Coaching for tech leaders, advice for their CEOs
I’m CTPO (Chief Technology & Product Officer) at Getaround. I spend my weeks growing teams, aligning product and engineering, and using AI across the company to move faster, create value, and cut costs. I also led the engineering side of merging five companies into one product. I’ve coached and mentored people throughout my career, and I’ve now started making time, alongside Getaround, to coach engineering leaders and advise companies.
Message me on LinkedIn. The first call is free, with no commitment.
Who I work with
Engineering managers
CoachingWhether you're new to management or leading a bigger team, the job keeps changing. We work on running a team that delivers well while keeping technical debt under control, and on the people side: difficult feedback, hiring, and working well with product.
Heads of engineering, VPs, CTOs
CoachingThe job changes at the exec table. Now you help shape the product, work as a peer with the CEO and the other execs, measure your org and explain it in numbers, and decide what AI means for the whole company, not only your team.
CTPOs
CoachingWhether you came from product or from engineering, the job rests on two things: a clear vision, and an org where product and engineering work hand in hand. The vision comes from knowing the company's numbers and from talking often with the other execs and their teams about their challenges. Then you make the trade-offs.
CEOs & founders
AdvisoryWorking with your tech leadership: hiring or growing your CTO, understanding what your product and engineering team can realistically deliver, and finding where AI is worth the investment.
Boards & investors
AdvisoryAn outside view on a product and engineering org: whether its priorities, capacity, and spending support the company's plans, and how to measure it.
People teams
CoachingLooking for a coach for an engineering manager or a new tech leader? Tell me who you want to support and what you hope will change. We agree on the goals together at the start. What we discuss in sessions stays between me and the person I coach.
How I work
Your context first
Most of these problems have no single right answer. Every team and every company has its own constraints: people, budget, history, timing. We start from yours and work with them.
Honest about what I know
I share what I've seen work and what I've seen fail. When I don't know, I'll say so, and we'll work it out together.
Something concrete
Every conversation ends with a clear next step: the project to stop, the feedback to give on Monday, the AI pilot to start this month.
What we might work on
At the exec table
A big part of the job is working with people outside engineering.
- Working with your CEO and your peers
- Understanding what a CTO brings to the exec team
- Managing your priorities and your energy
- Running performance and compensation reviews
Product × engineering
I run both today, so I see the tensions from each side.
- Building a product and tech vision by talking often with every exec and their teams
- Measuring your org: which numbers matter, and how to share them
- Knowing the whole company's numbers, with simple napkin maths that shapes your vision and your priorities
- Agreeing who decides what when product goals and engineering constraints pull apart
AI, on your budget
AI can change how fast a company moves, what it can build, and how much it spends. Most companies are still at the start.
- Using AI to ship faster, create value, and lower costs, not only to adopt new tools
- Choosing an AI experiment, setting a budget, and measuring its value before expanding it
- Bringing AI to engineering, product, and design, with tools that fit each team
- Growing AI use across the company and into production, while keeping costs under control
Org & scale
I've seen teams grow, shrink, and merge. Each needs a different approach.
- Structuring teams as you grow and leading through managers
- Reshaping a smaller team and deciding what to stop, so commitments stay realistic
- Hiring engineers and engineering leaders, and starting engineering hubs
- Merging teams after an acquisition: two codebases, two cultures, one team
Formats
Recurring coaching
For engineering managers, heads of engineering, CTOs and CTPOs. Regular sessions to think through what you're facing, as it happens.
Advisory
For CEOs, founders and boards. An outside view on product and engineering questions that are hard to discuss internally.
Deep dive
Not available right nowOne specific problem, such as a merger, an AI rollout, or a new org design.
We agree on the cadence, scope, and fee together before starting. I adapt to your budget, and I'm flexible when I believe in the project, even more so if you work on the climate transition, independent media, or a healthier public debate.
A bit of background
Scope
I lead product, design, and engineering for a marketplace that runs in several countries: mobile apps, payments, unlocking cars remotely, pricing, fraud, claims, and operations. Software, operations, and physical cars all have to work together, and I tie that work to the company's profitability. Along the way, I grew the engineering org from ~20 to 60+ people, then brought it back to ~25 when the business needed it. I also introduced engineering levels, hired from junior engineers to engineering directors, and served as acting CISO while getting us ISO certified.
Hard times
When we closed our US operations, I helped transform the company: we cut costs, reorganized, and made a low-margin business profitable. I've been through a SPAC and several reorgs, worked with several CEOs, and led global engineering after senior executives left.
Acquisitions
After Getaround acquired Drivy, I also took over the engineering team of the acquiring company, then led the merge of the two platforms into one. When Getaround acquired HyreCar, I took on their team and, within a few months, doubled the features it shipped per cycle and its number of deploys.
AI
I started by getting our engineers to use AI every day, then took it to the whole company, helping every team, not only product and engineering, use AI and build their own tools. In parallel, we put AI in production to automate work: moderation, risk detection, and simpler operational processes. In customer service, we built a system that drafts answers to customers from our own knowledge base, and tools that help new agents get up to speed during peak seasons. In marketing, AI now helps with content, SEO, and competitor analysis.
Path
I joined Drivy in 2014 as an engineer and worked my way up: head of reliability & data, VP of Engineering for Europe, and now CTPO at Getaround after the acquisition. Before that, I worked at small startups: a year in San Francisco at Seesmic, four years on a video casting platform for Hollywood, and mobile messaging over WAP, before the iPhone came out. Earlier still, I did consulting work. I studied computer science at Epitech and did a master's at IIIT in Pune. I also build side projects from time to time.
Writing
I write about leadership, product, engineering, and AI on my blog.
Coaching
Weezic (web development), Yespark (code reviews & engineering practices).
Talks
Cloud Computing (Dauphine, 2018), MySQL Evolution at Getaround (ParisRB, 2017), Pratiquer et entreprendre (HEC, 2014), Service Oriented Applications (Ruby Lugdunum, 2011), Ruby et son écosystème (Epitech, 2010).
Michael is one of those rare leaders who combines sky-high IQ with exceptional EQ — brilliant, humble, and deeply effective. He's as comfortable talking system architecture as he is digging into financial models, customer pain points, or org design.
Now GM, New Ventures at American Honda
Let’s talk
Tell me about your role and the situation you want help with. The first call is free, with no commitment. I live in Montrouge, just outside Paris. Sessions happen over video; for a deep dive, we can also meet in person.