About

Who we are

Reforge was built by engineering leaders who survived the IC-to-manager transition the hard way.

The founding coach spent 10 years in engineering leadership: first as an IC, then as a manager, then as a VP running teams through Series A, B, and C. The pattern that showed up in every organization was the same. Engineers got promoted into management because they were technically strong, not because anyone prepared them for the actual job. The ones who thrived early almost always had an informal mentor who'd been there. The ones who burned out didn't.

Reforge exists to formalize that mentorship. Not as inspirational coaching, but as structured, peer-credible, operationally grounded support for first-time and early-career engineering managers.

What we're not

We're not generalist ICF coaches with a nice website. We're not an enterprise platform that assigns you whoever's available. We're not a subscription that lets you book 20-minute calls with a rotating cast.

We're one program, delivered by people who have run engineering teams, with a curriculum built specifically around the IC-to-manager transition.

How the program works

Every engagement starts with the burnout diagnostic assessment. It maps where you are on the IC-to-manager curve and identifies the specific leverage points that will make the biggest difference in the next 90 days.

From there: six biweekly 1:1 sessions, async Slack accountability between sessions, and a peer cohort of 6-8 managers going through the same transition at similar-stage companies.

The peer cohort matters as much as the 1:1 sessions. The isolation of early management is partly structural and partly because most engineers don't know where to find peers who understand the specific texture of engineering management. The cohort fixes that.