Behind-the-Scenes at Galileo: Why we give every founder a coach

Every Galileo founder is given the opportunity to engage with our Founder Coach, Jo Morrison.
By
Team Galileo
Oct 2021

How do founders make the journey, through business and personal growth, from an emerging founder-visionary to a well-rounded leader? With a coach.

At Galileo, we pride ourselves on the support we provide each founder. Part of this is paying for every founder to have the opportunity to engage with our Founder Coach, Jo Morrison, to help them build their management and leadership skills.

What is the role of a founder?

As a founder, you are typically focused on three main areas:

  • Set the overall vision and strategy of the company
  • Recruit, hire and retain the very best talent for the company
  • Make sure there’s always enough cash in the bank

What are the challenges founders face?

  • The wearing of ‘all the hats’. Typically in an established business, you’d be hired for one role.
  • Feeling like you need to know everything or get it all right, ALL OF THE TIME.
  • Attempting to take care of your mental health and well-being as well as considering your teams’.
  • Deciding what order to do things in or how to prioritise when everything seems urgent.
  • Learning to lead well - they probably didn’t start a business because they wanted to manage a team!

These examples are just tip of the iceberg 🗻

Why do we recommend a coach for Galileo founders?

A coach is independent and has no hidden agenda- A coach is independent and will dare to ask you critical questions that others cannot or don’t have the authority to. Their only agenda is to help you reach your potential.

Become a great leader- A coach can help you try out new leadership strategies or help you make difficult decisions, which will ultimately make you a better team leader. This is especially useful for first-time founders, who may not have been in a leadership position previously.

Get out of your way- Some roadblocks seem unsolvable because they’re stuck somewhere in your mind. Sometimes it’s not just about that business plan, there’s a lot that is getting in the way. Coaches provide mindset tools to help you get out of your own way.

When do we recommend founders start working with a coach?

Generally founders need a coach before they 'think' they do- hence why we offer the service once we invest.

How do Galileo founders work with executive coach, Jo?

We’re big believers in the power of coaching, offering post-investment coaching for every founder in our portfolio.

Like all platform benefits we offer, the executive coaching function with Jo is opt-in. Saying that we’ve already seen that over half the founders in our portfolio have raised a hand to take advantage.

Jo offers sessions over the course of the program to help founders recognise what needs to shift within themselves to create a better business environment for growth and opportunity.

The first conversation with founders is based on a pre-coaching questionnaire to draw out of them what they need help with. Then Jo provide ideas, inspiration, resources and support to get them where they want to go - faster!

In addition to helping founders work on their mindset, Jo facilitates co-founder conversations where there are disagreements and provides practical ideas to improve ongoing co-founder communication.

About Jo:

Jo is the Leadership Coach for our founders, guiding and supporting their personal success to become better management leaders within their growing teams. Previously Jo was a Director at INCUBATE, growing the team, operations, and supporting the founders.

Jo Morrison - Galileo Founder Leadership Coach

Jo coaches entrepreneurial mindset, ways to reduce overwhelm, communicate better, increase confidence and to learn to love leadership and systems. You can connect with her on Linkedin.

About the Author
Galileo Ventures is a seed VC firm supporting the world's most ambitious emerging founders.
Tags:
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