Introduce someone to me
You know two people who should be talking, or a leader I should meet. Five messages you can copy, edit, and send in thirty seconds.
Someone you know is sitting in a seat I have sat in. Or you know a leader I should meet and have not. Either direction, this page exists so the introduction costs you about thirty seconds.
Pick the message below that fits, paste it into an email or a DM, fill in the brackets, and copy me at etienne@etiennex.com. Change the words freely. They are a starting point, and your version in your voice will always land better than mine.
Before you send it
- Ask them first. A double opt-in intro respects both people. If they are not up for it, that is a fine answer and I would rather have it now.
- Keep it short. Three sentences about why you thought of them beats three paragraphs about me.
- Say what you actually think. If you are unsure whether it is a fit, write that. It saves everyone a call.
Four messages you can steal
They are a CTO carrying it alone
A technology leader who has nobody at their level to think out loud with. Sharp, senior, quietly isolated.
[Name], meet Etienne de Bruin.
Etienne runs 7CTOs, peer groups for technology leaders. He held the CTO seat for ten years and has spent the last ten coaching the people in it, 300+ of them so far.
I thought of you because of [the thing they told you they are carrying]. Everyone in his rooms is carrying some version of it, and they say it out loud instead of eating it.
Etienne, [Name] is [role] at [company].
They are hiring a CTO
A founder, CEO, or board where one technical hire holds the whole company up.
[Name], you mentioned you are looking for a CTO.
Etienne de Bruin runs executive search for CTOs and technical leaders. He was a CTO for ten years and has trained 300+ since, so he reads candidates for the seat itself: the stage you are at, the stack you have, and the team the person actually has to lead.
Etienne, [Name] is [role] at [company]. They are [stage / size] and hiring now.
They need one-on-one coaching
An executive whose hardest problem is a person, and the person is usually them.
[Name], meet Etienne de Bruin.
Etienne coaches technology executives one-on-one through CoachEXE, with his partner Brittany Cotton. The work goes close in: the patterns you keep repeating, what those cost the people around you, and the refactor that never shows up in the codebase.
I thought of you because of [what they are wrestling with]. He will be direct with you about whether he is the right person for it.
Etienne, [Name] is [role] at [company].
They run a stage or a mic
A conference programmer or podcast host who needs someone on AI-era technology leadership.
[Name], meet Etienne de Bruin.
Etienne writes and speaks on the hidden forces inside engineering organizations and what happens to the CTO role now that output is cheap. He wrote CTO Excellence in 100 Days and The CTO’s Refactor, and he hosts The CTO Podcast, so he is comfortable on either side of the mic.
Etienne, [Name] runs [conference or show]. They are looking at [date / format].
And one going the other way
The four above are for when someone you know needs me. This one is for when I need you.
My network is the only reason any of the work above exists, and it grew one introduction at a time, almost always because somebody spent a little of their own standing to vouch for me. If I have asked you to connect me with a leader you know, this is the message, and you should feel free to say no.
You know a leader I should know
A technology leader in your orbit whose work I keep running into. Here I am the one asking, and I know what it costs you to spend that credibility.
[Name], Etienne de Bruin asked whether I would put the two of you together.
Etienne runs 7CTOs, peer groups for technology leaders, and writes The CTO Substack. Twenty years around the CTO seat: ten holding it, ten coaching the people who do. He still ships code most days.
He is not selling you anything. He asked because of [what they built, wrote, or said], and he wants thirty minutes to hear how you think about it.
Etienne, [Name] is [role] at [company].
What I do with it
I reply to every intro, usually within a day. If it is a fit, I take it from there and you are off the hook. If it is not, I say so plainly and point them at someone better, and you still get the credit for thinking of them.
When you introduce me to someone in your network, I treat your name as the thing on the line. I show up on time, I come having read their work, and I do not turn the conversation into a pitch.
Nobody who gets introduced to me ends up on a mailing list. That only happens if a person signs themselves up and confirms the email.
Thank you for doing this. Being thought of is not a small thing.