For founders and their leadership teams
Your company is
outgrowing how
you run it.
I help you work out what’s really stuck and make the hard decisions, so the company moves without everything coming back to you. Sometimes I work with the whole leadership team, and sometimes I coach you or your leaders one-to-one. Often it’s a combination.
Six years at Google. Two at Amazon, leading a 100-person organisation. CPO of a listed company. ICF-accredited coach.
16
startup leadership teams
200+
leaders worked with directly
€3bn+
the value of the startups I've worked with
Startups and accelerators I've worked with
From a strategy on paper to a confident strategic call
Series A B2B software startup, leadership team
A Series A B2B software startup's leadership team turned a strategy on paper into OKRs they still run, and found the confidence to make a big strategic call.
Read more
+
OKRs that took the company up-market
Series D data SaaS scale-up, about 250 people
A Series D data SaaS scale-up whose product had stopped selling refocused on the world’s biggest customers, got on budget, and stopped pulling its CEO into everything.
Read more
+
What changes as the company grows
“Everything still comes back to me.”
You’d hand more over, if you could trust it would be done right. Your team would take more on, if they knew what you wanted. So it all stays with you.
“Everyone nods, then nothing changes.”
The meeting ends in agreement. The next week, the same argument is back. Every reopened decision carries a cost.
“I’m not sure we’re building the right thing.”
Maybe it was never quite settled. Maybe it made sense a year ago. Either way, you’d like to know before everyone pulls in one direction.
“Sales says it’s product. Product says it’s engineering.”
Good people, each with a good reason, end up blaming each other’s teams. The real disagreements never get resolved, so the same arguments keep coming back.
“We used to be fast.”
We hired more people, added process, and got slower.
“We meet every week and still act like department heads.”
Everyone runs their own area well. Nobody runs the company with you.
All of this can happen when growth slows, or when it speeds up. Most of the companies I work with have a few dozen to a few hundred people: venture-backed, PE-backed or privately owned.
Maybe you’ve set OKRs, and three weeks later the urgent stuff won. Maybe you’ve tried a new process or new leaders, and the same arguments came back. Another framework won’t fix that. The way you run the company has to be your team’s own. I bring what’s worked at other companies. We figure out what will work here. Your team writes the playbook.
The company was built to run through you, and for a long time that was the right way. Now it’s bigger, and the way it runs can change with it.
What it looks like when it works
The leadership meeting ends with a decision, and it’s still standing on Friday.
A problem that’s been stuck for months gets solved in weeks, by the people closest to it.
Planning runs on a rhythm, and someone else runs it.
Decisions get made in rooms you’re not in, and you’re fine with that.
The engineering lead who only spoke up on technical questions now helps shape the strategy.
You trust the team with the week, and spend your time on where the company goes next.
What we put in place
Together we get the way your company runs working, whether that means fixing what’s there or building something new: how you agree a strategy, set goals, run the week and make decisions. Sometimes the first job is working out whether the strategy is the problem, or the way it’s run. Your leaders make the calls, and you lead them. I bring in what I’ve seen elsewhere when it helps, and help you decide.
A better way of running the company asks more of the people running it. So I coach them while they grow into it, starting with you, if you’d like.
1
The Strategy and Execution Diagnostic
I talk to your leaders one by one, find where decisions and work get stuck, and tell you what I found, in plain words. You leave with the two or three changes to make first.
2
Workshops for the leadership team
Anything from half a day to two days. Your leaders agree where you’re going, the goals for the quarter and who owns what. Afterwards, I support you as much or as little as you need.
3
Growing into the bigger job
Coaching for the founder and the leaders around them, as their jobs get bigger: the senior hire who hasn’t settled, someone promoted for being great at the work, or you, after a step up. Individual and confidential.
Neurodiversity: every brain works differently, so I shape the work around how you think best. You don’t need a diagnosis, or to tell me anything.
Sometimes a day together is enough. Sometimes I work with your leadership team for several quarters. I coach the people leading the change until they can run it themselves.
Each engagement is different, so we talk first.
From the founders' circle to one leadership team
Series C B2B SaaS scale-up, a few hundred people
A Series C B2B SaaS scale-up got its leadership team deciding together, and one OKR session cut a six-month project for 20 people to two months for three.
Read more
+
A strategy reset that broke a risky dependency
Seed-stage SaaS startup, about 30 people
A seed-stage SaaS startup of about 30 people reset its strategy in a one-day offsite, broke its dependence on a single platform, and pivoted fast when that platform changed.
Read more
+
I've been there
I’ve sat beside founders, and started three small businesses of my own. I’ve worked with over 200 founders and leaders.
So I know what it’s like to make hard decisions with incomplete information, lead people smarter than me, and watch a company slow down as it grows.
I’ll tell you what I see, including when the way you lead is part of what’s stuck. I’ll say it privately and kindly, and help you do something about it.
Know someone this would help?
If you invest in founders, or know one it would help
Here’s a line you can send them:
Richard helps founders whose company is outgrowing how they run it. He works with the founder and their leadership team, so the company keeps moving fast as it grows. The first call is free.
The startups I’ve worked with are backed by investors including Accel, Atomico, Creandum, EQT, Cherry Ventures and SoftBank.
If you work alongside the CEO
Here’s a line you can send them:
I thought this might help us as we grow: Richard works with founders and their leadership teams on the hard calls, so decisions get made, and stay made. The first call is free.
Here's his website: https://richardrussell.co/
Next steps
1
Book a call
A 20-minute Clarity Call. Free, confidential, no preparation needed. You don’t need to know what kind of help you need: it might be the strategy, the team or how you lead. Working that out is what the call is for.
2
Then a Strategy Session
Free, with the right people on the call. We go through what’s happening, what good looks like and what’s been tried, and you leave with a plan for what to do next, whether or not it involves me.
3
A clear proposal
The scope and the price. If we both want to work together, we’ll find the right way to make it happen.
“
Shared direction, real action.
Richard helped us get clear and move forward, both as a leadership team and as individuals. His strategy facilitation gave us a shared direction, and his coaching helped us turn that into real decisions and action. I'd recommend working with him to any CEO or exec team dealing with complexity and change.
Hessam Lavi
CEO & Co-Founder
Climatiq
“
A real boost in how we operate.
Our company's operating system? Well, it was a bit of a mess, to be honest. But Richard came in, rolled up his sleeves, and helped us sort it out in no time. … We've seen a real boost in how efficiently we operate thanks to him.
Rob van den Heuvel
CEO & Co-Founder
Sendcloud
“
Plans made rock solid
Richard has a fascinating ability to challenge one’s thoughts and strategies by playing the devil’s advocate so as to make the new plans rock solid. … Although he is really smart and has a lot of experience, he never has a hierarchical or “know-it-all” approach, which I highly appreciated while working with him.
Felix Hemmerling
Co-Founder
Univize
Leading change in a bigger organisation?
Want coaching for yourself?