DevriX

Managing a portfolio of $1.65B in digital sales and $730M in e-commerce transactions through our retainers.

Our martech team provides:

- Enterprise-grade retainer engineering solutions for WordPress B2B, SaaS, publishers, WooCommerce, affiliate platforms generating millions of views
- Full martech integration for HubSpot (Agency partner), Salesforce, or Marketo - along with all B2B lead tracking, identification, workflow development and lead scoring activities across the full board (6sense, Kwanzoo, RB2B, Clearbit)
- SEO solutions as a Semrush agency partner scaling through programmatic SEO and traditional on-site and off-site activities, earned media, strategic partnerships, content outline and production
- Funnel development and lead generation activities - from lead magnet ideation, creation, design through automated outreach with Apollo or SalesLeadGen

As a CEO of DevriX, I am responsible for helping successful businesses scale their platforms up to 900,000,000 monthly views, automate internal processes and optimize their workflow. My business and growth strategy is tailored to our customers'​ business goals and consists of a detailed proposal reflecting the technical architecture, marketing planning, and business process optimization.

Chief Executive Officer

Growth Shuttle

Growth Shuttle offers business advisory services to SME executives, senior managers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and experienced freelancers in non-digital industries across North America, Europe, Australia.

With 15+ years of entrepreneurship and management experience across dozens of businesses, Mario Peshev engages with businesses in a fractional CXO role, employing best practices from EOS or OKRs across growing businesses in Europe, North America, and Australia.  

Advisor of the fastest growing company in Bulgaria (2021) - https://www.capital.bg/biznes/tehnologii_i_nauka/2023/01/09/4396456_nitropack_burzi_saitove_po-burz_rastej/ 

Our advisory agreements include one-off sessions and monthly contracts around business strategy, digital consulting, deploying new tech, recruitment, team management, executive branding, building remote teams, working with intrapreneurs, and more.

Founder, Business Advisor

SeedBlink

SeedBlink is the leadest European tech-powered investing platform enabling individuals and institutions to start investing in European tech startups and scale-ups, joining rounds together with the leading Venture Capital firms at the same terms.

Alternative investment opportunities in the area are limited. 

Angel investing isn't as widespread: 

1. A company structure isn't as flexible to accommodate equity distribution.
2. Due diligence on startup performance requires in-depth expertise vetting businesses.
3. Minimum tickets are high.
4. Tracking company performance is complicated.
5. Finding opportunities that VCs seek is a hit or miss.

SeedBlink solves all of that - and helps you sign up and join a company funding round for as little as several thousand dollars/euro in minutes. 

As an angel investor myself, supporting multiple businesses via SeedBlink, I help executives, managers, young investors make their first steps in investing - and foreign investors tap into the local ecosystem and existing deals.

Brand Ambassador

 Rush 

(Acquired by Shop Circle)

Rush is a groundbreaking Shopify app turning your eCommerce funnel into a flywheel.

We run a network of 2,700+ online stores and solve the following:

1. Order tracking and notifications pages providing in-depth insights on your online retail experience.
2. Slash your customer support time in half (order status is the #1 blocker online consumers report in the shopping process).
3. Seamless and native Online Store 2 experience - it just works within your native Shopify user experience and native blocks. 
4. Generating up to 7% extra monthly revenue from order page upsell carousels.
5. Tried and tested Klaviyo flows turning your customers into fans.

Backed by Eleven Ventures (11.vc)

Official Member

Brainjolt

OUR MISSION: DON'T BE BORING!

Key initiatives:

* Running product for 22 brands, 70 million followers, and 1.5+ billion monthly ad impressions.
* Directly managing Product, Data Engineering, Analytics, and Solutions Engineering
* Providing business intelligence, automated solutions, R&D, and financial analysis across internal and external stakeholders
* Handling the programmatic revenue stack
* Providing strategy and direction across annual product roadmap and strategic initiatives

Chief Technology Officer

Placester, Inc.

