The 7 must-read CTOs newsletters
You’d love to sit down, relax, grab coffee (or any other beverage), and read the latest tech news.
You just can’t find what you need. There’s an overwhelming flood of news every day, most of it irrelevant.
That’s why we’ve curated a list of the best CTOs newsletters you can follow today. Each covers different topics, from broad ones like leadership to niche ones like offshoring and building dedicated development teams.
If you subscribe to every newsletter mentioned in this article, you’ll roughly need 15-30 minutes weekly to inform yourself about the hottest topics in the industry.
Enjoy!
1. Building Dev Teams for CTOs
Author(s): The Scalers’ team.
Building Dev Teams for CTOs is a two-minute read, LinkedIn newsletter for CTOs, CIOs, and other business leaders on the latest tech leadership and offshoring news.
Based on their experience building 80+ tech teams in the past 10+ years, The Scalers’ team writes and designs this monthly newsletter, which shares articles on engineering and upcoming industry events.
Every issue discusses a topic in depth, generally related to offshore software development and CTO best practices. It also features links to relevant articles and events around the web.
Discover how 100 CTOs in ANZ are building offshore tech teams
DOWNLOAD WHITEPAPERPopular issues
- Pros and cons of offshoring: traditional vs. offshore 2.0 — a comprehensive explanation of the differences between the traditional and modern approaches to offshoring.
- Top 11 books every CTO should read — a curated list of the essential books CTOs must read to upgrade their careers.
- 6 best practices to tackle technical debt — a compilation of the best solutions you can implement to manage technical debt.
2. Lenny’s Newsletter
Author(s): Lenny Rachitsky and Kiyani Bamba.
Lenny’s Newsletter is a Substack newsletter that shares product, business, and career growth insights.
Today, it has 600,000+ subscribers, but it all started by accident.
Lenny Rachitsky, a former software engineer and executive who worked at Airbnb for seven years, received emails from founders seeking his advice after leaving the company. Hoping others would find his insights as useful as those contacting him directly, he started a newsletter.
With the help of editor Kiyani Bamba, he sends weekly posts (to paid subscribers) and monthly emails (to non-paid subscribers) answering readers’ burning questions.
Popular issues
- Mission → Vision → Strategy → Goals → Roadmap → Task — Rachitsky answers the question, “How do strategy, vision, mission, goals, and roadmap all work together? Where should I start?”
- My favorite decision-making frameworks — in the author’s words, ‘templates and guides to help you make better decisions with less drama.’
- How the biggest consumer apps got their first 1,000 users — as the title suggests, this issue analyses the strategies of some of the world’s most popular brands to grow their customer base.
3. TLDR
Author(s): Dan N. and Stephen Flanders.
TLDR is a free daily newsletter for CTOs looking for the latest startups, tech, and programming news.
The publication, read by over 1,250,000 software engineers and tech leaders, includes quick links to articles divided into big tech and startups; science and technology; and programming, design, and data science.
It’s meant to be a ‘morning newspaper’ for busy CTOs.
Popular issues
As TLDR is a traditional newsletter, sharing just news, we’ve listed some of its latest issues (the date of publishing this article).
- TLDR 2024-04-08 — Tesla robotaxi, Starship’s launch plans, useless projects.
- TLDR 2024-04-04 — Apple personal robots, state of founder compensation, why observably is expensive.
- TLDR 2024-04-01 — OpenAI’s $100B supercomputer, Linux almost hacked, design engineering.
4. ByteByteGo
Author(s): Alex Xu, Sahn Lam, and Hua Li.
In ByteByteGo, Alex Xu, Sahn Lam, and Hua Li talk about complex technical systems in easy-to-understand language. The three have extensive experience in the tech industry and have worked for companies such as Apple, Twitter, and Discord.
In their newsletter, they focus on large-scale system design trends. One secret to their success is designing visually appealing posts, making tech accessible (and digestible) for all.
ByteByteGo is a freemium CTO newsletter. Free subscribers get an issue every Saturday, while premium members receive an extra deep dive on Wednesdays and can suggest topics.
