i don't even think it does make sense for small companies, they can benefit hugely from setting clear, public commitments about what they're working towards
focus is one of the most important characteristics in a startup, because time is too short to waste.
I've seen this direct CTO work scale to a billion-a-year online business with hundreds of engineers :-)
Problems come when a company goes public and now there's no single personal that can accept responsibility for technical commitments. This when a decision-making system has to be put in place, and maybe a way to assess how teams are doing, etc.
focus is one of the most important characteristics in a startup, because time is too short to waste.