Founders bring me in when the path forward isn't obvious and the cost of getting it wrong is high. You've probably already got a sense of what's going on. What you need is someone who's sat in your seat, has been through this many times before, and can help you see what actually matters, what to do about it, and what's going to come next.

The questions you're probably carrying

Most founders don't come to me saying they need a strategic advisor. They come because they're carrying questions they can't answer from inside the company.

• Why does everything still depend on me?

• Why am I still doing my leaders' jobs?

• Is this person the right hire, or am I going to have to let them go?

• How do I have a hard conversation with my cofounder?

• How do I tell my board the story when the numbers aren't what I promised?

• Am I still the right person to run this?

• Who do I actually trust to tell the truth to?

• Is what I built still defensible in a year?

• Can we actually take this on, or will it break us?

• Is this still worth saving, and if it isn't, how do I do right by everyone?

I've carried many of these questions myself, and I've spent twenty years working through them with other founders.

The moments I get brought in

I get brought in at the moments that change the shape of a company.

• Growth. The company has outgrown how it was being run and nothing feels stable.

• People. A first executive hire, an exec you have to let go, a cofounder situation that has to get resolved.

• The board and your investors. A fundraise where the story is more complicated than last time. A board losing confidence and needing to decide what to do.

• A sale or acquisition. Getting ready to be bought, where I help you prepare and get through the transaction, including whether you can take it on with the team and resources you have. Or an acquisition, partnership, or integration you haven't done before.

• A hard ending. A turnaround, a wind-down, or a soft landing, where the work is getting the most out of a hard situation and looking after the people in it.

• AI. Where your company is actually exposed and where it isn't, and what has to change in how you operate to stay ahead of it.

Often it's a few of these at once.

If you think differently

A lot of the founders I work with think differently, and many of them are neurodivergent, often with ADHD, autism, or AuDHD. The usual founder advice doesn't fit how their minds work, and a lot of brilliant people burn out trying to operate in a mold that was never built for them. My job in those situations is to understand you deeply and translate how you work into a company that works for you, and to be by your side, especially when it gets hard.

What the work looks like

What the work looks like depends on what you need. Sometimes I'm a thinking partner for the decisions that matter most. Board prep, an executive hire, a fundraise, an acquisition or a sale, a hard conversation you're trying to figure out how to have. Other times it goes deeper and I'm in the work with you for a while, building the systems and the operating rhythm that let the company run the way you want it to without you involved in everything.

Occasionally, when there's strong mutual fit between the founder, the company, and the work ahead, that evolves into a formal leadership role. We figure out the shape together.

I'm not a typical coach, and I'm not someone who hands you a framework and disappears. There's coaching in what I do, because evolving as a leader is part of it. But I've actually operated. I've been in your seat. I'm a true partner who works alongside you, not from the outside.

--Are you a VC? See For VCs.