~/ The Tech Coach
I help engineering leaders & founders working in Tech to restore their purpose and accelerate their impact through 1:1 coaching, mentoring, and group coaching.
I’m Dan Bartlett—2x founder,
engineer and accredited coach.
I help engineering leaders & founders working in Tech to restore their purpose and accelerate their impact through 1:1 coaching, mentoring, and group coaching.
I’m Dan Bartlett—2x founder,
engineer and accredited coach.
Long hours, ever-expanding scopes and AI breathing down your neck. It's no wonder you end up:
I’m a Ruby engineer, 2x founder, writer and coach. After 20 years of coding and 10 years of building teams, I helped my last company grow to a $150m valuation.
I’m also the guy who once torched (and then patched) production on a plane over the Atlantic. I’ve had existential crises whilst staring at zsh at 2 am and survived approximately 4,000 standups. I've worked in anything from 3-person startups to Fintech unicorns with 800+ staff.
My passion is work with engineering folks to help them regain their spark and increase their impact, all whilst dialing down the white-knuckling.
Beyond the keyboard, I'm a long-term meditator, long-distance runner and pre-pandemic sourdough snob. I live in Bristol, with my dog and Banksy.
Shipping was simple. Scaling isn’t. Talent gaps, runway math and culture drift. You're starting to feel the burn, but there's never a good time to step away. My job is to help you bulletproof yourself so you can best serve your team in scaling from vibe-coded startup to a durable, $100m business.
Nobody wants a career held together by caffeine and passive-aggressive meeting notes. I mentor and coach managers, helping them navigate complex careers without a full system reboot. From confidence upgrades to purpose refactors, you’ll experience significant change without having to tear it all down.
P.S. If you want to harness my founder experience to accelerate your product vision & traction, I also work with 1-2 companies max as an advisor or fractional leader.
“Earlier this year, I worked with Dan over a 5-month coaching journey, and I wanted to share how impactful it was. What started as professional coaching quickly went further. Dan helped me recover energy, clarity, and confidence, and that allowed me to go full on into a new professional adventure with much more intention and calm. Beyond work topics, we explored deeper patterns, blind spots, and personal levers that I hadn’t fully seen before. We made progress on areas outside of work — but with a very real and positive impact at work: decision-making, leadership posture, boundaries, and focus. If you’re a tech professional feeling stuck, stretched, or simply wanting to operate at a higher level (without burning out), I can honestly say this kind of coaching is a powerful investment. Thanks again, Dan, for the space, the questions, and the perspective.”
“After almost a decade as a founder, I turned to Dan when my energy began to flag and I needed a reset to push the business into its next phase of growth. Dan’s coaching helped reignite the early startup passion by working through priorities – both personal and professional – until I felt confident and excited about the months ahead. Dan is an excellent communicator and helped me formulate (and role-play) more challenging conversations with senior members of the team. I still check in with him from time to time, as his “one-step-removed” perspective is always valuable.”
“During a challenging period of job loss and uncertainty, I had the opportunity to work with Dan, and I couldn’t have asked for better support. His guidance went beyond standard career advice - he provided clarity and helped me regain confidence. What stood out most was his ability to listen and support me through some personal challenges that were affecting my mindset and motivation. I genuinely felt seen and encouraged. Highly recommend to anyone navigating a career crossroads.”
In this 30-minute call, I’ll ask more about what brings you here and share more about my approach and how I can help. This is a relaxed chat and there's no obligation to continue. I'm always happy to refer on if I don't think it's a good fit. Book now.
We'll usually meet once a fortnight for an hour to make progress against your goals and aspirations. In each session, we'll check in and see what's most important for us to work on today. All packages also come with email support for burning questions.
As we clear obstacles from your path, you start to enjoy a renewed sense of confidence, purpose and autonomy in your work. You'll feel momentum in the short-term, but also greater resilience in new situations.
You’re smart. You solve complex problems for a living. But when it comes to your career, your leadership, or your own headspace—things feel foggy. Coaching helps cut through the fog. Not because you’re broken or I have all the answers, but because you’re trying to do something hard—and doing it alone is slower, messier, and more painful than it needs to be.
Whether you’re looking to upgrade your craft in a new role, itching for a career pivot, or finally ready to start that company that’s been running through your head for years, I’m here to help you figure out your next move. I combine my decades of experience in Tech with my training as an accredited coach to help you get where you need to be.
5 Inner Blocks That Derail Tech Projects—And How to Spot Them.
Not ready to talk yet? Start with a short coaching workbook designed for those who suspect that the problem isn't in the code... It's 7 pages and you can read it in a few minutes. I guarantee you'll recognise a part of yourself in one of the patterns.
I work people across many industries and with many job titles:
I support people working in anything from seed-stage startups, VC-backed companies, to those working in government roles.
Some examples:
Most clients work with me for 3 months. Some choose to retain ongoing support.
You’ll likely feel some clarity dawn after our first session. But real transformation builds over time as the relationship develops and we start getting to the roots of some core issues.
I offer email support to all my clients. Sometimes people want my take on an emerging situation or feel curious about something we uncovered in a session. I love recommending books and resources but won’t spam you with productivity hacks.
You'd never work on a project without running retrospectives and course-correcting—why should your growth be any different? The research agrees: 80% of people who receive coaching report increased self-confidence, and over 70% benefit from improved work performance, relationships, and more effective communication skills. 86% of companies report that they recouped their investment on coaching and more. (Source: 2009 ICF)
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