Greg Kurtzer
Dec 22, 2025 - Mar 13, 2026
63
Decisions
0
Active Todos
9
Patterns
Decisions (63)
Louis — No Acting Role for Next Couple Years
Decided Louis cannot have any acting role in RESF for the next couple of years. Technical contributions may be allowed later by whoever runs RESF. Priority is not muddying the transition message.
Excluded Brian from RESF Pre-Transition Planning
Decided to exclude Brian from pre-transition RESF planning based on synthesizing risk signals from multiple sources. Brian's role will be carefully managed post-transition.
RESF Monday Cutover — Finalized 3 PM PT Execution Plan
Finalized the RESF infrastructure cutover plan for Monday March 16 at 3 PM PT, including DNS NS record flip, AWS VPC firewalling, account disabling (Lewis, Neal), and security audit — accepting up to 24 hours of DNS-related downtime.
Enforcing Product Process for Greg's RLCAI Requirements
Enforcing the correct process by directing all of Greg's RLCAI requirements to the Product team rather than allowing Greg to bypass Product and give direct requirements to Engineering. Brian Dawson raised the concern; Peter is supporting and enforcing.
Asset Management — Backend-First, Bridge to Views
Advocated for deciding where the asset management backend should live first, then building bridges to expose it wherever needed (Jira, Rippling). Explicitly disagreed with Greg's framing that building bridges adds unnecessary complexity.
Brian Clemens — Loop In After Front Door Closes
Decided Brian Clemens should be brought into RESF matters only after the front door is closed, acknowledging he'll be critical for reconstruction but the current phase requires operational security. Conditional on his behavior: 'If he hasn't gone off the reservation at that point.'
Sensitive Decision
Prioritize GPU Optimization to Define Team Capability Needs
Directed that GPU utilization optimization be prioritized for Fuzzball/RLC AI, using the priority as a diagnostic to reveal what in-house capabilities the team needs.
Prioritize Google Exec Meeting — Adjust Reno Travel
Agreed to meet a confidential new Google executive (distinguished engineer from Google Cloud, came through Tissa) for Monday dinner or Thursday lunch. Thursday option requires returning from Reno Wednesday night. Directed Greg to cover Toyota in person on Wednesday if needed.
RESF Option A — CIQ-Led Transition with Narrative Reframing
Adopted Option A (CIQ-led transition) as the only viable path for RESF. Reframed narrative for Greg as 'skeleton' foundation for future vibrant community, not 'threadbare' end state. End-state vision: Rocky Linux displaces Alma and Ubuntu as de facto enterprise OS. Identified critical leadership gap requiring new empowered leader ('mystic unicorn') deputized by remaining board. Internal story: 1-year transition to 501(c)(6).
Push for Continuous Sales/Support Enablement
Aligned with Greg on pushing for continuous product enablement (demos, walkthroughs) for Sales and Support on every new engineering feature, overriding Bjorn's resistance. Peter committed to re-engaging Bjorn on this.
Sensitive Decision
Aligned with Max on RESF Option A (Skeleton Independent) as the best path
After reading Max's RESF decision framework document ('The Future of the RESF: A Decision Framework for CIQ'), Peter agreed with Max that Option A — maintaining the RESF as an independent entity in the lightest possible form with one CIQ-employed full-time RESF leader — is the best path. This is Peter's position alignment with Max, not yet a company decision. Next step is presenting to Bjorn and Greg for buy-in.
Aligned with Max on RESF Option A (Skeleton Independent) as the best path
After reading Max's RESF decision framework document ('The Future of the RESF: A Decision Framework for CIQ'), Peter agreed with Max that Option A — maintaining the RESF as an independent entity in the lightest possible form with one CIQ-employed full-time RESF leader — is the best path. This is Peter's position alignment with Max, not yet a company decision. Next step is presenting to Bjorn and Greg for buy-in.
Demanded measurable success criteria for LinuxLM project
Greg proposed training/fine-tuning a Linux-expert foundation LLM (LinuxLM). Peter pushed back by demanding explicit success criteria — deployment plan, evaluation methodology, and clear value proposition — before endorsing the project.
Decided to carefully surface Icicle results to Bjorn
After validating Icicle test methodology with Ryan (BIOS change applied before both with/without comparisons — apples-to-apples), and learning Ani was told by Bjorn to stand down on Icicle, Peter decided to personally and carefully bring the validated results to Bjorn's attention.
Set NVIDIA positioning: benchmarks are AMD-only, offer to collaborate on tuning
Defined strategic positioning for NVIDIA benchmark situation: frame existing benchmarks as AMD-only, and offer to work with NVIDIA to tune Rocky Linux for their platform. This turns a potential embarrassment into a partnership opportunity.
