Meet America’s newest citizen, Etienne de Bruin, Founder of 7CTOs, the organization that helps CTOs grow as world class leaders!
Etienne and his wife, both South Africans, moved to San Diego from Germany in 2000. He was weighing Boston vs. San Diego and cnn.com/weather told him to make the move to sunshine. Luckily he chose the San Diego biotech scene which survived the 2000 dot com bombs whereas the Boston opportunity died immediately.
Etienne takes us through the difference of doing business and working in tech in South Africa vs the U.S. South Africa does have a strong software developer culture and South African business leaders have a strong presence in building big American companies, like rocket & electric car builder, He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named.
In 2005, he co-founded Monk Development in San Diego and grew the software company all the way up until 2014 when they successfully sold the business.
In 2009, Etienne started to lift his head and say, “what’s everyone else working on?” and put energy into creating a community for software developers which has begun to connect the entire ecosystem from new developer to experienced CTO of the largest tech companies.
When Etienne began to notice his two co-founders grow professionally from success within mentor groups, he realized there wasn’t something for the technical leaders of a company. He began creating communities that put the spotlight on the CTO and had a San Diego emphasis. This birthed the 7CTOs organization, a peer mentor group helping top technical leaders of companies create bonds and mentorship through consistent group meetings.
While focusing on building strong leaders at the top, Etienne’s main goal is uniting the technical community as a whole and invite them to engage with the 7CTO community, including Developer Mentor Hours, CTO/CEO Advisory Hours, and the upcoming TechArt Series with a Night with Blockchain on May 30th, as well as other community resources.
Favorite Taco Spot: El Zarape on Park Blvd.
Follow Etienne on Twitter @Etdebruin & @7ctos
Thanks to our sponsor Cox Business for their support of the San Diego tech community. Come out to their May 10th celebration of our tech leaders, including CTOs, by visiting http://www.toptechexecs.com/
