@fabio As someone who just took a company public as CIO and now starting out a new company I founded as CTO (and is well funded with a quickly growing team already) I have to disagree, though I do agree on the point about a VP or someone on the board.

A CIO is **not** a lesser position to a CTO, in fact it is a greater one from the perspective of an employee. A CIO when no CTO exists is exactly the same as a CTO. When both exist the CTO handles external relations and a CIO handles internal technology. Typicall neither report to the board, only the CEO reports to the board. Thought there are exceptions (both as CIO and CTO I sat on the board as both respective companies and am an owner in both companies).

The fallacy here is that you are assuming CIO is lesser to a CTO, that is certainly not the case. Also remember there are secondary titles, for example I was CIO **and** EVP (Executive Vice President) which actually meant as CIO I was explicitly above in rank to the CTO, the CTO literally had to report to me.