Coaching for founders and CEOs
One-to-one coaching for founders and CEOs whose company is outgrowing how they run it. Confidential, and built around the decisions on your desk this month.
Six years at Google. Two at Amazon. CPO of a 40-person startup. ICF-accredited coach.
Not the founder? Coaching for executives →
Sound familiar?
“It’s been waiting on me since last Tuesday.”
The decision only you can make, or the one you’ve been avoiding. Usually both.
“My leadership team meets every week, and each of them still fights for their own area.”
Product wants one thing, engineering wants another, and every hard call lands back on you.
“I started this to build. Now I spend my days in meetings.”
The work you started the company for has moved to other people, and the job that’s left is new.
“I’m not sure we’re building the right thing.”
Some days you wonder whether to keep going at all. You’d like somewhere to think it through before you say it to anyone else.
Each of these has a price. Count the decisions that waited a week for you this month, and what the waiting cost.
What it looks like when it works
The decisions waiting on you get made, most of them by someone else.
Your heads of function decide together, back each other’s calls, and sort out their disagreements without you.
You spend your days on the work only you can do, and you enjoy it again.
You know what you want from the company next, and you’ve thought it through before anyone else needs to hear it.
How it works
Confidential: you decide what to tell your board, your investors and anyone else.
1
A Clarity Call
20 minutes, free, and confidential. We’ll figure out if I’m the right person to help you, and if now is the right time.
2
A Strategy Session
Free. A real coaching session, not a sales call. We’ll start with what you want, where you are now, and what is holding you back. You’ll leave with a plan for what to do next, even if it doesn’t involve me.
3
You decide
If you decide to continue, we’ll agree on your goals for the coaching and our schedule, usually every week or two over a few months. You’ll get a brief proposal and then we start on the real work in front of you. And I’ll tell you what I see, including about you.
Often alongside workshops with your leadership team, so the company and the person running it change together.
Neurodiversity: every brain works differently, so I adapt to how you think best. You don’t need a diagnosis, and you don’t need to tell me anything. It’s just how I work.
What we work on
Founders usually start with questions like these:
How do I decide what we stop doing, and make it stick?
How do I hand over a whole area, and let it go?
How do I have the hard conversation I’ve been putting off?
How do I prepare for the board, and say what I really think?
Am I still the right CEO for this company?
From second-guessing to deciding with confidence
A Series A founder and CEO turned a strategy on paper into one focused bet, stopped second-guessing his own judgement, and had the hard conversation he’d circled for weeks.
Read more
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A mission for the company, and the exit he wanted
A seed-stage founder and CEO turned his personal exit plan into a mission his company could own, then handed day-to-day running to a general manager, as he’d planned.
Read more
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From tripping over each other to clear co-founder roles
Two co-founders of a UK consumer brand stopped tripping over each other. They agreed what each wanted from the business, and now rely much less on one sales channel.
Read more
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Who you’ll be working with
You’ll work with me personally every session. I’ve helped more than 50 founders through the changes that come at every stage of the business, from the initial search for product-market fit to Series D, and I’ve started three small businesses of my own. If I’m not the right person to help, I’ll introduce you to someone who could be.
What it costs
We will discuss the price before you commit. I believe coaching should be costly enough to represent a real investment, yet affordable enough that the price doesn’t stop you.
Sending this to a founder?
Here’s a line you can send them:
Richard coaches founders through the change from starting the company to running it. It’s confidential, and built around the decisions on your desk.
If you invest in a founder, or sit on their board, send them the line above, or introduce us. The startups I’ve worked with are backed by investors including Accel, Atomico, Creandum, EQT, Cherry Ventures and SoftBank.
Next steps
Start with a free, 20-minute Clarity Call. Confidential, and no preparation needed.
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The big picture, and the right priorities
As a first time entrepreneur, I have been requesting Richard's coaching services to help me better define my value proposition, product offering and target customers segments. Richard's advice is always to the point and he helped me see the large picture and keep focus on the right priorities. I highly recommended!
Veronique Ziliotto
Founder
ellan
Frequently asked questions
Is this for companies like mine?
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Is it confidential, including from my board and investors?
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Who pays?
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Do I need a workshop first?
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Will you tell me what to do?
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Is it in person or online?
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Not quite what you're looking for?
The whole leadership team needs to agree something?
Thinking of someone on your team?