CTO/VPE Advisor at Self
Joined Jan 2023
I'm Seth Sakamoto, a fractional VPE/CTO helping founders, CEOs, and engineering leaders get the best out of their product and engineering organizations and initiatives. Prior to this, I've held VPE and other senior engineering leadership roles over 2 decades for TeamSnap, Envoy, TuneIn, Hipmunk, Constant Contact, and Intuit. In addition to my professional experience, I'm an investor, advisor, and mentor for Plato.
Leveling up your engineering organization and leadership
As engineering leaders we're often expected to grow the team rapidly, improve productivity, improve quality, upgrade the culture and/or talent, and otherwise make things better. How do you do it purposefully, intentionally, and effectively? Are you good at it? Are you actually making things better? How do you know? In this Circle, participants will learn how to drive improvements and change in high-growth engineering environments. This Circle will introduce participants to defining ideal end states, how to know whether you're making a difference, and how to create positive changes toward those end states that stick and endure. You will learn to define your job along the lines of both general manager and coach, determine what "good" is, create a roadmap for change, and learn to how consistency, influencers, habits, directives, and even a formula help you create changes that are positive and become self-sustaining.
Seth is a compassionate leader who helped build other leaders at TeamSnap. I worked with Seth mostly indirectly but our 1:1s provided a ton on insight into how I could help lead at TeamSnap. Mentorship sessions with Seth were always productive and Seth is particularly good at getting to the root of concerns and then working with you to figure out how to address them. Seth is a solid leader, teacher and mentor and I hope to work with him again sometime.
Brad Cypert - Staff Software Engineer @ Figure
Seth always listens well and he always understands the problems I bring up. I find that I don't need to explain a lot for him to understand me, and already know what questions to ask to get to the source of it. He has so much experience and knowledge, I feel in good hands, no matter what my question is about. My conversations with Seth are always very fruitful. He is able to coach/mentor me to the point that I get a few action items in the end of the conversation every session and I feel much better about the questions I bring up.
Bosmat Eldar - Head of Engineering @ Elementl
I count myself lucky to have Seth as a mentor! I had the pleasure of reporting to Seth during our time at TeamSnap. Seth is a champion of quality for the entire organization. He supported and encouraged the quality mindset of engineering and helped to transform and strengthen our quality practices. What really impressed me is his ability to create and implement frameworks for objectivity in places like hiring and retention and create a culture of learning from metrics we gathered. I would jump at the opportunity to work with Seth again in the future.
Jennifer Shaeffer - Senior QA Engineer @ CompanyCam
Seth is a big part of why I joined TeamSnap. It is clear from the first moment you meet him that he is an exceptionally kind, empathetic and wise leader. I strive to report to people I want to emulate and Seth is no exception. Seth is a skilled listener and mentor, he consistently provides valuable guidance and creates an environment to challenge his perspective. Seth was a catalyst for me to succeed and grow as a leader. At TeamSnap he gave me the guidance to help me succeed and created the space to let me lead. Seth is an amazing leader, I would love to work with him again.
Jon Hsu-Kei - Director of Engineering @ TeamSnap
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