Like many CTOs you know your engineering organization is capable of more. Your private equity investors want results soon. You’ve read all about DORA metrics and DevEx. You've explained it to the team but they still struggle to deliver. You don't have the time to coach everywhere. Certainly not at the level required.I teach your existing teams to ship more often and with higher quality using the science behind the DevOps movement. When they know, I leave. If you need a partner to help you get where you want technologically as well as to truly improve your team itself, let’s talk and see if we’re a good fit.

I partner with PE portco CTOs to deliver on the investment thesis by helping them change the culture of their existing org from halting to daily delivery so they can get the race going.

Select companies I've partnered with

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About

I have successfully led and coached DevOps transformations and operational maturity achievement at companies like Salesforce, Barracuda Networks, Cable & Wireless, MeridianLink, and SolarWinds.Despite being a Silicon Valley veteran, I'm not content to work only with unicorns, and have tackled some of the major cultural and structural impediments to Dev and Ops collaboration. I have successfully helped transform organizations to new models of service delivery, resulting in reduced customer churn, faster time to delivery, resiliency, improved margins, and increased ability to grow.Between my those, my book, and my best-selling video course, I have improved the lives of thousands of IT professionals around the world.

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Nathaniel Barnes
Chief Technology Officer
MeridianLink

This had not been the company’s first attempt at adopting these practices. However, we found this time we were not only able to do so, but we were able to really start to make the necessary cultural changes stick as well. Once those things are in place, the team was really able to begin the purposeful process of self-improvement that allowed this transformation to be successful where others had failed.I would highly recommend Mangoteque to others, especially those who are trying to do significant modernization to their tech and their team. Few consultants have the ability to help you get where you want technologically as well as to truly improve your team itself.

Simon Yeo
Chief Information Officer
Barracuda

Dave really helped us understand ways to potentially restructure the team to be more efficient and solve many of the problems arising from lack of resources and motivation in a very detailed report. Overall, we feel he is an amazing communicator. In fact, one of the things that impressed us most was how Dave worked with and engaged various leaders within the company.This engagement helped us validate a lot of the issues we had been aware of and bring more public visibility into those issues. Outside validation from a well known industry expert can be a powerful tool. Dave’s knowledge in the field of DevOps, drawing from his own experience, as well as published literature, is incredibly valuable to organizations in all stages.

John Stauffer
Vice President of Architecture
ConnectWise

We had a large centralized “DevOps” team that was burning out and continuously behind working tickets. They were consistently holding up development efforts, and were demoralized. We needed to reorganize from an organization that processed tickets into a proactive mission-driven team that was building tools that allowed engineering teams to serve themselves.Dave deeply engaged with the team, coaching, attending sprint ceremonies and working 1-1 with leaders to help coach, mentor and improve the leaders and key engineers in the team. I would definitely recommend Mangoteque to anyone who wants to improve how they develop software. Dave drives changes and outcomes that support faster, higher quality delivery with a happier, more productive team.

Gene Kim, author, Wiring the Winning Organization, The Unicorn Project, The Phoenix Project, The DevOps Handbook, Beyond the Phoenix Project, Accelerate, The Visible Ops Handbook, and Visible Ops Security

Jez Humble, author, Continuous Delivery, Lean Enterprise, The DevOps Handbook, and Accelerate

2025 Mangoteque Engagement Guide (PDF)

Training

The job of a CTO is demanding. Setting direction, partnering with the ELT, meeting with the board, leveling up the organization. It's a lot. But you don't have to do it alone.I periodically offer a 4 day course for your engineering leaders we can help them help you. They will learn from decades of experience and dozens of portfolio companies how to help deliver on the investment thesis. More information here.Not sure yet? I have a free 1 hour course available people can take at their own pace to get started.

Advisory Retainer

This product is for engineering leaders who want an experienced sounding board who knows exactly what the board wants, and how to deliver it. Because the DevOps movement is focused on tying technology organization initiatives to business outcomes, the retainer has a heavy focus on strategic decisions that grow your business more than simply growing your organization. This often takes the form of both engineering leadership discussions as well as technology focused ones, so that the organization delivers with high quality and high margins, on-time, every time.

The Service Delivery Assessment

This product is for smaller companies, and for those leaders seeking answers about the biggest opportunities to improve service delivery in less than two weeks, from a trusted outside source. It requires approximately 5 hours of interviews for 2 software pipelines. This assessment is based on the science of the Accelerate metrics and examines performance on over 50 different capabilities necessary to achieve DORA “elite” status. In the final report, I provide benchmarks and a prioritized playbook with custom recommendations on where to spend engineering resources to have the biggest impact on the DORA metrics. Periodic follow ups are included.