Approved retention check-in strategy for must-keep employee list
Approved the must-keep employee list prepared by Mariah and Chris. Committed to personally leading retention check-ins with must-keep engineering employees. Bjorn leads check-ins for his org. Mariah and Chris excluded their own teams (already monitored closely).
Sensitive Decision
Initiated proactive top performer temperature checks
After Ian Kaneshiro's resignation, Peter directed the senior leadership group in #distinguished-leaders to split up and individually meet with top performers to take their temperature. This is a systematic retention check rather than just crisis management for the single departure.
Escalated Ian Kaneshiro retention to CEO level
After learning Ian Kaneshiro (PIC team, reports to Chris Wolford) resigned to join an AI startup, Peter immediately directed a retention escalation: told Mariah to get Greg talking to Ian, told Greg to do anything to keep him. After learning Ian had already accepted and wouldn't go back on it, shifted to ensuring the door stays open for a future return.
Commit to benchmark accuracy sign-off by tomorrow
Committed to signing off on the accuracy of the RLC-AI benchmark document by Feb 21, gating its release. Greg conditioned approval on numbers being '100% accurate' and verifiable. Bjorn shared both internal and external draft documents for review.
Assign Max as RLC-AI benchmarking plan owner with RHEL comparisons
Assigned Max Spevack as owner of the RLC-AI benchmarking plan in response to Greg's question about ownership. Directed that RHEL comparisons be added to exit criteria. Bjorn owns product definition (what to benchmark), Max owns technical execution (how to benchmark accurately). Max will create a one-page methodology document for the Humane pitch.
Sensitive Decision
Pushed for March ARR review, rejected April as too late
Directed Sarah and Greg to schedule an ARR targets review meeting in March, pushing back on an April date as too late. Wants to ensure the company is on track for revenue targets and can pivot anything needed. Offered personal availability and said format doesn't matter.
Sensitive Decision
Leveraged TPS report visibility to drive accountability with Justin
Proactively messaged Justin that the Release All Things section of the TPS report looks bad, with a 2.5-hour deadline before C-Suite Sync presentation. Gave Justin a window to update Jira tickets to reflect reality.
Core42 Technical Assessment - Multi-Product Positioning in UAE
Attended Core42 meeting in Abu Dhabi with Greg, Bjorn, Max, and Adam Jackson. Provided real-time technical assessment to the team via Slack, identifying product-customer fit across four CIQ product lines: RLC-H for defense customers (CVE remediation pain), Rocky as guest OS on Signature Cloud, Fuzzball as potential replacement for their unhappy AI cloud orchestration partner, and Ascender Pro for their heavy Ansible usage. Followed up personally with Raghu (EVP Engineering, Core42 US) offering in-person meetings.
Approved RLC+ and Pro product hierarchy with new naming and de-risked launch cadence
Approved a new product hierarchy: Stock Rocky (pure community mirror), RLC+ (free with NVIDIA/AMD drivers), RLC Pro (paid tiers). The RLC name now signifies CIQ value-add. Also approved a de-risked 3-phase launch cadence: Phase 1 (Feb) bundles RLC Pro + RLC Plus NVIDIA; Phase 2 (Feb) RLC Pro AI; Phase 3 (Mar) RLC Plus AMD partnership. Identified backporting vs roll-forward policy gap as a pre-launch blocker.
Enforced Product-owns-prioritization process with Greg
Pushed back directly on Greg when he tried to route engineering work outside the established prioritization process. Insisted Product owns the priority list and work requests must flow through the proper channel. Simultaneously reminded Chris Baek that his team owns signoff authority and should use it rather than escalating through Greg.
Google Partnership Strategy - Build Rapport with Tissa
Decided to shift the Google contract renegotiation strategy from confrontational to collaborative. Peter will personally meet with Tissa (Google) to build rapport and empathy, framing CIQ's financial pain as a shared problem to solve together. Greg will be excluded from this meeting to ensure a non-antagonistic conversation.
RESF Strategy: Remove Lewis with Legal Leverage, Engage Neil Collaboratively
Approved plan to remove Luis (Lewis) from the RESF board using a Quinn Emanuel memo documenting a potential federal law violation and breach of fiduciary duty, then send a collaborative letter to Neil offering a path forward to avoid a public fight. Greg will present the memo to board members to secure their support. Shadow infrastructure (Koji, clones) is confirmed ready.
AI-First PR Process - Tests Over Human Review
Decided that PR process should evolve to prioritize automated test suites over human code review for AI-generated code. If a comprehensive test suite passes, the code is considered production-ready regardless of its origin.
