How to Avoid Common Tech Pitfalls That Hold Businesses Back
In this episode, Mike Mulhoney shares his inspiring journey from starting as a paralegal to becoming a virtual Chief Technology Officer. He reflects on key moments that shaped his career, the rapid evolution of technology, and how the role of a CTO has transformed to meet modern business demands.
Mike dives into the importance of aligning technology strategies with business growth, the traits that define effective tech leadership, and the common mistakes companies make during scaling. He also provides actionable insights on preparing for digital transformation and explores the future of virtual CTO roles.
Whether you're an aspiring tech leader or a business owner navigating the tech landscape, this episode is packed with valuable advice to help you thrive.
Transcript
Welcome to the Las Vegas IT Management Podcast.
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:And today I have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Mulhoney with your virtual CTO.
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:How are you doing today, Mike?
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:I'm doing great.
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:Thanks for having me.
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:Yes.
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:I'm super, super excited to get to know you a little bit more and learn about your virtual
CTO.
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:What sparked your journey into the tech consulting world and what drew you to become a CTO
and technology strategist?
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:Well,
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:I started out many years ago, actually as a paralegal, and I was the only person in the
office that had any knowledge of technology.
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:So they'd always come to me, Hey, can you fix this?
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:Can you fix that?
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:And then one, one day, I was working for a single attorney law firm and he merged with a
larger firm.
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:And so their technology director asked me to help move our content, you know, to their
network and then offered me a job.
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:And I haven't looked back since I've.
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:done every role I've been, I've been a software developer.
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:I've done network engineering and I just rose through the ranks and you know, eventually
became a chief technology officer.
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:That was like early 2000s was when I first began as a CTO and I just, I really like, I
like helping people solve problems and strategizing their future for their business.
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:And so, you know, like I think round
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:Five, six years ago, I decided, you know, I don't really want to work full time anymore.
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:I'm enjoying, I coach technology executives.
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:And so I thought, you know what, why don't I offer myself as a fractional CTO?
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:They can use my services and my knowledge, but I don't have to work full time and I'm not
dedicated to one company.
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:So that's, what I do now.
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:That's what we mostly focus on at your virtual CTO is fractional CTO work and the net
suite development.
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:Those are the kind of the two niches that I've picked for this business.
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:Got it.
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:And that seems very, very interesting.
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:And you said early 2000s.
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:I'm sure you've seen a lot of changes with the technology.
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:Yeah, the first, the very first web application that I ever wrote ran on you kind of
really, you guys aren't going to believe this, but on Netscape 1.0.
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:I mean, we don't even use Netscape browsers anymore.
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:They're dead and buried, but yeah, I've seen so much come and go.
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:And really I'm lucky enough that I got to watch the birth.
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:pretty much of what the internet is today.
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:Some of it's good, some of it's not so good, but you know, it is what it is and we've, you
know, it's grown tremendously.
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:There was a time, you know, where nobody had internet or they use the dial up, know, all
that stuff.
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:I now everybody has internet of some sort or they walk around with it in their phone, you
know, so life has changed a lot in the last say like 30 years.
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:Right.
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:And I remember those days.
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:I mean, I was a child, very young when that time was.
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:But I remember when you were on the internet and you would call in and the dial tone, you
went for the dial tone.
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:And reflecting on 16 years as a CEO and lead consultant, what have been the most pivotal
moments or milestones in your career?
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:Well, one would probably be back in about a decade ago, I was
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:brought in for a project I was supposed to help a company rebuild their website.
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:And what we ended up doing instead of just rebuilding their website is they were using
NetSuite software.
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:It's first time I've ever was ever introduced to it other than using it as a time clock,
you know, and they had us use it as the database for the front end of the website.
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:And so I learned everything there was to know about NetSuite.
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:Well, here we go fast forward 10 years later, and that's probably about 50 % of my
business now is NetSuite development.
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:Probably the second biggest thing was about right before the pandemic, I started coaching
CTOs on how to reduce the number of hours they work.
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:I myself, when I was a CTO, I was working 105 hours a week and it wasn't sustainable.
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:You know, you don't see your children, you don't see your wife, you don't have a life, you
just work.
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:And I did a few things.
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:I put together a process whereby I was able to reduce my hours and I packaged it into a
coaching program and I've been running it ever since.
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:Those were the two most pivotal moments, mainly because number one, the, the net suite job
got me involved with net suite, which is now a huge revenue driver for me.
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:But the other, with the coaching part, I really love helping these overworked people,
especially the ones who come and say, it's impossible.
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:have to work this many hours.
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:I love their face when their hours get cut in half in like a month or two, they just don't
realize what they're doing incorrectly.
