Team presentation Wednesday : Romain – CTO

The Brain

Sometimes to find exactly what you're looking for (or "who", in this situation), all you need is (love) luck. That's how, on January, the 7th of 2013, our CEO Gauthier found his futur associate and CTO with a Tweet. Plain, simple, just "Looking for a CTO" and KABOUM : Romain is there with his cape and his white horse, and he "pinged" him. But as a great CEO of a digital native company in the making, Gauthier didn't know the fck what "ping" meant. And there began an association that gave us the counter you have in your hands today (or you don't have, you stingy little bastrds).

Romain's way of working as a CTO of a hardware company stands on several major points : first of all, you need to "be pessimistic". Being pessimistic helps to anticipate problems and find the right solution, because you are already suspecting problems before launching the real thing.

Second of all, you must "Think Big". Or as he says : "Shoot for the moon." You ain't going anywhere if you're just aiming for what you can touch, succeeding is just a matter of will and determination. So give yourself great goals and take risks. Don't just do things, move mountains for 'em.

3rd Romain Cochet's golden rules ? DO. NOT. DESIGN. You're not prepared for that, the designer is going to be your brother in arms, he's the one gifted to imagine things, to figure how your next product will look like. The CTO, on the other hand, has to think about the technical issues, the one that transforms the step "Well, that's pretty" into "Fùck yeah it works!"

Finally, and that might be the most important point, be a maker. That almost doesn't need any explanations. Your job is to make things. That is simply what will make you proud of yourself day after day.

One more thing : being the CTO of a startup meens being fully committed to the startup. In Smiirl's case, it meens jump in a plain an solving problems in factories in France / Asia or at customers, going back at the website, meet new partners, manage the team & build the vision with the team.

Thanks a lot for reading this article. I'll see you next time for another team member introduction!

I'm out! 😉