Working as a WordPress Engineer for the new age company building the future of the real estate industry. 

Full-stack development on the top of the Placester plugin with over 50K WordPress.org downloads, the internal theme framework with tight and flexible plugin integration for complete listings support, a number of high quality themes and a MS instance with thousands of customers.

Responsible for building an internal framework for listing management on the frontend communicating with all major APIs in the WordPress ecosystem. Maintaining the Open Source pushes for our products on WordPress.org and preparing several themes being submitted and accepted in the Theme Directory.

WordPress Engineer

ICT Media

Providing security materials for ICT Media. 

> Publishing a weekly e-Security bulletin on vulnerabilities, security issues, protection software, online intrusions, database systems.
> Conducting R&D for relevant security breaches and zero-day attacks.
> Performing basic penetration testing in an isolated environment.
> Attending security events and reporting on the latest in software and web security.
> Translating security news from English and Russian.

Security Newsletter Author

Freelance Lodge

Full-time freelance in Java SE/EE, PHP, Python, JavaScript. Building ERP custom solutions, websites, CMS. Offering consulting and technical courses.

Training courses in private held companies in Bulgaria and Europe:

> "Database specifics and Java ORM frameworks" private-held course
> "Introduction to databases and PL/SQL" course in CERN - Switzerland
> "Freelance: Survivor tricks" seminar in New Bulgarian University and Technological School - Electronic Systems, part of Technical University - Sofia
> "Full-time and part-time jobs" workshop for "Stop and Think!" brainstorm club
> "Automated testing" and "Marathon framework" testing seminars
> "Digital signatures and Public-Private key cryptography" lecture in New Bulgarian University
> "Freelance for a living" lecture at Drupal Camp - Sofia
> "The power of the Four" at TEDxNBU
> "Content Management Systems specifics and differences" research

Handled ongoing development and support for two long-term clients (after completing test assignments and acing complex project deliveries).

A seasoned trainer for MNC and a part-time lecturer for web design and Internet programming with Java in the Technology School - Electronic Systems, a part of the Technical University of Sofia.

Specialties: WordPress, Google Web Toolkit, Swing+JPA, CodeIgniter, CakePHP, Django
Creating and consulting web project for small and middle sized international companies. 
Implementing Video-on-Demand server architecture and creating middleware solution.Training different teams on innovative technologies and concepts with real-world examples.

Freelance Developer & Trainer

OnTheGoSystems

Promoted from a technical role to a customer-facing one combining Marketing and Technology.

> Responsible for customer satisfaction over our products and services. 
> Leading and enforcing improvements on compatibility, usability, and training resources across our products. 
> Helping new and existing clients depending on a custom setup of WordPress and free/premium themes and plugins.
> Working with partners, customers, management on marketing and innovation strategies for WPML, Types, Views, ICanLocalize.

Technical Marketing Specialist

CEO @ Rush, DevriX. Scaling eCom between Woo, Shopify, and Amazon. Investor, SeedBlink Ambassador.

I spend $400K a year in experiments to keep the pulse on digital GTM strategies (so you don't have to).

tl;dr - Serial entrepreneur, angel investor, advisor for B2B leaders, growth hacker, 25 years in scaling digital platforms - actively involved with launching AI apps, running campaigns, and closing deals myself.

On a day to day, my companies help B2B executives stay on top of the latest B2B playbooks and growth strategies in the turbulent space, analyzing a broad spectrum of channels: social reach, SEO, lead generation, PPC efficiency, podcasts, partnership marketing, events, sales-led motions, web funnels, community development, working with ambassadors and KOLs.

My Background:

✅ Built and scaled 3 bootstrapped businesses from zero to 7 figures in revenue + sold a Shopify SaaS and a theme shop. 

