Coaching is a Core Component of Success for Venture-Backed Startups

By: Matt Auron & Geoff Graber

Building a business is hard, and the gauntlets of being an entrepreneur come fast and heavy early on: clarifying an idea, building a team, finding product-market fit and scaling the organization all require initiations of both the leader and the business itself. Moving through these stages requires active learning and adaptability - and can challenge fundamental assumptions about a leader’s (and business’) operating system of who they are in the world. At the center of startups are people that lead them.

Venture capitalists invest in people, not ideas or businesses. So it follows that there is a movement toward providing support for founders and their teams beyond capital and strategic input. Since Evolution began in 2012 we have worked in partnership with more than two dozen venture firms who regularly introduce us to their founders when they seek coaching. We see the next step in the evolution of venture capital is for VCs to create holistic programs of development for founders and teams. 

Crosscut is the first venture firm to do this by formally partnering with Evolution to support their founders and portfolio companies. Evolution’s role is to create a customized, programmatic approach that is specific to Crosscut and their portfolio of early-stage startups. It includes individual and team coaching, as well as the opportunity for founders to join our flagship retreats, Deep and Restore.

We first met Brian Garrett of Crosscut over a decade ago when he was hustling to get the firm started. Last October, after years of recommending coaching for many of his founders and introducing them to us, Brian himself took another step on his developmental journey and ventured to Deep, our retreat in Maui that he wrote about in Fast Company. That experience compelled Brian and his partners to collaborate with us to create a program for Crosscut and their portfolio, supporting those businesses to navigate the challenges of going from Seed to Series A.

After spending months working with the Crosscut team, supporting them to clarify the essence of the firm, strengthen their relationships, and recommit to their purpose, we co-designed a program that is unique for them. Over the coming years, we are confident that other VCs will follow suit, integrating coaching into their value-add services beyond the capital, building such capabilities following their philosophy and approach to working with startups.

We have seen the transformational effects of our work and we have heard from our clients that coaching has saved their company. Although it can help struggling companies, coaching is best as a long term maximizer of performance. Companies that invest in coaching and development work are much more likely to succeed in building a business that is sustainable, and ultimately, far more successful. VCs that invest in this work will realize the benefit of one more foundational support for their portfolio, lowering their risk.

VCs that have begun to publicly dedicate investment dollars towards coaching and development are seeing their brand develop and deal flow increase, especially towards founders who are highly motivated to improve. We will see coaching become as valuable as any of the other core components of a startup’s strategy and operations. We are excited to be stewarding this movement in the venture and startup community and look forward to many exciting chapters ahead.