In the US their title is: “Whisperer to the Founder”, in Europe it’s: “Founder’s Coach”. There are many VCs in the US that require, as part of their investment, that the founders will invest in their own development and work with a professional to support them through a personal growth process.
This is a professional, safe space, that is free of judgment and criticism. The founders develop their ability for self-inquiry: reflecting on their behaviours, mindsets, decisions and emotions. As a result, they build resilience, and develop new skills and strategies to better navigate in their complex and emotional reality.
In this process the founders gain an understanding of their personal growth goals that will enable the startup growth. They increase self-awareness to their blind spots, biases and defense mechanism that impact the scale up of the startup and inhibit growth at the critical inflection points.
Founding and leading a start-up is a very tough and lonely work. If you are:
Provide professional consultation and coaching. Accelerating the growth of the CEO to meet her/his personal development goals and enable the growth of the start-up.
I facilitate individual and customized process with the CEO that seeks to raise self-awareness, leverage the unique strengths, uncover blind spots and evolve the leadership capacity as the business grows.
Working with professional start-up psychologist or founder coach allows you to ask fundamental questions, explore your doubts and share thoughts.
This is a non-judgemental and safe space.
The process is customised per person, and might include the following steps: