I’m a Coach.
I help purpose-driven Founders, Leaders and Teams to navigate firsts.
Trusted by
I’m a Founder, Executive & Team Coach who used to be a Product Exec in high-growth startups.
I’m also a Partner at Evolution, Silicon Valley's premier coaching and consulting firm, partnering with start-up and high-growth companies to drive long-term, holistic success through developing leadership, alignment, and culture.
My clients typically come to me when they’re navigating firsts.
Individuals: first-time founder, first-time c-level exec or first-time leader. Or someone whose done it before but under different circumstances.
Teams: founding or leadership team being established or going through change.
They work with me when they want someone with depth, experience and a healthy dose of humour, who can support and challenge in equal measure.
“Working with Seb has been a gamechanger...an investment that really pays off.”
“A kind and empathetic approach that empowers individuals to grow.”
“Experience has been a lot more open and trusting than with other coaches.”
Navigating firsts
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There are so many firsts to navigate on the Founder journey and a Founder’s decisions have such an outsized impact on the company. For those seeing it all for the first time it’s a huge ask.
I serve as a trusted coach, advisor and thought partner to first-time founders, helping them to navigate those firsts and to lead purposefully.
We’ll typically have 1:1 virtual sessions every 2 weeks. This is a space for us to partner, to help navigate challenges, and to be intentional about growth.
One session we might navigate something tactical like an upcoming board meeting, the next we might be doing deep work related to your mental resilience.
I treat coaching as an always on, depth-oriented, trusted relatronship, so outside of sessions my clients will often send me board decks for feedback, ask me to get involved in hiring decisions, and generally treat me as an extension of the team.
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Did you know that 55% of co-founders ‘break up’ within the first 4 years?
I serve as a trusted coach, advisor and thought partner to first-time Co-Founders, helping them to beat the odds.
I typically coach each co-founder individually; and then we combine that with group coaching and team observation to help build healthy foundations, maintain alignment and navigate firsts as a team.
I take an ‘always on’ approach to coaching, so outside of sessions my clients will often send me board decks for feedback, ask me to get involved in hiring decisions, and generally treat me as an extension of the team. -
Becoming an Exec for the first time calls for a very different way of thinking. You can read more about a first exec role in The Coaching Manual.
I serve as a trusted coach, advisor and thought partner to first-time execs, helping them to navigate those firsts and to grow into their role.
We’ll typically have 1:1 virtual sessions every 2 weeks. This is a space for us to partner, to help navigate challenges, and to be intentional about growth.
One session we might navigate something tactical like a tension with a fellow exec, the next we might be doing deep work related to your mental resilience.
I take an ‘always on’ approach to coaching, so outside of sessions my clients will often send me board decks for feedback, ask me to get involved in hiring decisions, and generally treat me as an extension of the team.
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Becoming a leader for the first time calls for a very different way of thinking. In startups it’s very common for great individual contributors to be promoted into positions of leadership without being equipped with the necessary tools and support.
There are two approaches I typically take here:
1. 1-1 Coaching for the new leader, similar to the approach for a first-time exec2. If a startup has a number of people in a similar situation then I work with the People function to create a leadership training series alongside 1-1 coaching to support the individuals as they try to put the lessons learned into practice.
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Usually, once a startup has scaled to a certain size, they discover a need to formalise the Exec &/or Leadership teams to create the right structure to manage a larger org.
This transition poses a lot of challenges from understanding the role of the team and getting clear on how the team makes decisions; to ensuring the individuals involved are being good team players.
Each engagement is co-designed with the team in question, but a comprehensive approach here might involve:I typically team up with fellow partners at Evolution to ensure that each Exec or Leader is matched with the best coach for them.
We combine that with group coaching sessions on specific topics e.g. feedback, conflict, conscious leadership etc.
Sessions or an offsite to establish a clear team mission, culture and processes
Facilitation and observation of team meetings to see what happens in the wild
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I work with Product Teams to help them build the internal capabilities to deliver high-impact products that improve people’s lives.
I can also play the role of fractional product leader/advisor to help shape strategy, roadmap, org design, hiring, product launches, processes etc.
I combine my coaching expertise with my experience in product - having been VP Product at Pelago Health from early startup to $150m + in vc-funding; having led new product innovation at payments multi-unicorn GoCardless; and having scaled products to millions at ebay.
Client spotlight
Hear from Annie about her coaching journey over the 12 months we’ve worked together, from exited Founder to navigating new career chapters.
FAQs
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A great coach can be your secret weapon behind the scenes. They are there to simultaneously support and challenge you to help you grow. If you’re a Founder or Leader then just think of the positive impact on the company if you’re able to lead more effectively.
In a 1-1 setting, a great coach can help with:Clarity - helping you gain clarity on what’s important, what’s getting in the way, what needs to be different, and what stuff you have going on deep down that may be playing a role in how you show up.
Confidence - helping you to build confidence in your abilities and your decisions.
Conviction - helping you to ensure that clarity and confidence is followed by action with conviction.
