31: The Fatal Flaw of 10x Developers (Here’s What Actually Matters)

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Matt Watson is the CEO of FullScale and previously bootstrapped an SaaS company to $35 million ARR before a $150 million exit.

In this episode, you're going to learn what skills CTOs need to become CEOs, why understanding sales and marketing is crucial for tech leaders, how to delegate effectively to focus on big-picture strategy, why communication and collaboration are key to scaling engineering teams, and what AI’s role is in shaping the future of software development.

Matt Watson is the founder and former CTO of one of the early SaaS companies, VinSolutions, which he bootstrapped in 2003 to $35 million ARR before a $150 million exit in 2011. In 2018, he founded FullScale to help himself and others scale their teams with talent from the Philippines at 70% less cost. He also hosts the Product Driven podcast and writes a weekly newsletter about the gap between business and software engineering.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction

[05:30] Starting a company by solving a real problem

[07:15] Bootstrapping an SaaS business to $35 million ARR

[08:40] Challenges of building a product without a playbook

[10:20] Different types of CTO roles

[11:50] Why startup CTOs need a product mindset

[13:05] The natural transition from CTO to CEO

[14:30] What makes a good CTO

[15:40] The importance of sales and marketing for CTOs

[17:00] Selling to developers is harder than it seems

[18:30] Why engineers struggle with delegation

[19:50] The real reason 10x developers exist

[21:10] How bureaucracy slows down engineering

[22:35] Why startups move faster than big companies

[24:00] Software corrosion and how products degrade over time

[25:30] Why big companies struggle with innovation

[27:00] The hidden cost of maintaining legacy software

[28:40] Teaching the next generation of developers

[30:20] The impact of AI on software development

[31:50] How AI is changing the role of engineers

[33:15] AI adoption rates among software developers

[34:50] Why junior developers benefit most from AI

[36:10] The balance between using AI and learning fundamentals

[37:45] Why developers need to improve communication skills

[39:00] The key to becoming a successful CTO

[40:30] Why being the best known is more important than being the best

Offshore your tech team with the talented engineers at FullScale.

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn.

Resources Mentioned:

Product Driven Podcast with Matt Watson | Spotify or Apple

VinSolutions | Website

Stackify | Website

GitHub Copilot | Website

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube and check out Adam's CTO coaching company Synova Tech.