“Guiding Startup Success: CTO Leadership, Building Teams, and Driving Innovation

The XRaised

Hosted by Myles Sabiniano, January 2025

Zachary Goldberg shares his expertise on empowering tech leaders in startup environments. He discusses the unique challenges of startup leadership, from managing resource constraints to building agile, high-performing teams.

Discover how to transition from tech specialist to effective CTO, the importance of empathy in leadership, and the core strategies for achieving product-market fit. Learn more about Zach’s book, coaching practice, and advice for aspiring startup leaders.

The Biggest Challenge for Startup CTOs

How To Hire Talent

Advice for Aspiring Tech Leaders

Why Zach Wrote The Startup CTO's Handbook

CTO Responsibilities Startups vs Big Companies

The CTO Playbook

“Coaching Managers for Excellence

Hosted by Adam Horner, November 2024

In this episode, Zach shares key lessons from leading startup engineering teams, common CTO mistakes during growth, how to build a culture of continuous learning and high performance, the importance of external thought leadership, and more.

Zach Goldberg is an executive coach, author of the 10k+ GitHub star book The Startup CTO’s Handbook, and CTO of Gruntwork. He’s served as CTO for seven startups, including WiFast, Sticks and Brains, AutoLotto, Trellis Technologies, GrowFlow, Towards Equilibrium Inc., and most recently, Gruntwork.

The Modern CTO

“The Top Mistakes Made by Startup CTOs

Hosted by Joel Beasley, August 2024

Today, we’re talking to Zach Goldberg, CTO at Gruntwork and Executive Leadership Coach. We explore key takeaways from his book, 'The Startup CTO’s Handbook,' common CTO mistakes, AI ethics, and more.

Zach, an experienced technical entrepreneur with a 'founder's mentality,' believes in making software development a science by applying best practices, building a collaborative culture, and hiring well, all while creating a fun and world-class work environment.

Answering the Question

Transparency and Manifest

Journal & Your Brain as a Muscle

Zach on Tradeoffs

Infrastructure as Code

“Deep Dive into Terragrunt and OpenTofu

Hosted by Ohad Maislish, June 2024

Infrastructure as Code is evolving rapidly, and open-source collaborations are playing a big part in shaping where it's headed. In this episode, Zach Goldberg, CTO of Gruntwork, shares his insights on tackling enterprise IaC complexity with open source tools. We dive into the origins of Terragrunt and its roadmap, why organizations are rapidly adopting OpenTofu, and explore the innovative ways these tools are being used in the community.

How are these developments transforming IaC practices? What challenges and opportunities lie ahead?

Discovering the Mission Behind Gruntwork

Why Choose OpenTofu Over Terraform

Terra Test - Ensuring IAC Quality

The Future of Terragrunt - What’s Next

What Makes Terragrunt Stand

The Code Story

Gruntwork & The Startup CTO’s Handbook

Hosted by Noah Labhart, March 2024

Zach Goldberg was sent to computer camp when he was 12 years old. There, he fell in love with tech, and eventually became a counselor. He finds the most joy and impact at the intersection of business and technology.

Zach shares insights from his extensive career as a CTO and his journey in writing a book that condenses the wisdom of numerous other influential works into a single, comprehensive guide.

Building and Leading Effective Teams

Creating a Positive Workplace

Secret to Turning Billion-Dollar Ideas Into Reality

Future of Gruntwork Innovation and Goals

Vision for Gruntwork’s MVP

Dev Interrupted

“The Startup CTO’s Handbook

Hosted by Dan Lines, February 2024

Infrastructure as Code is evolving rapidly, and open-source collaborations are playing a big part in shaping where it's headed. In this episode, Zach Goldberg, CTO of Gruntwork, shares his insights on tackling enterprise IaC complexity with open source tools. We dive into the origins of Terragrunt and its roadmap, why organizations are rapidly adopting OpenTofu, and explore the innovative ways these tools are being used in the community.

How are these developments transforming IaC practices? What challenges and opportunities lie ahead?

The Startup CTO’s Handbook

Job Description Consistency and the Expectations of the Role

What is Good Developer Experience

Software Engineering Like Any Other Form of Engineering

Performance Reviews

Dev Interrupted

“Creating a Better CTO Playbook”

Hosted by Dan Lines, June 2022

Zach Goldberg, CTO at Dama Financial, joins Dev Interrupted to talk about the few truths in software engineering & the need for a CTO playbook.

In this great conversation, Zach talks about the most important things he’s learned in separating signal from noise in the realm of engineering leadership. He also provides some amazing guidance on who you should be listening to (when you’re not listening to us).

Listening to Books on 3X Speed

Pull Request Costs

CTO Playbook

Cooldowns As Innovation Sprints

What are Good Engineering Teams

Improved Cycle Time With LinearB