Gather.dev

Merge Minds, Resolve Conflicts

The playbook's broken. Now what?

Learn from mistakes you haven't had to make

Gather.dev is a curated network where CTOs compare approaches, benchmark decisions, and work through answers together - in-person and online.

The problem

We're all frogs and the water is starting to boil.

The old playbooks are breaking down. Stakeholder expectations are sky-high, teams don't know if their jobs will be transformed or eliminated, and best practices for running AI-enabled engineering orgs change every week. Meanwhile, quarterly deliverables can't wait - there's no time to pause.

The solution

A curated network built to help CTOs solve their most pressing challenges together.

The CTOs who thrive will be the ones who learn fastest - and no one can do that alone. But finding the time to reflect, share, or learn from others is hard when your days are packed with meetings and you have quarterly deadlines to hit.


Gather.dev was built to solve that problem. It's a structured network of niche communities of practice where experienced leaders both give and get - contributing what they've learned while tapping into timely, field-tested answers from peers dealing with the same challenges.

Why CTOs Trust Gather.dev?

I've spent fifteen years connecting with some of the smartest CTOs. Now I'm connecting them with each other.

Peter Bell, founder of Gather.dev

Hi, I'm Peter Bell, founder of Gather.dev.

I host the CTO Hour for O'Reilly and facilitate the executive summit at KubeCon. I ran engineering at General Assembly, taught data science at Columbia Business School and I'm writing an O'Reilly book on "Scaling AI Adoption in Engineering: A Practical Framework for Leaders".

For fifteen years I've built CTO communities and hosted CTO summits, bringing together some of the most influential engineering leaders in the world.

I've always wanted to create an invite-only, curated space where the most thoughtful and capable engineering leaders could engage frankly with their closest peers.

Gather.dev is the community I wish had existed. Now I'm building it with the people I respect most — CTOs like you.

How it works

Here's what you can expect as a member of Gather.dev:

Connect in-person

Monthly Gatherings – Timely topics, expert insight, and breakout discussions that turn shared challenges into actionable insights.
Executive Roundtables – Intimate breakfasts and evening events with high-impact topics, expert framing, and candid, high-trust discussion among peers.
Regional Pop-ups - Occasional exclusive events in cities where we don't yet have a regular gathering.
Private Experiences - Occasional social pop-ups designed to deepen connections with your peers.
Annual retreats - A multi-day summit bringing together Gather's global brain trust to explore the future of the engineering org.

Sustain online

Niche Communities - Organized by scale and role (CTOs at Scale, DirectorPlus, Startup CTOs) as well as by topic - hiring, org design, career development, and more.
Monthly Deep Dives – Facilitated discussions surfacing what's working (and what isn't) inside member orgs.
Weekly Pulse – Quick, 1-3 question benchmarks to see how your peers are tackling key challenges and compare notes in real time.
Knowledge Base – Insights, frameworks, and practices distilled from contributors, member conversations and real-world experiments.
Founder Briefings & Panels – Early access to emerging AI and dev tool founders to understand what's coming next.

Why we're different

Gather is a community of thought leaders. We're taking the friction out of contributing so even the busiest leader can share their learnings.

Share your Wisdom

Gather is a community of thought leaders. We're taking the friction out of contributing so even the busiest leader can share their learnings.
What's stopping you?
Time - Drop us a quick voice note; we’ll transcribe, edit, and shape it into a clear, well-structured insight for your review.
Clarity - Our 15 minute structured micro-interviews help turn a rough idea into a polished narrative you’ll be proud to share.
Distribution - We distribute your insights across Gather.dev and beyond - amplifying your impact and reach.
Awareness - Sometimes you don’t realize what you’ve learned. Optional weekly prompts help you reflect and decide what’s worth sharing.
Permission - The best lessons often come from stories you can’t tell publicly. We’ll help you anonymize them so the insight survives, not the attribution.
ROI - Our contributor program helps members grow their professional presence, and we have some extra special perks for those who add the most value!

Solve your Problems

When you share a challenge inside Gather, you get timely, relevant answers from peers who actually understand your context.
We provide:
Scale- and role-based communities - The right solution for an org of 500 isn’t the same as for a team of five. We match you with your closest peers.
Topic-focused spaces - Join discussions on topics like hiring, org design, platform, or AI adoption with leaders who are deeply invested in those problems.
Carefully selected peers - Every member is vetted for experience, curiosity, and generosity - people who share insights you can actually use.
A candid, safe space - Off-the-record conversations where you can ask questions that you wouldn't post on Slack or a public forum.
Optional enrichment - When your peers are busy, our AI can summarize potential insights from the community and beyond.

Our Communities

Gather is a community of thought leaders. We're taking the friction out of contributing so even the busiest leader can share their learnings.

Founding CTOs

Who - Founding CTOs at pre-growth startups - <10 engineers
Why - A trusted circle of peers who get the early-stage grind - providing support, tactics and hacks for the 0→1 journey.

Startup CTOs

Who - CTOs (and VPE's/Heads of Engineering) with 10- ~80 engineers.
Why - Share what's working to scale impact faster than headcount while building the foundations of a mature engineering org.

CTOs at Scale

Who - CTOs/(S)VPE's running orgs of ~85+
Why - Exchange insights on managing stakeholders, sustaining culture, and leading technology transformation to AI-augment your scaled org while meeting existing obligations.

AI Platform Leaders

Who - Leaders responsible for selecting, deploying, and scaling AI platforms, infrastructure, and tooling inside their organizations.
Why - Compare real-world AI platform decisions, benchmark what’s working in production, and avoid costly build-vs-buy mistakes..

Platform Leaders

Who - Platform and DevEx leaders responsible for internal platforms, developer tooling, and the day-to-day experience of building and shipping software.
Why - Compare platform and DevX decisions, share what's working in real systems, and reduce the friction that slows engineering teams down.

Fractional CTOs

Who - Fractional and consulting CTOs and VPEs supporting multiple clients.
Why - Balancing insights on the business of consulting with technologies, processes and practices to help your clients scale.

Apply to become a founding member

The first people in the room set the tone. That's why being a founding member isn't just a title - you'll shape the culture, decide what we talk about, and define what "high-trust, high-signal" really means.

Every member is vetted for experience, insight, and values. Membership is capped, and the people who join now will direct the conversations and always be recognized as the core contributors who helped define Gather.dev.