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Ask HN: Have you stepped down as CTO and been happier?

2 points by cwitty88 ↗ HN
I’m currently the CTO of a fairly rapidly growing startup. I am a decent software developer but not a great engineer. I’ve managed to scale the app pretty successfully until now but I feel like I’m am constantly stressed thinking about the next phase. I handle all things technical while the VP of engineering handles the people and process aspects of the team. Lately I have been thinking about stepping down and letting a better CTO come in and run things in the hope that I will be happier day to day. Have you done something similar to this and if so what was the outcome? Were you happier in your personal life?

2 comments

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dc396
This will be wildly context dependent. I stepped down (or perhaps more correctly, out -- I left the company) and was happier as I transitioned to a job I was more suited to. I suspect whether moving out of the CTO role will make you happier depends on how able you are to give up technical/architectural ownership to someone else. In my case, it was easy -- I was done and had no interest in the product anymore. However, if you still care about decisions, I'd imagine you're setting yourself up for a different kind of angst: seeing your replacement do things "the wrong way" and not being able to fix it. Of course, YMMV.
cwitty88
I wondered about that myself. I’m hoping that I can keep myself from doing that but if worse came to worse I may have to transition out to achieve happiness. I think that’s the point I’m at though. Appreciate the perspective!