Few times I have observed that people tend to barge into decision making process where there are not supposed to. One of such important domain in technology budget.

Agreed that startups will have tight budgets and have to optimize the budget. But that does not mean Mr CEO that you should decide who will call shots related to it. Just give your budget to CTO/VP Engineering and let him make calls. That is HIS job not yours.

There are numerous other reasons why such decision making powers should be given and later respected. One of the more important reason is that - Only a tech person will understand the continuous importance of having good programmers/developers in the team.

When a non-tech person starts making decisions which are related to technology like hiring of programmer, partnership with outsourcing vendor, then such decisions are more likely to go wrong. This person may not have understanding on cost of losing out relationship with a good programmer, development partner. As it is not his direct responsibility to deliver next release.

So all such decisions, communication should be always and always handled by a person who’s direct responsibilities and ability to deliver can be compromised.

Sure you are CEO of the company but that does not mean you are in charge or even capable of doing everything your company requires. So focus on things you are truly good at and let others take decisions and manage relationships in there focus areas.