Startup Conversations – View from the CTO

A conversation with Johann Romefort, an investor, consultant and former CTO who specializes in technical due diligence & corporate innovation.

Show Notes

Hey everyone, this is your host, Gonz, and welcome to the first episode of Startup Conversations: View from the CTO, a collaboration between Seedtable and Circle CI where we sit down with some of the greatest CTOs in Europe to deconstruct how the build and operate high-performing technology teams.


My guest today is Johann Romefort.


Johann is an investor, consultant and former CTO who specializes in Technical due diligence & corporate innovation. 


Before becoming a freelance consultant, Johann worked as the Managing Director at Techstars for the BSH Future Home Accelerator and, before that — he co-founded Seesmic, a social media account management company, where he acted as CTO building a distributed team of 30+ developers. Seesmic was acquired by Hootsuite in August 2012. 


So it’s no surprise that Johann is a gold mine of information and advice for any and all CTOs trying to innovate today. And in this conversation, we talk about it all: 
  • The frustrations that come with transitioning from coder to CTO
  • Why CTOs should try to become coaches to their employees to exponentially increase their productivity
  • Why tapping into your current network is the best way to recruit global, remote talent. 
  • What leading a disbrituted technical team of 30+ people looks like.
  • Why leaders should lead with the example, starting with getting enough sleep.
  • The importance of educating your entire team, CEO included, about the technical aspects of your company.
  • And much, much more.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.    

What is Startup Conversations – View from the CTO?

In Startup Conversations: View from the CTO, we sit down with some of the greatest CTOs in Europe to deconstruct how the build and operate high-performing technology teams. This podcast is a collaboration between Seedtable and CircleCI.