The Unicorn CTO Program
Scale your engineering team and grow as a leader, from seed to unicorn
Welcome to The Unicorn CTO flagship program, a 10-week experiential course for CTOs of fast-growing startups looking to scale their engineering team, grow as leaders and join a community of ambitious CTOs.
If you've landed here, it means that you either just raised a round of funding or that your startup is going through hyper-growth 🚀
For a CTO, this can be exhilarating, but also very challenging since everything that has made you successful so far, like your coding and problem-solving skills, won't make you successful as a manager and a leader.
That's why I've tapped into my 10-year experience of helping engineering leaders scale to design this high impact course for CTOs like you.
In this course, you will learn tools, frameworks and best practices from the best CTOs in the world to:
- Hire and onboard top talent
- Monitor and increase engineering performances
- Motivate and manage team members
- Make better decisions
- Communicate efficiently with other C-levels, investors and customers
- And continuously reinvent yourself as CTO
Daniel Jarjoura
A unique course experience
This course has been designed to be as experiential and pragmatic as possible. Every week we will meet online with a limited group of ambitious CTOs to discuss one curriculum topic. You will share your main challenges during these sessions and find collaborative solutions you can apply right away.
Between each session, you will also:
đź“š Access a library of online content to go deeper on each topic
đź“ť Work on an assignment related to next week's topic
🤝 Give and take peer coaching with another CTO from your group
đź’» Get answers to all your questions on the online forum
đź‘‹ And many more, including surprise guests and offline events
Daniel Jarjoura
Come for the content, stay for the community
Program schedule
Before the program
Engineering Leadership self-assessment
Program onboarding
The 4 dimensions of a CTO: technology, business, people, systems
How a CTO evolves, from seed to unicorn: the maker, the team leader, the organisational leader, the industry leader
Week 1: Time Management and Productivity
Scheduling Deep Work sessions
Becoming more efficient
Week 2: Hiring and Growing your Team
Sourcing
Interviewing
Onboarding
Week 3: People Management
One-on-one(s), feedback and tough conversations
Delegation
Coaching, teaching, mentoring
How to manage more experienced team members
Week 4: Decision Making
Cognitive biases
Mental models
Decision making frameworks for CTOs
Week 5: Performance Management
Monitoring engineering performance
Accelerate metrics
Continuous improvement
Week 6: Communication
Writing narrative memos
Public speaking
Communicating with executives and board members
Week 7: Budgeting and Planning
Planning headcount for the organisation
Budgeting
Finance for venture-back startups
Week 8: Organisational Design
Team Topologies
Running an engineering reorg
Module 9: Crafting your vision
Vision, strategies, tactics
Week 10: Program off-boarding
Crafting and communicating your 18-month technological vision
Daniel Jarjoura
About your instructor
Daniel Jarjoura
Apply for The Unicorn CTO Program
| Course type | Cohort-based online program |
| Duration | 18 hours spread over 10 weeks + online content + peer learning |
| Pricing | 3 200€ (excl. VAT) special pricing applies for CTOs referred by partner VCs |
| Participants’ profile | CTOs and Heads of Engineering at fast-growing companies This program is accessible to people with disabilities, get in touch to know how you can participate |
| Prerequisites | Good command of the English language Managing teams of 5 to 150 engineers (participants will be divided into groups based on team size) |
| Assessment | Creation of an 18-month strategic plan during the training, including a hiring pipeline, a decision journal and a target team topology |
| Upcoming Dates (cohort-based) |
From June 20th to August 24th 2022 (the deadline to apply is June 17th) |
| Enrolment procedure | Please fill out the application form below to enrol for The Unicorn CTO Program. As soon as the form is filled out, you will receive a confirmation e-mail and a proposal to do an online interview within five days to validate the pre-requisites and gather your expectations. |
❓Any questions? Get in touch ✉️
Participants’ feedback
Quality is very important for us at The Unicorn CTO. To constantly improve our training, participants provide feedback:
- Halfway through the program
- Right at the end of the program
- Three months after the end of the program
* NPS stands for Net Promoter score - Check out here how to interpret our NPS
Daniel Jarjoura
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should apply?
To be a good fit for The Unicorn CTO Program, you are probably:
- The CTO or Head of Engineering at a high-growth startup who is ready to transform themselves into the leader their company needs to scale
- Open to seeking the support, coaching, and mentorship required to scale yourself and your company
- Willing to share your experiences, challenge assumptions, expand your perspectives, and raise the bar for yourself and others
- Committed to lifelong learning and a spirit of service to others
What is the time commitment? Will this be a distraction?
You should plan to invest 3-4 hours per week on The Unicorn CTO, including the weekly live sessions with your group (2 hours) and time spent going through the course material and your weekly assignment.
Are there minimum capital or revenue requirements to apply?
We’re only accepting applications from CTOs of startups who have raised at least €1M or achieved €100k MRR run rate.
Can non-founding CTOs apply?
Yes, The Unicorn CTO is also open to non-founding CTOs, as well as Heads of Engineering.
Is this a fully remote program?
Yes, The Unicorn CTO will be run entirely remotely. This enables participation from various locations with minimal impact on your already busy schedule. If multiple participants are located in the same city, we will probably organise offline programmings like dinners and small gatherings, depending on the sanitary situation.
How long will I have access to the content and community?
You will have access to all online content, the forum and your community of peers for life!
How do you accommodate people with disabilities?
All Unicorn CTO programs are fully online and accessible to people with disabilities. E-learning videos are available in video, sound and written format so you can access them in the most convenient way. All written communication (Q&As, content library) can be available in audio format upon request.
Last update date: 25/04/2022