In early-stage startups, founder behavior isn’t just one of many factors — it can be the dominant variable (and often is) in determining whether a company endures and thrives, or, plateaus and dies. I’ve worked with countless founders and categorized functional behaviors and dysfunctional behaviors for startup-company building. This post serves to illuminate them, show you a simple rubric for evaluating them, and ways to mitigate. Again, this is not to judge whether a founder is good/bad, right/wrong, ethical/unethical — this is purely to assess behaviors that enrich company value and those that do not. This list is also not exhaustive.

The importance or need for performance coaching isn’t always clear to startup founders. Often, founders stumble upon it thanks to having a curious, open mind. Other times, their co-founders and investors force it upon them as a form of ‘good medicine.’ In this post, I provide perspective on:

1) What founder coaching is and isn’t— and why this isn’t always clear, especially when it comes to startup company building.

2) The core benefits of any form of performance coaching so you know what to look for when you are looking.