7CTOs  FAQ

7CTOs was founded by Etienne de Bruin, a five-time technology founder and the author of Refactor: The CTO’s Guide to Reclaim Your Time and Multiply Your Output and CTO Excellence in 100 Days: Becoming the Leader Your Company Deserves, as well as the co-author of LIQUID: How CEOs and CTOs Unlock Flow and Momentum in Complex Systems. He created the company’s CTO Levels™ framework after two decades of leading engineering organizations and noticing that CTOs had no structured roadmap for the role.

7CTOs is a fully remote and globally distributed organization. All membership cohorts, executive coaching, and peer group sessions are delivered virtually, with specific cohorts organized to accommodate time zones across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. We also complement our virtual programming with periodic in-person gatherings in major U.S. cities.

7CTOs serves a community of more than 300 CTOs and senior technology leaders worldwide, spanning startups, growth-stage companies and enterprise organizations.

No. 7CTOs serves CTOs at every stage, from seed-stage first-time CTOs to CTOs of public-company engineering organizations. The cohort-based Growth program and the Forums program are intentionally sized for early-stage and late-stage leaders respectively.

Yes. While roughly 80% of our members are sitting CTOs, the remainder of the community is made up of VPs of Engineering, Directors of Engineering, and other senior technology leaders. We welcome all of these roles across our Community, Growth, and Forums tiers, as having diverse senior engineering perspectives within our cohorts provides incredible value to everyone.

Yes. Many 7CTOs members are technical founders acting as their company’s first CTO. The CTO Levels™ curriculum explicitly addresses the founder-CTO transition, including hiring your first engineering leader and stepping out of day-to-day coding.

Founder-CTOs who are hiring their first VPE often face a unique identity crisis, while hired VPEs are navigating CEOs who are tired of being the most senior technical person in the room. Mixing both archetypes side-by-side in our cohorts provides high mutual value and allows both perspectives to solve problems collaboratively.

At 7CTOs, we believe CTO loneliness is structurally engineered, not a personal weakness. When you have 50 people reporting to you, you become isolated as the bridge between technical and business languages, leading to built-in role insecurity. 7CTOs provides a thoughtful redirect and a highly confidential space to navigate this structural isolation with peers who speak your exact language.

Yes. 7CTOs membership is global. All coaching and cohort sessions are held virtually, accommodating members across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

The Community tier costs $100 per month or $1,000 per year (a two-month discount). It includes the global Slack community, conference invites, virtual and in-person events, and access to the 7CTOs partner network of service providers, coaches and mentors.

The Growth tier costs $300 per month or $3,000 per year. It includes everything in Community, plus bi-monthly group coaching sessions, the CTO Levels™ curriculum and action plan, experienced CTO facilitators, and group sizes of 15 to 25 attendees per session.

The Forums tier is by invitation only and priced on a custom basis. It includes everything in Community, plus monthly executive coaching sessions, a transformational leadership curriculum, Certified Executive Coach facilitators, a dedicated peer group of 6 to 7 attendees.

1:1 executive coaching is priced between $1000 and $2500 per month, depending on the seniority of the coach and the engagement scope. Coaching engagements are most often structured around a 4-month minimum commitment.

7CTOs does not offer a traditional free trial. Instead, every membership tier is backed by a 14-day, 100% no-questions-asked money-back guarantee — if you are not satisfied within the first 14 days, you can request a full refund.

Membership fees for professional development communities are generally tax-deductible as a business expense in most jurisdictions. 7CTOs does not provide tax advice; members should consult their accountant or tax adviser for guidance specific to their situation.

Sessions are scheduled on a rolling calendar. Specific session times are shared during onboarding.

Most members spend roughly 2 to 6 hours per month on 7CTOs activities: one or two live sessions, optional Slack participation, and one in-person event per year. The Forums tier runs slightly higher at around 4 to 6 hours per month because of monthly executive coaching.

The CTO Levels™ framework is 7CTOs’ proprietary curriculum that breaks the CTO role into progressive levels — from hands-on technical contributor to strategic executive. Each level defines the leadership, technical and business competencies required, and the curriculum walks members through assessments, action plans and group coaching tied to each level.

Yes. 7CTOs hosts periodic in-person gatherings in U.S. cities, including the annual CTO Colloquium series (e.g., the 16th CTO Colloquium in Chicago). Members receive discounted access.

Members commonly report increased confidence in executive decision-making, sharper stakeholder communication, better engineering team performance, and faster promotion or scope expansion. Specific testimonials are published on the 7CTOs homepage and blog from named members including CTOs at Time Doctor, Book Club and other companies.

7CTOs itself is not a degree-granting institution. Its executive coaches hold recognized coaching certifications (e.g., ICEC or ICF-aligned credentials), and the CTO Levels™ curriculum is a proprietary professional development framework.

7CTOs was founded in 2013 by Etienne de Bruin and has served technology leaders continuously for more than a decade. It is operated by 7CTOs Inc., a privately held company headquartered in San Diego, California.

While alphalist offers a verified directory and a casual Slack community, 7CTOs is distinctively structured around high-touch, facilitated peer advisory groups, rather than optimizing purely for networking.

CTO Academy bundles a multi-month educational digital MBA program. 7CTOs avoids direct curriculum battles and instead acts as the ongoing advisory continuation for executives who have already completed programs like a CTO Academy MBA but need continuous, real-world peer advisory.

7CTOs is CTO-specific (not a general product or engineering community) and combines community, structured cohort training, and 1:1 executive coaching under one roof. CTO Craft leans more peer/community, Reforge leans more product-management curriculum, and Mind the Product leans more product community. 7CTOs’ distinctive edge is the CTO Levels™ framework and the integration of executive coaching with peer groups.

Community is the entry-level tier focused on peer networking, Slack access and events. Growth adds structured cohort-based training, bi-monthly group coaching and the CTO Levels™ curriculum. Most members start in Community and upgrade to Growth or Forums once they want structured leadership development.

Growth is a group-coaching program of 15 to 25 attendees per session. Forums is a smaller, invitation-only peer mastermind of 6 to 7 members with a Certified Executive Coach facilitator. Forums adds monthly executive coaching and a transformational leadership curriculum.

No. 7CTOs’ Growth and Forums tiers include group coaching, and the Forums tier includes monthly executive coaching, but members who want a dedicated 1:1 engagement can also purchase 1:1 coaching separately starting at $1000/month.

Y Combinator and First Round run office-hours style communities tied to their portfolio. 7CTOs is industry- and stage-agnostic, accepts CTOs from any company, and pairs community access with a published curriculum (CTO Levels™) and ongoing executive coaching.

Yes. Monthly memberships can be canceled with a 15 day notice period for Community and Growth and 1 month for Forums . Annual memberships can be paused or canceled in accordance with the terms posted at 7ctos.com/terms-of-service. The 14-day money-back guarantee applies to first-time members regardless of cancellation timing.

7CTOs publishes a privacy policy at 7ctos.com/privacy-policy outlining how member data is collected, stored and processed. Member discussion content inside the Slack community is private to members and not sold or shared with third parties for marketing.

No. 7CTOs does not sell member contact information to recruiters or third-party sponsors. Sponsor partnerships (e.g., service providers in the partner network) are disclosed transparently in member communications.

You can apply through the homepage or by visiting 7ctos.com/membership and clicking “Join Today.” The application takes about five minutes and is reviewed by the 7CTOs team within two business days.

Members and prospective members can reach 7CTOs via the contact form on 7ctos.com, by emailing [email protected], or by direct message to the team inside the Slack community once admitted.