Entrepreneur coaching is most valuable at the point where the skills that built your company begin to constrain its next stage. Somewhere between $5M and $50M in revenue, most founders hit the same wall: you are in every meeting, making every call, becoming the bottleneck. This is the founder-to-CEO transition — from builder to strategist, from doer to delegator — and it is one of the hardest inflection points in a company’s life. CEO Coaching International entrepreneur coaches have made that transition themselves, scaled companies through it, and in many cases led them to exit. They coach from experience, not theory.
What do you want? (Vision)
What do you have to do? (Action)
What could get in the way? (Anticipate)
How do you hold yourself accountable? (Measure)
Think BIG with us. Meet with an entrepreneur coach who has made the founder-to-CEO transition — and who can guide you through yours.
THREE BENEFITS
Growing World-Class Leaders
An Entrepreneur Coach Who Has Been the CEO
Every CEOCI entrepreneur coach is a former CEO, President, or Founder who has personally built, scaled, and in many cases exited a company. They have lived the founder-to-CEO transition and can accelerate yours — with advice, accountability, and honest feedback that only comes from experience.
Scale From $10M to $100M and Beyond
The operating model that works at $10M breaks between $25M and $50M — and breaks again at $100M. Our entrepreneur coaches have scaled companies through these revenue inflection points and know what changes, when. Coaching helps you get ahead of each transition instead of being caught by it.
Adopt the Make BIG Happen System
Founder instinct and hustle got you here. A disciplined operating system is what takes you to the next level. The Make BIG Happen System gives scaling founders the rhythms, questions, and tools that turn effort into repeatable growth — the operating backbone behind every CEOCI entrepreneur coaching engagement.
“I am grateful to have had the support of my CEO Coaching International Coaches Alberto Carvalho and Tanios Viviani over the last few years. These are extremely talented executives…
I hesitate to call them coaches because I view them as business partners. They have both made a great impact on my organization and me personally. As a fellow entrepreneur at heart, I’m impressed by how successful CEO Coaching International is in selecting and training their team.”
Coaching for entrepreneurs, combined with annual and quarterly planning sessions, is delivered by former CEOs, Presidents, and Founders — not generalist coaches or organizational psychologists. Every entrepreneur coach on our roster has scaled a company, built a leadership team, and navigated the specific challenges of the founder-to-CEO transition. They apply a disciplined, flexible growth process built on our proven Make BIG Happen System, with 1:1 coaching focused entirely on your company and your stage of growth. If you are ready to scale from $10M toward $100M and beyond, inquire about our entrepreneur coaching program today. Bring BIG to your idea.
The specific challenges entrepreneurs face during the founder-to-CEO transition — and how an entrepreneur coach addresses each one.
Delegating to a Leadership Team
Most founders have never hired at the VP or C-suite level — and have never had to actually let that team lead. An entrepreneur coach helps you identify what you need, hire the right people, and build the management discipline to lead a team instead of doing the work yourself.
Managing a Board, Investors, or PE Sponsor
If you have taken institutional capital — from angels, family offices, PE firms, or strategic investors — board and investor management is a new skill. An entrepreneur coach builds it quickly, using the Make BIG Happen System to create the transparency, cadence, and accountability that stakeholders expect.
Navigating Revenue Inflection Points
The decisions that take a company from $10M to $30M are different from the ones that take it from $30M to $100M. Our entrepreneur coaches have been through these inflection points and help you see around corners — before a decision becomes a crisis.
Moving from Builder to Strategist
A founder’s instinct is to build. A CEO’s job is to set direction, build the team, and allocate capital and attention. An entrepreneur coach works on the specific habits and rhythms required to lead strategically rather than operationally — without losing execution speed.
Imposter Syndrome in the CEO Seat
Being a founder and being a CEO feel different. The title carries expectations — from your team, your board, and yourself — that create real psychological pressure. Our entrepreneur coaches have sat in that seat. They know the feeling, and they know how to help you grow into the role rather than just survive it.
Access to Operator Expertise
As a founder you do not know what you do not know. CEOCI entrepreneur coaches have built companies, raised capital, made hard hires, led through downturns, and run M&A processes. When an issue arises that you have never faced, your coach almost certainly has.
