Welcome to the "How Many CTOs?" Podcast, hosted by Brad and Scott, where we dive deep into the intricate world of Chief Technology Officers. Each episode features candid conversations with guest CTOs who share their real-world experiences and insights on a wide range of topics. From building and upleveling high-performing engineering teams to managing and communicating the impact of tech debt, we cover it all. Discover strategies for measuring engineering productivity, refining processes, and balancing innovation with structured methodologies. Learn from experts about decomposing monolithic systems and keeping up with the latest technology trends. Whether you're a current or aspiring CTO, our podcast offers practical solutions and valuable advice to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of technology leadership. Tune in and join the discussion on overcoming the common challenges faced by CTOs today. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! #TechLeadership #CTO #techpodcast
How Many CTOs
Claim This Podcastby Brad Hefta-Gaub & Scott Porad
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Podcast Overview
Welcome to the "How Many CTOs?" Podcast, hosted by Brad and Scott, where we dive deep into the intricate world of Chief Technology Officers. Each episode features candid conversations with guest CTOs who share their real-world experiences and insights on a wide range of topics. From building and upleveling high-performing engineering teams to managing and communicating the impact of tech debt, we cover it all. Discover strategies for measuring engineering productivity, refining processes, and balancing innovation with structured methodologies. Learn from experts about decomposing monolithic systems and keeping up with the latest technology trends. Whether you're a current or aspiring CTO, our podcast offers practical solutions and valuable advice to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of technology leadership. Tune in and join the discussion on overcoming the common challenges faced by CTOs today. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! #TechLeadership #CTO #techpodcast
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Publishing Since
2/19/2025
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Recent Episodes
July 7, 2026
From Chaos to Control: Bringing Specification Driven Design to Vibe Coding with David Bauer
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">In this episode of <a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com/">"How Many CTOs Does It Take?"</a> podcast, host <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">Brad Hefta-Gaub</a> is joined by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-bauer/">Dr. David Bauer</a> of <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/company/axonisai/">Axonis AI,</a> who shares how his background in distributed computing, startups, and the U.S. intelligence community led him to Axonis AI's federated data layer used for federated learning, data fusion, semantic ontologies, and decision intelligence. Bauer describes how encouraging engineers to use any LLM tool led to incorrect, unreviewable PRs and broken releases, especially in security-critical areas, as MCP tooling sprawl made tool selection unreliable. Axonis rebuilt its development workflow around specification-driven design with extensive automation, agentic workflows, Git hooks, and spec-centric Agile tracking, shifting engineers from code-centric work to "vibe speccing" and system understanding. They prioritize end-to-end integration tests as the primary quality gate, keep integration test implementations tightly controlled, and automate much of GitLab interaction while using their own compliance/attestation tooling to tie decisions to evidence across the company. Brad and Bauer engage in a healthy debate about the need for unit tests in the age of AI-assisted programming, and they end the episode by discussing how to empower engineers who focus on identifying and solving business needs, rather than the minutia of the actual coding.</p> <div class="py-2 px-3 gap-3 stack" data-testid= "ai-actions-response-content"> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">00:00 Cold Open</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">00:27 Meet Dr David Bauer</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">01:15 Axonis AI Origin Story</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">02:54 Why Startups Must Use AI</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">04:42 When Vibe Coding Breaks PRs</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">07:29 Team Scale And Pain Points</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">08:29 MCP Tool Sprawl And Gateway</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">10:21 Specification Driven Design Fix</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">18:49 Quality Gates And Integration Focus</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">21:44 Unit Tests Debate Begins</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">26:22 Robot Test Validation</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">28:04 Unit vs Integration Tests</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">29:51 Vibe Speccing Workflow</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">32:52 Engineers as PMs</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">34:55 Compliance Tooling Attestations</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">38:36 Federated Data Evidence</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">40:17 Advice for Engineering Leaders</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">43:24 Specs Beyond Engineering</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">45:56 Making Specs Consumable</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">49:26 Wrap Up and Credits</span></div> </div> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Resources:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How Many CTOs Pod: <a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com">https://howmanyctospod.com</a></li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Brad Hefta-Gaub: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/"></a><a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/</a> </li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">David Bauer: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-bauer/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-bauer/</a> </li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Axonis AI: <a href= "https://www.axonis.ai/">https://www.axonis.ai/</a> </li> </ul> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">#TechPodcast #EngineeringPodcast #DevTalks #PodcastForDevs #HowManyCTOs #Podcast #CTOs #CTOPodcast #ChiefTechnologyOfficer #Technology #Engineering #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #TechLeadership #EngineeringLeadership #EngineeringCulture #TechDebates #VibeCoding #IntegrationTesting #AI #AIAssistedCoding #AIAssistedProgramming #ProductDevelopment #Agile #SpecificationDrivenDesign #SystemDesign #AIInTech #AgileProcesses #LeadershipDevelopment #ContinuousIntegration</p>
June 30, 2026
Introducing Skein and Beaker Stack: Using AI Agent Engineers to Ship SaaS Faster
