Geeks Who Lead Podcast

Sites like Squarespace and Shopify have simplified the design and engineering process for people who either don’t have the technical skills or the resources to hire a team of engineers. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for the tools a business will need. Julien Lemoine is the co-founder and CTO of Algolia, a hosted search platform. He joined Peter for a discussion on API and customi...

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 businesses shape what is possible in network engineering. Justin is currently the CTO and CIO of Weedmaps, a website that helps customers find local weed dispensaries and helps dispensaries stay in compliance with state regulations. Today, Justin takes...

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 knowledge on the patterns leaders in startups face as well as best practices that have helped businesses reach scale. This week on CTO Connection, Rob takes Peter behind the curtain of life as a startup advocate. They also discuss their biggest career...

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 teeth at Microsoft, Amazon, and Postmates so when the time came to start his own company, Productiv, he knew how to get the right people for the job. Ashish spoke candidly about his past experiences and how they have helped shape Productiv. He shared with...

According to Raj Sethuraman , good technology cannot be a successful technology unless it solves customer problems and drives great business outcomes. Raj is currently CTO at Wolters Kluwer and got his start at Intuit. The common thread throughout his career has been establishing customer-centricity to better inform technical decisions. He is our guest this week on CTO Connection and talked to Pet...

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 it comes to developing individuals on a team into leadership and management roles. Greg joined Peter to talk about some of the most important principles discussed in his book. He discusses why feedback isn’t always a pat on the back and shares three...

In any industry, communication is a key factor in a team’s success. For CTOs navigating complex problems, effective communication between all stakeholders is paramount. David Subar is both a Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Interna Consulting. He joined Peter to discuss common patterns that result in communication breakdowns. David shares some of the clashes that can happen wh...

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 security systems that power his engineering team. He joined Peter for this week’s edition of CTO Connection to discuss his journey to CTO as well as the many changes he’s witnessed over the years. Listen for Fleming’s thoughts on keeping up with trends a...

Data science has increasingly become an integral part of the technical makeup of organizations. However, most CTOs don’t have experience building a data science component from scratch. Jon Morra got his start in data science at eHarmony when most technical teams did not have any researchers. He joins Peter today on CTO Connection to offer advice on how to build a research team from the ground up....

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 Climate and joined Peter to discuss how she approaches the hiring process, keeps her team on track, and navigates metrics such as cycle time and code review involvement. Tune in to hear Alexandra’s thoughts on communication and transparency as well as men...

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 problem. Many are young, inexperienced, or desirous of being part of a shippable product to relinquish control. Andy Skipper was once such a CTO himself. Now he coaches and mentors other CTOs with his company, CTO Craft. Andy joined Peter for this we...

According to James Smith , CEO of Bugsnag, caring about customer experience is what makes for a better software developer. This is especially important when managing technical debt. Today on CTO Connection, James shares his experience and discusses his approach toward technical debt from both the developer and client perspectives. James shares why he believes overcommunication is key and how carvi...

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 own priorities? Our guest this week on CTO Connection is Andrew Fawcett , CTO of Avantica. Andrew has worked with companies of all sizes and has seen some truly amazing changes made, but also has run into those that lacked vision. Andrew sat down with...

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 Dalia Havens of Netlify, metrics need to be optimized to give you a full picture of company or project health. Today, Dalia talks to Peter about using metrics in a healthy way that can empower and help solve problems. She also discusses why a consistent...

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 guest this week on CTO Connection is Bob Friday , CTO of Mist, a Juniper Company. Bob is a veteran who has been through the startup process many times. He talked to Peter about the thought processes that go into crafting both teams and entire organiza...

When companies transition from private to IPO, there are bound to be challenges and learning curves. Rachana Kumar has worked in five countries, two of her positions were in the non-profit sector. These experiences helped her roll with the punches as her current employer, Etsy, has undergone a massive change over the last few years. Rachana is preparing for a talk on helping leaders navigate large...

Learning doesn’t end once you’ve earned your degree. Developers and engineers must stay up to date with their skills and emerging technologies. But most of the time, employees are expected to take on this additional learning on their own. Our guest this week on CTO Connection is Kwame Thomison , a consultant and leadership coach formerly of Meebo, Facebook, and Asana. Kwame discusses different lea...

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 have increased, UserTesting’s CTO Kaj van de Loo has seen some unforeseen issues pop up. This week on CTO Connection, we’re discussing how the pandemic has not only changed the structure of work, but also the expectations people have of working in an o...

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 worked at Myspace and the BBC. His experiences at each of these companies taught him invaluable lessons that led to him founding his own company which was acquired by Imperva where he currently serves as CTO. Peter talked to Kunal about his diverse resu...

Hypergrowth is what every startup dreams of, but actually filling the seemingly unlimited positions available is incredibly taxing on employees. Cat Miller is the Vice President at Flatiron Health . At one point, she took on the enormous burden of interviewing at least four people a week. Recognizing the strain on resources, she and her team set out to streamline their hiring process. Today, Cat i...

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 is Douglas Ferguson , President of Voltage Control . Voltage Control’s mission is to rid the world of horrible meetings. So how do you transform ineffectual meetings to something of greater value? Douglas talked to Peter about his 10 mantras for meeti...

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 com bust and incremental steps at various development firms have led him to the belief that the cloud is the ultimate goal of any organization. On today’s episode of CTO Connection, Tolga shares wisdom and advice on how to find the right mechanisms...

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 and Co-founder of Gremlin, a platform that seeks to help companies avoid outages and build more resilient systems. On today’s episode of CTO Connection, Kolton explains the concept of chaos engineering and why it’s so important, particularly to large scal...

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 opportunities, what are the best practices for remote interviews? Joining Peter today on CTO Connection is Shannon Hogue , Global Head of Solutions Engineering at Karat . Karat has perfected the art of Interview Engineering and Shannon has some helpful adv...

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 that everyone is being forced to work from home, many companies and managers are scrambling to figure out how to make it work. David Blair , CTO of Andela , has years of experience managing distributed teams. Today he offers his best tips and advice...