Gena Gorlin
Founder Coaching
The primary service I offer is psychological coaching to startup founders (“startup” in the Grahamian sense). As a clinical psychologist specializing in founders, I focus on the deep psychological work that might fall outside the scope of traditional executive coaching, but with a founder-specific focus that might fall outside the scope of traditional psychotherapy.
I work with the whole range of founders, from pre-seed to IPO, from first-time founders to serial founders. I also offer cofounder team coaching. Book a first session here, or reach out to me for more information. No “bulk” commitment is ever required, unless we jointly agree otherwise.
The central thesis of my coaching framework is that there is a distinct mindset—what I call the builder’s mindset—exemplified by the healthy builder. The builder accepts reality, but decidedly does not accept its present configuration. Nor does the builder have to do anything, including build. The builder chooses to build and fosters joy in the effort of building, even in the brutal cycles of founding and growing a startup.
Adopting the builder’s mindset means rejecting as confused such commonplaces as “work-life balance”, “intrinsic motivation”, “intellectual humility”, and more. It means, instead, embracing radical agency, first principles thinking, self-honesty, and building yourself by building.
You can read more about my framework by perusing my writing and research, and especially my newsletter.
Sample testimonials
The reason why Gena is so great is because most coaches, they’ve only experienced running one company. They have some experience running businesses but it’s limited to one perspective. They also haven’t done a lot of deep psychological work. They have no understanding of what it’s like to be inside your specific head. Then on the other end you have maybe a therapist who’s had some training, but honestly, most therapists are nowhere near as smart as most founders. They’re just not equipped to solve the problems that you’ve got.
Gena is the rare person, the only one I know that has both, because she has spent time with hundreds of founders of all different shapes and sizes of businesses. And she deeply understands both philosophy, like how you arrive at worldviews and theoretical perspectives, and psychology, like how you feel in certain situations. And that combo is super deadly and it’s what makes her so effective.
The 3 sessions I've had with Gena have been the 3 most important hours of my life.
The first session changed the way I approached every conversation. I had a deep-seeded anxiety that made me look at conversations as a test or performance. Gena gave me tangible tools to notice that and mitigate it. It's made me a better listener, a better entrepreneur, and a better friend.
In the second, I learned how my failures in pitching my business came from a lack of confidence in my expertise. Once that was in the light, I was able to recognize that I did know my stuff and that change propagated to how I communicated and carried myself. I closed my first investor cheque the very next day for $50K.
The third [about 2 years later] helped me see how little enjoyment in my life came outside of work and how that was costing me everywhere, including, ironically, in my work and productivity. After it was over, for about an hour I felt like I was standing in front of a jet engine with a cold wind blowing the skin off my face (in a good way 😅).
The goal of becoming the best version of myself is at the core of everything I do. 3 hours with Gena helped accelerate that journey for me by years. Where else you gettin’ ROI like that?
Keshev Kulkarni
Co-founder & CEO, Cheffer Technologies
I wholeheartedly recommend Dr. Gena Gorlin as an executive coach to the YC [and broader founder] community.
Gena has been pivotal in guiding us through some of the most critical learnings and decisions at [my company]. As an executive coach, she exudes positivity and genuinely supports the mission of the founders. She champions the virtues of building something meaningful and brings to the table a wide range of both technical and clinical experience.
Gena helped me evolve into a “growth machine,” assisting me in acquiring new skills rapidly, becoming a subject matter expert, and effectively delegating tasks.
Much of my journey as an entrepreneur, I believe, has been shaped by two main elements: the market propelling me and my business forward, and the internal conflicts within our team that held us back. Gena has been instrumental in helping me resolve these internal issues, enabling us to focus our energies on tackling external market challenges.
Prior to working with Gena, I felt like almost 90% of my energy was spent on internal problems. However, with her guidance, this has now reduced to less than 10%.
Anonymous
Founder & CEO, backed by YC and a16z (YC founders can access full review here on Bookface)
I was privileged to be a part of Dr. Gorlin’s 8 week pilot seminar on the Builder’s Mindset... I believe that Builder’s Mindset has a place in startup canon, alongside concepts like lean startup, 0-1, product market fit and doing things that don’t scale.
David Liu, PhD
Founder & CEO, mya.homes (2x Founder, ex-Google, ex-McKinsey)
