Road to CTO #1: From economist to coder: why Charles Chase never went back to corporate

Life on Mars - A podcast from MarsBased

In this episode of Road to CTO, we sit down with Charles Chase, a serial entrepreneur and investor, who shares his journey from aspiring accountant to building multiple successful companies, including Velocify. Charles reveals how a pivotal moment in the late 90s sparked his passion for programming, leading him to abandon his original career path and dive into tech.

Despite mastering coding, Charles chose not to follow the traditional route into CTO roles. Instead, he embraced operational leadership, seeing company-building as a form of engineering. He believes creating systems, processes, and teams requires the same careful design as good software.

Now based in Barcelona, Charles shares his unique perspective on entrepreneurship, emphasizing the psychological qualities needed to succeed. His investment philosophy focuses on the person behind the product, prioritizing vision and problem-solving over the product itself.

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🎬 You can watch the video of this episode on the Life on Mars podcast website: https://podcast.marsbased.com/

Chapters

1. Welcome to Barcelona's Tech Ecosystem (00:00:00)

2. Finding Community in a New City (00:05:18)

3. From Accountant to Software Engineer (00:11:07)

4. Building Velocify as a Serial Entrepreneur (00:23:21)

5. The CTO Dilemma: Technical Leadership Choices (00:32:14)

6. Transitioning Between Roles and Companies (00:43:23)

7. Today's Tech Tools and AI Impact (00:51:10)

8. Investing Philosophy and Supporting Builders (00:57:27)

9. Emotional Intelligence in Tech Leadership (01:04:41)