Svetlana ShevchukIn the modern tech world, a podcast is a perfect way to absorb new information while being always on the go. This is especially true for CTOs and tech leads. Their busy lifestyle may not allow them to stay up to date with the latest tech news and trends via traditional media such as written texts. Additionally, CTOs listen to podcasts due to the following reasons:
- To get inspired and motivated by the experience of other CTOs.
- To learn about interesting cases and get ideas on how to solve possible problems.
- To get to know industry leaders and use them as role models.
- To stay up to date with the industry.
If you love online podcasts and looking for inspiration, motivation, industry news or something else that can help you as a CTO, you have come to the right place. In this article, we are going to list 10 best podcasts for CTO so you can choose the one or several ones that will perfectly fit your needs or you can also get inspiration if you want to start recording your own podcast.
Table of Contents
Podcast #1: Modern CTO
Host: Joel Beasley
Average episode length: 45 minutes
Exists since: 2017
Episode frequency: 1 episode/week
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, YouTube
The Modern CTO podcast features interviews with CTOs of Fortune 500 companies in the aerospace, AI, robotics, and many more industries. For example, the podcast presents CTO talks with tech leaders of such companies as IBM Q Strategy and Research, Citrix, Cisco, Quora, LinkedIn, Reddit, Atlassian, Zoom, etc., and even with “the first CTO of the United States.” If you’re looking for inspiration from the stories by CTOs of world-renowned companies, this podcast is for you.
Podcast #2: CTO Think
Hosts: Don Vandemark and Randy Burgess
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Exists since: 2017
Episode frequency: 1-2 episodes / month
Platforms: iTunes, Overcast, Pocket Casts, transistor.fm, YouTube
CTO Think contains the talks of its two authors, Don and Randy, regarding leadership, product dev, and tech decisions. Don Vandemark is a startup CTO, Technology Manager, and developer based out of Orlando. Randy Burgess is a former CTO, startup consultant, developer, and coding boot camp instructor living in Kansas City. Here are some examples of episode topics: Improving Visual Communication for Remote Management, Automation vs Programming, Handling Critical Feature Updates, etc. This podcast is perfect for those looking for open and honest stories because having no guests allows the authors to speak more directly.
Podcast #3: The CTO Advisor
Host: Keith Townsend
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Exists since: 2017
Episode frequency: 1-2 episodes / month
Platforms: iTunes
The CTO Advisor is a company that helps organizations navigate the challenges of digital transformation. Their services include assessments of IT infrastructure, development of enterprise technology roadmaps, hybrid IT strategy workshops, etc. The company leader, Keith Townsend, hosts a podcast with CTO talks related to digital transformation and cloud automation. Among his guests are:
- Conor Duffy, David Iovino, and Justin Jones from Dell Marketing;
- Craig Connors, Chief Architect at Velocloud by VMWare;
- Joe Beda, Kubernetes co-founder and VMware Principal Engineer;
- and many others.
This CTO podcast is a perfect fit for those interested in cloud automation.
Podcast #4: CTO Connection
Host: Peter Bale
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Exists since: 2016
Episode frequency: 1-2 episodes / month
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Breaker, Spotify, Overcast, YouTube
CTO Connection is a podcast that shares the experiences of successful engineering leaders at fast-growth tech startups. If you want to learn more about hiring, motivating, or managing an engineering team, CTO Connection is a great resource for learning from your peers. Among the guest CTOs are David Schwartz of Ripple, Prashant Pandey of Asana, Adam Nash of Dropbox, and many others.
Podcast #5: Behind the Tech
Hosts: Kevin Scott and Christina Warren
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Exists since: 2018
Episode frequency: 1 episode / month
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Libsyn, YouTube
Behind the Tech is a podcast by Kevin Scott, CTO of Microsoft, and Christina Warren, Microsoft Cloud Developer Advocate. This CTO podcast goes behind the scenes with today’s most innovative tech leaders, such as:
- Sam Altman, Y Combinator President and OpenAI CEO;
- Bill Coughran, Bell Labs researcher, Google executive, and Sequoia Capital VC;
- Reid Hoffman, co-founder of PayPal and LinkedIn;
- Jaron Lanier, “father” of virtual reality and founder of VPL Research, a home for the first commercial VR products,
- and many more.
