I was a VP at a startup (~200 people) before I was 30 without a PhD. It was all BS and I had less manager qualifications than a FAANG line manager. I got lucky.

It's clear from the blog post that the author is in the same boat. They lament CEOs not having time to do research but took a VP position. An actual VP doesn't have time do research so they're clearly not an actual VP. So they're likely a tech lead with an inflated title.