The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is an important role within the field of Information

Systems to enforce IT governance, take charge on the implementation of new technologies and

consult the other members of the top management on strategic decisions regarding the company

vision bearing in mind the consequences for IT. The purpose of this study is to understand the

role of the CIO in start-ups of the sharing economy which are mainly based on a platform

strategy. To see which tasks the CIO takes on and what challenges he faces in these emerging

companies semi-structured interviews were conducted, analyzed and compared with existing

literature. The findings show that the expected nine tasks of the CIO exclude technical

oversight. Next to this, challenges arise through competitors, cultural differences and personal

relationships which the CIO tackles by an increase in technical knowledge, team leaderships

and resulting respect. Organizations can use these findings to prepare their manager for their

upcoming tasks and possible changes.