How Many CTOs
by Brad Hefta-Gaub & Scott Porad
Latest episode
What Broke in Tech: Code Quality, AI Guardrails, and the Evolving…
What Broke in Tech: Code Quality, AI Guardrails, and the Evolving…
About this podcast
Welcome to the "How Many CTOs?" Podcast, hosted by Brad and Scott, where we dive deep into the intricate world of Chief Technology Officers. Each episode features candid conversations with guest CTOs who share their real-world experiences and insights on a wide range of topics. From building and upleveling high-performing engineering teams to managing and communicating the impact of tech debt, we cover it all. Discover strategies for measuring engineering productivity, refining processes, and balancing innovation with structured methodologies. Learn from experts about decomposing monolithic systems and keeping up with the latest technology trends. Whether you're a current or aspiring CTO, our podcast offers practical solutions and valuable advice to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of technology leadership. Tune in and join the discussion on overcoming the common challenges faced by CTOs today. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! #TechLeadership #CTO #techpodcast
Episodes
The newest 20 of 94 episodes
- What Broke in Tech: Code Quality, AI Guardrails, and the Evolving Software Engineer · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 43In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub continue to recap Gergely Orosz's "State of the Tech Industry" talk and focus on…
- The State of Tech in 2026: What Changed And What Didn't · 33 min · Season 2 Episode 42In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss a Pragmatic Engineer talk on the state of the tech industry in 2026…
- The Human Needs in Augmented Coding: A Conversation with Kent Beck · 1 h 9 min · Season 2 Episode 41In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub interview software pioneer Kent Beck about his background (JUnit, test-driven…
- Preparing for the Worst: Tabletop Exercises, Unit Tests, and Everything In Between · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 40In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss TaskRabbit's overnight AWS region migration from us-west-1 to us-west-2…
- Understanding The Fear: Adaptive Leadership in the AI Age · 34 min · Season 2 Episode 39In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss growing fear about AI among engineers and managers, framing it as an…
- Simplifying Tech Through Empathy and Understanding with Frank Bravo · 50 min · Season 2 Episode 38In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, host Brad Hefta-Gaub is joined by guest Frank Bravo, a Bay Area technologist who spent 30 years as CTO in local media…
- Managing Skepticism: Balancing Tradition and Technology with AI · 50 min · Season 2 Episode 37In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss how AI is changing software engineering referencing Kent Beck's idea that…
- From Academia to Industry: Scott Hanson on the Future of AI and Edge Computing · 46 min · Season 2 Episode 36In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub interview Scott Hanson, founder and CTO of Ambiq, a company focused on…
- Beyond Cost Reduction: AI in Revenue Generation and Innovation with Andy Boettcher · 50 min · Season 2 Episode 35In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub interview Andy Boettcher, Chief Innovator of DoubleTrack, a boutique data and AI…
- The Hardware/Software Blend: Visionary Innovations in Health Tech with Eyebot's Jack Moldave · 53 min · Season 2 Episode 34In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub interview Jack Moldave of Eyebot, a company he co-founded nearly six years ago to…
- Fast, On Time, or Fully Utilized? Choosing What to Optimize in Engineering Delivery · 17 min · Season 2 Episode 33In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss a leadership conversation where three senior stakeholders wanted different…
- The Pace of Innovation: Systems Thinking for Faster Engineering · 57 min · Season 2 Episode 32In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub open with travel and sports talk, including World Cup rules, then pivot to Scott's…
- Method to the Madness: A CTO Framework for Systemic AI Adoption · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 31In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss how CTOs must frame narratives that help teams organize around ideas…
- There's A Pattern To Follow: An Interview with Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin · 1 h 1 min · Season 2 Episode 30In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub are honored to interview Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, who recounts his 60+ year…
- Is Uncle Bob Right? Reading Code vs. Architecting the Future · 43 min · Season 2 Episode 29In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss how Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin—author of Clean Code and Agile Manifesto…
- Token Maxxing and Local Inference: Navigating the Shift in AI Usage for Developers · 1 h 0 min · Season 2 Episode 28In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss token spending and the "token maxing" backlash, sparked by a GitHub…
- This Has Always Been A Problem: Slot Machine Devs and Growing Junior Engineers in the Age of AI · 56 min · Season 2 Episode 27In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss how managing armies of coding agents can be physically draining, likening…
- From Chaos to Control: Bringing Specification Driven Design to Vibe Coding with David Bauer · 51 min · Season 2 Episode 26In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, host Brad Hefta-Gaub is joined by Dr. David Bauer of Axonis AI, who shares how his background in distributed computing…
- Introducing Skein and Beaker Stack: Using AI Agent Engineers to Ship SaaS Faster · 50 min · Season 2 Episode 25In this special episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub discuss Brad's experiment proving that AI can dramatically boost output…
- AI and the Data Swamp In Your Backyard with Ben Wilcox · 48 min · Season 2 Episode 24In this episode of "How Many CTOs Does It Take?" podcast, hosts Scott Porad and Brad Hefta-Gaub interview guest Ben Wilcox, CTO and CISO of ProArch, a Microsoft-focused data and…
