#77 - Vikas Gupta // CTO @ Choco

How to focus on business value in tech

Find out how to use tech to deliver (not distract from) business value in this CTO podcast featuring Vikas Gupta, CTO at Choco (a digital platform connecting suppliers to their restaurants), who previously held senior engineering roles at Uber and Dropbox. Listen find out :

• ⚖️ How to balance product and platform initiatives
• 🔍What the 5 dimensions are for evaluating a language
• 🎩 CTPO vs 👷CTO + 🤠CPO
• How to determine ROI when migrating from legacy
• + Why he chose his tech stack

Listen here

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY: Sastrify

Sastrify is a software as a service (SaaS) procurement solution that automates the process of buying and managing SaaS products. It is an established partner of the Alphalist CTO Community, providing procurement, IT, and finance teams with a centralized platform to streamline their SaaS procurement process. Their value proposition includes reducing SaaS spend by up to 35% and saving up to 20 hours each month. Sastrify's procurement experts negotiate the best terms with SaaS vendors, such as Miro, Asana, or Salesforce, for both existing contracts and upcoming contract renewals. Several leading companies, including Westwing, Adidas Runtastic, and Sennder, use Sastrify to solve their procurement problems and quickly extend their runways. Sastrify will also have a booth in the Finance Forward area at the OMR festival, and interested parties can schedule a meeting with the Sastrify team by emailing [email protected]. Additionally, you can find case studies and more information on how Sastrify works at www.sastrify.com/alphalist.

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Timestamps

(0:00:00) - Digitizing the Food Supply Chain

Vikas Gupta, the CTO of Choco, is focused on bringing the fragmented hospitality industry to the digital space, connecting suppliers with restaurants and institutions to place orders. Vikas explains the current order process of SMS, WhatsApp, voicemail, and email and how Choco is using data to automate the process for chefs so they can focus on cooking. He also touches on how front-of-the-house processes are already digitized, but back-of-the-house processes still need to be further developed to reduce food waste and create sustainability in the food supply chain.

(0:09:13) - From Programming to Food Sustainability

Vikas Gupta shares his journey in tech from his early days learning to code in Pascal, his experience in Silicon Valley, and the journey that ultimately led his to joining . He recounts his experience programming games and designing board games, as well as the challenges of programming in mobile environments. Vikas also shares why he left Silicon Valley to join Dropbox and eventually , and the drive to make a positive change in the world with the food sustainability space.

(0:18:19) - Tech Stack and Decision-Making Process

We explore the stack and decisions behind Choco. We discuss why they chose their tech stack (AWS serverless architecture with NodeJS, React) And why he regrets not using cross platform development earlier. (They are migrating to Flutter now). We also discuss the pros and cons of monoliths versus microservices and why Flutter was the right decision for them. Vikas shares the importance of collaboration between web engineers and native engineers in order to create a platform that allows teams to move quickly and build effectively.

(0:27:32) - Balancing Product and Platform Initiatives

We discuss how to balance the needs of the user, the time available, and the people available when making technology decisions. We explore how leaders can create an environment conducive to having conversations around technology decisions, and how to define a timeline for a transition to a new technology. We also discuss the idea of creating Excellence Days and using 80-20 to allow engineers to focus on technical topics and platform improvements. Finally, we talk about using coloured flags - so you know when the house is on fire and you need to drop everything and fix it.

(0:36:18) - Balancing Technology and Product Leadership

We explore the importance of quantifying the value of legacy code and how to present that data to leadership. We approach the challenge of overhauling an entire architecture and how to align leadership on delivering business value. We discuss the process of creating a roadmap and coordinating between product, sales, and engineering teams - plus how to be flexible while maintaining focus. Finally, we look at the importance of eye-level collaboration to challenge each other in order to achieve the best outcome.