Talk to someone who's been on both sides of the table. Mentorship for people who have to lead.
Getting promoted and not knowing what you're missing. A conflict you don't know how to approach. A technical decision that's beyond you. A career that's stalled. None of those is a code problem, nobody taught you any of them, and almost none of them can be raised inside your own company.
Illustrative dialogues · 1:52 · plays muted
It's not a syllabus: it's your situation, this week's. Promotions, conflicts, decisions beyond you, career and leadership are the topics that come up most, not a list of content to cover.
talk to about this?
The eight situations
They're different from each other and share the same root: there's no one you can talk it through with without paying a price. Not your boss, not your team, not your peers.
“They're cutting staff and my job is at risk”
In a layoff, doing your job well isn't enough: the person putting together the list has to see it. We work on what to show, to whom, and what to do if it hits you anyway.
“I'm key to the company, but I don't know how to sell my work”
What you hold up goes unseen precisely because it works. Explaining your impact in the language of whoever decides isn't selling yourself: it's making your work exist for the company.
“Promotions always go to someone else”
Technically, you're there. What's missing is almost never technical, and it's exactly what nobody will ever put in writing in a performance review.
“I want to move up, but I'm missing skills”
Leading, negotiating, prioritizing, talking to leadership: they can be learned. We map out what you're missing for the role you want, and in what order to work on it.
“I got promoted and now I don't know what to do”
You went from solving problems to making decisions and dealing with people, without anyone teaching you how. It's the jump where the most people burn out.
“I have a conflict and don't know how to approach it”
A boss, a peer, a decision someone made over your head, a review that wasn't fair. Inside the company there's no one to talk to.
“I decide alone and have no one to check my thinking against”
The higher up you are, the fewer people can tell you you're wrong without it costing them something.
“With AI, anyone can do my job in an afternoon”
What AI doesn't bring is knowing what to ask it, how to review it and when not to believe it. We work on how to adopt it without losing what makes you valuable, with someone who uses it every day and already made the mistakes before you.
You don't have to be in a bad place to come. Most people come when they're doing fine and want to do better, which is when it pays off most.
Who it's for
From people who write code to people who no longer write any. What they share isn't the role: it's having to decide with incomplete information and no safety net.
Developer, from mid-level to senior
Technically solid, and stuck where technical skill is no longer what makes the difference.
Newly promoted to lead
The first month in which your job becomes making sure others do theirs well.
Lead or head
You have direct reports, and the hard conversations are now part of the job.
Technical manager
Between the team and leadership, translating in both directions.
Non-technical manager with a technical team
You have to make decisions about something you don't do, and evaluate the people who do it.
CTO
The role where no one in the organization can be your counterpart without political cost.
If what you're looking for is for your company and not for you — technical leadership, team governance, architecture decisions — that's Fractional CTO, and it's bought differently.
What it isn't
What disappoints people most about mentorship is expecting something else. This is what you won't find here, said before you pay.
| It isn't | It is | |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | Therapy, life coaching or motivation | Technical and career judgment, from someone who has walked the path |
| My role | Me solving your problem, or speaking for you | You leaving knowing what you're going to do, and why |
| Format | A course, a syllabus or reading material for later | Your specific situation, this week's |
| Relationship | A job board or a referral to get in somewhere | Work on you, not on your resume |
| Promise | The recipe of someone who discovered AI last month | What I learned using it in production, mistakes included |
If what you need is therapy, I'll say so in the first session. It's not an area to improvise in.
What a session looks like
Sixty minutes, by video call. More than half of it is listening and asking questions: no presentation, no slides, no materials.
Three lines on what you want to solve
No form, no questionnaire. The problem in your own words is enough.
Getting to the bottom of the situation
First, understand what's really going on. It's almost never what it seemed at the start.
A decision and a next step
In writing, with the reasoning behind them. Not a feeling that it was a nice chat.
If it's clear in the first fifteen minutes that this isn't what you need, I say so right then, we stop, and I don't charge you.
What you take away
The difference between mentorship and a good conversation is what's left in writing when the video call ends.
A decision, not advice
Advice gets heard and forgotten. A decision has a date and can be reviewed later.
The why, in writing
Three months from now you'll want to know why you decided that. It's what nobody keeps.
A concrete next step
Something you do this week, not a six-month plan that never gets started.
The topics that come up most
It's not a syllabus to cover: it's what people bring. If yours isn't here, it probably fits anyway.
Getting promoted
What the person deciding a promotion really looks at, and why it's almost never what you were told.
Conflicts
How to prepare for and handle a difficult conversation with a boss, a peer or someone on your team.
Decisions beyond you
When you have to choose an architecture, a vendor or a direction and have no one to check it against.
Career
What's next, what isn't worth it, and when staying is the best possible decision.
Leadership
Going from doing the work to having others do it, without becoming a bottleneck.
Negotiation
Salary, scope, timelines and expectations: what to ask for, when, and with what argument.
Who's on the other side
Enrique Place. More than 25 years in tech, more than 15 as CTO, VP of Technology and Head of Engineering in fintech, marketplaces, banking e-commerce, streaming and mobile. Today I work as a Fractional CTO and build my own product with AI, every day. What I bring from that isn't a course: it's what went wrong.
I've led organizations of more than 100 people, with 8 leaders reporting to me and teams in Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Mexico, Chile and China. What I bring isn't leadership theory: it's having been on the side that decides and on the side that was waiting for a decision.
Fractional CTO
Part-time technical leadership for companies that make decisions without a counterpart.
Company Brain
My own product: a company's memory, searchable and with its source cited.
My own method, in writing
Hard rules on verifying before claiming, and planning before executing.
What's said there stays there
It's the first question of everyone who comes in about a conflict, and they almost never dare to ask it. So here it is, in writing.
Not the topic, not the company, not even that it happened
It isn't shared with anyone. Not even the fact that you had a session.
It's never used as an example
Nothing of yours shows up in a talk, an article or a class without your explicit, written permission.
If your company is a client of mine, I tell you first
Before the first session, so the decision is yours. It's the only case where there could be a conflict of interest, and it's not something you find out later.
The first one
You don't need to have the problem sorted out to come. Sorting it out is usually half of the first session.
You book, write three lines, and we meet
No form, no preliminary scoping call, no proposal by email.
Companies and projects I've been part of
More than 25 years in fintech, banking, retail, media, streaming and government: the companies where I worked, and the projects and clients that came through my teams.
Names belong to their owners; the circles are initials, not logos. In blue, the companies where I worked; around them, projects and clients.
Write it down.
Come back.
“Nobody's going to put in a performance review what you're really missing.”
One session. Your situation.
Bring the problem as it is, unsorted. You leave with a written decision and a next step.