Best Communities for CTOs and other Technical Leaders
We did some research for you about which CTO community is best for each use case and this is what we got.
- Best Online Community for Those in Their First CTO Role: CTO Craft
- Best Curated Online Community for Experienced Technical Leaders about both tech and leadership: alphalist
- Best Online Community for Technical Leadership: Rands Leadership Slack
- Best Online Community for Those in Their First Engineering Management Role: Engineering Manager Slack
- Best Local Facilitated Peer Groups for CTOs and Engineering Managers: 7CTOs and Engineering Leadership Community
- If you want to sell to other CTOs on Slack: Global CTO Forum
List of Networks and Communities for Technical Leaders (in alphabetical order)
- 7CTOs
- Ideal For: CTOs who want to be part of a hyperlocal facilitated chapter and peer group
- Offers: Events, Podcast, Local Chapters
- Acceptance Criteria: None Listed.
- Location: USA
- Language: English
- Cost: $912/year
- Alphalist CTO Community Network
- Ideal For: Technical leaders who want to talk about high-level topics with CTOs without fear of being sold to
- Offers: Events, Slack, Job Board, Podcast, Newsletter, Blog, Local Meetups
- Acceptance Criteria: Technical Leaders of tech products who lead large teams. No salespeople, recruiters, service providers, or CTO consultants
- Location: Global, yet originated in Europe
- Language: English
- Cost: $299/year
- CTO.ai
- Ideal For: Those looking for a CTO community with a DevOps focus
- Offers: This is branded community for DevOps specialists. It's affiliated with a DevOps-as-a -Service product.
- Acceptance Criteria: None Listed.
- Location: Online
- Language: English
- Cost: Free (but branded)
- CTO Craft
- Ideal For: Technical Leaders of all experience levels. Offers paid add-ons such as coaching and mentorship circles
- Offers: Events, Slack, Job Board, Podcast, Newsletter, Blog
- Acceptance Criteria: Open to all CTOs regardless of location, level of experience, and industry
- Location: Global, yet originated in the US
- Language: English
- Cost: Freemium (paid is £1995/year)
- CTO Connection
- Ideal For: Senior engineering leaders
- Offers: Events, Podcast
- Acceptance Criteria: The most senior engineering leader within a company
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Paid
- Engineering Leadership Community
- Ideal For: Engineering leaders who want to be part of a hyperlocal facilitated peer group
- Offers: Events, Podcast, Local Chapters
- Acceptance Criteria: None Listed.
- Location: Locations in the USA and in Istanbul. Plans to open more chapters internationally.
- Language: English
- Cost: Paid
- Engineering Manager Slack
- Ideal For: New-ish engineering managers in their transition from individual contributors to people managers. And those who want to help them.
- Offers: Slack
- Acceptance Criteria: Engineering Manager, Team Lead, or any other role which involves managing people working in technology.
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Free
- Global CTO Forum
- Ideal For: CTOs who would like to sell to other CTOs, recruit CTOs, and more.
- Offers: Events, Podcasts, Job Board, Mentorship, Awards
- Acceptance Criteria: None Listed.
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Paid
- LeadDev
- Ideal For: A public slack group for those who want to speak with other technical leaders on a variety of topics. There are many channels - some more active than others. It has few active members.
- Offers: Events (paid and free) and Slack (rather quiet)
- Acceptance Criteria: Anyone can join.
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Free
- Rands Leadership Slack
- Ideal For: Leaders looking for a general leadership community. There are tech channels. Quite active with great insights and open discourse.
- Offers: Slack
- Acceptance Criteria: Unknown
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Free
- Zumvie
- Ideal For: Engineering managers looking for a free Slack community
- Offers: Slack
- Acceptance Criteria: Unknown
- Location: Global
- Language: English
- Cost: Free
We made this list to help CTOs and technical leaders find the best CTO community for them. Help us keep it as comprehensive, accurate and informative as possible by reaching out to us.