What Happens After You Submit Your Brief
Like everything we do, our coach-matching process is built specifically for venture-backed startup founders whose companies are pushing them to grow quickly.
Our process is quick, simple, and personally managed by me (Amy). I started building resources for founders at YC in 2015, and I know your attention belongs on your startup - not on researching coaches, vetting credentials, or trying to tell who’s actually good.
That’s our specialty, not yours. Leave it to us.
What we care about:
Exceptional founder coaches
Working with venture-backed startup founders is a niche within executive coaching - and executive coaching itself is already a niche. Very few coaches have the training, credentials, and lived experience to do this work well.
I created the category of Founder Coaching, so I know what good looks like. The coaches in my network are people I trust deeply. They’re experienced, vetted, passionate, and proven with founders at critical growth moments.
Ease
Our process is simple and direct: Fill out a form, and we’ll introduce you to coaches with experience, availability, and interest in meeting with you. That’s it.
Speed
You could be meeting with potential coaches - and working with one - in under a week.
How it works:
Day 0
You submit your brief. I review it personally. If needed, I’ll follow up with a few questions to sharpen it before sharing it with my network.
Day 1
Your brief is sent to my network of ~20 founder coaches.
Days 1-3
Coaches have three days to respond if they're interested and available.
Day 4
I select the 2-4 coaches who are the best fit for your specific situation and introduce you. You’ll see a range of styles, strengths, and price points so you have real options.
Days 4-14
You meet the coaches and choose one. If you want help deciding, I’m always available to talk it through. If none of the initial options feel right (which is rare), I’ll find additional matches.
What Founders Say:
Super easy. Shockingly fast.
Very high quality. Hard to choose.
I felt supported throughout.
Very fast :) ..took only a few days. Thank you for making it so easy, and for being so thoughtful and supportive during the process!
— Geoff Négiar, CEO of The Forecasting Company, YC S24
Thank you for being so responsive :) Getting to coaches was fast!
— Arvind Sontha, COO of Kyber, YC W23
You've made it very easy. The personal matching is great.
— Hunter Brooks, CEO of Ellipsis, YC W24
I definitely felt supported by Amy, helping me understand what to look for.
— Julian Colina, CTO of Haystack, YC W21
Super easy. Shockingly fast. We found a coach within a week. You were very responsive and the matching process was exactly what we needed.
— Sam Tuke, CEO of Lightmeter, YC W22
Everyone was super responsive, and sent intros with Calendlys immediately. Each coach was slightly different and it felt like we had a large range of experience, $$, etc. to choose between.
— Melissa Benn, Pioneer Climate
Just a few days' turnaround.
— Beth Esponnette, Cofounder & CPO of unspun
Amy, your process is very streamlined (not to mention proactive). End-to-end [it] took me 2 weeks.
— Jasen Lew, CEO of Glowing, YC W18
Very high quality, I appreciate the vetting
— Caleb Polley, CEO of Cubby Beds
Both introductions were rock stars - a YC founder, two-time YC founder. I’m so impressed by the quality of the coaches.
— Philip Koenig, CEO of CommodityAI, YC W24
Quality was great - it was really hard for us to choose between folks.
— Som Mohapatra, COO of Hadrius, YC W23
The coaches did a good job of guiding the conversation and putting me at ease
— Lara Martin, Founder of ProSocial.care
We didn't know what we were looking for but knew we needed help. Amy gave us different options to pick from: a coach with startup experience, a coach-therapist, and someone between the two.
— Ali Khajeh-Hosseini, COO of Infracost, YC W21
I got to meet a range of coaches of different backgrounds/styles, which was useful to get a sense for who I could work best with.
— Andy Smith, CEO of Tracebit
Questions while you wait?
If anything comes up - clarifying your goals, thinking through ‘fit’, or wondering what to expect - just ping us at coaching@thefoundercoach.com. We’re happy to help.
