> WHEN THE BOARD PACK ISN'T THE PROBLEM

Founder-coaching for
the ugly parts.

Monthly retainer · small cohort · one slot, plus WhatsApp when it can't wait until the slot.

$ mail niklas@bfc.fyi --subject "coaching"

run by a founder-CEO who's also a criminal defense lawyer, who spent 2023 signing personal guarantees and losing sleep he still hasn't caught up on.

◢◤ WHEN TO CALL

Three moments where founder-coaching is worth the money. (There are others. These are the ones I'm good at.)

  1. 01 When something is actually on fire.
    Down-round. Co-founder walking out. Internal investigation. Personal guarantees you signed two years ago maturing at the worst time. I know what that call sounds like from both sides.
  2. 02 When you're about to hire someone senior.
    First VP. First head-of-anything. First person who reports to a report. Wrong hire here can take a year to recover from, and most founders have never done it before.
  3. 03 When you're not sure you should still be doing this.
    The one nobody asks about publicly. Whether the company is still the right vessel. Whether you still want the life it produces. Whether the plan still makes sense without the version of you who wrote it.
If your question is "how do I raise the next round" — you probably don't need coaching. You need better warm intros. That's a different email.

◢◤ HOW IT WORKS

Monthly retainer. Small cohort. One fixed slot per month of deep-work time — two hours, focused, prepared, real. Plus WhatsApp for the things that can't wait for the slot.

I'm not always-on. Being always-on is what makes founders worse at their job over time. The retainer is designed so you learn to bring the right things to the slot, and reserve the message channel for what actually can't wait.

No calls without an agenda. No agenda without a decision you're trying to make. No decision-support without me having read the relevant material first. Coaching is not therapy, and it's not a status update.

Priced on request. If you have to ask whether you can afford it, you probably can't yet. That's fine. Come back in eighteen months.

◢◤ HOW TO REACH ME

Warm intros preferred. Founders I've worked with can make one, and if I've said no to you at BFC I might still say yes here — different filter.

Cold-mail works:

→  niklas@bfc.fyi  · subject: coaching

  • 01 Under 200 words. (Longer than the angel version. Coaching decisions need more context.)
  • 02 One sentence about what you'd want to change by month six.
  • 03 One decision you're currently avoiding.

Reply time: 48h if I'm in. Silence if I'm not or the cohort is full. Try again next quarter.