boege.digital

Architect and Coach

Floodin 

Chief Technology Officer

Evolutionizer

* Responsible for building the core product of the company and the software organization required for that
* Lead Architect for the core product
* Agile Coach for development team and beyond
* Implemented an ISMS based on ISO 27001 and TISAX in the company

Head Of Development

Responsible for Development of SAP Disclosure Management

Development Manager

PricewaterhouseCoopers cundus Aktiengesellschaft

Competence Team Manager

Astroh Küchen GmbH & Co. KG

Software Developer

18 years’ experience in the software industry as developer, architect, coach, and leader.
People like my holistic approach in Software Product Development. From the very first idea to hundreds of Go-Lives: I managed the full product cycle already five times.
My Skillset combines Computer Science, Business Administration und Business Psychology.
I can help your business in the areas of agile coaching, solution/software architecture, team recruiting and development, software development processes.

One of my main USPs is the capability to reduce complex facts and communicate them using storytelling.

My technological home is the world of Microsoft .NET and Azure.

Married, father of three, passionate field hockey coach.

Markus Böge

I don't hire developers who don't use AI tools to code. 

By AI tools, I mean beyond code snippets in ChatGPT. 

I think CTOs need to ask in job interviews, what kind of AI tools the candidates use in their flow.  

In my experience, the majority said : none. 🤔 

This lack of awareness and willingness to adopt is damaging. 

When I need to scale up a tech team fast, efficiency/productivity is my #1 consideration. 

I'm aiming to hire 5, who can use full scale tools like Claude Code or Cursor to speed things up, instead of waiting for 10 people to onboard at the same time. 

If you're hiring tech candidates, making AI tool proficiency a core requirement. Ask what they use, how they use it... 
The answers can tell you everything about their adaptability and potential. 

What about you - is AI adaptability a huge consideration when hiring? 


#CTO #AI #Hiring

I enable CTOs to sync People, Product & Technology - instead of burning 100k/month for 0 new features

"I didn't figure it out fast enough. And I lost the job."

That's what a tech lead told me last month, after being let go from the company he helped to build. 

A few years ago, he was the most trusted engineer in the startup. He was reliable, fast with solutions, and always delivering over and beyond. 

Their DevOps SaaS really took off, with some serious investment, bigger clients and higher expectations. 

The last time we talked, he said, "I'll just push through this next quarter and I'll figure the rest of it out." 

He'd been figuring out how to systematically scale the team and the product for 18 months, during which he also became a dad. 
Meanwhile, the market matured, competitions grew and their now scale-up is losing its edge. 

He tried even harder with firefighting, filling in gaps, reviewing codes, being everyone's safety net, while trying to recruit and scale the team without any prior experience. 

His CEO, whom he considered a friend, had lost patience in his timelines. And the stakeholders decided to bring in someone more experienced. 

🤌 In an ideal world, he did not deserve to be let go. 
But that's the reality. 

If I could turn back time and give him one piece of advice, it'd be this: 

=> Don't wait for that "one day" when things are calmer. They won't. 

Choose to work smarter. Find help. Find someone who has done it before and who can show you clear steps and keep you accountable. 

#CTO #Leadership #CTOCoaching

"They are offering me 10% of the shares in the company to manage the tech side of the company..." 😲 but nobody gets paid until the startup breaks even...

Okay....I have many thoughts....but I'm wondering what your advice would be? 

#TechJob #Promotion

I just built a production-ready prototype in 6 hours

• 1 hour: defining requirements with Claude
• 5 hours: prototype coding with AI

The same work would probably take me 20+ hours in the past. 

So, when non-tech leadership think slow product development is a coding capacity problem & hire more developers...

the real problem lies with requirement engineering. 

When we can code 6x faster with AI, we need much faster (and better) requirements to keep pace. 

Lean companies that can beat bigger competitors with AI aren't throwing more developers at the problems, but they are investing in people who can

1/ engineer requirements with precision
2/ define specs that AI can execute 

This is spec-driven development and IMO it'll become the new competitive advantage. 

Have you tried focusing on speeding up requirement engineering and do you see tangible results? Curious to know! 

#CTO #ProductDevelopment #SaaS #AI

Techies: Tell me your most impressive certification 🤓 
And,has it actually helped you move into leadership positions? 

Probably not. 
Senior devs wanting to move into leadership, don't collect technical skills like Pokemon cards 🤓 

Learning the 47th JS framework, getting certified in yet another cloud platform...

All valuable. All impressive on paper. But the real learning doesn't happen in studying the "theory".

It happens when you pick an idea and start building. 
When you build, you are forced to: 

• Make decisions with incomplete information
• Navigate trade-offs between speed and quality
• Communicate technical choices to non-technical people (a must for CTOs)
• Own outcomes

Theory can only get your that far. Get your hands dirty - there are no shortcuts. 

