I had the chance to sit down with Etienne de Bruin on the 7CTOs CTO Studio podcast alongside Allen, CTO and co-founder of Limelight Health, and Alex, Chief Architect at Intuit. The conversation covered team culture, hiring strategies, and what it actually looks like to build something from the ground up.

We got into what it really means to hire well. It’s not just filling seats with impressive resumes, but finding people who genuinely believe in the mission. That distinction changes everything about how a team functions, how culture holds under pressure, and what happens when things get hard. There was a lot of honest conversation in the room about the difference between the two.

What made this episode stand out was how openly everyone talked about the hard parts. Not just the strategy, but the soul-searching that comes with building something new. The moments that challenge you to figure out who you are as a leader, not just what your company does.

Thank you to Etienne and the 7CTOs community for the conversation. These are the kinds of rooms worth showing up for.

Watch the full episode here.

Note: Podcast published in 2019