Mission’s CTO on Scaling an AWS Partner, Staying Aligned, and Making AI Adoption Actually Work
Software isn’t boring right now. That’s the understatement of the year.
In this episode of Software Leaders Uncensored, Steve Taplin sits down with Jonathan LaCour, CTO at Mission, an AWS Premier Consulting Partner. Jonathan’s path runs from software engineer to CTO, and he’s lived through everything from stitching companies together through acquisition to building internal platforms inside a services business.
Here’s what stood out.
What Mission actually does
Mission has been around for about eight years and was founded as an AWS-only partner that combines managed services, professional services, and resale. The company was formed by acquiring three businesses and merging them into one. Jonathan was the founding CTO.
Mission was later acquired by CDW, and Jonathan described CDW’s approach to integration as intentionally hands-off early on, focusing on “don’t mess up a good thing.” Now they’re moving into deeper integration work like systems sharing and migrations.
Jonathan’s view on acquisitions: move fast or pay later
Jonathan’s been through acquisitions before, and he’s seen them go well and go badly. One lesson he emphasized is that going too slow can create problems. His preference is to “rip off the band-aid” and become one organization faster.
He also pointed out that cloud infrastructure makes integrations easier than they used to be, since you’re not dealing with as much physical infrastructure.
What’s exciting right now: GenAI deployments and agents
Because Mission is a partner, their teams work across a wide variety of customer environments. Jonathan said AI is a major focus, and Mission is doing a lot of GenAI projects. He also said they’ve delivered more successful production deployments than most partners in the AWS ecosystem.
On a personal level, Jonathan still writes code frequently, even if he’s not the one pushing to production. Lately, he’s focused heavily on agent work.
The “Clever Devil” origin story
Jonathan’s long-running personal brand and website are tied to the name “Clever Devil,” a handle he’s used since early internet days, including IRC. His personal site is cleverdevil.io, and he even uses the handle internally at work.
How the teams are structured and how they work
Mission has two main buckets of technical teams:
- Service delivery teams building and operating solutions for customers
- Internal product development teams working on Mission’s platform, Mission Control
Service delivery is global by design, partly for proximity to customers and for 24/7 managed services coverage. The internal product org is mostly US-based but distributed across the country.
Jonathan credited their async approach for helping them move faster, using tools like Slack, Zoom, and Git-based workflows.
Where Jonathan spends his time: Mission Control
Jonathan said he’s currently focused more on the internal platform than service delivery, because Mission’s differentiation isn’t “show up, execute, disappear.”
Instead, Mission aims to be a long-term partner, which requires a platform that supports ongoing value delivery and tight collaboration with customers. Mission Control is built around that concept.
He described it as purpose-built for a services business, where software and service are designed to work together.
What slows teams down: interrupts
The biggest thing slowing product and engineering down, in Jonathan’s view, is interrupts. Core platform teams become the experts on key systems, so other parts of the business constantly pull them in with urgent needs.
Mission’s approach includes:
- planning for interrupts by reserving capacity
- getting comfortable saying no
- challenging urgency when something is labeled “needed right now”
Steve added the reality most teams know well: sales and delivery teams often treat everything as the highest priority.
Mission’s version of EOS
Mission uses a customized version of EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System). Jonathan first encountered EOS through one of the acquired companies, and Mission kept it because they needed a consistent operating framework.
He described EOS as a connected set of meeting structures, scorecards, planning cycles, and execution rhythms that help keep departments aligned and pointed toward a shared North Star.
As Mission integrates deeper into CDW, Jonathan expects EOS to evolve in context, but said it has been a solid foundation. He also mentioned Mission’s CEO, Simon Anderson, now oversees CDW’s broader cloud practices, which helps Mission’s approach influence the larger organization.
Alignment without endless meetings: trust, touchpoints, and a concrete workflow
Jonathan’s answer to alignment wasn’t “schedule more meetings.” It was about staying in touch with leaders across the business, understanding their quarterly objectives, and continuously listening to customers to inform the roadmap.
He also shared a practical example: Collaboration Loops, a new Mission Control feature rolling out in Q1.
The idea: Mission, AWS, and the customer rally around a shared loop for recurring work like monthly optimization reviews. The loop includes an agenda, supporting tickets, and relevant information pulled in automatically so the meeting time is productive. Afterward, the loop gets closed and archived so progress stays traceable against goals.
Jonathan sees this as a foundation for how AI will shape Mission Control long-term.
Focus Fridays: protecting deep work in a distributed company
As Mission shifted fully out of offices during COVID and stayed distributed, deep work became harder because Slack interrupts never really stop.
Their solution: Focus Fridays.
- avoid internal meetings on Fridays whenever possible
- customer meetings are the exception
- the goal is giving teams uninterrupted time to do real work
Jonathan said it’s been well received, especially because leadership can unintentionally drag teams into meetings without considering their work patterns.
Steve shared a similar concept at Sonatafy: No Video Fridays for internal meetings.
Biggest scaling blocker: too much to do, not enough capacity
Jonathan’s scaling blocker is the one almost every leader can relate to: more work than time and capacity.
He said AI tools have helped meaningfully. Their teams use tools like Cursor, AWS’s Kiro, Claude Code, and OpenClaw to move faster even with limited staffing.
The challenge of building software inside a services business
Jonathan called this one of his biggest personal challenges, since he came from product companies.
The services org often operates in shorter execution cycles (annual and quarterly), while software work frequently spans multiple quarters. His solution is to explicitly tie the software team’s long-term vision to the company’s service vision.
He described Mission Control using the phrase “services as software,” the inverse of “software as a service.” The idea is that in cloud and AI, adoption is often the hardest part. A service-plus-software model helps customers get value and reduces churn because success depends on the combination, not just the tool.
Jonathan’s no-BS advice: stop AI fear by letting people experiment
Jonathan’s closing advice focused on adoption, not mandates.
He said parts of the business may feel trepidation about AI: fear of job loss, fear of the unknown, fear of being told to “go do AI now.”
His approach is to:
- create space for experimentation
- avoid being overly prescriptive
- let people adapt AI to the realities of their own jobs
- support learning with a “yes as much as possible” mindset
His core message: smart, creative people will find the right way to use new technology if you give them the freedom to explore it.