✅ Led over 10,000 hours in training and consulting over the past 20 years - 400+ B2B clients, corporate courses for organizations like VMware, SAP, Software AG, CERN, Saudi Aramco, hundreds of business and martech events

✅ Currently providing advisory services for a handful of clients through Growth Shuttle and execution (GTM, experimentation, martech, scalability) via DevriX. We manage the full circle from roadmap planning, goal setting, reviewing PMF and marketing alignment, launching new offers and channels, building funnels, supplementing with SEO and content marketing, and more - a full-service strategic and delivery partner for SMEs making $5M to $50M/year (and some Fortune 1,000s).

✅ Ambassador for Flippa, SeedBlink, doola, advisor at NitroPack and Vevol Media. Angel investor in 18 startups, agency PE limited partner.

What's Next?

- Work with me 1:1: https://asyncadvisor.com/
- Scale with my martech agency DevriX: https://devrix.com/
- Follow my weekly B2B reports here: https://mariopeshev.com/growth-blueprint/
- Grab a copy of "MBA Disrupted": https://www.amazon.com/MBA-Disrupted-Step-Step-Bootstrapping-ebook/dp/B0D4GPY31V/

"5500 лева годишно са изчезнали от бюджета на едно семейство" - из интервюто с Dobromir Ivanov за bTV Новините.

Важни цитати от интервюто за допълнителните разходи от страна на работодателя: ⤵️

"Един човек в момента, ако е изкарал 45,000лв за годината, едни 24,000лв допълнително се взимат от данъци и осигуровки. Сумарно 37.5% през 2026г от парите му държавата му ги взима директно през данъци и осигуровки."

И логичният въпрос:

"Ако ти предложат на теб дали да си получиш всичките 75,000лв или 24,000лв автоматично да отиват за данъци и осигуровки, ти кое ще си избереш?"

Ние от 15 години плащаме пълни заплати и осигуровки, и в 2025г все още получаваме въпроси на интервюто на "на пълна заплата ли са осигуровките?" и "редовно ли плащате?" 🤷‍♂️

Добромир сподели, че 70% от имотите в София от 2020г до 2024г са купени директно кеш. 99% от всички бентлита и астън мартини и ламборджинита в София са на същия принцип - и нямат никакво отражение към бюджета (и обикновено са внесени от разни холандски търговци или с пари кеш на митницата).

Отчетите на ЕС показват, че 20 години България е №1 по сива икономика в съюза (надали е изненада) - 34,6% от БВП е сива икономика.

Данъците имат смисъл, когато се инвестират правилно и от тях не се крадат 95%. Огромен процент от хубави хотели, ресторанти, заведения, курорти у нас са инвестирани с "пари от пътища" и други програми, когато се проследят източниците на парите. 

👉 Същевременно:

- Образованието ни върви надолу прогресивно или стои в 80-те години
- Частните детски градини са практика, заради липса на места
- Частни прегледи и клиники (дълга история)
- Покъртителни пътища (не просто липсата на Хемус, но всички дупки всяка зима или ежегодни ремонти на Тракия)
- Бавна и необективна съдебна система 
- 4-то място в Европа по брой полицаи на 100,000 души, за сметка на рекордна престъпност, катастрофи по централни булеварди, превишена скорост, рекети и т.н.
- Пощите стават кооперативни магазини?

Нивото на администрацията също го знаем, и с какви темпове расте напред.

Знаем, че България често е на първо място "отзад-напред" по много критерии. 

Но след 3 години икономически спад, таксуване на малкото "външни приходи" предвид очевидните дупки в бюджета (рекордна сива икономика) е единствено начин за задушаване на светлата икономика, за да останат единствено бизнеси с минимални заплати, плащания кеш, и канали за преминаване на нелегални стоки.

👉 Всички тези решения се отразяват със забавяне, и сигурно. Изтичане на бизнеси, изтичане на таланти, намаляване на наета работна ръка (математиката не излиза), непродуктивна работна ръка (некачествено образование), липса на безопасност (убийства по пътищата и беззаконие).

Ако нямаме производство и иновации, а сме 6 милиона човека, защо убиваме публичното БВП?

