1. Why CTO is becoming important for companies?

With rapid technological advancement, the role of a CTO is also evolving faster than ever before. Currently, the success of every company depends on how quickly they can become accustomed to new technology developments. Only a CTO (Chief Technological Officer) can help your organization to keep pace with technological innovations and trends. CTOs hold a prominent position today as their role demands active participation in all facets of the business. Presently, the CTO of an organization is like an extension of the CEO who adds significant credibility to your company and business offerings.

2. How Purple Quarter spots the talent?

Purple Quarter team has mapped 300+ active & passive talent during the first 180 days (post inception) and continues to identify Talent across the world and decipher their motivation, mobility, compensation, and behavioral traits.

3. What does it take to become a chief technology officer? What are the skill requirements?

The CTO is a tech guru who sets the technical direction of the company. He or she is the technology visionary who lays the foundation of what needs to be built and strategizes the development of the product. The CTO keeps track of all the latest cutting-edge research and technologies in the company’s area of interest and has a clear idea about how they would impact the technical direction of the company.

The CTO is also a public facing role. He or she represents the technical vision of the company and is responsible for spreading this vision in the world through blogs, meetings, conferences, speaking engagements, and the like.

Most importantly, the CTO is not responsible for managing people or leading teams. His or her focus is on inventing and creating technology for the company, not on handling the diverse team who would build the product.

VP Engineering

VP Engineering is a person who has a deep knowledge of technology but is more focused on managing and leading teams. He or she is a great manager and is responsible for ensuring every member of the engineering team is doing their work properly. It is the VP Engineering’s job to guide the technical architecture of the products, confirming that the product vision is realized and executed without fail within the stipulated time. They are also responsible for co-developing the company’s technical strategy with the CTO and have a role to play in the development of product strategy as well.

The VP Engineering is in charge of managing the budget of the engineering department of the company which includes prototyping costs, consulting costs, equipment expenses, and more. He or she also is responsible for the recruitment of new team members and internal communication as well.

Unlike the CTO, VP Engineering is not usually an outward facing role. His or her role is focused on building and managing a high-performing team and keeping things on track.

4. When should your company hire a CTO or VP Engineering?

A mistake that many founders/recruiters make when hunting for the ideal “technical’ person to lead their team is that they confuse the responsibilities these job titles entail. Now that we have laid out the differences in the duties that the CTO and VP Engineering perform, we hope there is no room for such confusion.

The next question is, therefore, when should a company hire a CTO or a VP Engineering? A company’s technical vision cannot be formulated without a CTO. No matter how small a company is, they would need a CTO. Hence, a CTO is usually one of the first people that a company hires. As the team grows, it becomes difficult for the CTO to handle managerial responsibilities along with shaping technical strategies. At this point, hiring a VP Engineering to manage your engineering team would be a good idea.

However, despite the different nature of their roles, both the CTO and VP Engineering form the crux of a company’s technical team and must work in tandem along with the rest of the team to take the company to the next level.

5. What’s the salary trend in India?

CTOs In India make upwards of USD 150,000. That was the salary part. Here comes the good part. Most of the CTOs also get stock options (or equity) in the company. As a matter of fact, if a company is a tech startup, CTOs do get a major portion of the company, depending on the stage of the company.

6. What kind of demand-supply gap exists in the availability of CTOs?

There is already more demand for less supply. There are several people preparing to become CTOs.You will also see Purple Quarter shaping these guys on how to become a CTO. This is not going to go down; it will only go up. Companies that I have been talking to, have become multi-billion dollars in a few months. So, things are going to move from a different perspective. Data is becoming very important and you need a CTO to utilize this data in order to monetize it.

7. What are your strategies for expansion?

Purple Quarter wants to expand to other geographies; we have already started working in the Southeast Asian market and the Bay Area. We aim to be the number one brand for CTOs globally. “In our far future, we also plan to invest in other companies and startups as well,” We are also looking at strategic acquisition in Israel.