The Amazing CTO Book

Reviews

This book condenses knowledge and experience of decades in easy to apply rules. They are thought provoking and challenge the CTO in you with one specific goal: become an even better CTO tomorrow.

— David Gebhardt, CTO mobile.de

Stephen has gained a certain magic from his career as CTO that I have not seen in many who share similar experiences, the ability to translate complex organizational issues into simple ideas and concepts that are easy to implement. He is funny. He is passionate. He is brilliant. Truly a voice for this new generation of CTOs.

— Etienne de Bruin, Founder 7CTOs.

Rapid fire, super condensed advice how to be awesome at your job. I think every other C Level should also read it to know what to expect. And every aspiring Tech Leader.

— Oliver Wehrens, Associate Partner Tektik Consulting

The experience of 30 years, crisp and to the point. And on top of that, an extremely practical checklist that nobody should be without. The appendix alone is worth the book.

— Mladen Miljic, Senior Manager IoT

Stephan is a very experienced tech leader and an exceptional mentor and coach. Amazing CTO is a great book with golden insights for anyone in engineering management

— Steinunn Arnardottir, VP Engineering SPREAD

This book is everything I looked for when I've started but also enjoy reading today. 140 topics rolled into one book. Every topic clear and to the point … everything to initiate the thought process and challenging the status quo

— André Neubauer, CTO Trusted Shops

I really enjoyed reading the book and learned many new tricks from Stephan. For example, the CTO Café is a great way to interact with your peers - and of course, I'll be wearing a company T-shirt at every opportunity in the future to attract new hires! A highly recommended read!

— Dr. Raphael A. Bauer, MBA Interim CTO, Fearless organizations

The book

easy to follow rules

From Stephan's coaching practice and management career more and more rules on how to be successful with management practices and soft skill materialized. The book contains those 140 easy to follow rules. These range from "Set people up for success not failure" to "Delegates everything" and "Is a storyteller".

lists and models

A large appendix with lists and models give practical advice. Lists include checklists for hiring, onboarding, security and more.

Models in the books help understand drivers and effects for CTOs and help the CTO explain development concepts to others.

about the author

Stephan Schmidt launched his tech career as a self-taught coder, mastering the art of programming as a kid in a department store back in 1981 with ambitions of creating video games. His passion for technology led him to university, where he delved into computer science, specializing in distributed systems and artificial intelligence, while also exploring the realms of philosophy. With the dawn of the internet era, Stephan became a pioneering coder and engineering manager for several startups.

His journey in the tech world expanded as he founded a venture capital-funded startup and tackled architecture, processes, and growth challenges in various fast-growing VC-backed companies. His roles have included engineering manager at ImmoScout24 and CTO of an eBay Inc. subsidiary. Following the successful sale of his wife’s startup, the couple relocated to the seaside, where Stephan embraced his role as a CTO coach, guiding technology leaders through the intricacies of their evolving roles.

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Amazing CTO

The missing manual for managing