The Tech Coach — scaling engineering leaders & founders

Trading your soul for stocks?

Long hours, ever-expanding scopes and AI breathing down your neck. It's no wonder you end up:

1 Languishing in a job you know is not right for you. The pay is good but your satisfaction is dwindling.
2 Burning yourself out through cycles of overthinking, analysis-paralysis and procrastination.
3 Feeling technically competent yet struggling with imposter syndrome or perfectionism.

4 Failing to scale yourself in a leadership role. Neither coding or leading well.
5 Waking up at 3 a.m. wondering if you’re the bottleneck.
6 Knowing your work is succeeding at the expense of your health & relationships.

I’m Dan Bartlett 👋

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.

How a hobby landed me an acquisition—on the value of side projects.
My magazine fame—on teenage Perl scripts and Linux magazines.
From burnout to book—on being featured in The Burnout Doctor.
A conversation with Darrell Irwin on the Purpose People podcast.

What I Offer

🚀

Founder Coaching

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.

🧠

Manager Coaching

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.

Happy Nerds

"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."

—Bard Kimball, Electrical Engineer & Technical Team Lead

“Dan was an incredibly supportive and empathetic coach during my life and career transition. He guided me in reframing my thinking, helping me identify fallacies and reshape my mental models to align more closely with who I am today rather than who I was. I highly recommend working with Dan to anyone navigating change or seeking clarity.”

—Anon, transitioning to a side hustle

“You invited me to be still and think and listen to my intuition. You allowed me to think for myself… I started to believe my intuitions”

—Rosie Riley, EPR Specialist Contractor

“Just to say thanks Dan, for your wisdom and input while I was struggling with some anxiety over this winter – really helpful and grateful for your guidance and hard-learned knowledge.”

—Andrew Gifford, Tech Recruiter

How to Get Started

Book a free discovery call

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 get stuck in

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.

Renewed confidence & purpose

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.

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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.

Frequently Asked Questions

I work people across many industries and with many job titles:

Founders and CTOs
Engineering Managers, VPs and Directors of Engineering
Product and Delivery Managers
I rarely work with ICs these days, but drop me a message and I'll see how I can help.

I support people working in anything from seed-stage startups, VC-backed companies, to those working in government roles.

Some examples:

First-time founders wondering why everything is so goddamn hard
Tech leads or EMs (painfully) growing into their first leadership role
Managers navigating overwhelm or imposter syndrome
Those who sense a career pivot on the horizon
Experienced builders looking to start their own venture
Anyone who feels like their purpose has faded

People who want cheat codes with no desire to better themselves.
People who only want a CV review or job search help. Please contact your local recruiter.
People who would be better served by a counsellor or therapist—I'm happy to refer on.

I focus exclusively on folks who work in Tech and have spent my whole career in this industry. During that time, I’ve worked every role from junior engineer to CTO and co-founder, in anything from garage start-ups to Series F unicorns.
I’ve built several teams from scratch, including the first two engineering teams at Almanac. Their work was essential in helping us raise $45 million to take on the likes of Notion and Google Docs.
I have mentored junior developers, supported mid-level developers on their way to senior roles, and overseen senior-to-principal promotions in larger companies. I’ve also guided many developers in moving from individual contributor to management tracks.
Unlike other engineering mentors, I’m also a trained transformative coach, which means I’m equipped to go deeper—uprooting limiting beliefs, taming inner critics, and making real progress on recurring patterns.

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)

Yes
You're in good company

~/ The Tech Coach