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Road to CTO

Kuba Lang
Artificial Intelligence
Mos Health
Booksy
Fintech
Leadership
Klarna
Technology Leadership
Engineering Leadership
Ammar Shaker's Career Path
NEOM
Python
Bipit
Erlang
Financial Education
Recruiting Software Developers

Short stories of how technology leaders got to where they are. One CTO, one journey, no filler.

New episode every Wednesday.

Road to CTO is a short-format podcast for engineers and engineering managers aiming for the CTO role, and for tech leaders curious how their peers got there. Each episode is one conversation about the path, the turning point, and the lessons learned along the way. Guests ran... more

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes8Founded2 months ago
Number of ListenersCategories
CareersBusinessTechnology

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Artwork for Road to CTO

Latest Episodes

Maciej Gościński was halfway through Google's interview process when a friend messaged him about a bike. He quit the process, co-founded a cycling travel company in France, and three and a half years later their maps were on the Tour de France websit... more

Erik Stenman was employee number seven at a Swedish startup called Kreditor. He joined as head of engineering, a department of one. Ten years later the company was called Klarna, had 1,200 people, and he had grown with it into the CTO role. His first... more

People called Ammar Shaker a job hopper. Fast-moving goods, mining, banking, the founding CIO of the Saudi Formula One Grand Prix, three failed fintechs. He says that is exactly how you learn what a leader actually needs to know, and he has one rule ... more

In 2001, Filip Jakubowski-Drzewiecki walked into a Dublin design studio with a CV and no job. The manager caught him on the staircase on his way out: can you start tomorrow? Twenty-five years, a failed startup and a digital bank later, he says the mo... more

Most people who become CTO never planned it. Stefan Kühn certainly didn't. A mathematician with a PhD from the Max Planck Institute, he took his first industry job and found himself recruiting and running a team within weeks. His advice for anyone ch... more

At six, Paweł Sobkowiak wrote his first program on a Commodore 128. In high school he quit coding to study sociology. He came back to build the engineering team behind Booksy, from a handful of people to 180.

Paweł Sobkowiak: CTO at Mos Health, buil... more

An officer in the Italian Army at 18. CIO and CTO of a city that didn't exist yet at 40. Alessio Garofalo's road to the top had no map, and that's exactly why it's worth hearing.

Alessio Garofalo: former CIO and CTO of NEOM, Amazon leadership across... more

Welcome to Road to CTO - the podcast designed for software engineers, tech leads, and aspiring engineering leaders making the transition from writing code to steering technical strategy and leading teams.

In this trailer, we dive into what this show... more

Key Facts

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Podcast Host
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Find out how many people listen to this podcast per episode and each month.

Recent Guests

Erik Stenman
Former Klarna CTO, founder of Happy Hacking, fractional CTO, architecture coach and author
Happy Hacking
Episode: #6 - Erik Stenman: Promoting your best coder to manager? Klarna's first CTO says don't
Ammar Shaker
CTO and co-founder of Mausool, with 18 years of IT experience across the Middle East
Mausool
Episode: #5 - Ammar Shaker: Don't know what your people do? You don't deserve to lead them
Filip Jakubowski-Drzewiecki
board member at Bipit
Bipit
Episode: #4 - Filip Jakubowski-Drzewiecki: Afraid to ask the simple question? That's where innovation starts
Stefan Kuhn
CTO at Sporting Rock
Sporting Rock
Episode: #3 - Stefan Kühn: Want to be CTO for your ego? That's the fastest way to fail
Paweł Sobkowiak
CTO at Mos Health, former technical leader at Booksy
Mos Health
Episode: #2 - Paweł Sobkowiak: From sociology student to Booksy's 180-engineer CTO
Alessio Garofalo
CTO at Strike for NATO
Strike for NATO
Episode: #1 - Alessio Garofalo: From army officer to CTO of a city of the future

Host

Kuba Lang
Host of Road to CTO. CEO of Cyrantos; facilitates in-depth conversations with tech leaders about their path to CTO roles.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#37
Poland/Business/Careers

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

#5 - Ammar Shaker: Don't know what your people do? You don't deserve to lead them
Q: What would be some other parts that people should remember from this episode?
Shaker recommends developing both technical and management skills and following market trends. He highlights AI and robotics as durable areas of demand, while noting that technology skills such as programming, networking, and cybersecurity have risen and fallen in popularity.
#5 - Ammar Shaker: Don't know what your people do? You don't deserve to lead them
Q: What was the shifting moment when you were effectively building your craft and making sure that A, you're learning the coding part of your job, but at the same time being exposed to different industries?
Shaker says leaving his first long-term job after nearly nine years pushed him out of his comfort zone and toward leadership. He describes taking a gamble, learning quickly, and believes leaders need to know the work their teams do.
#6 - Erik Stenman: Promoting your best coder to manager? Klarna's first CTO says don't
Q: What worked well when you started promoting team leaders, and what would you recommend CTOs avoid?
Stenman says Klarna separated people managers, who handled scheduling and personnel matters, from tech leads, who made technical decisions with their teams. The tech leads also coordinated across teams through an architecture board.
#6 - Erik Stenman: Promoting your best coder to manager? Klarna's first CTO says don't
Q: Can you tell us about your journey from your entry tech position into something that later evolved into the very first CTO position?
Stenman started a consultancy, earned a PhD in computer science focused on Erlang compilation, worked on Scala at EPFL, and joined Kreditor as head of engineering and its first engineer. He grew with the company into the CTO role.
#4 - Filip Jakubowski-Drzewiecki: Afraid to ask the simple question? That's where innovation starts
Q: What are three pieces of advice to our audience on getting on the right track to become a CTO?
Three key pieces of advice are: find a mentor who has walked in those shoes to share real experiences; cultivate curiosity and ask why to understand underlying mechanics; and maintain decision logs to capture the rationale behind choices, which helps the organization learn and improve over time.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Road to CTO

What is Road to CTO about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show features candid conversations with technology leaders who reached CTO-level roles, focusing on turning points, people decisions, and practical leadership lessons. Across episodes, listeners hear how guests moved from hands-on engineering to strategy, how they built and scaled teams, navigated cross-cultural or cross-sector environments, and balanced technical depth with business impact. Notable threads include mentorship, ownership of outcomes, the shift from coding to leadership, and the reality that CTO success comes from shaping environments where teams can excel, not just individual prowess. The format is concise and journey-driven, making it useful for engineers and engineering managers aiming for CTO tracks, as well as tech ... more

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Road to CTO launched 2 months ago and published 8 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Road to CTO?

Recent guests on Road to CTO include:

1. Erik Stenman
2. Ammar Shaker
3. Filip Jakubowski-Drzewiecki
4. Stefan Kuhn
5. Paweł Sobkowiak
6. Alessio Garofalo

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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