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:That's causing them to work.
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:you know, 80, a hundred hours, they have a team, but they don't use it, that sort of
thing.
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:So yeah, that was probably two most pivotal moments in the last, you know, say a decade.
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:Got it.
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:And then just in case, you know, someone who's listening to us to our, you know, our
podcast, maybe they don't know what a CTO is.
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:Could you just kind of share with us what that is?
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:Sure.
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:Well, it stands for chief technology officer.
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:And basically you are in charge of all technology teams within a business, within a
business.
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:Usually it's a corporate position.
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:And it's responsible for strategizing the future technology growth for the company.
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:you know, eh, back when I first started being a CTO was huge because as we talked about,
there was a dial up internet and then we switched to T one lines.
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:And so you had to kind of manage each location of your business.
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:What, what's available, what kind of internet can I get and then what kind of sacrifices
are we making?
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:So you have to put all this strategy together in a something that blends with the
businesses.
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:business plan, where are they at?
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:Where do they want to take the business?
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:And you know, have to do things like if the business wants to grow worldwide, but they
don't have the technical capability, we have to plan for there to be that technical
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:capability.
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:I currently, what I do is I meet with companies once or twice a month, depending on what
they contract with.
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:And I sit in on strategy meetings and I help them decide, okay, you're going to need to
hire two more people if you want to do this, or this is the direction you should take the,
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:take your tech tech into.
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:or, you know, they're trying to decide, should they use something like .net for their
software or some open source software, you know, for their software.
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:I helped them navigate all of that.
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:And so it's really a high level consulting role with if you, if you're actually working
directly for a business, well, then you're basically the tech leader for the company.
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:mean, even, even companies that have like CIO, they have a different role.
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:So, you know, my, my role has always been
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:the one to guide the company and the teams to where they need to be.
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:Awesome.
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:You you did talk about NetSuite.
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:And so how did your expertise with NetSuite evolve and what sets it apart as a tool for
businesses growth and efficiency?
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:Well, that particular project that I started with was really strange because we were
supposed to come in and create like a synchronization tool that would take their database,
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:sync it to NetSuite and vice versa.
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:But
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:they got a new a new director of technology who hated the idea.
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:He's like, you know, this is why we're rebuilding the website in the first place.
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:There that way didn't work.
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:So he wanted to use NetSuite as a database.
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:Well, I then of course had to learn everything about the back end of NetSuite.
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:And as I moved forward with that, I got into writing code with NetSuite.
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:I mean, it's really if you're a JavaScript developer and you want to and you want to grow
in your field, learn sweet script.
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:It's basically just
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:a wrapper around around JavaScript, but it's it's a tool that companies use.
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:You know, has a CRM built into it.
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:It's an ERP system.
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:Mostly distribution companies use it.
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:Ecommerce companies use it and it streamlines everything.
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:It has accounting software so you don't need QuickBooks.
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:As I said, it has a CRM so you don't need something like HubSpot.
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:It's all one stop shop, great reporting, fully customizable, and it's a shared system
amongst
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:very, you every customer.
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:you have to know the rules for development with it.
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:Otherwise, Natsuite shuts you off.
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:And so that's, know, just building my expertise over the last 10 years.
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:I've done so many integrations.
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:I've helped companies who take Natsuite right off the shelf and turn it into something
that works with them.
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:Worked with like in Vegas here, I've worked with the Golden Gate Casino, Circa and the D
they're all owned by the same people.
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:And they transitioned from one accounting software to another.
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:But as you can imagine, they have people that worked for them for like 30 years and all
they were doing was griping about this doesn't do this and it doesn't do that.
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:Well, it can.
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:And you know, we worked with them for about a year and got them up and running on NetSuite
smoothly.
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:So it's a fun software to use.
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:It's a bit expensive.
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:It's more for mid to larger size companies.
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:But if you're in that range, you definitely want to look at NetSuite.
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:Got it.
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:And so when you say a midsize, bigger, you know, corporation, is there a particular
industry that is good for like, you know, construction?
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:Well, I think if you're, if you're a busy e-commerce company, maybe you're doing half a
million a year or more in revenue, it'd be a good tool for you because it manages your
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:inventory.
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:It handles shipping, all the fulfillment.
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:It'll send to the customer their sh their tracking number and it's all on automation.
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:I mean, it's a completely done automated.
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:So
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:you're not relying on a human being who could make a mistake and not send the tracking
number, or, know, maybe not, not pack and ship the box.
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:Man, it just works really well for, for that size business.
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:Then, I mean, manufacturing and distribution companies, it works really well with because
it has features that they need things like people never think about this, but like, just
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:think of a basic computer system.
