I’ve been speaking about this with past clients – and with Founders who were interested but ultimately decided not to engage me.
The results are pretty surprising.
While Founder Coaching is quite popular in the US, and almost a prerequisite for follow-on funding these days in the Valley, until very recently most pre- and post-Series A Founders in Southeast Asia shy away from engaging a coach.
While experienced Founder Coaches (those with real operator experience as a founder) can help with everything from fund-raising to hiring to scaling to emotional wobbles and outright wellness issues, there seems to be a reluctance on the part of Founders in Southeast Asia to ask for help.
The top reasons I’ve heard include:
👉🏼 Too expensive
👉🏼 No guarantee of results
👉🏼 Face and embarrassment issues
👉🏼 Don’t need help
👉🏼 It’s not me who needs help, it’s….
And, although I’ve seen some encouraging signs of change here, many investors and VCs are also reluctant (at best) to encourage Founders to seek outside coaching.
To be honest, I haven’t spoken at length with many investors on this yet, but from what I have gleaned, many of the reasons appear to be the same – especially the cost issue.
hashtag#Founders – Why the reluctance? What are your reasons for not engaging a coach?
hashtag#Investors / hashtag#VCs – Why the reluctance to recommend a coach to early-stage Founders?
⁉️ Let me know your thoughts, I’m curious …. ⁉️
hashtag#coaching hashtag#foundercoaching hashtag#preseriesA hashtag#seedstage hashtag#founders hashtag#firsttimefounders hashtag
