Results
What actually happens
What changed for the people I’ve worked with, from startup leadership teams to leaders of large organisations.
Client confidentiality matters to me.
Most examples are anonymised, with identifying details changed or left out. Some clients agreed to be named. Every outcome is real.
Startups and scale-ups
Founders and their leadership teams, at companies with a few dozen to a few hundred people.
16
startup leadership teams
19
early-stage founding teams
200+
leaders worked with directly
€3bn+
the value of the startups I've worked with
€1bn+
raised by them
Coaching stories
From defending his team to partnering his peers
A Series C VP Product whose job was at risk stopped defending his team against the CEO, partnered his peers, and became one of the strongest leaders there.
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From functional leader to CTO
A Series C VP Engineering stopped opting out of everything beyond engineering, got engineering and marketing building strategy together, and rose to CTO.
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From carrying the decision alone to driving it company-wide
A Series A Director of Product Management narrowed a sprawling strategy to one clear focus, and drove the decision with the whole company instead of carrying it alone.
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From waiting on the CEO to leading marketing with confidence
A Series A marketing director turned metric anxiety during a major repositioning into a clear measure of success, and moved from waiting for direction to proposing it.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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What clients said
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Shared direction, real action.
Richard helped us get clear and move forward, both as a leadership team and as individuals. His strategy facilitation gave us a shared direction, and his coaching helped us turn that into real decisions and action. I'd recommend working with him to any CEO or exec team dealing with complexity and change.
Hessam Lavi
CEO & Co-Founder
Climatiq
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A real boost in how we operate.
Our company's operating system? Well, it was a bit of a mess, to be honest. But Richard came in, rolled up his sleeves, and helped us sort it out in no time. … We've seen a real boost in how efficiently we operate thanks to him.
Rob van den Heuvel
CEO & Co-Founder
Sendcloud
“
Clear goals, and team leads who stay focused
Like most fast-growing companies, we also faced the problem of not having the time to write down a clear mission and vision and define OKRs. Richard was excellent in helping us to work them out… Based on the feedback from our employees, he is doing an outstanding job in helping them to stay focused.
Michael Pagitz
Head of HR
go-e
“
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
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Clarity in difficult business situations
What I appreciated a lot while working with Richard was his approach towards clarity in difficult business situations and finding a solution that fits for the team… which helped us a lot in developing our own business to the next level.
Susanne Palli
CEO
go-e
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A pragmatic fix for our goal-setting
With a very pragmatic and flexible approach, Richard helped me improve our OKR model and process.
Annika Lidefelt
Head of People
Billhop
What people in the room said
This is the best process we have ever run, so thank you.
CEO, Series A B2B software startup
It was reassuring to hear the mistakes we've made are typical ones many businesses make and there is a way forward without starting from scratch!
People Leader, seed-stage SaaS startup
We just needed someone to help us work backwards from the customer without getting distracted by our own products.
General Manager, bootstrapped UK tech consultancy
Thank you for all your help in addressing the elephants in the room and succeeding in getting us talking about the tough topics. It wasn't easy getting OKR's into the organization but you made it happen!
Product Leader, Series D SaaS startup
Richard is helping us setting up OKRs and gave us some great advice on how to improve the strategy (and team).
CEO
I frequently use 'I channel my inner Richard' in OKR meetings - so you definitely made an impact with the company.
OKR Process Lead, Series D SaaS startup
Case studies
From the founders' circle to one leadership team
A Series C B2B SaaS scale-up got its leadership team deciding together, and one OKR session cut a six-month project for 20 people to two months for three.
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OKRs that took the company up-market
A Series D data SaaS scale-up whose product had stopped selling refocused on the world’s biggest customers, got on budget, and stopped pulling its CEO into everything.
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From asking founders for OKRs to running its own
A venture capital firm that asked its portfolio to use OKRs wanted help with its own, to improve how it runs. Its AUM has kept growing since.
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From a strategy on paper to a confident strategic call
A Series A B2B software startup's leadership team turned a strategy on paper into OKRs they still run, and found the confidence to make a big strategic call.
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From silos to a leadership team that owned the strategy
A Series C deep-tech scale-up got its leaders out of their silos and owning one strategy together, then launched a major new product and became cash-flow positive.
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OKRs that worked after a failed first attempt
A Series D SaaS startup whose own OKRs had failed got them working, then used them to break the bottleneck stopping it scaling.
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A strategy reset that broke a risky dependency
A seed-stage SaaS startup of about 30 people reset its strategy in a one-day offsite, broke its dependence on a single platform, and pivoted fast when that platform changed.
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From selling solutions to selling from the customer's side
A bootstrapped UK tech consultancy of about 50 people learned to sell to C-level buyers, got its founders aligned, and tripled in size before it was acquired.
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From strategy handed down to strategy owned together
A Series D tech scale-up that had outgrown its OKR process got its leaders owning the strategy together, and later doubled revenue and made its first profit.
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A leadership team that owns the work
A Series A health-tech CEO held the whole business in his head. We named its real business lines and gave each leader one to own, and drafted OKRs for each.
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From e-commerce playbook to media strategy
A UK consumer startup asked for OKRs. We checked the business model first, found it was really a media business, and drafted OKRs to match.
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Transformation
Leaders changing a business they didn’t build, in large organisations.
16
large organisations worked with
19
programmes run with them
400+
people worked with directly
€250bn+
their combined annual revenue
Case studies
From plans that stalled in meetings to two proposals signed off
Nestlé Purina’s European customer supply-chain team learned Amazon’s Working Backwards method and got two proposals signed off, even by the budget holders who had pushed back.
