Phase 11 · Founders Support Programme · Build. Lead. Endure.
Founder-to-CEO Growth Coaching
Building a business and running a business are two different jobs. The founder who built brilliantly can fail as CEO — not because the ability is absent, but because the transition was never made deliberately.
Founder-to-CEO Growth Coaching is a structured executive coaching programme that supports founders navigating the most challenging professional transition in business: from the person who built the company to the person who leads it at scale. The skills, instincts, and behaviours that make exceptional founders — bias to action, deep technical knowledge, personal ownership of outcomes, intensity, and hands-on involvement — can become liabilities at the stage where the business needs a different kind of leadership. This programme does not ask founders to become someone else. It helps them understand what they uniquely bring to the CEO role, identify where the gaps are, and build the leadership capability that allows the business to grow beyond the founder's personal bandwidth.
The Pain We Solve
You may recognise yourself in one of these.
Three audience scenarios · because the same service produces a different transformation depending on where you are in the business journey.
Scenario 1
The founder who is becoming the bottleneck in their own business
Every significant decision routes through the founder. Every important client relationship is managed personally. Every hire requires the founder's direct involvement. The business has grown — but the founder has not scaled with it. The team is capable, but the founder has not built the systems, the delegation framework, or the leadership culture that allows the business to operate at pace without their constant involvement. Growth has stalled not because of market or product — but because the founder is the ceiling.
Scenario 2
The founder who has hired senior leaders but cannot get the best from them
The business has brought in a senior team — heads of sales, operations, finance, marketing. The talent is real. But the founder struggles to lead them: the relationships are uneven, the accountability structures are unclear, and the dynamic oscillates between excessive control and excessive delegation. The senior team is underperforming relative to their capability, and the founder does not have a framework for understanding why or what to do about it.
Scenario 3
The founder approaching Series A or a significant scale milestone
Investors at growth stage do not just back the business — they back the CEO. And CEO questions are among the most probing in any investment process: how do you lead the team, how do you make decisions under pressure, what is your biggest leadership weakness, and how are you addressing it? The founder who has not made the conscious transition to CEO — who still operates primarily as founder — may struggle to answer those questions in a way that builds investor confidence rather than eroding it.
The Impact It Creates
The Moment You Will Feel the Difference.
The founder develops a conscious, structured leadership identity that complements rather than contradicts the founding instincts that built the business
Delegation improves — the founder builds the frameworks, relationships, and trust required to operate at scale without personal involvement in every decision
The senior team performs at a higher level — because the leader above them is clearer, more consistent, and better equipped to create the conditions for senior performance
The founder's own experience of running the business improves — with more structure, more leverage, and more space for the strategic thinking that only the CEO can do
What You Receive
The Specific Deliverables.
Tangible outputs · documented, dated, and yours to keep.
- Founder leadership assessment — a structured evaluation of current leadership style, strengths, gaps, and the specific transition challenges most relevant to the founder's stage and context
- Personalised coaching programme — a series of structured coaching sessions focused on the specific leadership transitions, behaviours, and capabilities the founder needs to develop
- Leadership framework development — the tools, structures, and frameworks (delegation matrices, decision rights, accountability systems) that allow the founder to lead at scale
- Senior team dynamics work — structured sessions addressing the founder's relationships with key senior leaders, improving clarity, accountability, and performance
- Progress review and recalibration — regular structured reviews of leadership development against the transition objectives, adjusting the programme as the business and the founder evolve
The Outcome
Where You Will Be on the Other Side.
After Founder-to-CEO Growth Coaching, the founder operates with the clarity, structure, and leadership capability of a CEO — able to lead a senior team, delegate with confidence, and create the conditions for the business to grow beyond their personal bandwidth. The business gains a leader. The founder gains the freedom that comes from truly leading rather than doing everything.
Primary Focus
Supporting founders in making the deliberate, structured transition from hands-on builder to strategic CEO — developing the leadership capability, delegation frameworks, and executive presence required to lead a growing business beyond the founder's personal bandwidth.
KPI Measurement
- Delegation rate — percentage of decisions made without founder direct involvement, tracked quarterly
- Senior team performance scores — 360-degree leadership effectiveness ratings from direct reports
- Founder time allocation — hours spent on strategic vs. operational work, tracked against the transition framework
- Investor confidence rating — qualitative assessment of CEO-level presence in investment and partnership conversations
Investment & ROI
Pricing Engineered Around the Value You Create.
Every engagement is sized against the value we believe we can create with you · the fee is always a fraction of the outcome. Four tiers · so the investment matches your stage of business.
Tier 1
Foundations
£5,000 – £15,000
Right for
Pre-startup, startup, and micro-business founders ready to build on evidence rather than instinct.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
4 – 8 weeks
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 2
Acceleration
£15,000 – £50,000
Right for
Growing SMEs and established small businesses ready to scale a working model into the next revenue band.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
8 – 16 weeks
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 3
Transformation
£50,000 – £250,000
Right for
Medium enterprises and scale-stage businesses ready to commit to a multi-quarter, organisation-wide shift.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
3 – 9 months
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Tier 4
Enterprise
£250,000 – £2M+
Right for
Large enterprises, global operators, and complex organisations ready for a multi-year strategic partnership.
Typical Value Created
Bespoke
Engagement
12 months and onward
Target Return
5 – 10× ROI
within 12 – 18 months
Why We Price This Way
Every engagement is sized around the value we believe we can create with you. The fee is always a fraction of the outcome · typically 10 – 20% of the expected first-year return.
This is how we make sure pricing aligns with results. The conversation is never “what does this cost?” · it is always “what is this worth to your business?” We answer that together in the first call, transparently, and decide the right tier from there.
If we cannot articulate a credible 5–10× return for your specific situation, we will tell you in the first call. That honesty is part of why our clients trust us with the work that matters most.
Why This Conversation Matters
“The business you built deserves the CEO it needs to reach its potential — and that CEO is you, when you have made the transition deliberately and with the right support. Founder-to-CEO Growth Coaching is the structured investment in your own development that your business has always needed you to make.”
A 90-minute structured strategy session · produces a usable roadmap whether you engage further or not.
More in Phase 11