Coaching · By application
A coaching practice for founders.
I'm currently Managing Partner at Bankless Ventures, an exited founder, a CFA, and an athlete. A few times a year I take on a small number of founders as coaching clients. The conversations are about clarity, decisions, and what it takes to stay in the seat for the long game.
Why this exists
Most founder advice is tactical. It dates fast, and it rarely changes the founder who's running the company.
What moves the needle over a five or ten year arc isn't a better deck or a sharper go to market. It's the way you think under pressure. How you hold a hard decision without flinching. How you stay clear when nothing is working. Whether you've built a life that can carry the weight of the company.
Coaching is the work of getting clearer about all of that, and then turning that clarity into how you actually operate.
Most of what stops a founder isn't strategic. It's interior.
Who this is for
A fit if
- •You're a founder, any stage from pre-seed onward
- •You want to think harder about how you're thinking, not just what you're doing
- •You're up for real pushback
- •You'll do work between sessions, not just talk in them
Not a fit if
- •You want a list of tactics or a fundraise consultant
- •You're looking for validation
- •You don't actually want to change anything about how you operate
- •You want the credential more than the work
What you get
Bi-weekly 1:1s
60 minutes, video, focused agenda you set in advance.
Between sessions
Written reflections, voice memos, async exchange when it's useful. Same day reply when you need one.
Quarterly written check-in
Where you started, what's shifted, what's next. A real document, not a slide.
Honest pushback
Sharper questions than you usually get. The thing most people in your life are too polite to say.
About me
I'm Ben. Managing GP at Bankless Ventures, a CFA, and an athlete. I've started, scaled, sold, and failed companies. I surf, train hard, and have lived mostly abroad since 2010, currently in Lisbon.
I'm at my best in conversations that go deeper than the spreadsheet. That's what this is.
Request a conversation
Tell me about yourself in a few sentences. If there's a fit, we'll do a 30 minute call. No pitch, just a conversation. Fee structure shared on that call.
Open applicationor email coach@benlakoff.com
A small number of active clients at a time. Currently reviewing applications.