Praise

The Superstruct Manifesto contains practical advice for founders, delivered succinctly and with a dose of hard realism. David, a successful CTO and, as proven in this book, a 20x engineer, debunks many of the myths behind common management practices at software-driven startups today—from the value of sprints, daily standups, and 10x engineers to the real reason why we ask developers to give time estimates on their latest task. It’s a handy tome to keep at your desk—you will want to refer to its lessons again and again.

Michelle Lam
Co-Founder, True&Co

“Yes. Yes. Yes. Everything, yes!” I screamed at my laptop, grazing on the truth known as The Superstruct Manifesto. My thoughts on so many subjects relating to developers, managers, efficiency, and effectiveness were validated, cross-referenced, and solidified. And yes, while I can see list takers, commercial real estate investors, and “systems thinkers” being put off by being called out for their shit chapter after chapter, I do appreciate that David Guttman is an equal opportunity trash talker. He may go for the jugular of the limp engineering project manager, but he also hits terrorist developers in the nuts for taking organizations hostage. Yes, yes. Yes, I say. Scream it from the rooftops, David. For the business owners!

Rob Maigret
Co-Founder, Titan Space Technologies

No matter how much engineering management experience you think you have, someone always has a way of painting a clearer picture. Within this read, I was able to rapidly extract endgame wisdom without having to live through a lifetime of empirical failures. It’s ironically a modern interpretation of old traditions, with a common-sense perspective and straightforward tone. There is no fluff or flurry, just a well-indexed accumulation of ideas framed for old-timers to learn new tricks and immediately put them into action. The Superstruct Manifesto should be required reading for new and seasoned tech leadership.

Jad Meouchy
Co-Founder, BadVR

If managing developers is psychological warfare, then The Superstruct Manifesto is the Art of War for winning the battle. David Guttman treats his readers like he treats his projects; without wasting a word, he doles out countless cheat codes that would benefit virtually any development team regardless of language or scope. Reading The Superstruct Manifesto feels like I’m using a warp whistle to steal hard-earned secrets without having to go through the suffering of decades of leveling up. Moving forward, I’ll personally treat The Superstruct Manifesto as the Bible for all of my product managers. I expect it will save us countless hours of wasted dev time and the sanity of our management team. Everyone wants to recruit 10x devs, but few ever learn how to become 10x managers. And while The Superstruct Manifesto doesn’t explicitly promise to make you a 10x manager, it probably could.

Darwyn Metzger
CEO, Phantom Firm

The Superstruct Manifesto serves as an essential and relentless guide for startup founders. David’s manifesto presents audacious challenges that question traditional beliefs. If it unsettles you, that’s the point; these cautions and proclamations are designed to compel you to reassess your understanding of collaborating with a dev team. Drawing on years of experience, David provides a dynamic and unapologetic toolkit that equips you with practical strategies to maximize the potential of the very people responsible for transforming your vision into reality. Read it once, then read it again for good measure.

Alexx Henry
CEO, BlueVishnu

I’ve been building engineering orgs in rapid growth technology for the past 12 years. I consider David’s text to be a critical pocket guide for any leader looking to avoid common tropes and pitfalls faced by otherwise wellintentioned orgs. These are lessons that can eat a lot of time if learned the hard way. At a technology company, time is the one resource you can’t have too much of and can never get back. As such, I highly recommend The Superstruct Manifesto to anyone looking to survive in this rather brutal and unforgiving industry.

Spencer Allen
Founder, Fulcrum Hire

As a creative technologist, musician, and repeat founder, I have a bad case of imposter syndrome when it comes to being a “real” engineer. I know my way around a codebase, but as a manager over the years, I’ve been guilty of almost every no-no in this book! The Superstruct Manifesto helped reveal many bad habits—especially falling victim to blindly mimicking the principles and practices of my favorite companies. Building teams around a slate of diverse projects with different engineering needs is difficult. By remembering David’s “Commando, Infantry, Police” staffing analogy, I have increased velocity, creativity, and quality. Excellent read!

Matthew Davis
Founder, [namethemachine]

I highly recommended The Superstruct Manifesto for CEOs and other business leaders that regularly interact with technical leadership. The chapters give good insights into the mindset of technical leaders and the challenges they run up against. CEOs will learn common situations and patterns that cause distress to their tech team, along with ideas on how to support their technical leadership moving forward. Stated differently, you should read this to learn how to better understand and talk tech and not come across as an ignoramus.

John Shiple
CTO, Standard Draft