About this episode
Amy Buechler is an executive coach for startup founders. Michael Seibel is a partner and the CEO of YC. In this episode we talk about coaching and use examples from Michael’s time working on Justin.tv and Socialcam. You can find Amy at her site foundercoach.io and on Twitter at @amybue . Michael is on Twitter at @mwseibel . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - What is coaching? 01:11 - How is coaching different from therapy? 2:31 - What are the most common challenges founders in coaching have? 3:26 - Challenges with roles and responsibilities at Twitch 7:46 - How would Amy have coached Michael around roles and responsibilities? 9:41 - Not being disruptive as a leader 11:31 - Switching roles at Twitch 12:46 - Uneven equity splits 15:01 - Distributing and negotiating equity 21:16 - Communicating your own value 22:51 - Can there be too much communication? 24:11 - Productive arguments 28:11 - Talking about performance issues 30:16 - Setting clear goals and managing motivation 33:16 - Enjoying the work 34:01 - Conversations about runway 36:51 - Digging your company out of the grave and continuing 40:21 - Michael being against coaching initially 42:31 - How to have hard conversations 44:16 - Removing a responsibility from someone 49:51 - Returning to roles and responsibilities 50:41 - Jeanie McCallister asks - What’s the single most important piece of advice you can give a founder?