SheTO turns a room of strangers into a route to the top

Nidhi Gupta went to a small gathering of engineering executives expecting a familiar scene: men. Instead, she found a room full of women VPs and CTOs. After more than fifteen years as an engineering executive in Silicon Valley, she had not known so many of these peers existed. The surprise was revealing. Even an established leader could have a remarkably incomplete map of her own profession.

In May 2019, Gupta met executive recruiter Heather Broome over salads. Their partnership became the organization now called SheTO, formerly divhersity. Gupta understood the work; Broome understood the market for senior engineering talent. The first problem in this story was visibility. People who could help one another were going through their careers without knowing one another.

A network with a door policy

SheTO’s mission is to close the gender gap in engineering executive roles. Its practical offer is a vetted community where women and non-binary leaders can ask for help, exchange opportunities and meet people further along the same road. Membership is free. The application page includes leaders in Engineering, IT, Project and Program Management, giving the network a wider entrance than its CTO-flavored name suggests.

Inside, members gather in Slack, meet virtually and attend in-person events. The CTO Club brings senior engineering executives together monthly. SheTO also credits Donut with supporting virtual connections. These are mechanisms for repeated contact: the chance to turn a name into someone whose advice you trust.

“I find this community a trusted source of support”Jin Zhang, member testimonial published by SheTO

A broad executive network such as Chief offers another route to peers and coaching. SheTO’s particular fit is engineering leadership, with women and non-binary members at the center. That specificity matters when the question involves technical debt, a leadership interview or persuading a product counterpart. You spend less time explaining the scenery before discussing the problem.

The promotion changes the job

SheTO’s paid accelerators address two different transitions. Management is for aspiring managers and people early in managing others, generally with zero to three years of experience. Leadership is for second-level managers and above, with at least four years of managerial experience. A new manager learning feedback and an experienced director learning influence need different rehearsals.

The coaching roster supplies subject knowledge as well as credibility. Gupta brings engineering and product executive experience. The Leadership Accelerator introduces Lakshmi Baskaran through her expertise in cross-functional relationships, and Sue Nallapeta through influence and communication. The value of that experience is specificity: a coach can connect an abstract leadership principle to the awkward details of an engineering organization.

The organization describes its accelerator approach as role-play based. Sessions are live, cohorts are small, and coaching sits alongside training and mentoring. The curriculum’s subjects are agreeably unglamorous: communicating upward, building cross-functional relationships, managing performance and setting priorities. They are the conversations that become expensive when handled badly.

The Management Accelerator advertises quarterly peer meetings continuing indefinitely, plus offline support. That detail gives the model its logic. A difficult conversation rarely arrives on the last day of a course. Keeping peers available afterward lets participants bring the next problem back to people who already know them.

Free admission, a real training bill

Both accelerator pages advertise a $3,750 fee and discounts for groups of three or more. Free membership and paid instruction serve different purposes: the first opens access; the second purchases concentrated practice. SheTO is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, and it also solicits donations and event sponsorships. Its economics combine community access with fees for particular experiences.

For the October 2, 2026 summit, the published prices were $749 in person, $225 for recorded virtual access and $1,149 for a summit-and-workshop bundle. Ticket receipts can support employer reimbursement. Prospective participants should treat the program fee, time commitment and travel as separate decisions, rather than assuming a free network makes every activity free.

The number worth reading twice

The figure is encouraging. It is also observational. People who enroll in leadership training may already be ambitious, supported by their employer or close to advancement. The sensible reading is that promotion occurred among participants. Turning that into a personal forecast would require more evidence.

That distinction also helps a buyer choose a program. A certificate may be convenient to display, but the advertised curriculum asks for something harder to photograph: better judgment in front of other people. Someone comparing providers can ask how much session time involves practice, who supplies feedback and what support remains once scheduled lessons finish.

The more immediate test is behavioral: can a participant handle a conversation differently on Monday? SheTO’s shorter workshops tackle executive communication and leading through change. Its current training also includes AI-assisted work and AI transformation. Technical leaders are being asked to evaluate changing workflows while still managing the very human difficulties of feedback, uncertainty and persuasion.

What to borrow before joining

SheTO’s public advice contains useful habits anyone can copy. Its case-study interview guide recommends sending five assumptions for validation before presenting. Its leadership article encourages regular conversations with peer managers. Its negotiation guidance recommends keeping a record of achievements and sharing progress throughout the year. Each habit makes work easier for someone else to understand.

The calendar shows how that approach travels: local hubs, virtual career fairs and clubs discussing AI headcount, governance and architecture. Events in London and Toronto sit alongside US gatherings. The network is a place to compare judgments as well as collect introductions.

Participation still asks something of the member. Live practice needs time; candid peer exchange needs trust. Neither creates an employer’s promotion budget or removes a biased decision maker. SheTO is most useful when someone has a real problem to discuss, room to try a different approach and enough willingness to return. Gupta’s discovery supplies the invitation: the peers were there. Now there is a way to find them.