Interesting. I had the reverse experience recently of joining a (global) marketing company/agency as their first CTO - the goal being to build products to sell.

Interesting. I had the reverse experience recently of joining a (global) marketing company/agency as their first CTO - the goal being to build products to sell. The role was very much the same as the blog post - build a team, define tech within the org, help the rest of business and take on tasks I've delegated for years. I didn't get past the last one and lasted for a year - marketing isn't 'all fluff' but it is a very different beast from the tech industry and has a relatively short term mindset. Build something in 30 days, build something else completely after that, build something else again in the next 30 - I burned out after a year and whilst I'm grateful for the learnings and opportunity it afforded me, I will never stray from what I know again. I think this is part of the disconnect we have.