You need to find other smart people in a similar place but with no skin in your game and rubber duck with them about what you're thinking about.
This has a lot of benefits: you can serve as their rubber duck and help solve their problems which feels great.
You can sanity check your thought process and conclusions. This will help assuage the doubt.
And it's a social connection which helps with anxiety.
Also, go easy on yourself. No one knows the 'right' answer. It's great to look for the best move but it's ok to make a bunch of merely really good moves, too. Allow yourself to accept the context under which your decisions are made.
Don't forget to give yourself space. You're CTO. Delegate the shit out of everything you can, even the stuff you're best at. Call it a growth opportunity for your team. But if you don't give yourself the space to make great decisions, everyone suffers. Avoid the 'busy-ness' trap at all costs. That's not your job.
This has a lot of benefits: you can serve as their rubber duck and help solve their problems which feels great.
You can sanity check your thought process and conclusions. This will help assuage the doubt.
And it's a social connection which helps with anxiety.
Also, go easy on yourself. No one knows the 'right' answer. It's great to look for the best move but it's ok to make a bunch of merely really good moves, too. Allow yourself to accept the context under which your decisions are made.
Don't forget to give yourself space. You're CTO. Delegate the shit out of everything you can, even the stuff you're best at. Call it a growth opportunity for your team. But if you don't give yourself the space to make great decisions, everyone suffers. Avoid the 'busy-ness' trap at all costs. That's not your job.