#БюджетНаАбсурда

Mario Peshev

Talks about #b2bgrowth, #gtmstrategy, #angelinvesting, #businessadvisor, and #inboundmarketing

CEO, DevriX | Investor (20x+) | Enterprise Advisor | Author

Според БАИТ и БАСКОМ, IT индустрията у нас е 65,000 човека. 

Там включват не само инженери, а и доста други роли, специфични за отделни компании - като 2 от топ 3 работодателя в България са DXC и HPE, а в SAP и VMware също има редица роли, които не са директно приложими в широка среда извън конкретна, малка група компании.

🌏 Този миниатюрен пазар е бил водещ при по-силна европейска икономика, тъй като спрямо Западна Европа все още сме относително конкурентни.

За Северна Америка и Азия - по-трудно. Нито откъм работни часове, нито образование, нито обема наличен талант, нито работна култура.

А иновациите в AI, роботика, self-driving cars и повечето иновативни индустрии са именно там.

(И не, да цитираме един Lovable или Dronamics за примери с достатъчен обем, нито Revolut за пример на целия финансов сектор, или 2-3 естонски стартъпа за цялата икономика в района.)

⚠️ При свиващ се сектор глобално от края на 2022 насам, ежегодното вдигане на осигурителни прагове + допълнителната данъчна тежест сега, за сметка на държавния сектор, не води до нищо друго, освен изтичане на още бизнес от нас.

А ако някой мисли, че AI е далеч от взимане на работни места, достатъчни са няколко чата с 1st level съпорт на големи телекоми, банки, хостинг компании, за да сравним нивото на алтернативата в различни отдели в сектора.

Google, Amazon, Microsoft down for hours at a time this year, and now Cloudflare shutting the web down for over 2 hours yesterday morning.

Following a power outage for a full day across Spain and Portugal in February.

I've never seen anything like that in 25 years on the web.

Meanwhile, our support channels are going crazy if sites are down longer than 5 minutes. One of the larger hosting companies had a 2 hour maintenance just a few hours ago, with other sites down in the process (this doesn't make the news at this scale).

The web is both taking cuts due to inflated bubble hiring sprees and VC funding in the past years, and reporting surprisingly low uptime reports.

Investing in replication costs 6 figures on average, plus the ongoing maintenance and 24/7 support staff to execute as needed.

Meanwhile, businesses are losing more in a single outage.

Investments in the web of 2025 are drastically different compared to the 2010s.

DevriX is one of the top 10 most active contributors to the WordPress ecosystem this October - ranked among industry veterans like Google, Automattic, WP Engine, and Yoast. 🏆

A great testament to the strong infrastructure work going on here.

We bridge tech and data to revenue operations and FP&A through a real, deep commitment to solving complex problems and contributing to the largest open-source projects on the planet.

🕴️With 4 open jobs in our engineering department, we're happy to welcome ultra-qualified talent in Sofia able to bend the system for 43% of the web. 

📈 And if you map RevOps goals through 2026 and 2027 on top of a WordPress stack, we're scaling a dozen mid-market and SME leaders in the $50M - $500M revenue bracket for maximum revenue lifecycle compliance, tech implementation, data and signal tracking, and operational alignment.

Nov 29, NDK - DevriX is attending WordCamp Sofia again! ☘️

(We're also hiring engineering and marketing managers, full-stack developers, and account executives for our Sofia office.)

Scaling some of the most epic WordPress projects on the planet.

See you next weekend?

A packed room on a Thursday morning for the  DEV.BG Leadership Agora summit today.

Opening up, Hari Haralambiev and Alexander Popov on leadership principles, transformations, hard work and creativity. 

Coming up Mitko Vasilev next, a core executive and ops power among the org troops.

A long day with synergy and calibration for tech leaders and senior engineering professionals. 

I'll be around over the next 3 hours - hit me up if you're around!

