Hey I'm Stephan. I'm your CTO coach for Europe.

If you’re a CTO, VP of Engineering, or engineering leader feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or like everything’s breaking while you scale - I’ve been there. And I’ve helped 80+ CTOs and founders just like you get unstuck and thrive.

You’re scaling fast and everything’s on fire. Too many direct reports, you’re the bottleneck. Your team has problems you can’t solve. Technical debt is crushing you. AI is transforming everything and you’re not sure how to lead through it. The board wants proof and your story isn’t landing. You’re stuck between the CEO’s speed demands and engineering reality. Or maybe you just need someone to talk to who actually understands what it’s like at the top.

Sound familiar? Let’s talk.

I’m Stephan Schmidt, an experienced former CTO with 40+ years of software development (I still code every day - or Claude does now), 25+ years of engineering management, and 8 years as a CTO coach. I’ve led teams at startups and enterprises like eBay and ImmoScout24. I’ve founded 3 companies. I’ve walked the walk through explosive growth, team crises, layoffs, technical debt nightmares, and everything in between.

Now I help CTOs across Europe and worldwide become the leaders their organizations need - through personalized 1:1 coaching that combines consulting (fix urgent problems), mentoring (knowledge transfer), coaching (behavior change), and branding (how you’re seen).

The Amazing CTO Program - My Coaching Model

My coaching model is based on four pillars for getting you unstuck and make you grow and successfull.

• Consulting: I help you fix all current problems that are blocking you
• Mentoring: Focusing on knowledge transfer to enable you to grow and scale for what is coming
• Coaching: Changing your behavior to make you successful
• Branding: Be seen the way you want to be seen

Over the last 8 years as a CTO coach I have adapted my coaching model from the success I had with my clients. Starting with mentoring I learned that you also need coaching to work on your behavior, and clients need consulting to remove blockers to grow. The latest addition is branding - which is elementary in this age of AI transformation.

Schedule a Welcome Call

Book your free 30-minute discovery call below. Let's talk honestly about your challenges and whether coaching is the right next step for you.

Current availability: Booking 2-3 weeks out for new coaching engagements

Common CTO Challenges I Help Solve

These are the real, messy situations CTOs face every day. If you’re nodding along, you’re in the right place.

• Scaling Fast, Everything Breaking - You’re stuck between explosive growth and everything falling apart. CEO promises dates; you see risk. Roadmap whiplash. “Just ship it” vs “this will bite us.”
• Too Many Direct Reports - 10-14 reports, 1:1s all week, you’re the bottleneck. Nothing moves unless you touch it. You outgrew your calendar.
• Velocity Stalled at Scale - More teams, less output. You hired fast to 40-150 engineers, but dependencies choke progress and “alignment” meetings are everywhere.
• Reorg After Funding (or Layoffs) - New structure, same fires. Ownership fuzzy, morale low, velocity down. Communication breaks down across growing teams.

• Technical Debt Crushing You - You inherited a messy codebase, outdated processes, and a burned-out team. Where do you even start?
• The Rewrite Knife Fight - Senior ICs want a rewrite; product wants features; customers want reliability. Stalemate. You’re debugging people problems instead of systems.
• Incident Spiral & Pager Fatigue - Late-night pages, executive nerves, reliability debt. Production went down - again. Postmortems don’t change anything.
• Security/Compliance Just Got Real - Enterprise deal wants SOC2/ISO yesterday. You have gaps everywhere.
• Cloud Bill Shock / Cost-Down Quarter - Margin pressure; finance breathing down your neck. Engineers fear “cheap over good.”

• AI Strategy Without Value Capture - Execs want “AI everywhere.” Teams play with models. No strategy, governance, or ROI. Pressure to show returns from GenAI and data.
• Company Expects AI Vision - The company looks to you for tech vision, but you’re drowning in the day-to-day.

