That Was The Year That Was

My 2024 started with a bold New Year resolutions list that whilst well-intentioned, has delivered mixed results …

Table A: Review of Weaver’s New Year Resolutions from the 1st of January 2024

So I hereby promise to crack Column A, 

try harder with Column B,

but take this opportunity to celebrate enthusiastically the achievements of Column C,

in particular the achievements of Column CTO Academy.

A Year in the Life of CTO Academy

Now I probably need to manage your expectations about the “heights” we achieved during 2024.

Are we en route to Unicorn status?

No.

Did we achieve endless column inches in Tech Crunch?

No.

Am I about to gain entry onto the Forbes “40 under 40” list?

No, but that’s an ageist thing.

Instead, I’m able to report on the slow, steady yet unrelentingly upward trajectory of a project that I’m proud to lead as CEO and which is only going to get better and stronger as we move into 2025.

Now I’ll be open with you that sometimes during the year, as an entrepreneurial CEO with a great future behind him, the pace of development has at times felt glacial but with experience comes an understanding that sustainable growth for most, is more incremental progress than VC-backed rocket fuel.

With the majority of start-ups failing to make a profit, and many not reaching a 1st-anniversary party, we’ve always taken the approach of “move slow and build things”.

But it’s sometimes only when I step back and reflect – albeit a step back forced on me by a marketing team looking for some fresh copy – that I fully appreciate the progress we’ve achieved, the connections we’ve made and the impact we’ve had.

The great news is we’ve only just started.

We’ve only scratched the surface of what we want to achieve, who we want to impact and where we want to go as we scale CTO Academy.

But before I get too carried away with the future, here are some headline numbers achieved during the past 12 months:

101 countries now have CTO Academy customers

78 online sessions hosted during 2024 with 2500 attendees

100 Trustpilot reviews now posted, 98 of them at 5 stars

1 nomination for the “Best Online Distance Learning” award

15 in-person events across Europe, Middle East and USA

500+ tech leaders graduated from our leadership courses

30,000 individual lecture ratings posted at an average of 4.7 out of 5

46% year-on-year growth in revenue

And it’s not just these raw numbers that indicate we’re doing something right, other more subtle indicators lead me to the conclusion that our direction of travel is a positive one: 

• Organic leads have sprinted past the paid ones 
• WOM recommendations are no longer an aspiration
• We work on rather than just in the business
• I can switch my phone off when on holiday
• I’m no longer cynical about award nominations
• Our market instinct is sharp enough to weed out time wasters
• Friends have stopped suggesting alternative career options
• Customers complain because they really care
• Corporate finance firms have started reaching out

It’s Rarely About The Tech

We have a mantra in our leadership courses – indeed a Week 1 lecture on The Digital MBA for Technology Leaders covers this topic in detail – that success in senior leadership roles is rarely about the tech; it’s almost always about the soft skills.

No matter how digital we get.

No matter how much we might feel (and like) to hide behind the tech.

Success almost always comes down to people.

People are what make every company successful.

So my final thoughts on a fantastic year go to…

Our Team

Definition of “remote” (adjective)

1. conducted or working away from a usual workplace or location, making use of communications technology:
2. aloof and unfriendly in manner.

In those pre-zoom, pre-covid, pre-hybrid vs office vs remote debate days, when we used to meet by a literal water cooler, mentioning that a team member was “remote” suggested they were aloof and unfriendly in manner (ie. not a team player).

Today, “remote” tends to mean a whole different thing and yet our fully remote team couldn’t be any less “remote” if you’re keeping up with the double use of the word.

They are a warm, committed, loyal group of people that it’s been a privilege to work with on the journey so far and as we grow the team through 2025 a key challenge for senior management will be to ensure that we maintain the same channels of communication, standards of transparency and individual considerations that enable everyone to continue growing alongside the company.

Lose that and we lose the intangible glue that has enabled us to get this far.

Our Community

Likewise, I feel privileged to be working with and alongside a customer base like few others, with a community that contains some of the most talented and motivated people I’ve ever met.

Every time I host a 1:1 call or live session and start to glance down through the LinkedIn profiles of those attending, I quake at my relative level of underachievement.

It’s a wonderful motivation for me and the team to be helping such a talented group of people from all over the world to achieve their optimal career impact.

I salute every single CTO Academy customer because your motivation to learn and to share your knowledge is inspiring and gives us enormous energy to deliver an ever-improving customer experience across every touchpoint of our growing organisation.

Our Guests

As the saying goes, “You can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep”, and we’ve been swept away by the quality of expert guests prepared to come and deliver their insight under the Q&A glare of our senior tech leaders.

From the DevOps guru to the Meditation expert to a lot of people who know a lot of stuff about a lot of things, we’ve hosted 40+ guests across our various live sessions and it’s been rare indeed when they’ve failed to hit the bullseye with some of their insight.

Thank you to all of our guests who’ve helped to enrich our debates.

What’s Ahead for CTO Academy?

Who knows where 2025 might lead us all – we hope towards a more peaceful coexistence around the world.

For the team here at CTO Academy we plan to start the new year with a bang:

• Launch our new Masterclass Series
• Re-launch a completely transformed Future Leaders Course
  Add improvements and iterations to The Digital MBA for Technology Leaders
• Announce a major new sponsor
• Deliver an expanded global partner and events programme
• Introduce talented new members to the team
• Support our fabulous global community of seriously talented tech leaders

…and let’s see where the journey takes us next.