# Coaching

*Coaching, when it works, is the only conversation in your week that doesn't want anything from you.*

## What we work on

Most engagements move between these:

- Founder loneliness (is this normal?)
- Hiring senior leaders, and the politics of replacing your own people
- Fundraising posture and decision-making
- Board dynamics and managing investors
- Co-founder dynamics
- Scaling past your immediate circle
- Personal capacity: energy, attention, health, the things that go first

## The three things that matter

I'm selective. I look for three things, and if any of them is missing, the work doesn't take.

### Leadership

You're in the seat. Senior leader at an early-stage startup, usually founder or CEO with at least a small team, or a partner at a venture fund working with founders.

### Motivation

You want to be better. A better leader, a better manager, a better person. Sometimes that's a milestone: a fundraise, a launch, a transition. Sometimes it's just the dull, persistent feeling of not being who you want to be yet.

### Coachability

You're willing to sit in the hard parts. Coaching isn't always comfortable. If you're not willing to have the difficult conversation, including with yourself, coaching can't help you.

## How it works

The first conversation is thirty minutes by phone. We talk through what's going on and figure out whether the work has a fit.

If it does, we work biweekly. Sessions are an hour, by phone or in person depending on where we both are. Month-to-month, no minimum. If the work isn't worth keeping every month, it isn't working.

We exit when the work is done, or when something has changed enough that it isn't useful anymore. Either is fine.

## What it costs

Sliding scale. We work it out in the first conversation, alongside whether we're a fit.

## Let's talk.

If any of this sounds like the conversation you've been needing, write me.

[Send a note](/contact.md)