Shortly before I moved from CEO to Chairman, we passed the milestone of 100 employees. I took the opportunity to reflect and put down in words some of the key points I wish I’d known from the start. Part 1: 🌱Before you start 💡Ideation phase 🤝 Co-founders Part 2: 🎓 Personal development 🧘‍♂Work/Life balance Part 3: 📣 Communication, scaling and structure 🎖 Culture 👔 Hiring Part 4: 🤑 Fundraising: Why, when and how much? 🎯 The process 🧮 Cap table & negotiations

I found myself swaying on a balcony in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s bustling capital. At first, I chalked it up to the rum tasting we’d indulged in. “Do you feel that?” a newfound friend inquired. That’s when it hit us. We were all sensing the same thing. The next day, news…

I bring up journaling with the founders I coach and get one of two reactions. Sometimes it’s “I love journaling”, but more often it’s a muted sigh: “I’ve tried it, but it just doesn’t work for me” And that’s ok…! Journaling can be tough. Not everyone enjoys writing and it…

This is a curated list of questions that have proved powerful in my coaching sessions. While some questions look towards the future, the focus is looking back over the year with the goal to mine as many learnings as possible ⛏️🤔. I’ve tried to keep the total number of questions…

In my career as a founder coach, there’s a theme that comes up again and again: co-founder relationships. Co-founder relationships are one of the biggest challenges in growing a startup Having a startup is like having a baby 👶 You both care about it deeply You want it to succeed, but you might have slightly different ideas of how You each have…

This is the second part of a blog discussing the tradeoffs made by digital nomads. Check out part one, The Nomad’s Gambit. In part one I concluded: There were productivity benefits to being a digital nomad There were productivity detractors The detractors outweighed the benefits I’ve been living as a…

I arrived to my Airbnb in Lanzarote with heavy bags and mild dehydration. I was in a bad mood, because I hadn’t got as much done as I had wanted. My plan was to check in, plug in and catch up with the work I had wanted to do. But…

Sigle.io started off with the traditional fundraising route, but didn’t get the results they wanted fast enough. Instead of getting stuck between ‘too early’, but not having enough money to get traction, they decided to forge their own path. Sigle.io is a decentralised blogging platform where you can write free…

Most founders I work with have never been coached before. Here’s a breakdown of what coaching means and the model I use. What is coaching? Coaching is about building a unique, confidential relationship which serves the client in: Clarity of thinking Setting clear intentions for yourself and the business Defining the steps needed…