Inside the Mind of a Web3 CTO: Survival, Strategy & Smart Hiring

The People Platform

Featuring: Armin Ranjbaryan  - CTO at BCB Group

At Axiom, we believe the future of technology is written by the people who build it. 

That's why we created The People Platform – a space to shine a light on the builders, thinkers, and leaders shaping the Web3, Crypto, and AI ecosystems. Our goal is to elevate voices across all levels of the space, from emerging engineers to seasoned founders, sharing their stories, ideas, and lessons learned.

Our first feature is someone we're proud to call both a partner and a friend. 

Armin Ranjbaryan (LinkedIn) has been part of Axiom's journey for over four years. In that time, we've placed him not once, not twice, but three times, helping him relocate from Dubai to London and placing him into key leadership roles across some of the most exciting crypto infrastructure companies. 

Armin recently joined BCB Group as CTO, a leading provider of regulated payment, wallet, and trading services in fiat and crypto for the digital asset economy. BCB is paving the way for institutions to engage seamlessly with digital assets across borders. Armin is leading their next phase of technical innovation and growth. 

Why The People Platform? Because our industry is about more than tokens, chains, and code. It's about the people building them. 

The People Platform is our way of showcasing those voices, from industry leaders, key people working in the sector, to job seekers and doers who make this ecosystem what it is. These stories bring context to careers, insight to innovation, and real human perspective to a fast-moving market. 

We want to raise these voices because the best way to understand where the tech is going... is to listen to those building it.

Meet Armin. 

Armin isn't just a CTO. He's a systems thinker, a technical visionary, and a genuinely humble leader. With a PhD in distributed systems, a successful startup exit under his belt, and deep experience leading engineering orgs of 200+, Armin combines academic depth with real-world results. His approach to leadership is refreshingly honest and highly practical.

I caught up with him recently and asked him six simple questions that not only shed light on the day-to-day work of a CTO but will also give insight and context to any Engineer seeking to move their career forward in Web3. 

Without further ado, let's dive in: 

What are the most important aspects you need to be on top of in your day-to-day as a CTO?

Clarity and alignment. If the team doesn't know where we're going, how their work ladders up, or what good looks like, things fall apart fast. That means I spend a lot of time clarifying product vision, aligning tech execution with business goals, and making sure the right people are focused on the right things. Tech leadership without context is just noise.

What's one tool or daily habit that genuinely helps you be a better CTO?

Writing. Whether it's documenting a decision, drafting a strategy, or just brain dumping thoughts at the end of the day, writing forces clarity. I still use Emacs to write my notes, which I sadly no longer use for coding in the age of LLMs!

In your view, which part of the build cycle makes or breaks a project and what advice would you give to avoid making mistakes?

Scoping. Most projects fail not because the tech was impossible, but because the scope was a shapeshifting monster. Break the work into thin, testable slices. Build less. Deliver faster. And don't be afraid to throw away code: that's the tax we pay for learning.

What's the biggest mindset shift engineers need when moving from TradFi or Web2 into crypto?

You're moving from a world of stability and knowns into one of fluid assumptions and adversarial environments. Smart contracts are immutable. Users can't be trusted. And your infrastructure is half-decentralised, half-chaos. The mindset shift is from "optimise for efficiency" to "optimise for survivability."

When hiring and reviewing candidates, what are the key things you look for on a resume, LinkedIn, or GitHub?

Signals of ownership. I don't care if you used Kubernetes. I want to know if you built the deployment system or just followed a playbook. GitHub is gold when it shows narrative: what problems you solve, how you commit, how you collaborate. Bonus points if your README explains why the repo exists, if you wrote tests, etc.

And lastly, what's the best piece of advice you could give someone looking to step up into a CTO role one day?

Start thinking in systems, not features. The best CTOs don't just write code, they design orgs, feedback loops, and decision frameworks. Learn to scale yourself through others. And remember: your job isn't to be the smartest in the room, it's to make the room smarter!

Thank you Armin, for taking the time to discuss this with me! I really value your insight, time, and, most importantly, your friendship! 

Best of luck with your next chapter with BCB! 

Next time, the steaks are on me! 

Andy 

About Axiom Axiom is a global talent partner for Web3, Crypto and AI companies. We help founders scale, VCs build, and technologists grow. With a track record of long-term placements, from founding hires to engineering leadership, we work across the US, UK, EU, APAC and UAE to drive success for both our clients and the candidates we represent. 

We connect people and build teams that shape the future of tech.