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:You've got the, the box that holds the CPU and the memory and everything in it.
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:And then you have the monitor.
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:and you have the keyboard and the mouse.
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:So they're all separate parts and you can buy them all together or you can buy them
individually.
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:And so NetSuite gives them the way to either sell those things individually or package it
together as what they call a bundle and bundle the product and send it out.
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:So it makes it really easy to manage your inventory.
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:like manufacturers can calculate using NetSuite.
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:How many of this this part and how many of that part do I need in order to make 150 of
these widgets?
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:So it's just a super cool tool.
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:Got it.
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:And what, what does your role, you know, what does a virtual CTO play?
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:What role does a virtual CTO play and how does it differ from traditional traditional CTO
roles?
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:Basically companies can't always afford a CTO.
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:mean, a salary for a CTO basic starting salary is going to be close to 200,000 a year plus
benefits.
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:And really.
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:They might have enough technical people on staff to keep their technical stuff busy and
focused and working correctly, but they don't have the knowledge for how do I scale my
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:tech?
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:How do I grow bigger?
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:What tools am I going to need?
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:Well, you know, long, long and short of it, the virtual CTO can come in.
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:I might charge them, you know, $2,000 for the month and I can go to a weekly meeting, you
know, four weekly meetings and give them strategy and.
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:answer questions.
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:And I've even had clients come to me and say, okay, we have a problem.
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:We have these developers, they work remotely and we're not sure they're doing the work.
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:And I give them strategies for figuring out whether they're doing the work or not without
being too draconian and making accusations.
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:Cause that's obviously the worst thing you can do is go, go to some productive people who
you think aren't productive and say, Hey, how come you're not doing your job?
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:And they're going to look at you and go, what are you talking about?
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:We not only do our job, we do job of five people.
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:You know, that's usually what happens, but it's basically
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:a way it's become a popular thing in the remote worker world for fractional positions.
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:like people have fractional controllers or a fractional accounting manager and they're
just basically enabling me to work with multiple clients, helping them with the same
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:concepts, but without the client having to pay $200,000 a year plus for the position that
they're trying to fill.
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:Got it.
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:So pretty much you're independent.
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:You're hired as a 1099.
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:that what I'm hearing?
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:Got it.
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:Understood.
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:And then could you also share us some insights into how you've approached building a
technology strategy that supports business growth?
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:Well, it's pretty much the same thing over and over again.
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:You, you look at their business plan, ask a lot of questions about where they're planning
to grow, what the timeline is.
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:Not everybody thinks about that.
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:They just think.
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:One day they're going to wake up and go, you know what?
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:I want to expand into Utah.
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:Well, probably not going to work unless you've planned it ahead of time.
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:And so I look at that.
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:I look at the business plans.
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:I ask a bunch of questions and then I craft a strategy around that.
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:That will essentially be about one step ahead of the business plan.
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:So like if they're like that example of planning to expand into Utah, will their
infrastructure handle it?
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:If not, what are the weaknesses that we need to shore up?
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:And let's make sure that those things are shored up.
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:before the move into Utah.
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:Too many people do it at the same time and then they're dealing with not only the
operational issues, but then the technical issues as well that come with that.
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:And it's a really bad strategy.
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:So that's really the key is just understand what the business wants and what their plans
for the future are.
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:And unfortunately, like any, any software developer out there will tell you, you build
software for people and they tell you, no, I'll never need to do that.
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:And nine out of 10 times, a couple of months after the software is released, they're
calling you and they need to do that thing that they thought they were never going to be
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:able to do.
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:So it's also making your plans flexible enough to fit something like that in, because it's
kind of like, you know, if you look at a house and there's like a pillar in the middle of
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:the floor, moving it could be a giant pain.
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:But if you plan for it while they were drawing up the blueprints for the house, like put
the pillar anywhere you want and they'll plan for that.
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:mean, that's, that's the key is just knowing what are, what the heck is this business
going to do?
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:Got it.
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:Understood.
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:And then in your view, what are some of the key qualities that make a strong tech leader
in today's fast paced environment?
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:Well, I'm a big proponent of decentralized management.
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:So that means hiring the right people and putting them in the position, giving them a
clear job description, and then stepping back and letting them do their job, not
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:micromanaging them, not being the one that they have to get approval for everything that
they do.
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:mean, like if you give
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:If you, if you have somebody who is responsible for replacing the desktops in your, in
your business and you give them a budget of, you know, a hundred thousand dollars to do
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:that.
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:As long as they don't go over a hundred thousand dollars, why do you care which brand they
buy, which computer they buy?
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:If it does the job and it's under the budget, let them do their job.