Popular issues
- EP 42: Designing a chat application — Xu dissects how to design a 1-to-1 chat application.
- EP 43: 8 Data Structures That Power Your Databases — an easy explanation of what data structure you should pick.
- EP 44: How does ChatGPT work? — a technical description of how the popular chatbot works.
5. Amazing CTO Newsletter
Author(s): Stephan Schmidt.
The Amazing CTO Newsletter is a free weekly publication for CTOs and Engineering Managers who want to improve their leadership skills.
Its author, Stephan Schmidt, is a CTO and CPTO Coach with 25+ years of experience in the tech industry. He sends subscribers an email every Sunday with news, articles, and social media posts on software engineering and team management.
Tech leaders also have the option to follow the Amazing CTO Newsletter on LinkedIn.
Popular issues
- CTOs Shape Up! Episode #63 — Schmidt shares articles on finding product-market fit, startup strategy, and evaluating a product roadmap for engineers.
- How many direct reports should a manager have? — articles and insights on the ideal structure of an engineering team and workplace environments.
- Why you need a macro architecture — technical topics on macro architecture and OCTA metapixel, among others.
How we helped a FinTech scale its data insights team to an 85-person R&D hub in Bangalore
DOWNLOAD CASE STUDY6. Level Up
Author(s): Patrick Kua.
Level Up is a newsletter for CTOs in which Patrick Kua shares personal experiences in software engineering and management and curates some of the latest industry news.
Kua is a tech leader with 20+ years of experience who has seen it all. Literally. He’s worked as a developer and a CTO and now coaches and trains other managers.
His weekly newsletter is 100% free, and it’s known for its simplicity. He starts every issue by sharing insights on a particular topic and then listing articles into three categories: leadership, technology, and organisations and processes.
Popular issues
- Level vs Role — Kua discusses the task of senior leaders in designing an organisation’s job structure.
- Fractional CTO vs Advisor —this issue outlines the differences between a fractional CTO and an advisor role.
- Finding Fractional CTO Opportunities — strategies for individuals seeking fractional CTO roles.
7. The Pragmatic Engineer
Author(s): Gergely Orosz.
The Pragmatic Engineer is the #1 technology newsletter on Substack. This freemium publication is helpful for tech leaders looking for insights on Big Tech and high-growth startups and actionable leadership advice.
Written by Gergely Orosz, an engineering manager and advisor in multiple organisations, The Pragmatic Engineer focuses on what sets tech-leading companies apart, from the inside. Orosz interviews people working in these businesses to get the scoop.
He also provides tools for enhancing efficiency and leadership skills while keeping readers informed about market trends.
Free subscribers get a new issue every Tuesday and a full article monthly. Paying subscribers get two weekly articles, early insights into industry trends, resources, and templates for engineering managers.
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LEARN MOREPopular issues
- Measuring developer productivity? A response to McKinsey — Orosz defies McKinsey’s methodology to measure software developer productivity.
- The end of 0% interest rates: what the new normal means for software engineers — an answer to the question: “What do higher rates mean for software engineering jobs, developers, and careers; and how can you prepare for this shift?”
- Thriving as a Founding Engineer: Lessons from the Trenches — real-life lessons from “serial” early-stage and founding engineer Apurva Chitnis.
In summary
We hope this list of the best CTOs newsletters helps you stay informed about news and practical managerial advice.
Now, it’s time for you to take action. Subscribe to the newsletters you find relevant to your skills, seniority, and interests and allocate some time weekly to read them.
If subscribing to the publications listed in this article isn’t enough, you may also want to listen to the top podcasts for CTOs and read some of the best books for CTOs. Add them to your must-listen and must-buy list!
While many podcast hosts and book authors address common challenges faced by tech leaders, they rarely mention a major one: finding the right talent.
If that’s your case, we’re here to help. At The Scalers, we build world-class offshore engineering teams for CTOs like you. Fill out this form to tell us about your unique needs, and one of our senior executives will contact you shortly.
