What I believe:
In the fall of 2014, my co-founders and I raised a round of capital from top investors. Shortly after we doubled our team size and at the same time, I experienced burnout for the first time in my life.
Our company was a success, but in the process of building it, I failed to take care of my health. As I talked to more CXOs and founders I realized I wasn’t alone. Leading companies through rapid growth is hard and requires being aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and evolving motivations.
Today, I work with founders and CEOs at high-growth startups, executives at late-stage and scaling companies, and business partners navigating conflict, to help leaders become the most authentic and effective version of themselves, and increase their effectiveness and joy.
So what do I believe?
I believe in the ability of great leaders to build a better future. I believe that your work should be both challenging and fun. And, I believe that continuous reflection and intentional action are the ingredients we need to be our best selves.
I work with founders and CEOs backed by venture firms including:
About Nathan, Founder, Coach
Former Founder @ Looksharp for 7+ years, former marketing executive @ Carta.
Coached startup founders who have collectively raised $1b+ in funding, CXOs at Fortune 500 companies, and venture capital teams.
Specialize in co-founder and co-executive dynamics.
Trained in the Enneagram, Non-Violent Communication, matrix team dynamics, and more.
Mentor at 500 Startups and Parallel 18.
Conference speaker on the topic of “Risk-Taking and Vulnerability,” “Head and Heart Based Leadership,” and more.
Services
1-1 Coaching
Nathan work swith a range of leaders in a 1-1 capacity. My engagements include clear goals/outcomes, and a holistic coaching approach recognizing that a combination of technical and adaptive change is required for lasting leadership growth.
Co-Founder Coaching
Nathan specializes in supporting co-founders to navigate conflict, improve trust, and build long-lasting and high-performing partnerships.
Learn more about my approach to co-founder and co-executive dynamics here.
360-Reviews
Nathan helps CEOs complete 360 reviews either at the onset of a new coaching engagement or as a one-off program to help a leader who is looking to understand their blindspots and overcome a plateau.
speaking and Workshops
Nathan speaks on the topic of “Co-Founder Dynamics,” “Risk-Taking and Vulnerability,” and more and offers team workshops on “The Enneagram for Teams,” “Radical Candor and Delivering Feedback, and more.” Nathan has spoken at large conferences including Microsfot’s annual “Achieve, More, Together” event as well as custom speaking engagements.
Testimonials
“My cofounder and I worked with Nathan when we hit a challenging period in our cofounder dynamic.
Nathan helped us slow down, better understand each others' perspectives, as well as have hard but important conversations that led us to evolve our partnership to fit where we were going next with our company.
Through this work, my co-founder and I implemented new ways of working together that produced tangible outcomes: improving our communication, work outputs, and overall effectiveness. Also we are having more fun! I highly recommend Nathan for any cofounders looking to build a foundation of trust, communication, and performance.”
-Arielle Kilroy, CEO and Founder, Dado
“One of the biggest reasons for startup failures is bad co-founder dynamics and co-founder breakups. Just like a marriage, it’s important to create time and space to actively work on your co-founder relationship.
From day one, Nathan helped us work on our communication with each other, and created space and frameworks for us to take risks with each other and get feedback in order to deepen our co-founder trust. This is especially helpful in a remote work setting where you have to be way more intentional in building the high trust relationships required to build a successful company. Nathan has helped us so much with this. I recommend all co-founder teams do this intentional work to build a stronger partnership.”
-Julien Emery, CEO and Founder, SuperPanel
“I secured my dream role as Product Manager at Facebook—I wanted to make sure I started on the right foot. I worked with Nathan to make this happens. Nathan is a phenomenal listener. He focused on me as an individual and how habits and patterns of mine, were impacting me as a professional. He helped me anticipate growth areas and pushed me to take actions to support the direction and impact I wanted to achieve.”
-Fritz Charles, Senior Executive, Facebook
"Nathan is a deep-listener, experienced, and action-oriented coach. Our work gave me clarity on some longer-term choices I was exploring and Nathan was a powerful thought partner through a number of more tactical decisions."
-Fynn Glover, CEO and Founder, Matcha
"Nathan helped me stay grounded and focused during a critical time in our startup’s growth. He challenged me to make important leadership shifts, which he delivered with a deep level of concern for my success."