The podcast will suit those CTOs who want to get inspiration from tech innovators across the world.
Podcast #6: CXO Talk
Host: Michael Krigsman
Average episode length: 30 minutes
Exists since: 2013
Episode frequency: 3-6 episodes / month
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Spreaker, PlayerFM, iHeartRadio, Spotify, YouTube
CXO Talk is a platform offering in-depth discussions with the world’s most innovative leaders in business, technology, healthcare, and government. The talks are also available as podcasts where industry analyst and enterprise marketing advisor Michael Krigsman interviews the world’s top business and technology leaders. Among his guests are:
- Rob Tarkoff, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Oracle;
- Martin Powell, Head of Urban Development at Siemens;
- Alicia Tillman, Chief Marketing Officer at SAP;
- and others.
The topics of the CTO talks cover AI, digital transformation, customer experience, digital marketing, IoT, mobility, security, leadership/organization, business impact, startups/entrepreneurship, and business models. The podcast will give CTOs a glimpse into the minds of their prominent peers.
Podcast #7: The CTO Studio
Host: Etienne de Bruin
Average episode length: 50 minutes
Exists since: 2018
Episode frequency: 1 episode / month
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Spotify
The CTO Studio is a podcast featured by 7CTOs, a company that trains CTOs, invests in technological progress, and builds initiatives that inspire innovative thinking. The key purpose of 7CTOs is to bring together the tech leaders from all over the world so they could exchange their experience and make new connections. The topics of CTO Studio podcasts are quite diverse, such as Growing and Scaling Your Tech Company, The Ins and Outs of the Car Finance Industry, The Present and Future of Data Science, Disrupting the Healthcare Market, Being a Tech Leader in the Music Industry, and many others. This CTO podcast is perfect for those who want to learn from the experience of their peers across a wide range of industries.
Podcast #8: alphalist.CTO
Host: Tobias Schlottke
Average episode length: 45 minutes
Exists since: 2020
Episode frequency: 2 episode / month
Platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Deezer
The alphalist.CTO podcasts offer awesome insights into the world‘s top tech companies, personalities, and trends. Topics range from technical leadership to technology itself (AI, Cloud, Data, Databases, Networking, etc.). Previous guests have included Sebastian Thrun (Stanford, Google Self-driving, Kitty Hawk, Udacity), Tim O’Rielly, and David Heinemeier Hansson (Basecamp, Ruby on Rails). You are bound to learn something new from every eye-opening episode.
This podcast is great for CTOs of tech-product companies with any level of experience and team size.
Alphalist is also an exclusive CTO network with events and an active Slack Group (you can apply here).
Podcast #9: Cto.coffee
Host: Benjamin Reitzammer
Average episode length: 50 minutes
Exists since: 2017
Episode frequency: 1 episode / 1-2 months (no updates since 2021)
Platforms: Spotify
Сto.coffee is a podcast from Germany where Benjamin Reitzammer, a freelance CTO and developer, chats with his guests about the role of people in technology and software development, preferably while having a coffee together. At the moment, the podcast contains 10 episodes interviewing the following tech people:
- Raimo Radczewski, Freelance Software Developer and Coach;
- Christian Uhl, Head of Engineering at Matmatch;
- Felicitas Kugland, Principal Product Engineer;
- David Morgantini, Co-founder at SkillsMap;
- Marcus Blankenship, management and leadership coach;
- Yulia Startsev, developer at Mozilla;
- Alex Schladebeck, CEO at BREDEX GmbH;
- Stephen Lewis, CTO at Palatinate Tech;
- Daniel Jilg, a freelance CTO and developer.
Podcast #10: Y Combinator Podcast
Host: Craig Cannon
Average episode length: 75 minutes
Exists since: 2017
Episode frequency: 2-4 episodes / month
Platforms: iTunes, Breaker, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, SoundCloud
Y Combinator needs no introduction – you are most probably aware of this venture fund and business incubator that has been around since 2005. The Y Combinator podcast now mostly contains recaps of YC’s Startup School, but recently they have also added CTO talks with tech leaders.
Wrapping Up
We hope that our list of best tech podcasts has given you an idea of podcasts that might interest you. If you already have your own list of top CTO podcasts, please share it in the comments!
Artem Vasin
Rita Bodnarchuk