<p>In this special episode of "<a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com/">How Many CTOs Does It Take?</a>" podcast, hosts <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/">Scott Porad</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">Brad Hefta-Gaub</a> discuss Brad's experiment proving that AI can dramatically boost output for teams with strong engineering practices. Brad shares an MIT-licensed open-source SaaS template called <a href="https://beakerstack.com/">Beaker Stack</a>, which includes web and mobile scaffolding, CI/CD for preview/staging/production, automated setup, observability, email tooling, and Stripe-based tiered billing with feature gating. He then uses it to build <a href="https://getskein.ai/">Skein</a>, a cloud-hosted shared "memory backplane" served via an MCP endpoint that lets multiple AI tools and agents read/write memories with strong security controls and auditing. Brad describes hiring four AI agent "engineers" (Diego, Mei, Rahul, Sarah) with persona "soul files," running them in Nanocloud/Nanoclaw containers for security, coordinating work via Telegram and GitHub, and applying spec-driven, test-heavy guardrails to ship Skein in about 10 days of part-time work. Scott asks questions about Brad's process, and the two hosts debate how different perspectives effect an engineer's process, be they AI agent or human coworker. <a href= "https://youtu.be/zkai4gKiRVc">A video version of this episode</a> can be found on the <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/@HowManyCTOsPod">How Many CTOs YouTube channel</a>!</p> <div class="py-2 px-3 gap-3 stack" data-testid= "ai-actions-response-content"> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">00:00 Cold Open</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">01:05 AI Velocity Thesis</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">02:16 Shipping SaaS Every Six Weeks</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">04:37 Beaker Stack Tour</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">08:11 Meet The AI Engineers</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">09:52 Agent Workflow And Reviews</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">12:11 Building Skein Shared Memory</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">14:45 10 Day Build And Metrics</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">18:51 How Skein Uses Beaker Stack</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">24:20 Under The Hood Supabase Vectors</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">25:50 Admin UI Walkthrough</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">26:27 Managing Agent Workforce</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">26:49 Nanoclaw Security Containers</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">28:59 Telegram Agent Ops</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">30:32 Agent Personas Backstories</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">33:31 Thinking Hats Perspectives</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">37:25 Human Loop Guardrails</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">41:47 Marketing Distribution Channels</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">47:18 Factory Vision Rapid Launch</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">48:46 Wrap Up Credits</span></div> </div> <p>Resources</p> <ul> <li>How Many CTOs Pod: <a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com">https://howmanyctospod.com</a></li> <li>Scott Porad: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/</a></li> <li>Brad Hefta-Gaub: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/</a></li> <li>Skein: <a href= "https://getskein.ai/">https://getskein.ai/</a></li> <li>Beaker Stack website: <a href= "https://beakerstack.com/">https://beakerstack.com/</a></li> <li>Beaker Stack GitHub: <a href= "https://github.com/Artificer-Innovations/BeakerStack">https://github.com/Artificer-Innovations/BeakerStack</a></li> </ul> <p>#techpodcast #EngineeringPodcast #DevTalks #PodcastForDevs #HowManyCTOs #Podcast #CTOs #CTOPodcast #ChiefTechnologyOfficer #Technology #Engineering #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #TechLeadership #EngineeringLeadership #EngineeringCulture #TechDebates #AI #SaaS #Engineering #Development #BeakerStack #Skein #TechInnovation #AIRevolution #AIEngineering #AIAssistedCoding #AICoding #AIProgramming #AIAssistedProgramming</p>
June 23, 2026
AI and the Data Swamp In Your Backyard with Ben Wilcox
<p dir="ltr" role="presentation">In this episode of <a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com/">"How Many CTOs Does It Take?"</a> podcast, hosts <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/">Scott Porad</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">Brad Hefta-Gaub</a> interview guest <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wilcox/">Ben Wilcox</a>, CTO and CISO of ProArch, a Microsoft-focused data and AI system integrator. Wilcox describes his path into system integration, from cloud transformation and building managed security services, and now focused on helping customers adopt AI securely. The discussion centers on enterprise "data swamps," where unstructured, stale, and sensitive data create inaccurate AI outputs, and the new security risks as connectors make information easier to access. Wilcox argues organizations need stronger data governance, classification/labeling, segmentation, and purging, and should start with narrow, high-value AI use cases supported by cleaner data pipelines to improve accuracy and drive stakeholder buy-in. The hosts debate whether AI truly hallucinates or if faulty answers come from poor data, and whether the need for guardrails is anything new. Wilcox ends the episode reminding listeners that they are not alone in managing complex data.</p> <div class="py-2 px-3 gap-3 stack" data-testid= "ai-actions-response-content"> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">00:00 Cold Open</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">00:22 Meet the Guest</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">03:00 What System Integrators Do</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">06:44 Modern SI for AI</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">09:39 Enterprise Data Swamp</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">15:08 Governance and Classification</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">17:41 Getting Budget Buy In</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">21:21 Bad Data vs Hallucinations</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">23:23 Bad Data Slows Everyone</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">24:43 Bronze Silver Gold Layers</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">26:53 Selling Data Debt Fixes</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">28:30 Scoped Copilot Show And Tell</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">31:04 AI Exposes Old Data Issues</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">33:11 Fusion Teams And Guardrails</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">37:00 Agents Need Real Controls</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">43:24 Defaults YOLO And Reviews</span></div> <div class="stack gap-1"><span class= "text-default-fg-primary label-1-regular Text-module--dTnC1C">46:18 Wrap Up And Credits</span></div> </div> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">Resources:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How Many CTOs Pod: <a href= "https://howmanyctospod.com">https://howmanyctospod.com</a></li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Scott Porad: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottporad/</a> </li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Brad Hefta-Gaub: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/"></a><a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradheftagaub/</a> </li> <li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Ben Wilcox: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wilcox/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wilcox/</a> </li> </ul> <p dir="ltr" role="presentation">#TechPodcast #EngineeringPodcast #DevTalks #PodcastForDevs #HowManyCTOs #Podcast #CTOs #CTOPodcast #ChiefTechnologyOfficer #Technology #Engineering #SoftwareDevelopment #SoftwareEngineering #TechLeadership #EngineeringLeadership #EngineeringCulture #TechDebates #CISO #ProArch #Microsoft #SystemIntegration #AISecurity #DataSecurity #AI #DataSwamps #CloudTransformation #DataManagement #Cybersecurity #SystemIntegrators #Innovation #DataGovernance #CloudSolutions</p>
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