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HIGH-GROWTH LEADERSHIP

Building a high-growth company is one of the most exhilarating things you can do with your career.

It can be a time of tremendous personal and professional growth.

Are you learning fast enough? Are you ready for the next phase?

It helps to have a guide.

EXECUTIVE COACHING

Who I Am

I’m a leader, a mentor and coach with over twenty years of experience in fast-moving software startups.

I have worked at all phases of growth, from being one of “three guys in a room”, to being an officer of a public company.

I was a key early member of three startups that became successful public companies, and a fourth that was sold for $250M+.

What I Do

I coach founders, CEOS and leaders in high-growth tech companies.

My goal is to massively accelerate the growth and learning that are a natural consequence of the leadership role.

I want my clients to master their current role and be fully ready for the next step up as they, and their organization, scale rapidly.

More about my coaching style here, and my clients here.

Why I Do It

I love the moments when it all clicks.

When leadership, teamwork and creativity come together to build something great. When people are working above the best they could imagine. When a vision suddenly becomes attainable.

I want to help you get there.

EXPERIENCE

COACHING

I came to coaching through my work advising startups in San Francisco. Once I discovered the role, I realized that the coaching relationship is deeper, more personal and more potentially transformative than occasional mentoring conversations.

Since diving into the coaching profession, I have worked with hundreds of leaders in high-growth tech companies.

I greatly enjoy being part of the success and growth of my clients. There’s nothing quite like staying with a client as they go from a new leadership role to VP at a startup to a C-level executive at a newly public company.

My style and approach is informed by both my operational career in startups, and my ongoing fascination with how people grow and change.

A CAREER IN STARTUPS

My entire operational career has been as an early employee in startups.

I have been through exponential growth, public offerings, soaring stock prices, flat spots, downturns, initiated complete company “pivots”, shipped some great products and built multiple organizations from scratch.

VP and SVP Engineering and Products at Macromedia from scrappy startup to successful IPO and beyond. Started shockwave.com, eventually sold to MTV networks for $250M+.

Early engineering and management career at Acorn Computers (IPO, exists now as ARM Ltd), and Frame Technology (IPO).

More recently I have raised a kid in San Francisco, surfed all over the world and advised, mentored and coached dozens of startups

Black Tee, Sitting, No Big Grin 1000xsom

LIFE EXPERIENCE

I have routinely taken time away from the industry, including an almost ten year stint raising a kid, surfing in various parts of the world and creating solo performance theatre. In doing so, I've collected a set of tools that help inform my coaching:

Meditation and Mindfulness: a twenty year practice

Yoga: a fifteen year practice

Improv: a twenty year practice

Writing and Performing: a fifteen year practice

Surfing: a twenty year practice

These tools show up in interesting ways. For example: improv for a perspective on public speaking and leadership presence, mindfulness for clarity in decision making, surfing for patience and persistence in the face of failure.

MY CLIENTS

A few of the terrific companies I have worked with recently, and some recommendations. You can see a longer list of companies and additional recommendations on the clients page.

Larry Gadea, CEO Envoy

I’ve loved working with Joe. I know that I can always count on him when having any form of management questions or ‘is this normal’ scenarios that come in my Founder/CEO position at Envoy.

I’d definitely recommend anybody going through extreme company growth to consider him — he’ll just make it that much easier!

Tido Carriero, Chief Product Development Officer at Segment

I worked with Joe as I began my VP Eng role at Segment. He was incredibly helpful in solving some of the most challenging problems I was facing — building an engineering brand, scaling my leadership skills, becoming a better exec teammate, etc.

If you get a chance to work with him, you should do it!

Scott Gifis, President, AdRoll at AdRoll Group

Joe’s mentorship was transformative for me during an important and challenging transition in my career.

If you are fortunate enough to have an opportunity to work with and learn from Joe, seize it... you will be better for it, professionally and personally.