Mentoring and coaching for technology leaders who are navigating the hard parts of the job.
1:1 mentoring and coaching for CTOs, CPOs, VPs of Engineering and Product at startups and scaleups.
Most sessions involve both mentoring and coaching — and the difference matters. Mentoring is me sharing what I know from direct experience: I've been a first-time CTO, raised $50M, built R&D organisations from scratch, and made most of the expensive mistakes on the list. Coaching is a different discipline — structured, Socratic, designed to help you find your own answers rather than borrow mine. I'm a certified business coach (BCI Helsinki, 2018), which means I know when to do which.
The combination is what makes the work useful. Experience without a structured process is just storytelling. Structure without experience misses the parts that only someone who's been in the room can see.
Most people in this role speak from memory. Right now I'm a founder, an embedded consulting CTO inside a client organisation, and running this practice — simultaneously. Whatever context you're operating in — startup, scaleup, corporate, somewhere in between — I have a live reference point for it, not a memory of one.
Where to start
Find the conversation that fits where you are right now.
Each page below addresses a specific role, transition, or challenge. They overlap — and the right entry point depends on where you are, not what title you hold. Start with whatever feels most urgent.
- First-time CTO You just got the title. The technical problems are the easy part. Everything else — the board, the identity shift, the technical roadmap nobody wants to fund — is what we work on.
- Experienced CTO You've been in the seat. The problems at year three are different — org design at inflection points, the CEO relationship under pressure, decisions where the feedback loop is eighteen months long. You're not looking for a guide. You're looking for someone who'll tell you what they actually think.
- CPO and VP Product You're accountable for the roadmap and empowered for less than you expected. Product is about influence more than authority, and nobody trains you for that.
- VP of Engineering The skills that made you a great engineering manager are not the skills you need now. The transition from managing people to leading an organisation is a career change, not a promotion.
- Imposter syndrome The feeling that someone will find you out doesn't go away when you get the title. For most people it gets louder. This isn't a personal failing — it's a structural feature of roles that have no output metric and an impossible knowledge surface.
- Aspiring CTO You're a senior engineer or EM thinking seriously about the CTO path. Most people discover the mismatch after taking the title. Tech leadership is a discipline, not a promotion — and the preparation starts now.
How it works
Simple by design.
-
A free 30-minute call. We talk. You tell me where you are. I tell you honestly if and how I can help. No pitch, no obligation — just a conversation to find out if this is the right fit.
-
A six-month engagement. Weekly or fortnightly 1:1 calls, calibrated to what's most useful at your stage. Some sessions are Socratic. Some are direct. Most are both.
-
The work that compounds. The first month is orientation. The second and third is where patterns become visible. By month four most people say the same thing: they can't imagine not having had the conversation.
Engagements run for six months — weekly or fortnightly 1:1 calls, depending on what's most useful. Six months is long enough to work through the things that matter, short enough to stay focused. I take on a limited number of clients at a time.
Weekly or fortnightly 1:1 calls · 6-month engagement · One spot currently available
Book a free 30-minute call →