#TechLeadership #CTO

Who wants to become a fractional CTO instead of full-time? 
Well, read some good news today -> 72% of CEOs plan to hire fractional leadership, including CTOs. 

Some startups are even considering hiring a "virtual CTO" because the average hiring time is about 2-4 weeks and with less commitment. 

Are you interested to hire/become a fractional CTO? 
If yes, why?

#FractionalCTO #CEO #Scaleup

Burnout is real - somebody I know recently stepped down from a leadership position because they just couldn't get up in the morning to do it anymore. 

Difficulty to fall and stay asleep, phantom pain in the chest, and a resting heart rate of 130 beats per minute. 

They were basically living on 6 coffees a day, working in between weekend playdates and relying on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. 

Their mind was buzzing with ideas and ambitions but their body warn them of their limits.  

If you're new as a CTO or CEO, or any leadership position, grasping the balance between challenges and competence is not easy, but it's vital for the long run. 

I take walks in nature when I need to recalibrate. 
It quiets my mind and puts the chaos into perspective. 
Talking to peers also helps. 

What's the thing you love to do to decompress? 

#CTO #Burnout #Leadership

People in Tech are getting fired because of AI spending, not because of AI itself. 

It's not a feeling -> Fast Company actually published an article on it. (I'll share the link the comment) 

They reported that 96% of businesses saw no dramatic improvements in efficiency and 40% of the business people surveyed have received "AI slop" at work; each took ~ 2 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐱. (Don't we know that 🤡) 

Many of today's tech layoffs are results of the financial stress from huge AI spending (that produced no business impacts). 

So when Startup and Scaleup CEOs come to me for advice with "just adding some AI" in the product or tech operations, my response is simple: 

"what for?" 

1/ What business problems are we solving with AI? 

2/ Do we need new hires or adjust current hiring to fit these "AI needs"? 

3/ Are we okay with delays because integrating AI can cause complications and risks? 

These questions usually get them to stop asking for "some AI" :-) 
As the CTO, you shouldn't feel guilty to push back non-sense AI requests. It's actually your job. 


#CTO #AI #TechJob

Got asked in DM often by aspiring devs: What's the next THING to learn if they want to become a CTO. 

Here's my take.

You don't need to be the best coder in the room.

But you better understand what your team is building and why it matters.

I've seen brilliant engineers get promoted to CTO and crash hard because they think like tech leads. 
Because they couldn't translate tech decisions into business impact.

The shift from senior dev to CTO isn't about writing more code.
It's about writing less and thinking more.

Can you explain your architecture choices to a non-technical CEO?
Can you spot when your team is over-engineering something?
Can you hire people smarter than you and not feel threatened?

Easier said then done. 

Stay technical enough to earn respect.
Stay business-savvy enough to keep your seat at the table.

Focus on:
• Building the right team
• Making strategic tech bets
• Connecting engineering to revenue

Your value as CTO isn't in the code you write.
It's in the problems you solve and the people you grow.



#CTO #Leadership #SaaS

CTO: Code or Lead?

Want that promotion to "CTO" in 2026? You have 49 days left to make it happen.

If you want to become a CTO in a startup or scaleup, focus on these:

1. Forget about job boards and start reaching out to your network. 
2. Show your leadership potential, not (only) your tech genius. 
3. Get honest feedback - look for an outsider, not a friend. Find a coach, or someone you admire. Ask them where you're falling short. Then close that gap before 2026 ends. 

49 days left in 2025. If you want to stop talking about the promotion and actually do something about it, start now. 

#CTO #Leadership #Coaching

How to get your first CTO job 

End of year creates a bit of unease and anxiety. Especially if you've just got promoted this year (and haven't got anything amazing to show for it yet) 

I hear that so often from newly promoted CTOs - different industries, but same struggles 🙁 

“𝐈 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫… 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐰?”
It’s one thing to write great code and lead a small team.
But when your company closes €1M+ in funding, the weight shifts. 
Suddenly, you have a lot more to lose. 

“𝐈’𝐦 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐈 𝐦𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝.”
You built something great with your CEO buddy.
People loved it. Then came investors. 
More money. More hires. 
But somehow the team isn't efficient, had to let go of a few people, wrecked your budget, delayed your deployment, and ....no results. 

“I know where I want to go, but I don't know how?”
You just want one quiet hour to think because: 
𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤.

The jump from being a smart techie in a startup to becoming a CTO
is very, very unique. 

If you’re in that phase, you won't see quick results with any DIY strategies. 
It's about trial-and-error, learning from others, exchanging with other CTOs who have done it before. 

But nothing would work if you don't snap out of your self-doubts and make a plan.

I have worked in startups, scaleups and big Corps like SAP. 
And now, I'm helping new CTOs in scaleups build clear roadmaps to success. 
📩 DM me if you’d like to talk

taplio