How membership works.

Who it's for

Technology leaders who want a circle to lean on rather than a feed to scroll past. Technology leadership is demanding. Most weeks are spent in reactive mode: firefighting, chasing delivery, buried in decks, all of it while figuring things out alone. That leaves little room to grow as a leader. The Curious Mindset is for people who want honest conversation rather than more noise, who lead through uncertainty where there are rarely clear answers, who carry pressure no one sees and who are curious enough to let their thinking be challenged.

The roles we tend to find you under

Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Data and AI Officer, IT Director, Head of IT, Head of Technology, IT Infrastructure Manager, IT Operations, IT Service Delivery Manager, End User Computing, Cloud, Networks, IT Procurement Manager and IT Vendor Management. The title matters less than the test: you lead technology, or the people who do.

The invitation and vetting model

Membership is not guaranteed. Every request is read by a person and two rules decide who gets in. You must be a technology leader. And we don't let bad oranges in: one person who is in it for themselves, whether to sell, to network or to perform, spoils the room for everyone, so they don't get in, and if one slips through they are removed. The right people in the room will always matter more than the size of the room.

1. Request an invitation

   Tell us who you are and what you're carrying. It takes a few minutes and there is a person at the other end.

2. We read it

   Every request, personally. No scoring, no automation.

3. We get in touch

   If it looks like a fit, that'll be Angelique, sometimes with a quick call.

4. Your first session

   Your invitation lands, you join the room and you say as much or as little as you like.

Members can also put forward a technology leader they know. A member's word is the strongest signal we get, and those requests are read first.

Membership is free

There is no membership fee. Not for the sessions, the dinners, the events or the books we post to members afterwards. Membership costs an hour every fortnight and nothing else. There is nothing to upgrade to and no tier where the useful things live. It is free because the community is underwritten by its founder rather than by sponsors or vendors, and nobody in the room is paying to be in front of you.

What happens

In between there are Curious Conversations, the book club and personal development sessions. Guests have included athletes, founders, adventurers, military leaders and leadership experts and every so often a technology leader. What they bring to the room is written up on our insights pages. What members say in the room is not.

What is deliberately not part of it

• No sales pressure. Nothing is being sold here, to you or to anyone else. Anyone who joins to sell, recruit or generate business is removed.
• No open networking. There is no member directory, no delegate list and no expectation that you work the room. Relationships form because people keep turning up, not because they are traded.
• Nothing leaves the room. Chatham House rules, and further. Nothing a member says is recorded, quoted or attributed anywhere.
• No fee and no tiers. Everyone in the room is there on the same terms.
• No stage. Guests take questions. Hosts run the room. The point is the conversation, not the broadcast.

How it differs from a generic leadership network

Most leadership networks are open to whoever pays, are funded by the people who want to sell to their members and measure success in attendance. The Curious Mindset is closed, vetted and free. It measures success in whether a technology leader left the room a little less alone than they arrived. Since 2020 that has meant more than 130 live sessions, more than 3,000 technology leaders brought together and more than 1,230 books sent. The north star has not changed: no one leads alone.

If you are weighing us against other communities, our guide to choosing a technology leadership community sets out nine questions to ask and answers them for us honestly, including the things we don't offer.