Custom Assessments

This product is for larger portfolio companies with complex challenges like long release intervals or frustrated developers. I conduct extensive interviews over a four to six week period, hearing from the most high fidelity information source: engineers. Working together with input from leadership, I write a detailed report explaining:

At the conclusion of the engagement and during periodic follow ups, the leadership team will have an actionable playbook for delivering on the investment thesis by enabling faster growth, higher margins, increased productivity, and happier engineers

Transformation

Going beyond the recommendations above, this product helps portcos transform their culture from needing help to overcome their challenges, to becoming a learning organization by potentially changing team structures, processes, and procedures. I work with engineers and leaders to change the perspective on tackling problems using the science of the DevOps movement, so they are seen as things that can be overcome, rather than something that must be dealt with. This product is a success when people stop asking for guidance as I’m no longer needed.

Speaking Engagements

Keynotes and other talks for conferences or portcos can be found on the Speaking page.

Speaker

"You were among the top 2 rated speakers- yet again! Thanks so much for participating and for another great presentation." - Top 10 Private Equity Operating Partner

Top-rated international private equity CTO conference and portfolio company speaker.

Podcast Guest:

“Through a decade of work with Thoma Bravo portfolio companies, Dave has taught our product teams how to dramatically improve business outcomes and to discover where time comes from. He also taught us how to fly.”
Paul Zuber
Operating Partner and Head of the Technology Group

"As Dave mentions, private equity investors are serious people. This book will help the serious understand what goes wrong in R&D, and what they can do about it. I hope this helps encourage board directors to discuss R&D operating metrics with as much frequency and seriousness as they do sales and marketing operational metrics."
Gene Kim
Researcher and Bestselling Author of The Unicorn Project, The Phoenix Project, and Wiring the Winning Organization

DevOps Patterns for Private Equity:
Technology organization strategies for high performing software investments

As many of the top Private Equity investors know, software companies can be a great investment. Whether as a platform with add-ons, or as a profitable company that needs help to “nail it and scale it”, there are many opportunities for great returns. But that doesn’t make it easy. With compressed time schedules, closely watched budgets, legacy software, and massive amounts of complexity, transforming these companies can be a challenge.In DevOps Patterns for Private Equity, I describe patterns that are common in technology organizations from the perspective of the international DevOps movement. By applying core principles, I give practical advice to mature these organizations and maximize the value of software investments. Using anecdotes, contrasting theory and practice, and focusing on business value, my hard learned lessons give private equity backed technology leaders patterns they can recognize, and approaches they can use, to transform their technology organizations for peak performance and value creation.

Sign up for a monthly email about the intersection of DevOps & Private Equity and get a paper containing 4 Expert Level DevOps Secrets Explained, gratis!

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Unlocking High-Performance Engineering at PE Portcos as a Connecting Leader

Your company was acquired by private equity either now or in only the past few years. A lot has changed. There are new board members, there may be new leadership, and everyone can't stop talking about EBITDA. Where do you fit in?We know from the DevOps movement that highest performers are "twice as likely to meet or exceed their organization's performance goals." These can be things like market share, revenue, customer satisfaction. That's all well and good, but how do we actually do that?In this course, we'll dive deep into the thinking behind the DevOps movement, the software delivery lifecycle, how to move to cloud and leverage it, and how to respond to incidents and benefit from them!We will cover the challenges I've seen first hand in dozens of portfolio companies, and more importantly, how to overcome them.Whether as a result of growth, M&A, offshoring, or pressure to cut costs, we'll tackle your situation and how you can understand, learn from, and meet those challenges.By the end of the course, you will repeatedly have applied proven theories to your specific problems and know how to shape a high performing organization where everyone does the best work of their careers.

Audience

If you work between the CTO and the engineers at a PE owned company, this course is for you. If you are a Director of Engineering, a VP of Operations, or even a line manager, this course is for you.You will meet (and team up with) others in a similar role to yours and learn how to leverage your decisions and actions, to help the CTO and the company achieve the investment thesis.According to Professor Zahira Jaser, Connecting Leaders are "the engine of the business, the cogs that make things work, the glue that keeps companies together."

Format

What you will learn

"Curse you Dave for challenging my thinking, and thank you." - Oliver Wood, DevOps Engineering Leader

The course is $2200 per participant. Group discounts are available. Sign up below before all the slots are filled! Invoices available upon request.

Workshop Training Justification Letter

Instructors

Dave Mangot and Peter C. Norton

Outcomes

• Clear direction and confidence from working directly with instructors and peers on your challenges in your organization.

• Possess the ability to apply these levers to accommodate growth, improve margins, and integrate acquisitions.

• A certificate of completion to satisfy your education budget requirements.

• Your feedback will be used to continually improve the course for future learners.