New Engineering Mandate - 2x Velocity in 6 Months
Set new mandate for Justin and Nathan: top priority is building a team that can deliver twice as fast in six months. This is a shift from the previous coaching model to a performance-driven one - setting ambitious targets, holding people accountable, and replacing underperformers.
CODE2 Values Redefinition - From Traits to Behaviors
Proposed redefining CIQ CODE2 values from character traits (what people are) to observable behaviors (what people do). Created comprehensive framework translating each value (Customer Centric, Optimistic, Dedicated, Efficient, Excellent) into concrete, measurable actions for engineering. Shared draft with Bjorn first for alignment, then presented to Greg in 1:1.
Advocate for in-person Anduril POC kickoff in Seattle
Decided to advocate for an in-person technical kickoff meeting in Seattle for the Anduril POC, with both Peter and Max attending. Set clear boundaries on duration - a day or two is fine, but two weeks would break February delivery dates.
Recommend partial bounty payout for Fuzzball single-binary work
Recommended paying out half of the originally established bounty to the team members who completed the Fuzzball single-binary work. Want to use bounties as a repeatable, low-friction model across engineering and ensure all of engineering knows about the payout.
RESF crisis comms - single source of truth
In a RESF crisis, publish one official blog post as the central source of truth. All responses on social media (Hacker News, LWN, HPC forums) link back to that post. Do not engage in real-time debates. Own the traditional news cycle, not social media.
Escalated Visa support model concerns to Greg
Escalated concerns about CIQ support arrangement with Visa to Greg and Bjorn. Questioning why CIQ is on the hook to support Rocky Linux (which CIQ does not build) for Visa, rather than having Visa use RLC so CIQ can actually fix their issues.
Clarified bonus evaluation framework - above and beyond for step-function impact
Clarified to Steve Wallace that bonuses are awarded for actions that are above and beyond standard role expectations and provide a step function for CIQ - not for standard job performance, which is covered by salary. Also confirmed TJ bonus (Greg approved Jan 23 via private DM) and committed to close the loop with Greg.
Sensitive Decision
Advocated for PIC team progress to Greg
Reported to Greg (CEO) about satisfaction with Chris Wolford team improvement and transparency. Thanked Greg for going into PIC Demos meeting with open mind despite having strong opinions. Highlighted Ian Kaneshiro as fantastic.
Performance review redesign - define traits with observable behaviors
Committed to drafting a proposal to fix the performance review system for the April/May cycle. The approach keeps existing traits but defines each with observable behaviors so managers and employees have shared understanding of what success looks like.
Committed to ensuring Greg technical direction reaches Justin
Committed to redirecting Justin to follow Greg architectural guidance on object storage/depot, and to be the conduit ensuring Greg technical direction reaches engineering clearly. Greg flagged that depot work was not in line with past directives.
Approved Greg-Cedric engagement starting Monday
Approved Greg beginning conversations with Cedric on Monday to provide context on upcoming PIC work. Cedric will continue participating in epic scoping sessions to stay connected to the tactical work.
Instituted ARR and CVE gap metrics visibility at weekly meetings
Decided to communicate both current ARR (as determined by finance) and CVE gap metrics at weekly meetings. Proactively communicated this to Bjorn and Greg, anticipating potential concerns but proceeding anyway.
Engineering dates commitment by Friday - reprioritize for revenue impact
Committed to publishing updated engineering dates/milestones by Friday for Monday group review. Acknowledged January deliverables are unrealistic - many items were newly added and cannot complete in remaining ~10 days. Will reprioritize toward revenue-impacting items first. Tomorrow all-day session with Chris Baek to rework H1 plan into aggressive but achievable targets.
Board presentation narrative: AI as lean maintenance enabler
Finalized board presentation framing AI as the solution to lean, automated maintenance org. Key talking points: heavy AI usage across engineering, all builds automated with zero public issues in 3 months, leaning out maintenance to free devs for RLC-AI/H, RESF contingency infrastructure (3 heads, 5 weeks), CVE automation story (net-snmp 40-day p50 to 14 days), expectation to reduce manual CVE team by 75% in 6 months.
All-Hands messaging: acknowledge Q4 miss, pivot to pipeline optimism
Aligned with leadership on All-Hands messaging strategy: directly acknowledge Q4 revenue miss, then pivot to optimistic outlook highlighting $22M H1 pipeline and unified GTM plan. Peter to present tech updates (service endpoints, Nerf) and guide Mural board walkthrough. No naming specific deals to avoid premature expectations.
Sensitive Decision
Strategic Map Framework - Value Drivers vs Internal Efficiency Separation
Established new H1 strategic planning framework that separates customer-facing Value Drivers from Internal Efficiency Drivers. Framework uses three lanes: middle lane for Value Drivers (the WHY), top lane for GTM activities, bottom lane for engineering deliverables. Also established phased estimation process: low-confidence ballpark dates first, then engineering-only session to raise confidence.
