from cto to CCO c=company

" I need to be more charismatic." said the brilliant CTO staring at his coffee,

at a deep tech for enterprise scale up. This sounds better - if there is such a thing - in Hebrew and I have heard it many times before. Truth is I have a soft spot for this type who are often modest, multilingual, ex 8200 fanciest units, allergic to fluff etc.

The specific understated mensch CTO I have been working with for the last couple of months thought he just needed to be better at investor pitching.

That was the easy part. What really happened was that he developed the strategic voice that gave him the confidence to be heard everywhere.

The shift wasn't how he spoke. It was what he chose to say. With just a bit of prodding technology conversations became his views on growth, risk, customer value, and competitive advantage.

Once that mode of thinking is live it touches everything. It started, as it always does, with the vibe in the engineering team syncs

. The conversation stopped being just what they were shipping and became why it mattered.

3 months later it was clear to me how this new style of communication was affecting his positioning ( CTOs hate that concept. They just want to do the work.) He gained the confidence to step up and start the small strategic conversations that shape the big decisions about direction. Sure he had expert insights about AI, security, and technical debt, but he was just as likely to share opinions about the market, culture playbooks and expanding the team with strategic clarity.

And by doing this authentically and on his own terms he earned greater trust from the CEO and other founders, Board, and strategic partners because rather than Chief Technical Officer he had become Chief Company Officer.

And those investor pitches? His style of quiet, authentic techie charisma came through once he was talking about the true business impact of the product road map, technical moat or latest AI features. Because a CTO who is technically brilliant but who leads with business outcomes has more than charisma. He has people's trust.