Founding CTOs, CTOs and heads of engineering
Coaching and supporting CTOs and heads of engineering
In short
I routinely coach and mentor founding CTOs, established CTOs and heads of engineering. The role changes every time the company does, and few technology leaders have someone to think with. I can also work alongside you as a peer, add leadership capacity, or take ownership of a difficult initiative.
You might recognise this
- You were the first engineer, and now you lead a team of teams.
- You are new in post and want an experienced peer to think with.
- An initiative matters too much to delegate, and you do not have the hours.
- You are learning to present technology to a board or investors.
How we might work together
Examples, not packages. They often overlap within one relationship, and we shape the work together.
- Coaching and mentoring
- Confidential one-to-one conversations, at a rhythm that suits you.
- A trusted peer
- Testing strategy, organisation design and hard people decisions before you act.
- Taking on part of the load
- Owning one initiative, or running part of the organisation for a while, with you in charge of technology.
- Working with your engineers
- Helping your managers and engineers change how work gets done, alongside you.
Relevant experience
- Took over technical leadership at Festicket from the founding CTO after a structured handover Read the case study
- Led engineering managers, DevOps and engineers across GMT−8 to GMT+8 as CTO at Remo Read the case study
- Part of the leadership trio for BBC News and World Service engineering Read the case study
How we start
We start with a focused look at what you’re trying to achieve, what’s getting in the way, and how I could help. From there, we agree whether there’s a useful role for me and what it should involve.
- Understanding the business and what you are trying to achieve
- Meeting the people who matter to the work
- Looking at enough evidence to see where I could be useful
- Deciding together whether an ongoing role makes sense, and what it should be
Selected results
| Organisation | What changed |
|---|---|
| RemoCTO, 2021 to 2024. Events and remote-office SaaS | Led a 24/7 engineering organisation spanning GMT−8 to GMT+8 through pandemic hypergrowth, contraction and acquisition by Events.com. Cut infrastructure and vendor spend by more than 80% over 14 months, achieved approximately 99.99% uptime with recovery from live-event failures in under one minute, and achieved SOC 2 and ISO 27001. |
| FesticketInterim CTO, 2015 to 2017. The UK's sixth fastest-growing startup | Took over technical leadership from the founding CTO, scaled the team from 3 to 17 through Series B and C, and reengineered the platform to support substantial increases in concurrent demand during a period of more than 1,000% revenue growth. |
Questions
Does bringing you in mean our CTO is failing?
No. It usually means the CTO has more priorities than hours, or wants a peer to think with. The remit is agreed with them, and they stay in charge of technology.
Is coaching confidential?
Yes. What we discuss stays between us unless you choose to share it.