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:I feel like as the leader, you're there to guide, not direct is a good way to put it.
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:So I would never tell somebody do it this way.
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:I would just say,
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:We need to have this done by, you know, December 1st and how are you planning to get that
done?
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:And then we would talk through their plan and move on.
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:That's the key.
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:You know, you can't in today's world, the leader has to lead the leader.
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:Can't just jump in alongside and like do all of the work at the same time.
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:I've also, I've gotten grief for this from CEOs before.
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:I think that the CTO needs to keep their fingers in the pulse of what's going on.
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:So if you have a help desk.
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:Maybe sit at the help desk one day a week and find out what's going on in your company.
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:What problems are out there.
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:You find out things you never knew were going on because your staff, it's not that your
staff's hiding it from you.
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:They just don't think it's important enough for you to know about.
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:And when you hear about it, you'll ask people, how often is this happening?
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:it's all the time.
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:Well, we better solve that for you.
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:And so it's, it's a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on with your
business too.
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:Got it.
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:Understood.
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:And with that as well, I guess a lot of times you that
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:with that business that you're talking about, possibly they were doing it before.
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:Is that kind what you're saying about like micromanaging?
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:That's something that you do not want to do.
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:Yes.
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:Yeah.
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:You never want to do that because I mean, we all hate that.
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:And you kind of wonder, like I've, had a boss that was a micromanager.
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:knew nothing about technology.
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:And then I'd say to myself, well, if you don't know anything about technology, why are you
over my shoulder telling me what to do?
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:Nothing that you're saying makes any sense.
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:And you hired me because I'm an expert at this.
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:So why not let the expert be the expert?
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:It'd be like if you went to the doctor and the doctor said, here, this is the medication
that's going to fix this.
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:And you go, no, it's not.
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:I just need Tylenol.
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:You know, you don't tell the doctor what to do.
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:So you probably shouldn't tell every single employee you have what to do either.
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:Got it.
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:Now that that does make sense.
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:And so what are some of the common technology pitfalls companies face as they scale and
how do you help them avoid these?
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:Probably the
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:Biggest one that I've seen is not having the data pipes, you know, so the internet
connectivity to do everything that they want to do at a distance.
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:And really all you can do with that is analyze what the needs are, optimize the software
that's causing the problems.
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:Maybe it needs a database optimization, but you just do an audit of the business's
technology, see where the gaps are and fix those things.
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:Because with the current state of internet, you know, you can get super fast internet
anywhere you are.
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:I mean, now with Starlink coming out, you can get in the most rural areas.
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:You can get super high speed internet.
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:So you, that's no longer an excuse for businesses not to grow, but really it's a lot of it
is just lack of knowledge.
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:They don't know what they need in order to connect five offices back to a home office data
center.
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:They don't know what.
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:type of infrastructure they're going to need, what servers will they need in order to
handle a certain number of employees, say logging in, for instance.
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:So it's just, again, it's a top-down approach.
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:You look at everything and use your expertise to take the next step.
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:Got it.
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:And, you know, for these companies that possibly, you know, they don't know where to go
when it comes to their data.
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:Like, do you have any recommendations or anything like that to help these companies so
they don't have that pitfall?
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:These days, if you can find a cloud solution like AWS or Azure, because in addition to
being a cloud solution, they've built tools to make it more efficient to access that data.
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:So you're not responsible for the optimization.
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:They are.
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:And anytime you can take something off of your plate and focus on something else, it's in
my opinion, that's a win.
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:So yeah, I would say look at, look at cloud solutions that are available out there.
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:See what works for your company.
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:and then go with it.
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:Got it.
277
:That makes sense.
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:And then why, you know, we did talk about a little bit, Mike, about NetSuite.
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:Why do you consider NetSuite as an essential platform for growth and what situations does
it work best?
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:Well, as I mentioned, I think in my opinion, it works best for manufacturing and
distribution companies and e-commerce companies.
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:It would probably also be really good for say like a CPA firm that has multiple customers
that they're handling taxes for, but mainly because it has objects like customer object,
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:you know, all the accounting tools.
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:It has the, a warehouse management system.
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:So you could literally like set up a warehouse.
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:inside of NetSuite with bins and tell it, you know, I've got this product in bin five,
this product in bin 10.
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:And then when you're going to pick the orders, you know, right where to find this stuff.
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:It tells you on your pick list.
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:It's in bin five.
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:You may need two of those.
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:I it even comes down to the point of if you tell it the size of boxes that you use and you
put the dimensions of your products, it'll even tell you that you're going to need this,
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:this many of this box and this many of that box in order to ship this order.
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:It's just a very efficient way.
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:But again, it's kind of cost prohibitive to cheap to companies that are on a lower
revenue.
