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

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?

Thia is one of the best conversations I have ever heard. It's like on openness, competence and authenticity YC somehow manage to gather people like this and Dalton. Thank you for existing guys you are all absolutely incredible and make the world so much more worthwhile

Conclusion: a coach is someone who has experienced and went through what you're going through, and did enough self reflection on it. In other words, a mentor that charges you :) great conversation!

Excited to be here !

Great insight, Michael. We need a support system. You resisted the idea of coaching because you already had it. This is the key to people that tell the homeless to 'get a job'. They have no clue how much it means to have a support system.

Very interesting point by Michael "good leadership doesn't require being disruptive"

Amy is very, very good. And, Michael … is a champion.

Every time I hear, 50/50 partnership, I keep thinking about the Zipcar. Yiiiikes

Just re-watched this video and it really resonates with me. The last discussion was really powerful for me, watching how coaches perform their role over here in Australia. I’m seeing business coaches coach startups, not startup coaches coaching startups, supporting them from the point of having experienced the startup experience. We are creating slow moving businesses, not startups… how can coaches support their startups to take the daring steps that they are not taking?

Fantastic, candid discussion. thank you

fantastic talk! Thank y'all for your insights. The battle right now for me is working on product and at the same time pitching to investors.

Thanks for sharing again

3rd time watching this and it gets better every time.

Great one!

Very candid conversation enjoyed it when setting up our startup see you on demo day with my co founder!

Startup coaching would have to be a must : the most I like about this podcast is having tough conversations about equitity, performance, runaway and sharing feelings and intentions. For me it is too late now because I pass from cofounder of something to be just a founder of anything.

Great convo. A brilliant read to supplement this topic: The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup by Noam Wasserman. Be well,

33:26 --- startup idea - "we provide coaching for the masses"

Amy has a great audio voice :)

Interesting podcast! It clarifies many things. There is a lot of debate on the difference between mentoring and coaching. What are your thoughts on that? A mentor is someone that relates to your development goal as a founder (in this case) and seeks to develop and advice you based on his “been there done that” experience. While a coach can help and support you with problems you’re facing related to their area of expertise. There is some overlapping there but I believe clarifying definitions is very important. Feel free to share feedback!