~/leadership
How I lead
I’ve led engineers as a CTO and a co-founder, and I care more about how a team feels to work in than about any framework. Here’s what I actually believe about leading people — in plain words, no bullshit bingo.
01 / principles
What I lead by
Teams beat heroes
The best work I’ve been part of never came from a single star. At Laserhub we built a culture where departments backed each other up over years — and no individual, however brilliant, could have solved the problems we solved together. My job as a leader is to build that team, not to be the smartest person in the room.
Technical depth, people first
I read code and I read people. I stay close enough to the work to earn engineers’ trust, and I care more about how someone grows than about being right in a review.
Easy to be around, hard to satisfy
I’ll happily grab a coffee and celebrate wins with colleagues at any level. I also ask sharp questions in workshops — the kind people learn to come prepared for. A high bar and a low ego aren’t in conflict.
Open door, for real
An open door isn’t a line in an onboarding deck. It means people actually walk through it — with bad news, half-baked ideas and the question they’re afraid is stupid. I optimise for that.
Compounding over moonshots
I trust steady improvement over big-bang bets. Engineers have told me what they valued most was the freedom — and the encouragement — to improve the codebase a little every week. That compounds further than any heroic rewrite.
I help people think, not just answer
I’m a process thinker. Where many people read a requirement and start building, I ask the simple question that makes us look at it from a different angle. I’d rather coach someone to take a problem apart than hand them my solution.
Value, effort, risk — out loud
Most decisions are a trade between business value, effort and risk. I make that trade explicit so the team can argue with it, instead of hiding it behind a roadmap.
No bullshit bingo
I say what I mean in plain words. If I can’t explain why we’re doing something without buzzwords, that’s usually a sign we shouldn’t be doing it.
02 / references
What others say
“As a CTO, Jonas gave me a fresh perspective on leadership — one that pushes, enables and grows the team rather than just commanding. He built a culture of ownership, accountability and teamwork that made it feel good to be part of the team. I’m confident that any role Jonas takes on becomes a positive transformation: better results, a better culture and a better sense of purpose.”
“Jonas isn’t just someone who has the ability to understand problems in depth and develop solutions, but also to strategically bring issues back to the forefront. On a personal level, too, working with Jonas has always been a lot of fun.”
Want to know how I’d lead your team?
I’m easy to reach — and I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person for the role.