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:I would say if you're if you're making less than half a million dollars a year, you might
want to consider other solutions because I mean, a decent setup for next week could cost
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:you $150,000 just to get started.
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:So to expand it.
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:Understood.
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:And so with that, though, it be a full setup.
299
:If you are when you
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:pay that 150.
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:Is that kind of what I'm hearing?
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:Yeah.
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:Got it.
304
:You know, talking about NetSuite, what trends are you seeing with NetSuite adoption and
how has the role in the tech stack change over the years or tech stack changed over the
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:years?
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:It's literally the strangest environment I've ever encountered with a big company.
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:I NetSuite's owned by Oracle and they're huge.
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:And yet they have their own like, they call it advanced
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:customer services.
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:And basically what they do is they provide developers like me to help fix problems,
customize NetSuite, but nobody likes their services.
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:So they end up hiring partners like myself to come in and fix the problems for them.
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:It's a lot cheaper, a lot more efficient.
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:We actually listen.
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:NetSuite kind of tends to like put their nose in the air and be like, I don't know.
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:We know better.
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:I've actually been on calls where NetSuite tells customers,
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:That's not possible with NetSuite.
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:And I'll say, on a second, click this box right here.
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:Look at that.
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:It does exactly what they're asking for.
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:You know, they, they, they try not to sell certain pieces of their product for some
reason, but like I can get a NetSuite system operational in less than a hundred days from
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:ground up.
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:Whereas they only get through phase one in a hundred days.
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:And it's, all about what you put time into and resources into.
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:And they just don't do that.
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:And they eat up a lot of your time, like with meetings and whatnot and charge you for
them.
327
:So I, I say that, you know, net suite is great if you can use an outside consultant.
328
:What was the other part of your question?
329
:know I missed.
330
:No, you're fine.
331
:I, was pretty much as how has its role in the tech stack changed over it.
332
:Just the changes that it's done in the, within the last couple of years.
333
:Yeah, it's, it's, it's evolving as like e-commerce evolves.
334
:It's adding new, new things, but really it's pretty.
335
:pretty much been the same for a decade.
336
:mean, as far as features go, David, one of the cool things about NetSuite is it's a lot
like, if you use Google Chrome, you can add extensions to it was the same thing with
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:NetSuite.
338
:You can add add-ons that do other things that NetSuite itself can't do.
339
:So that's also a huge, the modular approach is a huge plus.
340
:And that's something that's really exploded in like the last five years.
341
:There's just companies everywhere building add-ons for NetSuite.
342
:Got it.
343
:And I know I was on a training a couple of years ago when, know, around the time that you
mentioned five years ago, around the time where COVID had first came, would you say that
344
:NetSuite kind of had that growth due to people working remote due to COVID?
345
:Yes, because of course, you know, being a SaaS software, you log in from anywhere.
346
:I mean, it's no different than, you know, logging into your Gmail account.
347
:You know, you can log in from anywhere in the world and you access the exact same
348
:desktop that you'd access if you were sitting in an office somewhere.
349
:And so yeah, a lot of a lot of the larger companies switched over.
350
:I actually, my revenue tripled in between 2019 and 2020 on NetSuite side because people
were just like, my gosh, we're not ready for this.
351
:What do we do?
352
:You know, even just down to remote work, people were, if you remember, it just, I mean,
it's been that long ago, but like five, six years ago, it was frowned on for people to
353
:work from home all the time.
354
:They might give you a day or two a week.
355
:Now it's like the norm.
356
:and I think it, I think people figured out rather quickly that remote work also helps
productivity.
357
:I personally think people do a better job when they don't have to commute.
358
:mean, here it's funny.
359
:We here living in Vegas and I've only been here for three years and you hear people
complain about, you know, a 20 minute drive somewhere.
360
:But I mean, when you live like in Los Angeles, it could be 20 minutes to go two blocks.
361
:So if you don't, if you don't have to drive to an office,
362
:You're going to probably work two extra hours that day and get more work done.
363
:So, and I don't know.
364
:think, I think the, the world as the world evolves, we're going to see more and more
companies just be fully remote.
365
:Yeah.
366
:Well, those companies that can, which is awesome.
367
:And so, you know, going into my next question is how can businesses best prepare for a
digital transformation?
368
:I spent a hot topic that's been on this podcast is AI.
369
:And how can automation on the rise?
370
:What was the question?
371
:I'm sorry.
372
:I missed the beginning part of the question.
373
:No, you're, you're fine.
374
:So pretty much how can businesses best prepare for digital transformation, especially with
AI and automation on the rise?
375
:Have an open mind and don't jump on the latest trends.
