As a CTO or engineering leader, staying current with industry trends while managing teams is challenging. The right newsletters deliver curated insights directly to your inbox, saving hours of research. We've compiled 10 essential newsletters from experienced leaders at companies like Uber, Stripe, and Shopify—perfect for busy technical leaders building engineering teams.
Level Up by Patrick Kua
Engineering leaders get advice on management habits, building trust culture, DevOps, software architecture, and infrastructure best practices from a 20+ year technology veteran.
Author Background: Patrick Kua - 20+ years experience, focuses on accelerating growth of technical leaders
Content Type: Curated articles + personal experiences and reflections
Best For: Engineering leaders wanting practical management insights
URL: levelup.patkua.com
Irrational Exuberance by Will Larson
Short essay-style newsletter on tech leadership, building teams, engineering velocity, and measuring effectiveness from the CTO of Calm (ex-Uber, Stripe, Digg).
Author Background: Will Larson - CTO at Calm, ex-Uber/Stripe, author of "Staff Engineer" and "An Elegant Puzzle"
Content Type: Short thoughtful essays (not just work-focused)
Must-Read: Stripe's product-led developer-centric growth & flying wedge hiring pattern
URL: lethain.com
ByteByteGo by Alex Xu
Essential for CTOs who want to stay technical. Deep dives into system design, algorithms, REST API design, CAP theorem, and database architecture every Saturday.
Author Background: Alex Xu - Senior engineering leader (ex-Oracle, Zynga, Apple, Twitter), bestselling "System Design Interview" author
Content Type: Short-form posts with many visuals, easy to digest
Must-Read: "What happens when you swipe a credit card?" & "How to scale to millions of users?"
URL: blog.bytebytego.com
Refactoring by Luca Rossi
For engineers jumping to the next level. Covers engineering 1:1s, developer time allocation, code reviews, developer experience, and choosing dev tooling.
Author Background: Luca Rossi - Engineering leader focused on career progression
Content Type: Essay-style with nice illustrations and explanatory screenshots
Must-Read: "How to Improve Engineering Productivity" & "The True Meaning of Technical Debt"
URL: refactoring.fm
Enjoyneering by Julien Plée
Tech people management lessons from a VP who scaled GitGuardian from 20 to 100+ engineers. Covers building trust, performance measurement, and onboarding.
Author Background: Julien Plée - VP Engineering at GitGuardian, engineering manager since 2010
Content Type: Short-form practical essays with real GitGuardian insights
Best For: Making tech leadership enjoyable and effective
URL: enjoyneering.substack.com
Software Lead Weekly by Oren Ellenbogen
Weekly top stories on hiring, CTO challenges, negotiations, planning, and building dev communities. Features expert interviews and inspiring tweets.
Author Background: Oren Ellenbogen - VP Engineering at Forter, ex-Commerce Sciences, ex-Delver, ex-Mercury
Content Type: Curated links + expert interviews + community wisdom tweets
Best For: Growing soft skills and staying current with industry trends
URL: softwareleadweekly.com
The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz
#1 technology newsletter on Substack! Long reads on engineering culture, hiring, compensation, Big Tech insights, and industry news. 550,000+ words of content.
Author Background: Gergely Orosz - Engineering manager (ex-Uber, Skype, Skyscanner)
Content Type: Long-form deep dives + industry leader interviews + "The Scoop" news series
Special Features: LinkedIn efficiency measurement, Linear CTO story, layoff tracking
URL: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
Tech Manager Weekly by CTO Craft
Weekly wrap of articles for developers and tech executives. Covers remote culture, non-toxic environments, salary overviews, feedback, events, and conferences.
Author Background: CTO Craft - Community-driven resource for tech leaders
Content Type: Article roundup + occasional essays + conference calls for papers
Best For: Comprehensive overview of software development trends and speaking opportunities
URL: techmanagerweekly.com
The Engineering Manager by James Stanier
Personal essay collection from Shopify's Director of Engineering on managing energy, tutorials for new managers, book reviews, and self-reflection.
Author Background: James Stanier - Director of Engineering at Shopify
Content Type: Personal essays and thoughtful stories
Must-Read: "Removing uncertainty," "Path to managing managers," "Delegation creates progression"
URL: theengineeringmanager.com
TLDR by Dan Ni
750,000 readers! Daily tech news in concise format covering science discoveries, AI, programming, design, and startup/Big Tech news. Perfect for busy leaders.
Author Background: Dan Ni - Tech news curator focused on efficiency
Content Type: Daily summaries + links to relevant articles and resources
Best For: Busy leaders who need to stay current without reading 300 articles/year
URL: tldr.tech
Should You Subscribe to These Engineering Newsletters?
Absolutely yes. All of them are highly practical. Their authors share well-curated content and learnings from VPs, CTOs, engineering managers, book authors, and tech community leaders—exactly the people you want to learn from.
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Should You Pay for Newsletters?
By paying, you reimburse high-quality content and support the authors who invest significant time creating valuable insights. Engineering newsletters provide curated top stories, practical industry insights, and actionable advice that helps VPs of Engineering, CTOs, and tech leads build their engineering teams smoothly and effectively.
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Pick 2-3 newsletters that match your current challenges and subscribe today. Whether you're building your first engineering team, scaling to hundreds of developers, or transitioning from IC to management, these newsletters will accelerate your growth.
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Stay Informed, Lead Better
These 10 newsletters represent the collective wisdom of industry leaders who've built and scaled successful engineering teams. By subscribing, you're investing in your growth as a technical leader—learning from those who've faced the same challenges you're navigating now.
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