Do you want to develop the leadership and organizational development skills in your portfolio companies? We work with startups and venture capitalists to develop the leadership skills of founders and offer a structured 6-month program with a combination of group sessions and individual coaching. Our proven approach has delivered outstanding results for our clients.
One of our core pillars at byFounders is Founder Compassion: we invest in our founders, not only financially but also in our long-term relationship with them.
Recognizing that a healthy company needs a healthy steward at the wheel - someone in touch with themselves and reality - we strive for transparency and candor in all our interactions with founders. As a result we have invested in coaching program that we offer to our portfolio company founders.
To run the program we selected the founder coaching program from Session. It has been very successful for our portfolio companies and we've received great reviews and feedback. The program has helped our founders develop more of the leadership skills they need to grow and succeed, and they have built strong bonds with each other. We're confident that it will continue to have a positive impact on our portfolio companies, and we're excited about our continued collaboration with Session.
Our work with byFounders VC
We are proud to be working with byFounders VC and their portfolio companies. byFounders reached out to Session in 2021 with an ambition to offer select founders from their portfolio companies access to a structured program of facilitated group discussions and individual coaching.
Here is the high level structure of the program (courtesy of byFounders).
Founder coaching
A group of 6 founders is selected by the sponsoring VC firm. We recommend forming a group with diversity in mind. Ideally the startups should also be at approximately the same stage of their journey.
Everyone takes a Gallup StrengthFinder test and meets with the coach to receive feedback on their profile characteristics.
The first online group session (2 hours) is focused on getting to know each other and providing information about the program and the house rules for interactions.
Topics for the following group sessions are decided by the group. In each session, a founder (by turn) will present a dilemma and get feedback from the group. The group sessions are 1.5 hours long and are facilitated by an experienced founder business coach.
During the individual coaching sessions, which are approximately 1 hour long, we focus on identifying the strengths of the founder and how they can be applied for maximum impact on their work. We also address the individual challenges and needs of the founder. The aim of these sessions is to help the founder learn and grow both personally and for their company.
Impact
The impact for me personally was big. Q2 was very very difficult on so many levels and the individual and group sessions really helped me with that. And it impacted my business in a really positive way, I got great feedback from the employees as well as customers, actually.
The group sessions were awesome (…) great discussions and real-life examples. It gave confidence there is not one right way, we are all trying to build and do the best we can.
The facilitator/coach is open and a warm person (…) She brings out one’s strengths, and doesn’t sugarcoat. If something needs changing, she brings it up in an empathetic and solutions-oriented way, to the benefit of me, my surroundings and my business.
(After the program) I have finally gotten myself setup with a coach! It proved to me how much it does for me and my company and I therefore searched and found a permanent coach to help me stay on track.
I really think it made a lot of sense to put various founders together. The facilitator/coach did an incredible job making sure we had a really good space where we could discuss all the hard things, challenges, share tips and advice etc. Actually the first time where I have a place just to think out loud and get valuable insights into how I might become a better leader and bring my company to the next stage.
I can only give the programme 5 out of 5 stars! Really valuable - so big thanks.