• Team Accountability - Teams do not act as teams and don’t take responsibility for their work.
• Hiring Stalled; Talent Keeps Leaving - Offers declined, senior folks exit quietly, interviewing eats the week. Key IC just left (or might) - single-point-of-failure anxiety.
• A Senior You Can’t Move (But Must) - Tenured engineer/manager underperforming; social capital high; business impact low. You need to have the conversation but don’t know how.
• Managing Performance - You need to hold people accountable but struggle with difficult conversations.
• Remote/Hybrid Drift - Slack decisions in DMs, meetings multiply, context is tribal. Your team is distributed, but collaboration isn’t.

• Founder/CTO Tug-of-War - Speed vs quality. You’re stuck between the CEO’s speed demands and engineering reality.
• Product Is Weak; You’re Filling the Gap - You do PM nights/weekends. Priorities feel political. Teams ship… the wrong things.
• Board/Exec Story Isn’t Landing - You have facts; they hear excuses. Metrics feel random; confidence erodes.
• M&A / Platform Integration - Two codebases, three cultures, five toolchains - “temporary” becomes forever.

• First-time CTO / Role Transition - You were promoted because you’re the best engineer. Now you’re leading humans, not code - and no one gave you a manual. Calendar dread. Imposter voice at exec table.
• Delegation and Scaling Yourself - You know you should delegate more, but struggle to let go effectively.
• Being Assertive - You need to be more assertive with stakeholders, your CEO, or your team.
• Leadership Isolation - You feel alone at the top. You can’t share doubts with your CEO, and your team looks to you for certainty.

Why Work With Me?

I’ve Walked the Walk (And I’m Still Walking It)

Deep Technical Credibility - I code every day because I ❤️ it. I’m a nerd who learned to be an executive. I understand the technical nitty-gritty, not just theory. When you talk about microservices, distributed systems, or technical debt, I get it at a deep level because I’m still in the trenches.

Comprehensive Scale Experience - From 4-person tech teams to exit. Working with people management at eBay scale. From Series A chaos to enterprise complexity. I’ve led through funding rounds, layoffs, acquisitions, and everything in between.

European Expertise + Global Reach - Based in Germany, I’ve coached 80+ CTOs across Europe and worldwide. I understand European time zones, culture, regulatory challenges (GDPR, etc.), and the unique European tech ecosystem. But I also bring global perspective.

Problem-First Approach - We start with what’s blocking you RIGHT NOW. Not theory, not abstract goals - we fix the urgent problems first, then build long-term capacity.

Real 1:1 Personalized Sessions - No groups. No generic advice. Just you and me for real 60 minutes every week or every two weeks. We talk about YOUR unique situation, YOUR challenges, YOUR goals.

Business + Technical + Leadership - I’m not just a former engineer who became a coach. I’m a 3x founder who understands P&L, runway, and business strategy. I combine technical depth, leadership experience, and business acumen.

What makes me unique as a coach

• 40+ years of software development experience
• 25+ years of engineering management experience
• 80+ CTOs, and founders mentored and coached
• 3x startups founder

Schedule a Welcome Call

Book your free 30-minute discovery call below. Let's talk honestly about your challenges and whether coaching is the right next step for you.

Current availability: Booking 2-3 weeks out for new coaching engagements

What Makes This Different

• Unlike generic executive coaches: I actually understand your technical challenges because I code daily and have been a CTO.
• Unlike pure consultants: We don’t just fix problems - we change your behavior so you can handle future challenges yourself.
• Unlike US-focused coaches: I understand European culture, regulations, funding landscape, and talent markets. And I’m in your timezone.
• Unlike theory-focused advisors: I’ve actually done this - led teams through chaos, scaled organizations, navigated politics, made the hard calls.

For Coders

func coaching() {
  stress, directReports, technicalDebt := 100, 14, 9999.99
  if directReports > 10 { println("Everything needs your approval!") }
  if technicalDebt > 5000 { println("Tech debt crushing you. Where to start?") }
  if stress > 80 { println("Everything breaking - CEO wants speed. Alone at top.") }

  // Don't PANIC!
  // Coaching helps you to fix the problems and to grow and scale for what is coming
  println("→ 1:1 Coaching: Consulting + Mentoring + Coaching + Branding")
  stress, directReports, technicalDebt = 10, 6, 1000.00  // delegation works now!
  println("🎉 Amazing CTO!")
}

Articles from Stephan