376
:And with that, I mean, I'm kind of talking about chat GPT.
377
:I mean, it it's AI, but it really isn't.
378
:It's just a giant database of information that, you know, you're accessing.
379
:And if you don't ask it the question correctly, it's not even as friendly as Google.
380
:It won't answer it correctly.
381
:I think the way they prepare is think about what your needs are.
382
:Look at, look at your business.
383
:Like I actually have people, Mike, my clients do what I call a process org chart.
384
:So just think like a typical organizational chart.
385
:We have a CEO at the top and then all the little positions and who reports to them.
386
:I have them define what the purpose of their business is.
387
:And that's the top box of the org chart.
388
:And then underneath it is.
389
:every single thing you need to do in order to reach the top goal.
390
:And then you just figure out what processes are lacking in your business.
391
:And if if you are having problems generating content, well, then maybe some kind of AI
content writing tool would be good for you.
392
:But there's a lot you can do with artificial intelligence these days.
393
:One of the biggest that I've seen recently, I have a show called Gaining the Technology
Leadership Edge and I interview people who
394
:talk about tech leadership.
395
:And I had a gentleman on who actually has a smart chat bot.
396
:So instead of something that has to be a hundred percent programmed by the other side, it
learns as customers ask questions, it learns about these questions and what the answers
397
:are.
398
:And so when you chat with it, it's scary.
399
:It feels like you're talking to a human and it even replies with like attitude, which I
think is kind of funny.
400
:But yeah, you just for digital transformation.
401
:You have to put all your ducks in row.
402
:have to figure out where you're going with it because you can, it's like a house remodel.
403
:You know, if you, you people out there, you've remodeled your kitchen and then it's like,
well, Hey, well, we got them here.
404
:Let's do the bathroom and let's, let's do this.
405
:Let's extend the house a little bit.
406
:Let's do this.
407
:Let's do that.
408
:You get caught up in the, in the constant change.
409
:Pick out like the top three things that you're struggling with in your business, that
automation and AI could help with and implement it.
410
:And then once that's done.
411
:Play with it for a while, adjust it.
412
:Next iteration, do it in iterations because you're going to find that things you thought
you absolutely needed.
413
:Once you automate parts of your business, you won't need it anymore.
414
:So, and also start with what can be automated because then you can hire people to do the
things that can't be automated versus hiring a bunch of people automating and then having
415
:to let people go, which is a, in my opinion, a poor way to do business.
416
:Got it.
417
:And I exactly kind of what you just read said, I just read the book Traction.
418
:Have you read that book before?
419
:No, I have not, but I have heard about it.
420
:Yes.
421
:Got it.
422
:And so that's some of the things that they talk about just, know, the importance of just
having a couple things that you, you know, you, you work on at a time because you can get
423
:lost if you don't, which I think is awesome.
424
:So thank you for sharing that.
425
:And then where do you see the role of a virtual CTO is headed in the next decade?
426
:I think that
427
:It's already sort of starting startups are going to start utilizing fractional CTOs a lot
more mainly because they sink a lot of cash into that position as it is.
428
:And then they don't have that cash to grow the startup.
429
:If they can find good advice for strategies at a much cheaper cost and not have to pay.
430
:mean, one of the things we're not talking about too is they don't pay health care for me.
431
:They don't pay any, any extra benefits.
432
:If I take time off, I don't get paid.
433
:That sort of thing.
434
:So it saves them a ton of cash.
435
:And I think startups are going to get more and more smart about that and hire a fractional
upfront.
436
:I mean, it makes sense.
437
:They generally hire as much of a skeleton crew as they can anyway.
438
:Why have to make one of those positions a tech leader when you can contract with one who
actually probably benefits you even more because they're bringing in stuff they've seen
439
:from hundreds of businesses rather than just yours.
440
:So think that's the
441
:That's the biggest advantage.
442
:Well, I think it's the biggest area for growth for that role is going to be startups.
443
:think, you know, more and more startups come out the more and more they're going to need
that.
444
:Got it.
445
:And so when you say a startup, you're talking about someone who's just getting their
business started.
446
:Yeah.
447
:I like, know, someone has a new idea and they've got a product they want to sell or
whatnot, and they need to figure out how to bring it to market.
448
:If it's got anything to do with technology, that's where CTO can really help you.
449
:Great deal.
450
:Got it.
451
:And then, I'm guessing with your services, you don't like, there's no contract or anything
like that since you're, you are working with, is that kind of how it works?
452
:Yeah.
453
:Yeah.
454
:We contract on a month to month basis only.