(Also, we're hiring engineers, tech leads, and account managers at DevriX)

With 13 active Cursor team licenses and 7 Lovables for prototyping/UI mocks at work, we're looking for more engineers to help us scale cloud-based systems (AWS/GCP), serverless apps (CF workers/Lambda), and expand complex WordPress applications in our Sofia HQ.

🦾 Integrate MCPs and run agents for $30M - $500M companies in production by solving real revenue problems across CRMs and ERPs, unblock data silos, and build bridges across systems.

Are you an engineer or a tech marketer who's testing the bleeding-edge tools on the side while your day job is running a 2015 stack?

Check out our jobs at DevriX as we apply startup velocity to enterprise scale.

While DevriX first crossed the $1M ARR mark nearly a decade ago, the largest chunk of my income comes from consulting contracts.

Reinvesting a lot into R&D, automations, RevOps transformation, experiments, tooling, testing vendors, hiring advisors, new AI/LLM tools, my spread of different income streams spans across the agency, investments, some digital properties, equity in a couple of other businesses, and my advisory work.

🧳 The advisory program kept scaling over the last 6 years, and the last three holiday seasons led to one major launch each:

1. The $1,800/mo async advisory started originally in 2022 (an alternative to my $600/hr rate and unblocking my time between time zones with calls, now at $3,500/mo)
2. Starting the advisory community in Dec 2023
3. Launching the SMB group (sub-$500K in revenue) in Q4 2024 with deals

This year, I'm launching a 40% off the $3,500/mo program for mid-market and SME companies and executives + PE companies and VC funds, representing the majority of our portfolio over the past couple of years.

And this newsletter expands on how RevOps is our key growth engine, the levels of assessments DevriX incorporates in our $15K to $50K agency retainers, and how fractional RevOps consultancy drives growth to multiple $50M - $250M companies on the market today.

"MBA Disrupted" was first released last year, still 100% relevant in forming digital corporations with sustainable business models, and only mentions "AI" NINE times across nearly 400 pages. 📗

I wouldn't start any "AI-first" business in 2026, either.

Valuations are insane. Over 95% of bloated AI startups will go under in the next 3-5 years, guaranteed.

💼 The core business models in the book will remain largely the same: like selling services, SaaS, marketplaces, publishing, eCommerce, membership sites, lead generation projects (and several others defined in the book).

As a 2x Amazon bestseller, it's been a recommended read for account managers, traditional product managers, executives in non-digital industries, aspiring marketing professionals, even investors and PE partners catching up on the space.

It's now available on Amazon worldwide, at Barnes & Noble, and in bookstores in Bulgaria.

A data-packed edition defining GTM in 2026:

- Bain, Forrester, Gartner data points
- 1,000+ private and public companies monitored in our data set
- 8 annual roadmaps build directly with portfolio clients
- 15+ investments and their core strategy

Disclaimer: We set H1 2026 targets in August, and 90% of the quota has already been met by November 1st this year. 

Companies still push back annual planning to the last 45 days of the year, if not January.

📅 While the 2020s have been turbulent, many successful enterprises plan before Q3 is over. This requires hiring ramp up time or rebuilding SOPs, calibrating systems, or re-establishing team-wide KPIs.

If you start planning in December or January, by the time you've met your resource needs (staff/tooling), Q3 will be right around the corner. And you are effectively planning H2 and the start of 2027 instead.

The full data-driven edition is live today - read below.

Also - we're hiring engineers, engineering managers, marketing and account managers in our Sofia HQ this month (check the Jobs page on our website for available opportunities).

I authored this 4 years ago, and it rings true - agency and startup applicants have an extra advantage for our hiring pool at DevriX.

What makes the culture fit stronger: ⤵️

1. "Agency" - the level of accountability for a handful of clients at the same time (no shared responsibility and no clocking out for good).

2. Delivery-first - corners could be cut and processes can be bypassed, as long as delivery can be accomplished effectively.

