Throughline coaching

Build winning products and teams. Lead with courage, confidence, and skill.

You're a founder/leader with big ambitions. You need to set vision and strategy, navigate constant change, guide your team through twists and turns, and motivate them despite roadblocks. It's exciting and important work. And it can be lonely and exhausting.

Leadership is hard. And yet, the practice of leadership is one of the best mirrors for growth. We can emerge from challenges with more wisdom, clarity, and strength than ever before— and translate that into incomparable results. It's my privilege to coach leaders through these crucible moments.

Hi, I’m Mindy. I partner with startup founders and leaders.

I've coached ambitious, growth-oriented founders and senior leaders backed by a16z, Sequoia, First Round Capital, Tiger Global, GGV, Y Combinator, and more.

My coaching is informed by 10+ years as a product leader and manager of teams. I was a product leader at Dropbox and experienced the thrill and growing pains of scaling to 2,000+ employees. Most recently, I was Head of Product Growth at Oscar Health during the company's IPO. Read my bio →

Why clients choose to work with me

  • I care about your whole story and whole self. Not only your role as a leader and founder but also the other parts of your identity, your personal history, how you grew up, what speaks to your heart outside of work, and what you aspire to in the future. These parts of you are inseparable from you as a leader/founder.
  • I am direct and candid. I will challenge you honestly and compassionately. I believe you can handle and deserve the truth, even if it hurts a little to hear it. I know you can work through it and come out the other side even stronger. That's what I'm here for: to help you through that journey.
  • My coaching is pragmatic and tailored to you. I am a systems thinker and can help you see the bigger picture. One of my superpowers is taking a complex, messy, intractable problem and partnering with you to boil it down into essential components, so you can make smart decisions. In addition, I do my homework. I ramp up on your company and organization, so we can jump right into the work.
  • I include in-depth 360 feedback in every coaching package. Coaching without 360s is like building a product without data. You'll recognize your strengths and uncover blind spots. You'll find out what others might be scared to tell you. We'll use that rich insight to give you clarity about how to grow.
  • I have a track record of building excellent teams and products. I know the highs and lows of leading at a startup. I speak your language and stay informed about the tech industry, including your company and product. The result is twofold: (a) As a coach, I have a more complete understanding of the world you operate in, and I provide relevant guidance without you spending tons of time ramping me up on context, (b) I can incorporate advising and mentorship when you need tactical guidance.

    In 360 feedback, here's what former team members said about my leadership:

    "An incredible leader and people manager"
    "A true champion of her team's and peers' growth"
    "Inspires those around her to improve themselves"

    "Handles complexity with grace"
    "A gritty leader"
    "A slayer of chaos"
    "Amazed at her capability to navigate a complex maze... and fearlessly drive clear trade-off decisions"

What others say

Anvisha, Co-founder @ Dover
"I’ve worked with other coaches before, and Mindy offers a completely different level of thought partnership and insight. What’s most impressive is her range. She’s been a valuable advisor on cofounder relationships, managing company change, and tricky people decisions. She’s a great sparring partner on pragmatic topics like product strategy and metrics, but she also helps me navigate the emotional ups and downs aspects of scaling a company."

Paige, Founding Partner @ Behind Genius Ventures
"Working with Mindy helped me let go of what a VC firm 'should' look like and enabled me to pursue my authentic vision for BGV. Our sessions frequently lead to lightbulb moments that have changed how I lead. She helped me make important decisions in growing BGV and design more productive, energizing ways of working. She truly gets me as a founder, investor, and human. And she has an encyclopedic memory for stuff we’ve talked about, such that she can spot my patterns before I can even see them. I can’t recommend Mindy highly enough to other founders and leaders."

Rosa, Co-founder and Head of Product @ Rupa Health
"Mindy brings out the best in a leader. As Head of Product for a growing company, I didn't have formal feedback or career planning. Mindy led 360 feedback with my team and helped me identify superpowers and uncover blind spots that were holding me back.

It was eye-opening, and through her coaching, I realized that my strengths and growth areas are two sides of the same coin. Growth requires leaning into my strengths and managing the occasional shadow sides of those strengths. We partnered on a vision and actionable roadmap for up-leveling my leadership. Since then, I've seen a huge shift in my confidence, work-life balance, and ability to lead and influence."

