Agree with everything, but I wouldn't be too strict on the requirement that the CTO be able to do the work - within reason and depending on the org. They defini

Agree with everything, but I wouldn't be too strict on the requirement that the CTO be able to do the work - within reason and depending on the org. They definitely have to be able to understand it and have an intelligible conversation. For example, my current place does hardware and software - CTO comes from the software side so he's not a specialist on the hardware and can't contribute directly to the electrical engineering work. But at least he knows how to ask the right questions, learn when he needs to, and got the right people under him to get the job done. And to your point, he has no formal business education and our CEO is the founder, and an electrical engineer