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From running projects to making the business case
A European software group with 76 product managers moved from running projects to making the business case for products, tested with real customers.
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From worn out to fired up in two days
A European software business unit of about 50 people, worn out after a hard year, left a two-day strategy conference energised, working together and excited about where they were heading.
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From busy and adrift to one shared strategy
The international arm of a Fortune 500 news and media group, adrift after leadership changes, agreed one strategy at an offsite and set goals that kept it focused all year.
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Ten internal startups, one shared way to run OKRs
A corporate venture-building unit with about ten internal startups made OKRs part of how its teams worked, and dropped weak ideas sooner to back stronger ones.
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From slide decks to a culture of clear, written decisions
A Fortune 500 tech company’s executives swapped slide decks for Amazon-style written narratives, bringing clearer thinking and better decisions as the practice spread company-wide.
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From AI hesitation to one AI-first vision
A European software incumbent facing a new owner, a bold competitor and AI disruption agreed one AI-first vision for its two products and turned a defensive stance into a differentiator.
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From building first to writing the press release first
A European enterprise software company trained its product teams to write the press release and FAQ before building, then brought me back for its leaders.
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From eight product ideas to four that launched
A large European e-commerce marketplace taught its product managers Amazon’s PR/FAQ. At least four of the eight product ideas they wrote up went on to launch.
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From a good idea to a product the business could sell
A European insurer’s innovation coordinator rebuilt a product idea around customers with Amazon’s PR/FAQ. It launched 18 months later, and he’s since been promoted to head of innovation.
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Knowing which customers to say no to
A country business unit of a global technology services group was growing fast on thin margins. We worked out which customers to win more of, and which to stop chasing.
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Product teams that start from the customer
A European telecoms operator brought Amazon’s Working Backwards to the teams who design and sell its products, with a two-day workshop and a talk for about 300 staff.
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What clients said
“
A conference that actually produced something
The conference was one of the best, if not in fact the best conference I have attended… we actually produced something during the two days… And we achieve what we in the Leadership Team had set up as a goal, to get the mindset on the team to work together at "row" in the same direction going forward!
Håkan Johansson
Lead Business Developer
Tietoevry
Coaching stories
From lone researcher to the leader his team rallies around
A deep-tech research lead, on employer-sponsored coaching, went from holding ideas back until they were finished to becoming the point of clarity his team works around.
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From tiptoeing around resistance to leading as herself
A newly promoted head of people and operations, leading a restructure after deep budget cuts, stopped tiptoeing around resistant reports and chose to lead as herself.
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Coaching for you
People working on ADHD, or on what comes next in their career.
Coaching stories
From seven years at the same level to leading an AI pilot
A senior manager at a Fortune 100 tech company, stuck at the same level for seven years, stopped fighting his ADHD profile and moved into leading a new AI pilot.
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Turned down the prestigious role, and took the one she wanted
A chief of staff at a PE-backed tech startup chose the role she really wanted, on her own terms, and a month in her CEO called her his best hire.
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From "maybe I'm lazy" to leading from his strengths
A bootstrapped founder who’d decided he was simply lazy saw that his brain works differently, and started leading from his strengths instead of carrying everything himself.
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From stuck and shrinking to telling her story on stage
A non-profit managing director, three years into a job search that kept stalling, rebuilt her confidence and told her story on stage to 200 people.
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From burning out to leading from her strengths
A global head of department with ADHD swapped burnout and self-criticism for leading from her strengths, and has moved from telling her team what to do to coaching them.
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From running faster to building the area he cared about
A senior leader at a Big Tech company turned years of career indecision into clarity, and chose to build a new area for the company that he cared about.
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From "what's wrong with me?" to a pattern he can plan around
A technology leader who kept getting promoted, then pushed out, saw the pattern behind it, and started a Fortune 500 role that fits how he works.
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From a hard exit to building his own brand
A senior technology leader went from “what’s next? I have no idea” after a hard exit to launching his own product brand, which is gaining real traction.
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From adrift at the top to a goal worth chasing
A senior executive at a European sustainability think tank, on employer-sponsored coaching, had reached the top of his ladder and felt adrift. He named a goal worth chasing.
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From "I can't explain myself" to a pitch that opens doors
A former COO of an acquired SaaS startup with ADHD turned seven tangled years into a two-sentence story, and had a recruiter introduction within days.
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From "is it me?" to leaving on her own terms
An AI governance lead stopped taking organisational setbacks personally, left the role on her own terms, and found what really drives her.
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From stuck and undercharging to signing clients in seven months
A performance coach with ADHD stopped undercharging and second-guessing himself, and went from stuck to signing clients, consulting and media work in seven months.
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What clients said
“
Stepping up to a new level.
The conversation I had with Richard got me to an insight I definitely wouldn’t have reached on my own. It’s going to shape how I show up and the impact I make as I step into this new role... I recommend him extremely highly.
Bella Bardswell
Senior Director
Sage
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A mental mirror that unblocks what's next
Each time when we talk, I have the feeling I am looking into a mental mirror… this is truly valuable, as it gives ideas of what else I can do differently to unblock something, or go around and move on.
Coaching client
Product Leader
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Far beyond what I expected
[Most useful was] your emotional intelligence; the speed at which you were able to analyze what I was saying… Far exceeded what I had expected.
Coaching client
Senior Leader
Tech company
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I wouldn't do a thing differently
[Asked what I'd change:] Love the question, honestly wouldn't do a thing differently.
Coaching client
Operational Leader
Tech startup
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Realising my own value
Overall very positive experience. Helped me a lot to realise my own value.
Coaching client
Product Leader
Logistics tech
