Comment by streblo

The role of a CTO at a startup (at any size company, but at a startup especially) can be very amorphous and depends on the needs of the business. Sure, a lot of the time the CTO is involved in the technical day-to-day ongoings of the business, but that doesn't need to be the case. If your business is struggling to find product-market fit, or close customers, or figure out product strategy, then your CTO might be preoccupied with those things instead of with technical tasks/management.