Establish and maintain the Make BIG Happen Rhythms — the operating cadence that turns founder hustle into scalable execution. Seven iterative rhythms serve as the blueprint for growth from $10M through $100M and beyond.
What is an entrepreneur coach & how are they different from business coaches?
An entrepreneur’s coach is a mentor who will help you start, run, and grow your business, and also help you transform yourself by growing your mindset and challenging you to further develop your skills and knowledge. Through an entrepreneur coaching program, you will receive guidance from coaches who’ve been in similar positions as you, such as CEOs, Presidents, and Founders.
Additionally, an entrepreneur coach will provide training and education to help you learn new skills for handling the challenges that come your way, whether it’s retaining employees, tapping into new markets, or creating a growth plan.
Often, entrepreneurship coaches are confused with business coaches. Typically, business coaches have one sole focus: the growth of a business. When working with a business coach, they will work with you to develop a strategy to improve business processes, such as productivity or growth. While entrepreneur coaches also focus on strategy, they look at more than the business alone.
Instead, an entrepreneur coach will focus on aligning a business with the values and beliefs of the CEO and other executives. This means an entrepreneur coach might look at ways to connect an executive’s beliefs with that of the company to ensure everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goal. Or, they may focus on building relationships and finding ways to help a CEO boost their confidence, improve their communication, and develop plans for growth for the good of the entire company.
How do entrepreneurs benefit from executive-level coaching?
There are plenty of ways entrepreneurs benefit from executive-level coaching. At CEO Coaching International, our entrepreneur coaches come with decades of experience and provide individualized one-on-one coaching focused on your needs to promote personal and professional growth. Whether you’re looking to improve your strategic planning or find ways to motivate employees, there are many benefits of executive-level coaching. Here are just a few:
– Boost motivation: Once you start seeing executive coaching results, you’ll be motivated to keep the momentum going, which, in turn, will motivate the rest of your team.
– Gain self-awareness: As an entrepreneur, it’s essential to understand how others view you and the impact you have on your organization. An entrepreneur coach will help improve your emotional intelligence so you can view yourself from others’ perspectives.
– Improve leadership abilities: There’s nothing wrong with seeking entrepreneurship coaching. In fact, it’s becoming more commonplace in the corporate world and is now a billion-dollar industry. Through entrepreneur coaching, you can learn new skills to improve your leadership abilities to grow your company.
What are common reasons entrepreneurs seek coaching services?
There are many reasons why entrepreneurs seek coaching services. Some of the reasons why you may be interested in working with an entrepreneur coach include:
– Improve work-life balance – Boost job satisfaction – Find direction – Promote job growth – Overcome challenges – Bring an idea to life – Increase efficiency
If you’re ready to take your organization to new heights and build your skills, contact us today. And don’t just take our word for it; we coach entrepreneurs just like you. Review our entrepreneur coaching success stories to see how we’ve helped CEOs and other executives in your position.
How is CEO Coaching International’s entrepreneur coaching different from a peer advisory group like Vistage or YPO?
Peer advisory groups are valuable for exposure and community, and we respect them. They are a different product. Our entrepreneur coaching is 1:1 coaching from a former CEO who has been where you are — not a roundtable where founders at similar stages trade advice with each other. The difference matters most when you are navigating a specific, high-stakes decision: hiring your first COO, managing a difficult board conversation, or deciding whether to raise your next round. A seasoned operator working only on your company and your leadership gives you a different kind of leverage than a peer group can.
Is entrepreneur coaching at CEO Coaching International for founders, or only for established CEOs?
Both. Our entrepreneur coaching works with founders at every stage of the growth journey — from first-time CEOs scaling through $10M to $30M, to founders navigating institutional capital, to CEOs preparing for an exit. Many of our most impactful engagements begin at the precise moment a founder realizes that what got them here will not get them to the next stage. The founder-to-CEO transition is one of our primary areas of focus.
At what revenue stage does entrepreneur coaching make the most sense?
