Etienne de Bruin

I coach CTOs and I can't stop building. Those two facts are one fact: a coach who stops building starts guessing, and I refuse to guess.

Born and raised in South Africa. Germany at 26, San Diego for 25 years, Salt Lake City now. I've spent three decades inside engineering organizations, first writing the code, then leading the people who do, then sitting across the table from the leaders themselves. Every essay here comes out of that table: the 2am threads I couldn't stop tugging, the patterns I keep seeing in rooms full of brilliant technical people trying to become fulfilled human ones.

This site is the whole operation. Essays, numbered and permanent, on a domain I own.

Work with me

7CTOs · Peer groups for CTOs. The room where technology leaders say the thing out loud.

CoachEXE · One-on-one coaching for technical executives. Email me to talk.

CTO Search · Executive recruitment for companies that need their next technical leader to be the right one.

Stage & mic · Keynotes and workshops on AI, engineering leadership, and the human system underneath the technical one.