-Allyson McDougal, COO and Founder, Workchew
“Nathan is an incredible co-founder coach. He is responsive, thoughtful, and encouraging. He introduced me to new frameworks which I have found personally transformative. Our team has noticed the difference in style and I feel much deeper insight into myself and therefore much greater ability to lead. Couldn’t recommend Nathan more for scale-up CEOs and co-founders.”
-Dom Pimento, CEO and Founder, Tortus.AI
“Feals is the second startup my co-founder and I have built together (after our first business successfully exited). Even with our long history of working together, my co-founder and I chose to work with Nathan to improve our communication and grow our co-founder relationship. Nathan has been an incredible individual, co-founder, and team resource, throughout the ups and downs of building our company.”
-Alex Iwanchuk, CEO and Founder, Feals
“Nathan is an incredible coach in helping think through big picture decisions that you run through often as a founder. He provided me with a bunch of different frameworks to use and has always been a great sounding board. Easily one of the best investment decisions I've ever made!"
-Ben Levy, CEO and Founder, Endemic Labs
“Nathan's coaching helped me develop leadership skills that changed the trajectory of my startup and strengthened my co-founder relationship. Nathan is strategic and an incredible listener. In particular, Nathan has a unique ability to understand challenges, pull out key learnings, and hold me accountable to new behaviors.”
-Dhaval Bhatt, Senior Executive, Microsoft
"Working with Nathan led to a positive shift in my relationship with my co-founder, while also improving my personal happiness and our business' outcomes. Nathan provided tactical skills training and created a space where we could navigate difficult conversations together, which led to lasting effects for our team and company."
-Nicholas Stepanek, CEO and Founder, Hedge Fund
My co-founder and I came to Nathan to make sure we were getting ahead of any challenges that would arise in our partnership, especially while working remotely.
Nathan helped us better understand who we are as leaders, how we complement one another, and how we can communicatre more clearly with eac other..
As a result, we’ve been able to collaborate in a more meaningful way and we recently raised our next round of capital.
-Rahkeem Morris, CEO and Founder, Hourwork
"Nathan has been an outstanding executive coach, helping me better understand my strengths, weaknesses, and patterns. Our work together has helped me make big changes in how I operate, helped me find greater range as a leader, and created inflections on my team and those around me."
-Brian Leonard, VP of Marketing, AppSmart
“I partnered with Nathan during a challenging time in our business—undergoing a team change in the midst of COVID-19. Nathan helped nurture a shift in my mindset, which led to a turnaround in our results. In addition, Nathan helped me identify leadership patterns that were holding me back, namely, conflict avoidance, and then worked with me in overcoming this issue. This work has led to a lasting impact on my team and personal trajectory.”
-Brad Keiller, CEO, Nomad Donuts
Nathan has been an amazing coach to work with, so much so, that we engaged with him for two separate engagements.
Our cofounder and executive teams had been working together for a decade, which created strong bonds and operating styles but also work to be done to march together in unison.
Nathan supported the cofounders to navigate past frustrations and later coached our executives who have different management styles. His work was transformative on our team trust and communication and resulted in a lasting impact on our team performance.
I appreciate Nathan's unique ability to create a structured space where we could move past discomfort, expand our individual and collective growth edges, while being mindful of the original joy that sparked our adventure together.
Nathan was able to leverage his operational experience having scaled a startup and his deep knowledge of individual/team behavioral patterns to drive our results.
Working with Nathan resharpened our focus, streamlined our communication, and prepared us for the phase of our endeavor as a tight unit.”
-Shivang Dave, PhD, CEO and Founder, PlenOptika
“Nathan worked with my co-founder and me during a challenging period of high-growth and interpersonal conflict. He introduced us to a variety of communication processes that helped us understand each other's motivations, and communication styles, as well as unpack key issues that allowed us to rebuild trust and move forward effectively.”
-Sampriti Bhattacharyya, CEO and Founder, Navier
“I was skeptical of hiring a coach, but after a few months of working with Nathan, the value could not be more apparent. Growing as a founder is all about feedback loops—try, fail, learn, improve. Nathan has added a sober and experienced set of eyes to my thought process. We shouldn't have to deal with the ups and downs of building a company in the echo-chamber of our own heads. I highly recommend Nathan to any founders looking to take their leadership skills and company velocity to the next level.”
-Zachary Shakked, CEO and Founder, Chargeback