A pattern-based narrative tracing the typical engineering leadership challenges of a VC-backed B2B SaaS startup from founding through Series A. The story follows a first-time CTO who starts as a hands-on coder, promotes junior engineers to tech leads without training, then struggles as the team triples post-funding. Common failure points include untrained managers, poor onboarding, salary tensions between early and new hires, and a CTO stretched across too many roles simultaneously. The post then offers mitigation strategies: coach new managers proactively, grow the team more gradually, invest in onboarding early, introduce processes incrementally, and consider bringing in experienced engineering managers before a crisis forces it.
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