Daniel PaoBook intro
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Career & engineering leadership

IC to lead, lead to exec, or a deliberate pivot into AI work — with a plan instead of a job-board habit.

Scope

What we work on

  • Doing lead-level work without lead-level recognition
  • Promo packets that list tasks instead of impact
  • Interviewing badly for roles you could clearly do
  • No read on whether to switch companies or dig in
  • Manager-track regret nobody warned you about

What you walk away with

  • A written scope of what your next level actually requires here
  • An impact narrative with numbers your skip-level can repeat
  • A shortlist of companies worth your time and a way in
  • A clear-eyed decision on management vs. staff track

Who this is for

  • Senior ICs who keep getting told to wait another cycle
  • New managers who miss the code and are quietly struggling
  • Engineers trying to move into AI/agent work without a research background

Why me for this

I've hired, promoted, and had the hard conversations as a CTO. I know what the room says after you leave it.

Next step

Start with a free 20-minute intro call

No pitch. We work out whether I can actually help, and I'll say so if I can't.