455
:So, I mean, they can terminate anytime they want, but they tend what actually usually this
typical life cycle is you come in, you'll work about a year with a company and then
456
:they'll say, you know, I think we're ready to hire an in-house CTO.
457
:Will you help us with the vetting process?
458
:And so you take the knowledge that you built up about their business and their needs, the
personalities that you've worked with, and you help them pick through candidates.
459
:And maybe sometimes people even have you interview the candidates for them as like the
initial round, but that's the best way to help them out out of that.
460
:And, and it's really the goal.
461
:You don't want them to be dependent on you forever.
462
:Got it.
463
:So the end result is them hiring, possibly hiring someone out and you're assisting them
with that.
464
:Yes.
465
:Understood.
466
:Which is awesome.
467
:And, know, we're talking about startups.
468
:We've talked about different things, but what are some of the main challenges CEOs, CEOs
face when integrating technology into their strategy and how do you help them overcome
469
:these?
470
:I'm wanting too much at once, you know, looking for technology that maybe they don't
really need.
471
:I worked for a restaurant delivery service as a CTO and it was around the time that Amazon
was coming out with their suggestion engine.
472
:You know, you bought this, you might be interested in these other three things.
473
:And he said,
474
:I want the same thing for us.
475
:just sort of chuckled and I said, you know how much it costs them to do that?
476
:It costs them $2 million to build it and a million dollars a year to maintain it.
477
:Are you really willing to invest that?
478
:Well, no, I'm not.
479
:How about it?
480
:Can you do it a fraction of that?
481
:No, you can't.
482
:It's that's how much it costs.
483
:And so you have to look at like, what are your needs?
484
:And like anybody else, you know, it's like running your household.
485
:There's there's must haves and then there's nice to haves and
486
:Leave the nice to haves off, you know, make sure you're focusing on the must haves.
487
:And later when you have the revenue and you and your business is solid enough, bring in
the night, the nice to haves focus on the essentials for getting your business going and
488
:scaling.
489
:Don't hire too many people.
490
:If you're going to, I strongly suggest if you're going to use contract employee like tech
employees, but you have zero technical skill, well then find yourself a virtual CTO type
491
:person who can help you navigate that.
492
:Those are really the keys is just getting educated on what it is you need and what people
need to be on the bus and in the right seat.
493
:Got it.
494
:And so kind of what I heard from that is you're saying that you're not biased when it
comes to what applications you'll consult for a company depending of where they're at or
495
:what kind of company that they are.
496
:Is that kind of what I'm hearing?
497
:Yes.
498
:Got it, awesome.
499
:And so what advice would you give to anyone that's possibly aspiring to be a CTOs and tech
strategist looking to make an impact in their industry?
500
:Well...
501
:Learn to take care of yourself first because your team's going to depend on you and your
business is going to depend on you.
502
:And if you're working too many hours and you're overworked, you're not going to be of much
value to them.
503
:So learn to take care of yourself first.
504
:And then the second thing is listen to people.
505
:Always listen.
506
:Don't be that stereotypical tech person who wants to say no to everything just because
they think that it's a pipe dream by their internal customer.
507
:Be willing to listen to the reasons why they want the things and then navigate with them
what things they really need and what things is just sort of a want and keep that open
508
:mind.
509
:That's really important.
510
:We get a bad reputation in the tech field and like we speak in jargon and we need to avoid
all of that.
511
:We need to speak more in plain English.
512
:So almost like you know, you're speaking to a five year old so that they can understand it
because people get tech people get frustrated all the time that
513
:my, CEO doesn't understand.
514
:are you explaining it to him in a way he can get it?
515
:Cause if you're not, have to, and I those are the key things.
516
:Just listen, be a leader by, you know, taking care of yourself and speak more clearly,
communicate better.
517
:Got it.
518
:And I know earlier you talked about how, know, you'll, you'll, when it comes to CTLs, a
lot of them work like 101 hours.
519
:So for them to take care of themselves, is there a tip that you recommend to help them to
do so?
520
:Yeah, the number one thing that I did and it worked like a charm was set boundaries and
stick to them.
521
:And you know, I'm talking about hard boundaries.
522
:Like for me, one of the big ones was we, we, we got this building and they put all the
executives on like the outer rim of the building.
523
:So we would all have windows.
524
:Yay.
525
:but then we also had this glass as like our front wall.
526
:And so people could see if you were just like working on your computer or if you were in a
meeting or on a call, well, if you were not, weren't on a call or in a meeting, they'd
527
:stop in, Hey, you got five minutes.
528
:Five minutes never takes five minutes.
529
:It's like 25, 30.
530
:And he used to just annoy me.
531
:So I asked somebody who was a management consultant.
532
:What do I do?
533
:He said, get a timer and just tell them you want to five minutes.