3. Building diverse skills - solving the same problem in 1 org for 5 years is building different muscles than serving 15 clients in this period or scaling 5 different accounts across different niches.

4. Environment - large corporations are slower to adapt and evolve (one of the key reasons they work with agencies and consultancies to speed up delivery).

5. Toolset - agencies optimize for performance and productivity, which is why we often incorporate bleeding-edge tools and solutions when it makes sense (it's our duty to incorporate these in client workflows, too)

Yes, fast-paced startups and some consultancies match these criteria, too.

But it's very very hard to teach velocity or ownership after several years in large, bloated teams in corporate, with tons of red tape and multiple stakeholders in each decision.

> Link to the Entrepreneur piece below + our jobs page (we hire engineers, account managers, tech leads, marketers and more):

A comprehensive framework breaking down RevOps for private equity in this week's newsletter.

We're rolling several of these in 2026 already for $50M to $500M companies and several hold cos running 8 to 25 firms under the same hat.

Read the full guide below.

WordCamp Sofia is coming up on November 29 and 30 - the largest event in Bulgaria, following the evolution and ongoing development of the CMS powering 43% of the web.

We've been a regular supporter for over a decade.

Hiring for multiple engineering, account, and marketing roles in DevriX - meet us on-site to see what we're up to!

🥉 Bronze Sponsor: DevriX
We’re proud to introduce our Bronze Sponsor of WordCamp Sofia 2025! 

With over 15 years of WordPress experience, DevriX is among the leading WordPress retainers and B2B digital agencies, helping businesses grow through long-term technical partnerships and RevOps strategies. 

DevriX works with fast-scaling startups, media publishers, and enterprises to build sustainable digital ecosystems, combining WordPress development, marketing automation, and data-driven Revenue Operations (RevOps). Their focus: helping companies connect technology, marketing, and operations to accelerate growth efficiently and transparently. 

Beyond their client work, DevriX has been an active supporter of the WordPress open-source community for over a decade - through contributions, talks, and initiatives that empower developers and business leaders alike.

This year, DevriX joins WordCamp Sofia 2025 once again, supporting not only the local community but also the global conversation around how WordPress powers real, measurable business results. 

Thank you, DevriX, for your dedication to WordPress, your continued innovation in RevOps, and your support of WordCamp Sofia! ♥️

Indian actor and activist discussing banned vibe coding apps in US schools as kids are skipping lunch to vibe code games and 3D puzzles.

Is a new tech generation on the rise, passionate about building and iterating again? ⤵️

We were actively organizing hackathons, contributor days, and weekend workshops in the 2014-2020 era, pre pandemic. The lockdowns changed the gathering principles, but how many hackathons and workshops are happening today?

Since we're hiring for multiple engineering roles, we often ask about:

1. What is the last piece of tech you taught yourself?
2. Are you building a pet project/side project?
3. Last YouTube channel/podcast that taught you something?
4. Any tech influencers you can mention (social, blogs, columnists...)?
5. How would you approach solving XYZ now, a familiar problem in a new tech?
6. Have you vibe coded over the past couple of years?
7. Aside from pasting ChatGPT snippets back and forth, is your stack different from 3 years ago?

👉 Despite the massive shift in tech and digital since LLMs showed up, most answers still reveal a traditional coding stack with limited "up to speed" understanding of new tech or engineering principles.

Meanwhile, we see specific communities pushing hard on generating videos, launching viral accounts, or vibe coding all day (we used to play StarCraft, Quake 2 and Diablo II 30 years ago in the same spirit).

🥷 Our roles target more senior positions in full-stack/web engineering/cloud/data/leadership, but I'm interested in speaking with younger hackers who are bending the rules of tech, too.

Did you know that Lovable apps can sync to your GitHub and Supabase instances? 

