staketaco.com

What It Is

Stake Taco LLC is Jake A. Smith’s engineering leadership coaching and consulting practice, positioned as “coaching for engineering leaders running teams of teams.” It is not a standardized platform for pre-recorded courses, but rather an offering of executive coaching, cohort programs, and in-house corporate workshops for engineering organizations. Its focus is on helping engineering directors, senior managers, and managers preparing to step into these roles successfully transition into broader leadership responsibilities.

Core Content and Format

Its services fall into three categories: 1:1 Executive Coaching, Cohort Programs, and In-house Workshops. 1:1 coaching usually takes place twice a month, with asynchronous support between sessions, and typically runs for 3 to 6 months. Cohorts are designed for 6 to 12 leaders at similar levels within the same organization, combining group sessions, structured peer exercises, and a small amount of individual coaching. Workshops can be delivered on-site or remotely, with topics including leading through uncertainty, presenting to executives, and developing the next layer of managers. The content focuses on three practice areas: managing managers and organization design, communication and executive presence, and the transition from IC to manager, with AI fluency mentioned as a theme woven throughout.

Pricing and Certificates

The website does not publicly list prices, packages, or payment methods. It clearly states that pricing is determined only after discussing goals, timelines, and the form of engagement. The pages also do not mention certifications, completion certificates, or formal credentials that could be used as résumé validation. As such, it is better suited for corporate capability development or executive coaching procurement than for certificate-oriented courses.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths lie in its clear and highly vertical positioning, focusing on common engineering leadership challenges that are difficult to solve through generic management courses, such as post-merger organizational integration, duplicated platform efforts, delegation, upward communication, and managing multiple teams. Jake A. Smith previously led engineering products at Yahoo serving hundreds of millions of users, and has experience with hiring frameworks, organizational restructuring, layoffs, and platform integration. This background aligns well with the target audience. The main drawback is limited information disclosure: there is no pricing, no detailed curriculum, and no customer cases or outcome metrics. The service also appears to rely primarily on a single consultant, which may limit scalable delivery and scheduling availability.

Who It’s For and Access from China

It is suitable for English-speaking tech companies, engineering leaders, HR or learning and development teams, and senior engineering leaders dealing with promotion, expanded responsibilities, restructuring, merger integration, or major career decisions. For teams in China, the website is in English, and the actual teaching language is not specified. Access from mainland China cannot be determined from the text alone, so it should be marked as unknown.