Awesome CTO maps startup tech leadership through curated links
A curated and opinionated list of resources for Chief Technology Officers, with the emphasis on startups
At a glance
- What is it?
- Awesome CTO is an opinionated link collection for startup technology chiefs, spanning role definition, hiring, management and finance. Its value is breadth of curation, its cost is link age and a March 2026 last push.
- Who is it for?
- New and first time startup CTOs should browse this list as a reading map and then verify every link they intend to act on, since entries span two decades and the last push landed on 2026-03-02. Enterprise technology chiefs and anyone needing current benchmarks or governed guidance should look elsewhere.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. CC0-1.0 is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Activity is slowing. The repository last received commits 7 months ago.
- What is it written in?
- GitHub does not report a main language for this repository.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on October 1, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
An opinionated shelf for startup CTOs instead of a manual
New technology chiefs inherit decisions about hiring, architecture, process and money all at once, with no manual that covers the set. Awesome CTO answers with curation rather than instruction: an opinionated list of resources for Chief Technology Officers and VP R&D leaders, weighted toward startups and hyper growth companies. The page opens with a joke that sets the tone, a voice saying hello, my name is Dima and I am a CTO, answered by a chorus welcoming Dima. Readers get links, not chapters: essays, handbooks, talks and books gathered under eighteen headings from CTO position to marketing. A subscribe link at awesomecto.substack.com promises updates by mail. Anyone expecting a framework with steps will be disappointed. Anyone wanting a map of what experienced CTOs actually read gets exactly that.
Eighteen headings carry the reader from role to finance
Scope is the list's main asset. Contents run CTO Position, Hiring, People management, Career growth, Project management, Handbooks, Development process, Architecture, Technologies, Data, Startups, Due Diligence, Money and Finance, Related stuff, Product, Marketing, Books and More links. That ladder mirrors a CTO's week: define the role, staff the team, run the people, ship the product, mind the money. Breadth beats depth by design, since each heading holds a handful of pointers instead of a treatise. Startup and hyper growth framing narrows the audience further: entries assume fast headcount growth and founder pressure rather than regulated enterprise governance. Three files make up the whole repository: LICENSE, README.md and _config.yml, the last serving the rendered site. No build, no source, no releases exist. Readers can treat the headings as a syllabus and work them in order during the first quarter in role.
CTO position entries separate the CTO from VP Engineering
Twelve entries open the role question from several sides. Werner Vogels writes on the different CTO roles, Greg Brockman defines the CTO role at Stripe, and Fred Wilson contrasts VP Engineering with CTO. A Quora thread asks whether a developer background is required, another covers the CEO and CTO relationship in startups, and a LinkedIn piece revisits the CTO versus VP Engineering split. First months get practical help: Will Larson on the first ninety days as CTO or VP Engineering, Lara Hogan on the first thirty days in a senior role, and a Gusto engineering post on how the role changed toward one hundred engineers. Miguel Carranza contributes a founder CTO series with year four and year five updates. Readers weighing an offer or a promotion find the sharpest material here.
Hiring and management shelves lean on classic essays
Staffing advice leans on writing that survived many hiring cycles. Joel Spolsky appears with the Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing, the Joel Test and Hitting the High Notes. Jeff Atwood contributes three Coding Horror pieces on why programmers cannot program, hiring the best, and the phone screen. Process models come from Stripe interview notes on Quora, a Foursquare retrospective, and the GitLab talent acquisition framework. Charity Majors lists eleven reasons candidates get rejected, Keith Rabois offers two lessons pieces on interviewing executives and attracting talent, and a 2022 Visual Capitalist graphic charts tech layoffs. Management continues the pattern: Paul Graham on maker versus manager schedules, Salvatore Sanfilippo on the mythical ten x programmer, Cap Watkins on review processes, Google re:Work, and a Software Engineering at Google paper. A Tactical Guide to Managing Up and an ACM piece on managing up address the upward direction most lists ignore.
Reading through the rendered site and the update feed
Nothing here installs, so first use means opening pages. Start at the rendered site at kuchin.github.io/awesome-cto, which presents the same eighteen headings in readable form away from raw markdown. Skim the contents, pick one heading that matches the current problem, and open two or three links before judging the collection. Subscribe at awesomecto.substack.com for mailed updates instead of rechecking the repository. Contributors face an equally plain path: the repository holds only LICENSE, README.md and _config.yml, so a change is a link edit plus the site config, with no test suite or build to run. That simplicity keeps the barrier low and puts all quality control on the curator's judgment.
Two decade old links make verification the real price
Age is the first genuine limitation, and it bites in specific places. Entries reach back to a Joel Test essay from 2000, a 2005 Spolsky piece, a 2006 interview guide and a 2007 Vogels post. One becoming a CTO entry survives only as a web archive copy from 2017. Old does not mean wrong, yet hiring norms, compensation data and platform advice from those years mislead when applied directly. The 2022 layoffs visualization already reads as history. Consequence for the reader is concrete: every link used for a decision needs its date checked and its claims retested against present practice. Teams that quote an entry in a policy document without that check inherit stale assumptions about interviews, pay discussions and org design. Bookmark the rendered page rather than the raw file, since link targets matter more than list formatting.
A March push and a startup lens bound who should trust it
The second limitation is freshness plus framing. The last push landed on 2026-03-02 with no GitHub releases, so the collection cannot be called current without qualification, and dated entries keep aging between pushes. Startup and hyper growth emphasis shapes every shelf: advice assumes rapid hiring, founder dynamics and speed over compliance. Technology chiefs in regulated industries, public sector shops or slow growth firms will find gaps around audit, procurement and safety review. License terms are permissive, with the repository granted under CC0-1.0, so reuse of the list itself is unrestricted in the file's own terms. Use it as a discovery feed, confirm dates, and pair it with sources that match the reader's company size.
Editorial conclusion
New and first time startup CTOs should browse this list as a reading map and then verify every link they intend to act on, since entries span two decades and the last push landed on 2026-03-02. Enterprise technology chiefs and anyone needing current benchmarks or governed guidance should look elsewhere. Before citing a section, open the rendered site, check the linked page date, and confirm the advice still matches present hiring and management practice.
Frequently asked questions
What does a reader get from the Awesome CTO list?
A curated, opinionated set of links for Chief Technology Officers and VP R&D leaders at startups and hyper growth companies, organized under eighteen headings from role definition to finance.
Where can the Awesome CTO list be read outside GitHub?
The collection renders at kuchin.github.io/awesome-cto, and mailed updates go out through the awesomecto.substack.com subscription link.
How fresh is the Awesome CTO collection?
The last push landed on 2026-03-02 and the repository has no GitHub releases, so readers should check each linked page date before acting on its advice.
Under what license is the Awesome CTO list shared?
The repository carries a CC0-1.0 license, and readers reusing entries at scale should confirm the exact terms in the LICENSE file first.