Conflict - helping you to navigate the conflict that may be standing in the way of success.
Compassion - helping you to be more compassionate with yourself and others. Making sure you are building the internal tools to be a great, resilient leader.
In a team setting, a great coach can help with all of the above, and importantly:
Cohesion - ensuring that the team is functioning cohesively.
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I already work with a diverse portfolio of great founders & leaders backed by some of the world's best known VCs.
‘Working with Seb has been a game changer!’ Sam - Founder & CEO, Hibi.
I have extensive experience as an operator and leader in startups and scaleups, and was previously a VP Product at a startup as it went from pre-seed to $150m+ in funding and hypergrowth.
Although operator experience isn’t essential to being a coach, my clients value our common frames of reference and the fact that context makes me a better thought partner.
I'm a trained coach, and I’m heavily invested in becoming the best possible coach I can be.
I’m an ICF accredited coach - trained with both the Animas and Aletheia coaching schools, and always have a new training upcoming.
I invest in getting coached by some of the world's best coaches.
I bring some unique perspectives
I worked with world-leading experts in behaviour change, to build products for treating substance addiction, so learnt a lot about the science of behaviour change.
I'm a trained Ashtanga yoga and meditation teacher which brings a spiritual influence to my coaching practice.
I’m a partner at Evolution.
Evolution is a coaching, consulting, and investment firm that partners with 440+ companies, including the like of Netflix, Slack, Google, Spotify, and a long list of both established names and high-growth startups, to drive long-term, holistic success through executive leadership development, team alignment, and culture.
That means that behind me I have around 50 or so other partners, all of whom are experts. Sometimes we’ll team up on delivering work together, other times I might pull someone in for something I don’t do but a client needs.
If that sounds like a mix that would work well for you then great. I’m also always the first to say if I think I’m not the right fit for a potential coaching client.
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Lots of people call themselves a coach and mean different things by it.
Coaching to me is ultimately about you going on a journey of change.
Some people come into the process with a clear sense of the change they wish to make; others with only the vaguest sense that life is not as it should be; most lie somewhere in-between.
Like any journey, it will take a bit of time and there may be the occasional wrong turning, but the destination will be worth it, and there will be plenty of time to stop and enjoy the view on the way.
You’re the one driving on this journey, but I’m sat alongside you helping you to navigate.
**I will…**
- Ask lots of questions intended to prompt you to think
- Share stories of my own experience if you ask for it and it’s relevant
- Look for opportunities to try different tools and techniques that might be helpful and offer those up (you will ultimately decide if we use them or not though)
- Share relevant resources inside or outside sessions
- Make observations about patterns in thinking or acting that you may or may not be aware of
- Where there are forks in the road, outline the different potential roads we could take
**I won’t…**
- Tell you what to do
- Make the decision for you
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Each engagement is co-designed with the team in question, but a comprehensive approach here might involve:
I typically team up with fellow partners at Evolution to ensure that each Exec or Leader is matched with the best coach for them.
We combine that with group coaching sessions on specific topics e.g. feedback, conflict, conscious leadership etc.
Sessions or an offsite to establish a clear team mission, culture and processes
Facilitation and observation of team meetings to see what happens in the wild
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Purpose-driven Founders, Leaders and Teams who are navigating a lot of firsts.
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Those who simply want a playbook without doing the deep personal reflection.
Those looking for a quick and cheap fix.
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Some people come to coaching with very clear goals in mind, whilst others have a very abstract sense of wanting some change in their life and/or work.
Please don't worry about having all the answers before you even begin.
The ‘presenting issue’ i.e. the thing that you come to coaching for initially often falls into one of several categories:
Circumstances e.g. new job, new career, new relationship, new location, promotion
Mindset e.g. Impostor syndrome, inner critic and limiting beliefs, anxiety and overwhelm, stress response, perfectionism, coping with failure, burnout, lack of motivation, resilience
Skills e.g. hiring and firing, feedback, communication, managing relationships, setting boundaries, time management and prioritisation, conflict, managing and coaching people, managing up, empowering others, leadership style
Identity e.g. values, purpose, mission
Regardless of where we start, these are just different entrypoints to a much deeper world to explore.
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Evolution is Silicon Valley's premier coaching and consulting firm, partnering with start-up and high-growth companies to drive long-term, holistic success through developing leadership, alignment, and culture. The Evolution client list is a whose who of Silicon Valley and now Evolution has also expanded into Europe.
I’m a Parter at Evolution so collaborate with an amazing network of incredible experts in different areas of coaching and organisational development.
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Step 1 - you get in touch and we set up an initial call for us to learn a bit more about each other.
Step 2 - if it feels like the right fit for both of us then we schedule a free 1-hour coaching session for you to get a better feel for what coaching with me is like.
Step 3 - we'll agree pricing and build a coaching plan that works for you. Typically I offer 3, 6 and 12 month coaching packages with you needing to make around a 4 hour time commitment per month.
For team coaching, things will depend on the specific needs of your team which we can discuss.