I. Mission

Empowering CTOs to grow through a top-notch peer network.

II. Vision

In 2022 αlphalist.cto will be:

• The largest network of top-class tech builders & leaders.
• The network CTOs know they can count on for eye-opening discourse on topics such as leadership, recruiting, technical challenges, technology selection and joint investments.
• The best organization when it comes to advocating for geeks/nerds, enhancing their status, and helping them express their needs.

III. Principles

Our community is driven by a shared spirit and follows core principles:

We are nerds.

We firmly believe that techies are the driving force in our digitized economy and as such we should celebrate being enthusiastic about all things technical. Also, while we didn't have any girl or boyfriends when we were 16, we’re okay with that because coding was also nice.

Thus, we want to ensure that we all share a common level of enthusiasm for technical stuff, such that we require of members to be able to code in at least one programming language (MS Excel is not a language).

We are builders.

Creativity and productivity for (sometimes obscure) projects that we love is what ultimately made us excellent in our professional life. We love to construct things, start ventures, explore new frontiers and drive innovation, sometimes by unconventional means.

As such, we admire tech entrepreneurs who in their current or previous job are actively involved in steering the company’s tech strategy. A special bonus goes to those who founded their own startup. We believe that working in an entrepreneurial setup such as a startUp or in a very entrepreneurial role in an enterprise is a key indicator for this mindset and thus require of our members to work in such an environment.

We are leaders.

We have an impact on our company and on other individuals as well. At home we love playing with LEGOs and/or smarthome devices, but in our professional lives, we take on responsibility. We love to share our knowledge and help others grow.

In particular, our colleagues trust in our ability to steer a large tech team, ensure the success of a technical product on the market and execute the company's tech strategy.

We are supporters.

We get energy from helping our peers. We define our value for the group by how much we helped others to grow. We support other αlphalist.cto members wherever and whenever possible.

If an αlphalist.cto member from another city/country visits our city, we are her/his local go-to person. We are the guide navigating her/him through the city, places and relevant networks.

We are diversity advocates.

We have all experienced just how great diversity in teams is. We believe that we should cultivate our personal distinctiveness and occasionally be a little eccentric. We like engaging in discourse and appreciate varying opinions. Arguing is cool as long as it stays on subject and does not get personal.

We strive for teams with different characters, styles, preferences, genders and races. And yes, gender-wise this group is unfortunately not of ideal composition yet. Please help us change that! Fine print

We are Connectors.

The purpose of αlphalist is to connect CTOs to each other and pool our technical knowledge together. For this reason we discourage active selling amongst members and discourage vendors, agencies, consultants and recruiters from joining.

We keep things confidential.

What happens in the group stays in the group. We encourage members to share their biggest challenges, so confidentiality is key. We abide by the Chatham House Rules.

We maintain high standards.

Nobody has a right to join the group and to keep their αlphalist.cto membership status. We’ll constantly remove members who are not nice, not supportive or simply not active. The membership of existing members will be paused or removed in following cases: CTO leaves her company and doesn’t get a new CTO role that meets the αlphalist.cto selection criteria within 12 months. Member has not posted any question, answer or comment in one of the αlphalist.cto channels and hasn’t attended any αlphalist.cto event for more than six months.

We communicate in English.

IV. Selection Criteria and Process

We’re focused on top-notch senior tech leaders. We’ll never grow our member base if it harms the quality and depth of discussions and knowledge exchange amongst our members. Thus, we need to put some serious rigor on our selection criteria and process. To be considered as new αlphalist.cto you need to add value and provide knowledge for our community and fulfil the following criteria:

Role

You are CTO/VP Engineering or have a similar role. You are solely responsible for tech in your company.

Team

You are leading a tech team with 20+ FTEs or you have led a large and successful tech team in the past and are currently building a new tech startup.

Business Model

Your company's business model is based on a technical product with a software and/or hardware core.

Reputation

You have a great reputation and are known in your network for being a knowledgeable, supportive and trustworthy tech expert.

Principles

You share our principles.

Your application will be reviewed by a selection committee. Getting a referral from an existing αlphalist.cto member is by far the best way to convince our committee – if you meet the criteria above. No αlphalist founder is able to vote for an exception for friends.

v1.0.2, 2020-12-17