Thoughts on Business, Technology and Events by Tom Nault

Thoughts on Business, Technology and Events by Tom Nault

Getting to CEO

What's the path? No, really?

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Tom Nault
Sep 22, 2025
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Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

One of the most often asked questions I receive on Quora is how can I become a CEO? I never know how to answer the question because the path to the role is complicated, even if you’re a successful entrepreneur. Not every founder should be a CEO, and great founders often recognize their role as technologists first and move into the CTO role where they are a stronger contributor. They dislike the role as CEO.

As I’ve written before, the most common path is to build experience as CEO as a company founder. This is how I did it. This doesn’t mean you will be a successful CEO, but it’s the more common path. While you’re in that role, it’s endless lessons to become a competent CEO.

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