# Will Larson

> Will Larson is a veteran engineering executive, author of four books on engineering leadership, and the voice behind the long-running newsletter Irrational Exuberance. He has scaled engineering teams at Digg, Uber, Stripe, Calm, and Carta, and currently serves as CTO at Imprint. His books - An Elegant Puzzle, Staff Engineer, The Engineering Executive's Primer, and Crafting Engineering Strategy - have sold tens of thousands of copies and are considered essential reading in the engineering leadership community.

- **Role:** CTO at Imprint
- **Organizations:** Imprint, Carta, Calm, Stripe, Uber, Digg, SocialCode, Yahoo!, Monocle Studios
- **From:** North Carolina, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Computer Science, Centre College, English Teaching Exchange, JET Program (Japan)
- **Known for:** Authored four books on engineering leadership, each selling 30,000+ copies, Founded Stripe's Foundation Engineering organization, Scaled Uber's Platform Engineering team from 5 to 70 engineers in two years

## Career timeline

- **2007** — Launched Irrational Exuberance blog
- **2008** — Co-founded Monocle Studios (iOS gaming startup)
- **2009** — Moved to San Francisco; joined Yahoo!
- **2011** — VP Platform Technology at SocialCode
- **2012** — Director of Engineering at Digg
- **2014** — Senior Engineering Manager at Uber; grew platform team from 5 to 70 people in 2 years
- **2016** — Joined Stripe; founded Foundation Engineering organization
- **2019** — Published An Elegant Puzzle (Stripe Press); joined Calm as CTO
- **2021** — Published Staff Engineer; joined Carta as CTO
- **2024** — Published The Engineering Executive's Primer (O'Reilly)
- **2025-06** — Joined Imprint as CTO
- **2025-11** — Published Crafting Engineering Strategy (O'Reilly)

## Achievements

- Authored four books on engineering leadership, each selling 30,000+ copies
- Founded Stripe's Foundation Engineering organization
- Scaled Uber's Platform Engineering team from 5 to 70 engineers in two years
- Maintained Irrational Exuberance blog/newsletter since 2007
- Created staffeng.com with in-depth interviews profiling staff engineer career paths
- Served as CTO at three major tech companies: Calm, Carta, and Imprint
- Speaker at major conferences including QCon San Francisco 2024
- Featured in First Round Review, Lenny's Podcast, and numerous industry publications

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Published Crafting Engineering Strategy (O'Reilly), his fourth book
- **2025-06** — Appointed CTO at Imprint (fintech/payments startup)
- **2025** — Active on GitHub exploring MCP servers and AI tooling for knowledge management
- **2024-02** — Published The Engineering Executive's Primer with O'Reilly Media
- **2024-01** — Featured on Lenny's Podcast discussing engineering mindset and strategy

## Links

- Website: https://lethain.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-larson-a44b543/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Lethain
- GitHub: https://github.com/lethain

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/will-larson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-19