I run working sessions. The room does most of the talking.
Blunt, useful hours for founder and leadership rooms. Nobody leaves with a slide deck.
Check my availability$8.5M
Raised at Humoniq (YC S25), where I was the fractional COO
4.98/5
Across 171 GrowthMentor reviews
500+
Founders coached, US, Europe and Australia
6
Operating seats: engineering, sales, product, CS and ops
What your room gets.
Every appearance ends with one specific thing an attendee can do that week. A framework move, a validation step, a pitch reframe, or a delegation call they make on Monday.
Interviews where the host pushes back. Workshops of twenty to eighty. Fireside chats with real Q&A. Panels with room to disagree.
Heavily scripted keynotes are a bad use of me.
If that's the slot you're filling, tell me now and I'll point you at someone better.
Six talks I can run tomorrow
Lift any description straight into your episode page or event listing. I reshape the angle around your audience.
The Fundability Trap: Why VCs Fund Bad Products Over Great Ones
At early stage, investors back the story they can repeat to their own partners. Product, revenue and pedigree come second. Built on my time as fractional COO inside a YC S25 batch, where we raised $8.5M, and on the counterexample I watched from the inside: I was the fractional COO at Traversaal, a Stanford and Google AI scientist's company with $500K in revenue and TripAdvisor as a customer, and it could not raise a round in the same space where Glean raised $260M.
Ape Brain in the Boardroom: The Psychology Behind Why Startups Fail
Most startups die from the inside. Fear, ego, short-term instinct and cognitive bias do more damage than any competitor. Drawn from my book The Primal Trap and the Business Hierarchy of Needs framework. Cites Edmondson, Kahneman, Project Aristotle, the Boeing 737 Max and Enron.
Test Before You Build: The No BS Validation Framework
The five-step system technical founders use to measure demand before they write code, or after they've written far too much of it. The Mom Test, community lurking, fake-door testing, pre-selling. Josh pivoted after reading his competitor's complaints. Rose built an EdTech platform nobody wanted. Mark had an AI hiring tool with 5 signups in 3 months.
Psychological Safety Is the Strongest Predictor of Team Performance
That's what Google's Project Aristotle found when it studied its own teams. The Boeing 737 Max is what the absence looks like, and 346 people died. This one walks the 4-Stage Safety Roadmap, Inclusion through Challenger, with concrete moves a founder can make with a team of 3 or 30.
From Idea to $8.5M: Raising Money Inside a YC Batch
What investors check before they read your deck, why most founders pitch the wrong thing, and how to build a story that gets a yes before the product exists. A candid breakdown of the Humoniq raise, where I was the fractional COO: 4 weeks from idea to YC, 3 weeks to a vibe-coded MVP, $8.5M closed.
Prioritize or Die: How Technical Founders Decide What to Build Next
Engineers are good at building and bad at choosing. The No BS prioritization playbook: brain dump, impact ranking across Revenue, Growth, Maintenance and Busywork, the Max 3 Rule, the 70/20/10 split, and the 4D framework for delegation.
The receipts
$8.5M
Raised at Humoniq (YC S25). The 4th largest round in a cohort of about 124 companies.
4.98/5
Across 171 reviews and 233 sessions on GrowthMentor since May 2021.
500+
Founders coached across the US, Europe and Australia.
10,000+
Downloads of the No BS Startup Guide.
On Humoniq: I was the fractional COO on that team, not a founder, and I am not a YC alum.
Six seats I have actually held
Fractional COO. We raised $8.5M, the 4th largest round in a cohort of about 124 companies.
Fractional COO. Hired and ran the engineering team, and built the first version of the agentic AI product. $500K in first-year revenue.
Hired and ran the engineering team, built the first version of the agentic AI product, and ran the sales team.
Built and ran the sales and growth team.
Built and ran the customer success and ops teams.
Built the Customer Success organization from zero, through the $120M Series C.
3x founder, and 10+ years in the startup ecosystem.
ICF-trained executive coach. I coach sales reps, managers and executives at Salesforce, HP, ServiceNow and PayPal.
The Primal Trap, and the Business Hierarchy of Needs framework.
What they did after
Todd Sullivan
Flightfox, a YC company
Revenue, in 14 months
On life support after COVID. We went back to first principles and revalidated who needed it. Zero to 100+ enterprise leads, one new hire, no extra marketing spend.
James Cissel
CEO, SLS3 and Audenza
Revenue, in 12 months
He also secured six-figure investor backing in the same stretch.
Who I coach
Not only founders. Quota-carrying reps, their managers, and the executives above them.
Slack Rooms and stages.
Rooms I host
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No BS Startup Coach working sessions
New York City, monthly
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Founder mental wellness event with Fabrik
DUMBO, ran at capacity
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Event host with MLops
Programs I mentor for
Want to read the thinking before you book the room? Start with The Primal Trap or the No BS Startup Guide.
What organizers ask
What formats do you do best?
Conversational podcast interviews where the host pushes back. Workshops of 20 to 80 people where the room does the work. Fireside chats with real Q&A. Panels with space to disagree. Heavily scripted keynotes and motivational stages are a bad use of me, and I'll tell you that before you book rather than after.
Will you customize the talk for our audience?
Yes. Lift any talk description on this page straight into your episode or event page, then tell me who is in the room and what they are stuck on. I reshape the angle around that. For workshops I ask for two intake questions in advance so the hour is built on real problems from the people attending.
What does the audience walk away with?
One specific thing they can do that week. A framework move, a validation step, a pitch reframe, or a delegation call they make on Monday. That is the non-negotiable in every appearance. No inspirational close, no find-your-why.
Where are you based and how fast do you reply?
New York City, and I travel or join remotely anywhere. I reply to booking requests within 48 hours. Email [email protected] or book time on the calendar below.
What's your background?
I'm a 3x founder and an ICF-trained executive coach with 10+ years in the startup ecosystem. I've held six operating seats. I was the fractional COO at Humoniq (YC S25), where we raised $8.5M, the 4th largest round in a cohort of about 124 companies. I was the COO on that team, not a founder, and I'm not a YC alum. I was also the fractional COO at Traversaal, where I hired and ran the engineering team and built the first version of the agentic AI product. I ran engineering and sales at The Chief Rebel, built the sales and growth team at HeyDaily, and built the customer success and ops teams at Foundernest. Earlier I built the Customer Success organization at Nylas from zero through its $120M Series C. I've coached 500+ founders, plus sales reps, managers and executives at Salesforce, HP, ServiceNow and PayPal.
Book the date.
Grab 30 minutes on the calendar and tell me who's in your audience and what they're stuck on. I'll tell you straight if I'm wrong for that room.
Prefer email? [email protected]. I reply within 48 hours. Based in NYC, remote anywhere.
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