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. Get in touch if you’d like to learn more. 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.

Already know you’d like to book? Schedule a first session here.

Sample testimonials

Read these and other testimonials in full.