Amy Buechler and Michael Seibel on Founder Coaching and Having Hard Conversations

Amy Buechler is an executive coach for startup founders.

https://www.foundercoach.io/
https://twitter.com/amybue

Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC.

https://twitter.com/mwseibel

In this episode we talk about coaching and use examples from Michael’s time working on Justin.tv and Socialcam.

The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.

https://twitter.com/craigcannon

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Topics

00:10 – What is coaching?

00:40 – How is coaching different from therapy?

2:00 – What are the most common challenges founders in coaching have?

2:55 – Challenges with roles and responsibilities at Twitch

7:15 – How would Amy have coached Michael around roles and responsibilities?

9:10 – Not being disruptive as a leader

11:00 – Switching roles at Twitch

12:15 – Uneven equity splits

14:30 – Distributing and negotiating equity

20:45 – Communicating your own value

22:20 – Can there be too much communication?

23:40 – Productive arguments

27:40 – Talking about performance issues

29:45 – Setting clear goals and managing motivation

32:45 – Enjoying the work

33:30 – Conversations about runway

36:20 – Digging your company out of the grave and continuing

39:50 – Michael being against coaching initially

42:00 – How to have hard conversations

43:45 – Removing a responsibility from someone

49:20 – Returning to roles and responsibilities

50:10 – Jeanie McCallister asks – What’s the single most important piece of advice you can give a founder?