Most founders benefit most from entrepreneur coaching when they are navigating the transition between $5M and $50M in revenue — the range where founder-led management becomes a constraint, and where decisions about team structure, operational process, and strategic focus carry the highest long-term stakes. That said, we work with founders at earlier and later stages depending on the complexity of what they are facing. Scaling past $100M requires a different kind of coaching again, and many of our clients stay with us across multiple stages.
Entrepreneur Coaching Success
Meet Entrepreneur Yi Li of Renogy
We coach entrepreneurs just like you. Take your organization to new heights and build your skills. See how “The Make BIG Happen System helped entrepreneur Yi Li grow her company from $25 million to $200 million in revenue in four years.
What is entrepreneurship coaching, and how can it benefit early-stage startups?
Entrepreneurship coaching involves personalized guidance from experienced coaches to help founders develop business strategies, improve leadership skills, and navigate challenges as they enter a new market. For early-stage startups, coaching can provide critical insights into product development, product-market fit, and fundraising strategies. Clients working with us for two years or more typically see revenue growth nearly 2X the U.S. average and EBITDA growth nearly 3X the U.S. average.
What should I expect from my first entrepreneurship coaching session?
Your first coaching session will focus on getting to know your business goals—what you hope to achieve by entering the market, and what you’ve built so far. Your coach will help you clarify your vision, assess your current situation, and develop an initial action plan for the first 90 days and beyond.
How often do entrepreneur coaching sessions take place?
Most coaching engagements include biweekly or monthly sessions, along with ongoing support, accountability check-ins, and access to vetted resources and community events.
Do you offer in-person or virtual coaching sessions for entrepreneurs?
Coaching is typically done virtually with quarterly and/or annual in-person sessions.
How do I use entrepreneur coaching to scale my business?
The honest answer is that scaling from $10M to $100M is less about new ideas and more about new disciplines. Entrepreneur coaching helps founders build the operating rhythms, hiring standards, and decision-making habits that survive each revenue inflection point. Our entrepreneur coaches have personally scaled companies through $10M, $30M, $50M, and $100M thresholds — they know what breaks at each stage and how to build ahead of it. This is the founder-to-CEO transition in practice.
How long does a typical entrepreneur coaching engagement last?
For founders, we recommend ongoing entrepreneur coaching engagements rather than short sprints. The founder-to-CEO transition does not happen in a quarter — it happens over multiple years, as your company moves through $10M, $30M, $50M, and $100M in revenue. A coach who grows with you through those inflection points delivers far more value than one you engage, release, and re-hire. Most CEOCI entrepreneur coaching engagements last several years, with the specific focus of the work evolving as the company scales.
Can the Make BIG Happen system be applied to startups or is it only for established companies?
Most startups fail because they try to do too much, too soon. The Make BIG Happen System will help you and your small-but-mighty team focus on the key activities that will help you grow as quickly as possible—no distractions. As you’re just getting started, our coaches can help you gain a foothold in the market and set up the fundamentals to grow in a sustainable way.
Can coaching help with fundraising efforts?
Yes, coaches can assist in refining pitch decks, developing fundraising strategies, and preparing for investor meetings by providing feedback and role-playing scenarios.
Is entrepreneurship coaching worth the investment for bootstrapped startups?
Starting a business takes significant investment in everything from staffing to office space to product development. While budget constraints are real, failing to invest in your own leadership can set your business up to fail. Entrepreneurship coaching helps you start your business with a growth mindset, steering you through common early-stage challenges like defining product-market fit, hiring the right team, and receiving seed funding.
What’s the difference between an entrepreneur coach and a startup accelerator mentor or advisor for a startup founder?
Whether you have a co-founder or are going it alone, building a business takes expertise from many different areas, from navigating investor relations to coding and shipping the right product. An entrepreneur coach has been in your shoes before, starting a business (or multiple) from scratch. Our coaches won’t tell you what to do—they’ll guide you through self-reflection so you can chart a path forward that fits your values and your life.
Make Big Happen
Talk to CEO Coaching International about 1:1 entrepreneur coaching built for the founder-to-CEO transition — scaling from $10M toward $100M and beyond, building a leadership team that can scale with you, and developing the operating discipline to grow without chaos.
