From Code to Customer: The Strategic Power of a Field CTO

I’ve explored different aspects of product-market fit on the podcast, but when you’re scaling an open-source business with enterprise customers and a global developer community, you also need customer–engineering fit — the ability to translate between what’s being built and what the market actually needs.

At Astronomer, Viraj Parekh is that bridge. He is part engineer, part strategist, and part customer advocate, working across product, sales, and engineering.

In this episode of Fund/Build/Scale, Viraj explains what a Field CTO really does, how the role evolved at Astronomer, and when founders should consider creating one. He also shares lessons on customer discovery, team dynamics, and how to turn technical insight into business momentum.

RUNTIME 31:16 EPISODE BREAKDOWN

(2:20) What is Astronomer, and when did the company get started?

(3:51) How the founding team came together.

(6:39) How Viraj collaborated with CTO Julian LaNeve to develop the Field CTO role.

(8:28) Where their roles overlap — and where they each take ownership.

(11:42) “We were at a point where we were really trying to standardize our sales process.”

(13:20) How the Field CTO role is different from a sales engineer or solutions architect.

(15:39) “ Talking to customers is a very humbling thing every day because you just realize how much you have to learn.”

(19:14) “ At a really early stage of customer development, the Field CTO role is almost like an external-facing product manager.”

(21:46) Viraj talks about the processes and tools he uses to share customer feedback internally.

(24:48) How to be a staunch customer advocate without losing your business focus.

(26:55) What’s the biggest opportunity cost associated with not having a Field CTO?

(30:13)  If you were interviewing for a job with an early stage startup, what's one question the CEO would have to answer before you could take the offer? 

LINKS

• Viraj Parekh
• Julian LaNeve
• Astronomer
• Apache Airflow

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Thanks for listening!

– Walter.