Justin Coaching - Ambiguity Tolerance and Explicit Pushback
Coached Justin on the Depot/Portal bounty disconnect. Addressed two issues: (1) Justin needs to get comfortable moving through ambiguity and letting his team explore before designs are fully baked - unlearning 10 years of Amazon training. (2) When Peter pushes for something, Justin needs to either do it or explicitly debate/push back - not quietly not execute.
Marketing ICP Validation - Collaborative Research Approach
Pushed for marketing to validate ICPs with real data rather than just executing on what was decided in the planning room. Established that ICPs are hypotheses to test, not fixed targets, and Lindsay has permission to explore outside defined ICPs if data warrants.
H1 Planning Framework - 3-Lane Model
Pushed for the team to focus on ICPs, goals, and milestones rather than getting lost in metrics and mid-level tactics. Established a 3-lane framework (GTM, Value Drivers, Engineering) to align all work.
Verify Justin Offered Bounty Work Broadly
Investigating whether Justin followed direction to offer bounty work opportunities to everyone. Greg believes it was not offered to Westley. Peter committed to verify this week.
Friday Layoff List Finalized
Finalized the layoff list for Friday Jan 9: Eli, Derek, Chris Short, Craig, and Trinity. Jason deferred due to ISO certification needs.
Commitment to Present Engineering-to-GTM Messaging Framework
Committed to presenting a framework next week that ties engineering work to changes in market state and corresponding go-to-market messaging. Triggered by Fuzzball Service Endpoints press release that was 98% HPC-focused, missing the critical AI angle despite AI being the strategic priority.
Advocate for Ryan's Strategic Seat
Committed to securing Ryan Smith a seat at the strategic decision-making table for RESF/Rocky Linux matters. Specifically promised to advocate for his inclusion in key meetings with Bjorn and Greg.
RESF Management Model Needed
Identified that RESF needs a clear management person or model as part of short-term response. The lord of the flies approach does not work. Does not matter if its Leigh or someone else, as long as they have personal energy/bandwidth. But it needs to be managed/run with clear accountability.
Sensitive Decision
RESF Infrastructure Independence - Technical Execution
Directed Nathan to mirror all RESF repositories and initiated build environment duplication. Created #internal-resf-escalation channel with strict confidentiality rules. Keeping technical circle small (Nathan, Max, Justin, Dieter) while moving quickly.
RESF Crisis Response - Infrastructure Independence
After learning of hostile plans by RESF board members (Louis, Neil, Brian Clemens) to publicly attack CIQ, dismantle Rocky Linux infrastructure, and damage the project, initiated emergency response to replicate RESF infrastructure for Rocky 8, 9, 10 with minimal team awareness.
Planning RESF Relationship Improvement Strategy
Initiated planning meeting with Greg and Bjorn to address concerns about RESF function and plan improvements to the relationship
Related Patterns (9)
Executive Sponsorship for Strategic Partnerships
Strategic cross-company initiatives and major client partnerships require executive-level accountability to move at the right pace and ensure proper prioritization.
Small Circle for Sensitive Operations
When executing sensitive strategic operations, keep the circle of informed people as small as possible to prevent leaks that could accelerate hostile action or undermine the initiative.
Proactive Talent Pipeline Investment
Invest in building leadership bench and talent relationships before there is an urgent need. Use proven relationships from past experience to create optionality.
Protect Engineering Capacity
When external demands threaten to overload engineering capacity, protect capacity by either requiring the demand to come with additional resources, or forcing hard prioritization choices upstream.
Accountability Follow-Through
When you issue a warning or mandate with stated consequences, you follow through. Warnings are not threats - they are commitments. The credibility of future accountability depends on following through now.
Lead by Example with New Tools
When championing new tools or processes, personally use them and share results rather than just advocating. Learning by doing and demonstrating value through example is more effective than mandates.
Protect Engineering Focus Through Process
When faced with requests that would disrupt engineering focus (from sales, governance, product, or other stakeholders), establish processes that protect engineering ability to innovate while still satisfying legitimate concerns. Prefer systematic solutions over ad-hoc responses.
Three-Lever Talent Management
When pursuing a velocity or performance mandate, simultaneously operate on all three talent levers — upgrade (hire better), retain (protect key people), and exit (remove blockers) — rather than sequentially. This creates compounding momentum: exits free capacity for upgrades, retention preserves institutional knowledge during transitions, and upgrades raise the performance bar that justifies further exits.
Resource Optimization Through Triage
Apply cost-benefit analysis to avoid spending disproportionate time and energy on low-impact activities. Conserve resources for high-impact work.