Sandeep, Product Leader @ Patreon
"Mindy's coaching had a big impact on my career transition and first months in a new role. I clarified what I wanted in my career, so I could confidently sign the offer. Since then, her coaching has helped me build trusting relationships and lead teams through change.
As an experienced product leader herself, Mindy gets it. She knows when to be an advisor and when to be a coach, and it's great to have access to both. She uses a broad range of tools, frameworks, feedback, and powerful questions to help me uncover blind spots and get to clarity."

Arash, Co-founder @ Dropbox
"Mindy brings wisdom and a deep understanding of human motivation to team conflict. She taps into precisely what each person cares about and creates an environment where team members can disagree and still commit in favor of the mission."

Allison, Head of Product @ Climate Club
"Mindy's coaching was essential to leveling me up as a leader and manager. We worked together as I was rapidly growing my scope, influence, and team size. She's a thought partner when working through complex and seemingly intractable challenges to identify a clear, simple, and effective path forward. Working with Mindy enabled me to stay true to my values while accelerating my ability to lead growing teams."

Winnie, Chief of Staff @ Oscar Health
"Working with Mindy was game-changing. My role at work is demanding, ever-changing, and can feel isolating at times, and I've struggled with my confidence. As a coach, she helped me reveal opportunities that I previously thought were unattainable. Most notably, I was empowered to advocate for myself, leading to a title change, expanded opportunities at work, and corresponding competitive salary.

Mindy has a direct, compassionate communication style that makes it safe to open up. She listens fully and asks the right questions at the right times, guiding me to reflect on what really matters and what I'm wholly capable of. I feel so seen and understood in every interaction with her. At the same time, she's not afraid to challenge my thinking and hold me accountable when it matters."

Melissa, GM of Self-Serve @ Webflow
"Mindy is a thoughtful, incisive, empathetic and dynamic coach. She takes the time to understand who you are as a leader and individual so that you can realize your potential in a way that is authentic to you. Mindy has helped me through complex work situations and through working with her, I have reached new levels of awareness that have fundamentally changed how I approach things in both work and life."

ChenLi, Chief Product Officer @ Aura
"With curiosity, skillful listening, and off the charts EQ, Mindy enables teams to see past differences and do their best work. At Dropbox, she led some of the most contested product launches, bringing along groups with diverse perspectives— including the founders."

FAQs

What is coaching?
Coaching helps define the right goals and work toward them. The resulting change is both internal (your beliefs) and external (your behaviors, skills, and outcomes).

Great athletes have coaches who enable them to perform their best. Similarly, leaders benefit from having an executive coach who is focused on enabling them to be effective leaders as they grow their companies, while ensuring well-being in other aspects of their lives.

Why invest in coaching?
There are plenty of leadership books and courses out there. So why partner with a coach? Because seeing ourselves clearly and changing how we operate are just about the hardest things we do as humans. And, as the saying goes, it's hard to read the label from inside the jar.

A good coach helps you see yourself, others, and situations more clearly. They create a safe, confidential space to unpack challenges that may be difficult to share with others. They are simultaneously kind and willing to challenge you because they know you are capable of more. They enable you to perform better as a leader.

The outcomes you get from coaching are tailor-made for you and your goals. Just some examples of those outcomes include:

  • Adapting your leadership style to skillfully handle any situation
  • Deciding where to focus your time and energy and where to delegate
  • Creating a culture that prioritizes excellence/results and people's well-being
  • Communicating a clear, compelling vision and strategy that gets your team aligned
  • Shifting your team dynamic from "we get along fine" to one with trust, shared accountability for results, and the courage to challenge each other
  • Building a positive, productive relationship with your toughest colleague
  • Uncovering your biggest blind spot and stopping it from holding you back
  • Having a reliable system for prioritizing your relationships, health, and other important things alongside your world class work

Who are your clients?
My typical client is a CEO/founder, Head of Product, or Head of Engineering of a venture-backed startup.

Not all, but a majority of my clients come from immigrant or underrepresented backgrounds. They know what it's like to sometimes feel like an outsider, to witness struggle, to delicately balance their roles in multiple cultures. Whether they're aware of it or not, their identities are woven into how they lead, and we explore this together to strengthen their leadership.

What does a coaching partnership look like?
Coaching partnerships are month-to-month, and you can cancel at any point. We set goals upfront and check in on progress every few sessions. We meet weekly or bi-weekly for 75 minutes per session. I will conduct in-depth 360 feedback to uncover blind spots and help you grow as a leader.

I tailor the coaching engagement to each client's specific needs. I never use cookie cutter frameworks that aren't relevant for your situation.

Reach out, and we can chat about your specific needs.