A founder reflecting inside a mountain lodge beside maps and a warm fire

Founder Leadership Coaching & Mentoring

Solve the problems slowing your company down. Build the capabilities it needs next.

You can be working harder, hiring good people and trying sensible advice, yet still run into the same problems. The reason is often more specific than effort or execution: your company needs a capability it hasn't built yet, and the right move depends on the stage it is in.

I work privately with founders to identify the problems that matter most, connect them to the capabilities the business needs and put a clear sequence behind the work. We begin with a personalized Founder Scaling Roadmap. Then we meet every week to work through the decisions, changes and leadership challenges involved in implementing it.

The work is specific to your company. One founder needs more paying customers. Another needs sales and delivery to stop depending on a few experienced people. Another needs managers to make decisions without sending every difficult issue to the CEO.

Book a Founder Leadership ConversationExplore the three coaching paths

Your company has a current game to win

The problems facing a founder trying to win their first dependable customers differ from the problems at a $5 million business or a $25 million company. The same advice can help at one point and create expensive distractions at another.

Founder Scaling Dynamics is the map we use to locate your company and understand the developmental work it faces. It looks at what your people can do, how decisions get made, how the business earns money and where progress keeps stalling. Company size provides useful context; how the company operates tells us which game it is playing.

We concentrate on three paths for private coaching and mentoring.

Find the path that sounds like your company

01 · START-UP · PROVE IT

Get more paying customers and make the economics of your business work.

You are still establishing a dependable customer, offer and acquisition approach. You have ideas and activity, but you need more paying customers and stronger evidence about which parts of the business are working.

You may recognize: leads that don't convert, an offer that keeps changing, pricing you negotiate from pressure, cash surprises or too many experiments happening at once.

The work: Clarify who buys and why, improve paid demand, understand the economics and build a delivery method you can repeat. The developmental target is Viability.

Explore Start-Up founder coaching

02 · STABLE · REPEAT IT

Stop solving the same operating problems every week.

The business works. Customers buy. But the results still vary by salesperson, employee or manager. You know who has to be present for a job to go well, and routine problems find their way back to you.

You may recognize: inconsistent sales and delivery, too much tribal knowledge, handoffs that fail, first managers who don't manage and new hires who need prolonged shadowing.

The work: Make the core method teachable, strengthen first management and establish dependable ways to sell, deliver and review performance. The developmental target is Repeatability.

Explore Stable-stage coaching

03 · GROWTH · ORGANIZE IT

Your leaders have titles. Help them make decisions and run the company.

Your company has become more complex. You have managers and functions, yet senior decisions, exceptions and cross-functional disagreements still end up with you. Growth is exposing gaps that individual effort cannot fix.

You may recognize: managers who coordinate instead of lead, decisions that wait for your approval, poorly defined executive roles, functional conflict and financial surprises as volume increases.

The work: Strengthen managers, clarify roles and authority, improve cross-functional execution and build a more capable leadership system. The developmental target is Organizational Capability.

Explore Growth-stage CEO coaching

Not sure which path fits? The free Founder’s Map can help you locate your current game. We can also work this out together during a Founder Leadership Conversation.

What working together looks like

1
Locate the company
We examine the company's current game and developmental position. We look at revenue and team size, but rely more heavily on recent operating behavior, management capability and the problems that keep returning.
2
Diagnose what is getting in the way
We identify the recurring business and leadership problems, their consequences and the capability gaps that may be producing them. We distinguish symptoms from causes and check whether unfinished work from an earlier game is still creating difficulty.
3
Decide what success would look like
We clarify your goals for the business and for your role as founder. We select the developmental milestones that matter now, then agree on observable changes that would tell us we are making progress.
4
Build your custom Founder Scaling Roadmap
The roadmap identifies priorities, sequencing, strategies, relevant tools, owners and progress indicators. It sets out the next 90 days in practical detail and gives us a longer view for the scope of the engagement.
5
Work through it in weekly private sessions
We review what happened, resolve important questions, work through leadership decisions and prepare for the next set of actions. Some weeks the issue is a customer or financial decision. Other weeks it is a management problem, a difficult conversation or a change you need to make in how you lead.
6
Review and revise
We revisit the roadmap as evidence comes in. We record progress, reconsider assumptions and adjust the next priorities. Your plan should change when the company changes.

A roadmap built around your company

Two companies can have the same revenue and need very different help. One has dependable sales but inconsistent delivery. Another has good operations and an uncertain acquisition process. A third has capable executives who still wait for the founder to settle difficult decisions.

I won't take you through a predetermined curriculum because you happen to fall into a revenue band. We use the stage roadmap to understand the terrain, then scope the work around your goals, your constraints and the capabilities that need attention first.

