I guide high growth professionals through scale
Coaching for founders, operators and C-suite leaders navigating the hardest stretch of building, when the stakes are highest and the playbooks run out. Helping the best leaders amplify their genius.
"True leadership is the art of clarity in the face of chaos."
You closed the round, doubled the team, grew the metrics. Now you're the bottleneck.
The cofounder tension you've been avoiding for six months isn't going away. The board wants clarity you don't have yet. Your calendar is full but your thinking time is gone. You're performing "confident leader" in every room while privately wondering if you're the right person to take this company where it needs to go.
You need a partner who speaks code, product, and boardroom to help you navigate the high stakes of leadership without burning out.
Coaching: calm, focused space to make real progress.
I work with a small number of founders and executives in intensive 1:1 engagements—combining a founder's eye for strategy with a meditator's attention to the patterns, beliefs and stories actually driving your decisions.The truth is simple and hard: a company cannot scale externally unless its leaders transform themselves internally. You must evolve from reactive builder to conscious leader, from savior to sage, someone who can find calm within the storm and foster genuine team play. Real leadership isn't innate genius, it's a learned discipline.
I'm a 3X founder with impeccable coaching bonafides
As a founder, I've raised the VC, built the teams, faced the shutdowns, grown the products, built the communities and found the exits. As a coach, I trained and mentored with the best coaches and firms in the business. Now I help founders become more solid people while dealing with the actual hard work of building their companies.
I do this work for three reasons. First, to help founders accelerate their learning and avoid the predictable failure modes that show up when the business outgrows the founder’s operating style. Second, to break the isolation of the role—to remind leaders that everyone’s in the same boat, just assuming everyone else’s press releases are reality. Third, for the privilege of watching people face what they’ve been avoiding, resolve what’s been stuck, and step into a way of leading that creates both results and wellbeing.
Operator-grade clarity.
Human-grade depth.
Your thinking partner for the hardest stretch.
You're here because the stakes just changed.
You closed a round, doubled the team, or hit a ceiling you can't push through alone. Maybe it's cofounder tension that's gone on too long. Maybe your board conversations feel performative instead of strategic. Maybe you're exhausted from being the answer to every question.
You're not looking for a cheerleader or a therapist. You want someone who understands what it actually takes to build a company—and who can help you become the leader this next phase demands.
My philosophy
Most founder suffering isn't caused by the market or the competition. It's caused by a lie: the myth that you must be a genius and a hero. This narrative isolates you, prevents real delegation, and keeps you trapped in a role that will eventually break you.
The truth is simpler and harder: a company cannot scale externally unless its leader transforms internally. We do this through what I call the Threefold Path:
Managing yourself
Your demons, your resilience, your nervous system. The inner game that shows up in every meeting.
Managing your team
Building psychological safety, delegating effectively, creating a culture where you don't have to do everything yourself.
Managing your company
The systems, rhythms, and governance that let the machine run without you at the center of every decision.
My approach
I combine a founder's pattern recognition with a coach's discipline of presence. That means we'll talk about your roadmap, your org chart, your board dynamics—and we'll look at the beliefs, habits, and emotional patterns driving your decisions underneath.
You can expect sharp questions, clean next steps, honest feedback when you're getting in your own way, and one room in your life that can hold all of it.
- I will tell you the truth kindly but directly.
- I will sit with your mess without flinching or fixing.
- I will bring it back to concrete commitments and action.
How This Works
The container
I work with a small number of founders and executives in a 3-month 1:1 engagement. Most clients extend, but a focused sprint on a specific challenge is often the most powerful place to start.
Kickoff & goals
We begin with a longer intake session to map your world—company stage, key relationships, pressure points—and define 2–3 real commitments for our work together.
Weekly or biweekly sessions
60–75 minutes over video, focused on what's live: cofounder dynamics, board conversations, hiring, firing, strategy forks, the conversation you've been avoiding.
Between-session access
Email or voice memo for high-stakes moments that can't wait: drafting tough messages, quick perspective checks, debriefing after big conversations.
Custom practices
After some sessions, one small experiment—a conversation, a boundary, a new meeting format, a reflection prompt. Insight becomes action.
Closing integration
Before we wrap, we consolidate what you've learned and how you'll sustain it beyond our work together.
FAQ
Who do you work with?
Venture-backed founders and C-suite leaders (Seed through Series C) who are scaling fast, feeling the weight of leadership, and need a coach who can think strategically while also going deep emotionally.
What's the time commitment?
Most clients meet weekly or biweekly for 60–75 minutes. Between sessions, expect occasional homework: a conversation to have, a reflection prompt, a small experiment to run.
How long do engagements last?
We start with a 3-month container. Most clients extend to 12–24 months, but coaching is month-to-month after the initial commitment—you can end anytime.
What's the investment?
I'll share pricing on our intro call once I understand your situation. This is a premium engagement designed for leaders whose decisions affect teams, investors, and outcomes worth protecting.
What if I'm not sure I'm "coachable"?
If you're willing to tell the truth about what's actually happening and do the work between sessions, you're coachable. If you want someone to validate your current approach and tell you what you want to hear, we're not a fit.
Do you work with technical founders?
Yes. Some of my strongest engagements are with CTOs, technical co-founders, and product leaders crossing into executive roles. I speak code, product, and boardroom.
What's the difference between coaching and therapy?
Therapy often focuses on healing the past. Coaching focuses on building capacity for the future—making weekly, tangible progress toward a vision you're excited about. We may touch on origin stories and patterns, but only in service of forward movement.
Real transformation.
Tangible outcomes.
From internal shifts to external wins.
Hard Conversations Become Clean Conversations
Cofounder conflict transforms into cofounder decisions.
