How a CTO Scales From Startup to IPO: Lessons on Tech Leadership and Innovation

From a large‑company tech director to a startup CTO, from PC internet to mobile, and from a handful of engineers to a department of thousands, Wu Yongqiang explains how a CTO should position himself and respond to technological shifts.

Before joining Qunar, Wu was the technology director at Yahoo China. He faced changes in money, resources, and business environment, and as Qunar grew and went public, his role and self‑positioning continuously evolved.

Finding Your Own Position

Qunar is the largest company Wu has worked for. At Yahoo, he handled only a part of a mature organization, while at a startup he had to make all technical decisions himself.

Resources differed dramatically: at Yahoo there were spare parts and depreciation cycles, whereas at Qunar he often borrowed servers, switches, and storage for years.

Working in a startup required constant learning and an open mindset because the environment kept changing.

Initially, Wu managed many systems himself, even the mail server. When the CEO complained about instability, the team worked nonstop for over 60 hours to replace the problematic messaging system.

As the team grew, Wu delegated responsibilities, forcing him to rethink his role and focus on the broader technical direction, including multi‑tenant transaction systems that later supported Qunar’s SaaS TTS platform.

Later, with larger teams and more complex systems, he turned attention to engineering efficiency, cloud adoption, and faster deployment of development and test environments.

He believes a team leader should tackle the tasks others avoid, providing essential support rather than just embellishment.

Leaders must also guide team members to adopt new concepts, as engineers are often focused on day‑to‑day tasks and need help seeing the bigger picture.

Regarding data usage, Wu sees the travel industry as still early in data application. By integrating user transaction history into refund processes, Qunar could prioritize high‑trust users, shorten processing time, improve experience, and reduce costs.

Bridging Technology and Business

Wu views the CTO as a bridge between technology and business, requiring time spent understanding the CEO’s ideas.

Because business ideas change quickly while technology evolves more slowly, a CTO needs at least six months of foresight to handle changes gracefully.

In 2009, Wu, Peng Xiaomei, and CEO CC debated developing the TTS system. Their perspectives shifted during discussions, illustrating how different viewpoints can reshape decisions.

The TTS system became a SaaS solution that allowed airlines, hotels, and agents to sell travel products directly on Qunar, simplifying the booking flow and enabling better fraud protection.

Wu argues that SaaS is well‑suited for China’s fragmented travel industry, where many small players lack development capabilities.

Understanding Users Is Harder Than Understanding Business

Traditional business evolves slowly, but the internet has accelerated change dramatically, especially moving from PC to mobile within a few years.

Mobile users have different search habits, shorter decision times, and expect seamless experiences, making it challenging to keep up.

Different Usage Habits

PC searches are planned weeks in advance, while mobile searches happen on the same day, shortening decision cycles.

Different Transaction Forms

PC vertical search relies on hyperlink navigation, whereas mobile vertical search must provide a closed loop from search to order and payment within the app.

Different Information Organization

PC screens can display many options, but mobile screens require optimized content presentation, often using algorithms to surface the most relevant results.

Different Supply Chains

Mobile usage demands faster response times and can create new business models, such as night‑service hotel products that originated from mobile demand.