Companies may spend years in one developmental stage. We use a three-, six- or twelve-month engagement to work on agreed problems and capabilities. There is no fixed syllabus or promise of reaching the next stage during the engagement.

What you receive

A Founder Scaling Assessment
A practical read of your company's game, current position, recurring problems and areas of capability that need attention.
A customized Founder Scaling Roadmap
Written priorities, goals, relevant milestones, strategies and tools, with a workable sequence and measures of progress.
Weekly private coaching and mentoring with Brett Thomas
Direct discussion of your most consequential decisions, leadership challenges and implementation questions.
Relevant tools and frameworks
We select the exercises, maps, audits and operating practices appropriate to the problem. You won't be asked to install a complete management system just because it's in a playbook.
Periodic progress reviews and roadmap updates
We compare the plan with what has changed in the company and decide what comes next.

Who does the work?

You lead the company and make its decisions. Your team executes the business changes. I help you diagnose, prioritize, decide, learn and develop your leadership while you do that work. If a change requires a consulting team working directly inside the organization, we scope that separately rather than pretending it is included in private coaching.

Choose how long you want to work together

The engagement is tailored to your situation. The fees are straightforward. Each option includes an assessment of your current game, a personalized Founder Scaling Roadmap, weekly private coaching and mentoring with Brett Thomas, relevant frameworks and periodic progress reviews. We agree on the priorities before the work begins.

3 Months

$6,000 total

Focused Roadmap

For one pressing problem or a tightly related set of decisions. Identify the main constraint, create a focused 90-day roadmap and work together weekly as you test changes and make decisions. This suits a founder who knows something needs attention now and can lead the implementation with their team.

6 Months

$10,000 total

Capability Build

For several connected problems that need sustained attention. Work through two 90-day planning and review cycles, developing the methods, management practices or leadership behavior needed to make progress. This suits a founder whose challenge will take more than one round of changes to improve.

12 Months

$15,000 total

Founder Leadership Partnership

For longer-term development while the company keeps changing. Work with an experienced advisor every week across four 90-day cycles. Revisit the roadmap as new evidence appears, strengthen what works and adapt the next priorities. This suits a founder who wants continuity as they build capability and mature in their leadership role.

The duration is the period of coaching, not the time required to finish a stage. Companies may remain in one stage for years. We focus on the problems and developmental milestones that matter to your goals. These prices cover the private coaching relationship and custom roadmap, not a done-for-you organizational transformation.

Book a Founder Leadership Conversation

Why work with Brett?

I've spent nearly three decades coaching and developing leaders and working with founders and executives through business growth, leadership challenges and organizational change. My work combines practical management experience with a developmental understanding of how companies change as they grow.

Founder Scaling Dynamics gives us a shared map. The value of our weekly conversations is using that map to make better decisions in your company, while the decisions still matter.

Book a Founder Leadership Conversation

Common questions

Why is a custom roadmap included in every option?

Because the right coaching topic depends on the business. We start with what is happening, choose the most consequential problems and set practical priorities before weekly work begins. The roadmap changes when evidence changes.

What's the difference between three, six and twelve months?

Each gives us a different period of focused work. Three months concentrates on a current priority. Six months allows us to work through connected capabilities and review what changed. Twelve months gives the founder sustained guidance across several planning cycles. None is a promise to complete an entire stage.

What do the published prices include?

The total engagement fees are $6,000 for three months, $10,000 for six months and $15,000 for twelve months. All include a custom roadmap, weekly private coaching and mentoring, selected tools and progress reviews. The scope of the work we will prioritize is agreed during our initial conversation.

Is this a standard three-, six- or twelve-month curriculum?

No. We decide the scope based on your situation. Your roadmap names the milestones and capabilities we will focus on. An engagement may run three, six or twelve months, but it does not promise that an entire developmental stage will be completed by a certain date.

What if my company has problems from more than one stage?

That's common. We identify the earliest significant capability gap that is affecting current results, even when the company has more advanced practices elsewhere. The right work may start with something the company should already be able to do reliably.

Is this coaching, consulting or both?

The core relationship is private founder coaching and mentoring. We work through judgment, leadership behavior, business decisions and the implementation work you lead. Larger company-wide installations involving the management team are scoped separately as consulting.

Can we start with a specific pressing problem?

Yes. Your immediate challenge is often the right place to begin. We examine it carefully before deciding whether it is an isolated issue or a signal of something more fundamental.

Let's talk about your company

Tell me what's changing, which problems keep coming back and what you want to accomplish. We'll discuss whether a customized coaching and mentoring engagement makes sense for your situation.

Book a Founder Leadership Conversation

The Conversation is complimentary and straightforward. There is no requirement to purchase a book or another diagnostic first.