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Aligning co-founders at one of India’s most successful startups

  • “What I found most beneficial about the coaching sessions was my comfort in sharing confidential information with the coach. He crystallises key actionables from every discussion and provides accountability for my self-development goals.”
    Co-founder
Type of Organisation

Tech startup

Type of Solution

Executive coaching

Participants

Co-founders

The Problem

A Series B startup had the potential for dramatic growth but needed all co-founders to “reinvent” themselves and strongly align to handle that growth. The co-founders knew that if the organisation were to hit hyper-growth, they needed to step up; there was no way that they could carry their business into the next stage of its evolution until they aligned their priorities and created a dynamic of deep trust and reliability.

Each leader needed to upskill – in delegation, accountability, conflict resolution, and communication – as well as working to support each other’s development in order to create a stronger co-founder team. Each founder had a radically different personality, and in order for the company to flourish, the team needed to find a way to leverage these differences, rather than resist them.

The Solution

The co-founders looked at multiple consulting and coaching solutions before deciding on ALI-C; they wanted coaches they could trust to be there for the long haul with in-depth knowledge of the start-up ecosystem. One of our senior coaches worked with all founders simultaneously, engaging in in-depth interviews with seven stakeholders per founder (including the other co-founders).

Besides bi-weekly coaching sessions with each founder, the coach facilitated three group sessions where the founders openly shared about their self-identified and stakeholder-identified growth areas and struggles. The group sessions helped the team be more vulnerable, apply radical candour, and work out ways that they could support each other. As a team, they also honed their feedback skills and developed further down in the organisation a more impactful and sustainable peer-coaching culture.

Results

Each founder demonstrated measurable progress on at least three growth areas, with the progress validated by other co-founders and leadership team members. Within the first year of coaching, the company reached a valuation of 1.5 billion, becoming a unicorn. We remain involved with the co-founders and are expanding our offering to their next level leaders. 

All of the founders rated the effectiveness of the coaching and return on investment of their time and financial investment an overall 9/10.

All co-founders said they would 9/10 or 10/10 recommend the coaching to colleagues.