People First Organizations w. Dave Zwieback

16 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today is Dave Zwieback,  the author of Beyond Blame: Learning from Failure and Success and an engineering leader in various organizations i...

Mission Driven Tech w. Zack Bomsta, Owlet

09 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today is Zack Bomsta, CTO of Owlet, which produces the Owlet Baby Monitor. In addition to growing the team, he is involved in electronic har...

Scaling the Rocket Ship w. Julia Austin of DigitalOcean

02 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our episode today is from the archives.  Julia Austin is the CTO of DigitalOcean and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School of Entrepreneurial ...

Understanding People is a Superpower; @rands, VP Engineering at Slack

23 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Lopp (also known as @rands) is a Silicon Valley-based engineering leader who builds both people and product at companies such as Borland, Nets...

From Startup CTO to Acquired by Google — Anant Jhingran, CTO @Apigee

16 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Anant Jhingran has been in the tech industry for 27 years and has a Ph.D. in Database Systems from Berkeley.  He’s been at IBM, CTO of Apigee, and ...

From Zero to Sphero w. Ian Bernstein, CTO @Sphero

09 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest this week is Ian Bernstein, CTO of Sphero.  Sphero is creating a new category of toys called “Connected Toys” that take the best of wha...

Reinventing the Organization w. Dan Kador, CTO of Keen.io

02 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Kador is the co-founder & CTO of Keen.io.  He’s responsible for building the technology and team responsible for analytics via APIs (among ...

Building for Massive Scale w. Tim Jenkins, CTO of SendGrid

26 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are honored to be joined by Tim Jenkins, CoFounder & CTO of SendGrid.   SendGrid solves problems for companies sending transactional e-m...

Cross-Training with Sales & Marketing w/ Patrick McKenzie (@patio11)

19 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

(BONUS EPISODE FROM THE ARCHIVES)Learn about how Patrick McKenzie combined his technical skills with marketing/sales skills to launch & grow sever...

Bend the Learning Curve by Consistently Putting Yourself into a Place You’re Uncomfortable — Kathy Keating

12 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

We’re joined this week by guest co-host Diana Pfeil to interview Kathy Keating —  Kathy is a Colorado-based Startup CTO who has helped build seve...

Hire Engineers that are Smarter Than You Are w. Jud Valeski

05 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode is from the archives.  It’s an interview with Jud Valeski.  Jud was a co-founder of Gnip (acquired by Twitter), a real-time ...

Engineering Values Roundup

29 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We ask each of our guests what their engineering values are. What we love about this question is that the answers boil down the brass tacks of leaders...

Advancing Your Career is like Playing Great Chess w. Chris McAvoy

22 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We are joined this week by Chris McAvoy to talk about growing your people & their careers.   Learn why advancing your career is like playing grea...

Great Engineering War Stories

15 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, @owocki’s startup released a new product — The battles last week during this release reminded us of some of our favorite engineering wa...

Building Successful Distributed Teams – Gevorg Hovsepyan

08 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gevorg was the Co-Founder/CTO of LionSharp, where he led the development of Gesture and Voice controlled systems.  After he left Lionsharp, he became...

Rethinking Education from First Principles w. Manuel Mattke

01 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Manuel Mattke is an innovator, entrepreneur, tech product guy (and from time to time developer), with a background in finance, technology, and innovat...

Quantifying Engineering w. Travis Kimmel of Gitprime

24 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We’re taking this week off; If you’re in the US, you’re celebrating Thanksgiving.  If you’re not in the US, you can still give thanks — Lis...

Scaling the Rocket Ship w. Julia Austin of DigitalOcean

17 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Austin is the CTO of DigitalOcean and a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School of Entrepreneurial Management.  Hear about her experiences s...