Leadership & Performance Coaching

With Don Neufeld

Before becoming an executive coach to engineering leaders, I spent more than twenty years as an operational engineering leader as the Founding CTO of Medium, VPE at ClassPass, VPE at Chartboost, and as a Founder & CTO of my own venture-backed startup.

My Approach

Working with me is different from working with many other coaches you may encounter, and I want to be upfront about that.

If you haven’t worked with a coach before, you might be surprised to know that most Executive Coaches don’t come with operational experience in your function. Coaching is a separate skill that is not tied to any particular function, and so often Executive Coaches will come from a different functional background than their clients. I think the coaching skillset is very valuable, and I use it constantly, but in my experience: engineering leaders at startups also need help and advice.

I leverage my experience as a CTO & VPE to help you succeed

My approach is not for every client, but for clients who are a good fit, it’s very successful. Some may call my approach advising or mentoring, but to me the distinction is less important than the results.

To me, the goal is simply this:

I’m here to help

Clients who work with me do so because sometimes they want answers, not just a coach who asks more questions in a quest to help them solve their own problem. In engineering there are many patterns that work, and many patterns that don’t. I’ve seen them and by working together we can get to solutions that work for your business much faster.

How We'll Work Together

As an executive coach, I work with each client on a highly individualized basis. 

Your situation is unique
you need the right help
at the right time

While every engagement is different, here are some of the things I find myself working on with most clients:

I am deeply experienced in startup engineering, and the unique needs that come with it. My hands-on experience includes building, scaling, and leading engineering teams from founding up to 125+ engineers distributed globally. The products my teams have built and operated have been global in scale, highly reliable, and rapidly evolving.

As an operator, I ran engineering organizations and cultures that my team members described as "the best job they ever had".

As a coach, my clients are primarily Founders, CEOs, Chief Technology Officers/CTOs, Vice President of Engineering/VPEs and other C-suite leaders at venture-funded startups as well as leaders at the Director and above at larger tech companies.

I have worked with leaders from many industries and companies of all shapes and sizes, from Series A startups to the largest public companies (FAANG) across consumer SaaS, e-commerce, hardware, fintech, insuretech, healthtech, and life sciences.

Clients

I've coached leaders from the following companies (and many more):

Testimonials

Here are a few things my clients have shared about their experience working with me:

• Working with Don has given me a fresh understanding of problems I face as an engineering leader and left me feeling motivated to tackle the hardest of those issues.
  
  I leave every session with a fresh perspective but also, importantly, practical tools + techniques that I am putting into action immediately.
• I saved my company over $500K in a single month using techniques I learned from Don.
• I have been impressed with the deep knowledge and experience Don has related to engineering leadership and its challenges including and not limited to: communication with C-level executives / company board / investors, organizational structure, hiring / compensation, strategy and of course technology.
• I was lucky to meet Don as a first-time manager leading engineering from seed funding through series A, B and C. I was able to open up to Don about a range of struggles, be it a personal challenge like overcoming my own defensiveness to an organizational challenge like designing org structure at team inflection points. Don has the relevant experience and the thoughtful approach that makes him a great partner for identifying and overcoming the challenges that all technical leaders face. Not only did his guidance lead me to become more effective, I also learned to be more satisfied by the challenges themselves.
• As a startup Engineering leader, it’s often difficult to find effective leadership coaching and mentoring that really addresses the issues specific to the role. Sometimes, it feels like no one else could possibly understand the challenges specific to Engineering organizations. That’s where Don really shines as a coach and mentor. I have known Don for several years, within a coaching and mentorship context and spanning various stages of my startup career from seed through Series B. Whenever I’ve presented Don with a challenge I’ve been experiencing, he intuitively hones in on the central issue and asks targeted questions that help reveal solutions I hadn’t seen before. He is equally adept at coaching related to technology, people management, and company politics. The ROI on effective leadership coaching is huge, I strongly recommend chatting with Don.

What I Offer

My coaching rate is on a monthly retainer basis and typically paid for by your company.

All coaching engagements require a minimum six-month commitment and most of my clients work with me for long-term (12+ month) engagements. This minimum gives us the time and space to develop a deep understanding, enabling us to work together on the challenges you face.

I offer a free, no-obligation one-hour exploratory session to determine fit.

Individual 1:1 Coaching

• One-and-a-half hour getting started session.
• A minimum of two one-hour 1:1 coaching sessions every month, typically at a regular time.
• All coaching sessions are remote via Zoom.
• Unlimited email support between sessions and occasional ad hoc sessions as necessary.