🇱 My 2 cents on Lovable in Nov 2025:

1. Great for internal tools, prototyping, demos on-site with clients/partners, very early MVPs

2. Definitely NOT recommended for public use (for all the vibe coding reasons and surprises under the hood - such as the supabase keys in the .env file in the repository)

👾 I run internal scrapers, UI wrappers on content assistants, visualization UI (charts/filtered tables) and more within a few Lovable apps. It's easier and faster to launch certain integrations - like Apify for specific integrations or Resend for email auth compared to copilots.

But I also find leaking API keys and passwords in HTTP requests or scripts in various Lovable apps I get sent over from dozens of people in the industry. 

Even if an audit passes, any upcoming update can override that, easily.

The GitHub integration is pretty helpful in that sense - doing a standalone, external audit, and passing additional linters/hinters and scanners for production versions. Having said that, this workflow moves toward a more traditional CI/CD pipeline management, and far from the wishful thinking, prompting roller-coaster of the early days.

Bottom line:

Vibe coding has a ton of use in practice today.

Not the type of "replacing developers for building SaaS or websites" at all.

But sooner than later, specific SOPs and actions will be ran by Lovable, Replit, Bolt flows. 

Some people build sample charts and dashboards in Excel.
Some do this in Webflow or a WordPress with plugins.
Some use Bubble or a Figma sites.
Some elevate to Google Sheets connected to BigQuery or an Airtable.

Today, some package this in Lovable, over a 30-minute client screen sharing call, going over requirements for an early prototype that would otherwise take a couple of weeks and human revisions.

(And my favorite prototyping perk is iterating on the go. Creating new revisions on the go during an event or in the elevator? Wild.)

WordCamp Sofia is coming on November 29 and 30!

DevriX is giving 2 tickets away to motivated and engaged community members who engage under the post. 

Join the thread and pack up NDK for the largest WordPress event in town: https://lnkd.in/dZ8NjyVj

Managerial tech leads/engineering managers/VPs are a thing of the past.

Hands on is imperative for every role since 2023 - especially in digital, and tech is non-negotiable.

SaaStr AI London is Dec 1-2!! See You There!!

Now that time has gone by, I'm 100% sure that the worst mis-hire is the wrong CTO / VP Engineering. Because it becomes the death of innovation.

I've seen this fact pattern or some variant thereof so many times:

* Founder CEO + CTO
* CTO gets start-up to $5m, $10m, $20m but just "can't scale"
* VP of Engineering or CTO from Big Tech Company hired
* Everyone chooses the Nice Candidate
* The Nice Candidate never codes, never learns the code base, never gets the magic
* The Nice Candidate hires a bunch of engineers under them that aren't great and never know the customers or the why

At first, things seem better. Things are more organized under The Nice VP of Engineering. There are a lot more discussions. Fewer erratic changes. Releases are smoother.

And ... innovation just ends. This VP of Eng / CTO never knows the magic, the why, or the how. And the competition pulls ahead.

And even worse, the founding CTO often either leaves or disengages. And the magic is lost.

Even at Adobe Sign / EchoSign, my last start-up, my co-founder and CTO is still at Adobe. Why? Because they know even at $200m+ ARR they still need him. He wrote all the original code base, and the original magic. They don't need him for everything. But when they need him -- they really need him. Even today.

👔 I have a rule: never hire a CTO that wears a suit (or tie).

It's always a sign they are selling up, rather than being a hacker. You need a hacker at the head of engineering. Maybe forever. 

🔟 / 🔟 And whatever you do, when the time comes to hire an outside VP Eng / CTO, try to make sure you and your co-founder both are 100% aligned they are a 10/10. An epic hacker and engineer, not just a manager.

Managers are a dime a dozen today. And they can't win in engineering in a world that is more competitive than ever.

When I see this happening, I fight. I fight to help the founders see it. I go down with the fight.

Because when you hire a VP Eng / CTO that isn't a 10, it's the day your start-up starts to die.

The other VPs, if you make a mis-hire, you can recover. But 2 years of no more innovation? I don't know if most of us can fight our way back from that.

taplio

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