534
:Great.
535
:We can do five minutes right now, but if the timer goes off, we have to schedule an
appointment.
536
:And that's what I would do.
537
:Schedule, know, schedule the appointment.
538
:And it works because that's a boundary that you have.
539
:And soon people start to realize, yeah, he's right.
540
:It's not going to take five minutes.
541
:And they just set the appointment rather than have that meeting rather than come and waste
five minutes of your time, which then you'll repeat in the meeting, by the way.
542
:So you're better off having the boundaries, being strict with them.
543
:And it also gets you out of the office.
544
:Like I used to have a rule that on Fridays, I was out of the office at one o'clock in the
afternoon and nobody bothered me.
545
:It took a while, but once they got it.
546
:They leave me alone on Fridays.
547
:And it was important to me because that was sort of like the kickoff to the weekend and I
could spend time with my family.
548
:But don't be ashamed of setting boundaries that are important to you because ultimately
there's really no such thing as work-life balance.
549
:It's just life balance.
550
:How are you spending your, your lifetime?
551
:Some of it's going to be working.
552
:Some of it's going to be playing what, you know, the percentage you spend in each is up to
you.
553
:and set that boundary and don't let it and mainly stick to it.
554
:Don't let anyone step over the boundary.
555
:Got it.
556
:And I actually agree with you.
557
:I have two young children.
558
:So that's something that I've had to learn, you know, having that balance, balancing work,
and then also balancing my children is something that I've had to learn.
559
:And so how can someone transition into a role like a virtual CTO and what skills are the
most valuable?
560
:cut your teeth on in the corporate world first, you know, learn what technology leadership
is all about.
561
:Once you've got that down and you and you know your stuff inside and out, then you become
valuable to external clients.
562
:And more and more people will hire you for that work.
563
:It's not any it's no easier than any other, you know, entrepreneurial endeavor that you're
going to have.
564
:You're still gonna have to market yourself.
565
:You're gonna have to post the stupid social media stuff all the time.
566
:But
567
:Eventually, once you start getting clients, then it's the reviews and the word of mouth
that just take you, you know, take it off just like any business really, it's, it's no
568
:different.
569
:But but event, but like I say, get your cut your teeth in the corporate world first learn
where your weaknesses are so that you can so you can strengthen those.
570
:Got it.
571
:That does make sense.
572
:And then to what's one piece of advice you wish you had known when you started out as a
technology strategist?
573
:Probably that no matter how careful you are to explain things to a client, there's always
going to be misunderstandings and it's not your team members fault who spoke to them.
574
:It's not the client's fault.
575
:It's not your fault.
576
:It's just what happens and you have to learn to roll with the punches with that.
577
:And like I have a developer works for me that will say things like why is the client
asking for this to be changed?
578
:We told them that this was
579
:was a possibility before and they said, no, I don't know why they asked to change now, but
that's what they want.
580
:And they're the clients.
581
:Let's just give them what they want.
582
:So in other words, rather than get upset about it, just roll with it and go with it.
583
:They're paying you.
584
:It's not like, it's not like they're asking for it for free.
585
:So, you know, go ahead and do what they ask for.
586
:And yeah, you try to guide them ahead of time.
587
:Doesn't always work.
588
:So just roll with the punches and don't be that, that person who's like,
589
:I can't believe they made another change.
590
:You know, be happy that you have work that you're doing that you love and do it.
591
:it.
592
:and that's, that's, that's great advice.
593
:And is there anything else you would like to share with us before we go?
594
:Well, I mean, just in general, I mean, as a business coach, be passionate about what you
do.
595
:And if you're not find what you are passionate about, because, you know, there's a lot of
people who went into technology because it was like the thing to do.
596
:But then they find out that it's not really what they like.
597
:Don't be afraid to explore what it is you like and switch careers and go for it.
598
:mean, my own wife, you know, she worked as a, as an accounting professional and now she's
running her own business, doing nothing that has to do with accounting because she, one
599
:day she woke up and she's like, I hate this.
600
:I don't like it.
601
:And well, what do you love?
602
:She found what she loved and that's what she does.
603
:So find what you love because I know it's cliched, but it's true.
604
:If you love something, you'll, you'll be excited to get up in the morning and do it.
605
:rather than, here we go again, it's Monday, I gotta go back to work.
606
:Got it.
607
:No, and I totally agree with you.
608
:And I've actually really enjoyed our conversation.
609
:So thank you so much.
610
:Yes.
611
:Thank you so much, Mike, for chatting with me for 42 minutes.
612
:We had a great conversation and I'm excited for our audience to hear everything that you
had to say.
613
:And you have a great day.
