Yesterday evening, a member of my team, the tech-lead, had a comment about the “why” of my presence to the RENT (one of the, if the the biggest event in real-estate technology. My company is very much a target as we are in real-estate and tech is a core pillar of our offer).

Might have been classic sarcasm which kind of defines our relationship 🤓. Might have been genuine concern as to why should I spend two days at an event, seemingly a business one, definitely not a dev-event. I was kind of taken aback at the moment and could not really give a satisfactory answer because it’s quite evident to me. It occurred that the “why” which is so clear to me is something I’ve never shared with my team. At its core, it’s about how I see my role as CTO.

CTO can mean whatever we want given the company size & maturity and even based on the people we find in this position. It’s one of those one-size-fits-all titles that don’t really mean anything.

That being said, it’s both a curse and a blessing, because you can shape it in any way you want – given it fits within the company – but on the other hand you need a bit more pedagogy as to what you aim to achieve. I clearly was off on the latter, at least within the team. Woops.

Generally speaking, I don’t see the role as a pure technical one, but as a bridge in-between tech & business. This is quite broad and a classic expectation overall. Time to be more specific, because until now I basicly did not say anything rather than just waste your internet connexion.

Here at We Invest, it’s not only how I see it but it’s very much what was asked of me as well when I joined, from both the CEO & the board. It was something that was clearly stated and after my last presentation with the board, something that was noticed and seemed appreciated. Being able to speak to both crowds is equally obvious as it is so often missed completely. I’m not going to try to mystify my position and make it sound like you have to have a very specific set of skills to perform well at. You do have to be aware of these communication & pedagogy aspects.

Being able to commicate early and enough is key, as well as sharing your department roadmap, releases and such in such a way that everybody, from all departments, can understand. As usual, it’s awesome that you design and develop amazing products, if nobody knows about it you might as well stay in bed. (More on that in an upcoming article, as to what went wrong with my first company 🫠.)

I’m not saying, either, that I’m the best at this. It’s very much a forever-in-progress process but at least I try to stay aware of it and it is an every-day priority. More on continuous-learning in another article, maybe.

To come back to the RENT, my answer should have been something like this.

I have 2 main missions at such an event, as CTO:

1. Be the tech representative and assist the team on these matters with prospects. As an illustration, yesterday at the beginning of the evening it’s precisely what one of the salespeople asked me to do for one of his prospect: to be there and ~explain~ sell the tech side of things to convince them to join WeInvest, because he felt it would be a good lever for this prospect in particular. I obviously accepted and encouraged him to continue inviting me to such meetings.
2. Be on the prospection for potential partners. The RENT is a fantastic place for finding new tools and I believe I’m very well placed to be part of this effort. As an example, at another RENT even which took place ~4-5 years ago, I met with 2 guys from Zurich that just launched PriceHubble. As CTO @ Drawbotics (my first company, active in real-estate as well), the fit was not perfect and we did not pursue it, but this is an example of potential. It is a tool we rely on at WeInvest though.

As with any effort, any event, maybe nothing comes out of it. But if you don’t try, if you don’t show up, the “maybe” in that previous sentence becomes much more absolute.

This last sentence feels very Linkedin-y and therefore crucially lacks of emoji. I’m sorry. Here’s an emoji 🖕.