The "I'm faking it" loop gets replaced with "Here's what I know is true, here's what I'm still learning, and here's my next move"—so you lead without armoring up and becoming a copy of what you think a leader should do.
You stop rehearsing tough conversations in your head for weeks. Instead, you walk into one clear, honest 45-minute conversation with language you've already practiced and a concrete next step.
You have a trusted guide for the hardest, most uncomfortable conversations you've been avoiding for the life of your startup. And the conversations lead to real decisions that change the trajectory of your company.
"I experienced a deep personal and professional transformation, going from naive 1st time founder to exited founder."
Alejandro Oropeza, Co-Founder & CEO (acquired)
Strategy Becomes Decisions
The giant Notion doc and endless debate turn into 3–5 sharp priorities, clear tradeoffs, and an explicit "not doing this" list your team can repeat without you in the room.
"Tarikh pushed me to get clear on strategy, lead through ambiguity, and balance people, product, and execution without burning myself out."
Felipe Baytelman, Engineering Leader & CTO
The Team Stops Spinning, Momentum Increases
Slack dialog and circular meetings give way to a simple pattern: one decision, one owner, one deadline. People know what "good" looks like and what they're responsible for.
"Tarikh helped distill my communications for board, shareholders, potential acquirers and employees, which helped me keep the company aligned for success."
Varun Singh, Founder & CEO (acquired)
Firefighting Becomes a Cadence
Instead of living in urgent mode, you build weekly and quarterly rhythms that catch 80% of fires before they explode—so you're steering the company, not chasing it.
You stop being the bottleneck for every decision. Your leaders own whole problems to "done," and your calendar starts to reflect your actual job: vision, people, and capital.
"Tarikh balances both looking at the big picture and identifying tactical steps to enable reaching goals."
Amy LaMeyer, VC
Hero Mode Becomes a Real Leadership Team
You keep the ambition and urgency, but lose the martyrdom. Burnout becomes boundaried ambition. The company still moves fast—but you and your team have clear limits, real recovery, and a shot at doing this for the long haul.
"Tarikh is a fantastic coach who had a profound impact on my growth as a leader, my career, and my happiness… personally and professionally."
Alex Topiler, CPO
Board + Investor Conversations Become Working Alliances
You move from dread and defensiveness to showing up with a tight story, clear asks, and the confidence to say "no" when needed—without losing your cool or blowing up trust.
Detailed Outcomes
Relationship Wins
The Cofounder Dynamic
Walking on eggshells and having the same unproductive argument for six months.
A clear conversation where the unspoken issue is named, roles are clarified, and trust is repaired or an amicable exit is designed.
The Board Meeting
A performance of "everything is fine" while you secretly panic about the numbers.
A strategic partnership where you can show the bad news early and get the help you actually need without fear of being fired.
The Executive Team
A group of talented individuals waiting for you to tell them what to do.
A unified team that debates you, pushes back, and carries the weight of the company with you, not for you.
Execution Wins
The Delegation Shift
You rewriting the code, redlining the copy, and fixing the bugs at 11 PM because "it's faster if I do it."
You tolerating the discomfort of letting others do it (even imperfectly at first) so you can focus on the Series B roadmap.
Decision Making
"Analysis paralysis" and revisiting the same decision in the shower for weeks.
"High-velocity decision making" based on clear principles, not fear of being wrong.
Communication
Vague, visionary ramblings that leave the team confused about priorities.
Crisp, repeatable narratives that align investors, employees, and customers instantly.
Internal Wins
The Nervous System
Leading from a place of "fight or flight"—snapping at the team, micromanaging, and not sleeping.
The ability to receive bad news (a lost deal, a resignation) and respond with grounded authority.
The Identity
"I am the company. If I fail, I am a failure."
"I am the leader of the company. My worth is separate from the valuation." (The only way to survive the ride).
The Time Horizon
Living entirely in the fires of "today."
Creating enough white space to actually think about the next 18 months.
Leadership Dev
Technical Leader
IMTA Certified
Remote Global
Hi, I'm Tarikh Korula.
3X founder. ICF-certified coach. 20-year meditator.
I'm an ICF-certified executive coach who works with venture-backed founders and C-suite leaders navigating the hardest phases of building. I trained with Reboot and Jerry Colonna—widely considered the gold standard for leadership coaching in Silicon Valley—and I'm also an IMTA-certified mindfulness teacher with 20 years of meditation practice.
But my credibility isn't built on certificates. It's built on shared experience and scar tissue.
I've been a founder three times. I've raised venture capital, built products that reached millions of users, led teams through pivots, layoffs, and shutdowns, and found exits on the other side. One of my companies landed a development deal with NBC Universal. I've lived the late-night panic, the cofounder tension, the board conversations where you're performing confidence you don't feel.
I came to coaching late—toward the end of my second startup—and I immediately regretted waiting so long. The wisdom and companionship opened a completely new way of understanding my role. Today I do this work for three reasons: to help founders accelerate their learning and avoid the mistakes I made, to break the crushing isolation of the role, and for the irreplaceable satisfaction of watching people overcome obstacles and find both success and wellbeing.
Since 2018, I've coached 120+ founders through 3,000+ hours of sessions. Four clients exited in the past 18 months. My clients come from companies backed by Y Combinator, a16z, First Round, Bessemer, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and Thrive Capital.
I used to grow products and companies. Now I grow people. It's the most rewarding work I've ever done.
Begin the Conversation
If you're navigating a high-stakes stretch—a new round, a team that's outgrown its structure, a cofounder conversation you've been putting off—I'd like to hear what's happening.
The first step is a 30–45 minute intro call. No pitch, no pressure. We'll talk about where you are, what's weighing on you, and whether working together makes sense. By the end, you'll know two things: whether we're a fit, and what an incredible 90-day outcome might look like.