Early stage VCs need their founders to perform at an elite level through uncertainty, setbacks, and life changes, for an average of 7-10 years before seeing a return. While many VCs support their founders with platform teams, hiring, GTM experts, etc. few are providing On-Retainer Executive Coaching to support the one thing their founders can't outsource: their mindsets.
This brief outlines why early stage founders and the VCs that invest in them are uniquely poised to reap the benefits of On-Retainer Coaching, and why Cathryn Peirce is the right coach to provide those services.
Every dollar you deploy into an early-stage company is a bet on a person. The founder is the product, the culture, the decision-making apparatus, the recruiting magnet, and the last line of defense. During a company's most critical junctures, it is the performance, grit, and conviction of the founder that keeps the company alive. When a company fails to reach its potential, research consistently traces the root cause back to the humans at the top.
The most common reasons founders fail are not technical, they are psychological. Research into startup failures consistently surfaces a recognizable list of human factors that compound over time, each of which sits squarely within the domain of executive coaching.
"Founder coaching is an investment, not an expense."
VCs are sophisticated about risk management. You structure deals with protective provisions, reserve capital for follow-ons, hire advisors for technical diligence. But most firms leave the most critical variables unaddressed. On-retainer executive coaching changes that.
Founders who can manage stress, uncertainty, and setbacks without burning out or making decisions from fear. The psychological durability to go the distance.
Clearer thinking when the stakes are highest — for fundraising, pivots, hiring, and growth decisions where a bad call can cost months or the whole company.
Healthier communication patterns, reduced co-founder conflict, and stronger cultures built from the top down. Better leaders build better teams.
Accountability, momentum, and the internal discipline to translate vision into sustained action — addressing the limiting beliefs and self-sabotage that block progress.
Founders don't hit walls on a schedule. The moments when coaching is most valuable — a fractured co-founder relationship, a board meeting gone sideways, a growth plateau that's become an identity crisis — don't announce themselves in advance. On-retainer access means a trusted resource is already in place when those moments arrive.
Coaching that begins when things are already in crisis is reactive. Coaching that is embedded before crises emerge is preventive, and prevention is orders of magnitude cheaper than recovery. This is the same logic that makes ongoing legal counsel, CFO relationships, and insurance sensible investments: you don't want them only when you need them.
The evidence base for executive coaching is extensive and consistent. Across 20+ independent studies from institutions including PricewaterhouseCoopers, the International Coaching Federation, MetrixGlobal, and Harvard Business Review, the data points in one direction.
The 788% ROI figure is driven significantly by retention savings. For a founder, the math is more extreme. Losing a founder (to burnout, to conflict, to disengagement) doesn't cost 1–2× a salary. It risks the entire investment. A coaching engagement that prevents a single founder breakdown, co-founder exit, or leadership crisis pays for itself many times over.
"While fully implementing a coaching culture may take time, the ROI of coaching for individuals can be almost immediate."
I've spent 11 years doing behavioral change coaching, the past 2.5 years of which have focused on executive coaching for founders. I coach from a place of genuine understanding: I'm a 3x founder of Carbon Zero Financial (B2B climate fintech), Share the Wealth (fiscal literacy coaching), and Mountain Tops Consulting, my current coaching and consulting firm. Through Mountain Tops, I've also worked as a boutique operator and advisor, plugging into companies to identify and correct pain points from the inside out.
I know what it feels like to be responsible for a company, a team, and a vision, while navigating changes in your own personal world. That experience isn't incidental to my coaching practice, it's the foundation of it.
I apply those learnings on a daily basis as the Head of Programming at The Entrepreneur House, a San Diego collective designed to maximize founders' personal and professional growth. In my role I have facilitated 200+ hours of founder masterminds, hosted 50+ founder events, and led 4 founder retreats.
Public speaking and the ability to break down complex dynamics into actionable frameworks are integral to my coaching practice. Alongside my coaching and start up work, I've built a career as an international public speaker, taking the stage at conferences, corporate events, and entrepreneurial summits across the US and abroad. My talks sit at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and leadership — the same territory I work in with founders every day.
The name Mountain Tops Consulting isn't metaphor, it's method. I'm a high-altitude mountain climber who has summited peaks and trekked across four continents. The same qualities that get me to successfully summit — identifying my goal, roadmapping execution, building endurance, accessing grit when the path is most arduous — are the qualities every founder needs to succeed. That's what Mountain Tops coaching is all about: going the distance to reach your most ambitious summits.
My practice is built on the foundational belief that the relationship you have with yourself reverberates across every other facet of your life: your decisions, your leadership, your relationships, your output. I refer to this relationship as self-partnership, and it is the lens through which all of my coaching work is done.
My framework combines Adlerian Psychology and Applied Positive Psychology with a focus on human flourishing. It is structured, evidence-based, and specifically designed to address the psychological root causes of underperformance, not just the surface symptoms.
The following reflects the experience of clients who have engaged in executive coaching through Mountain Tops Consulting. Full testimonials are available at mountaintopsconsulting.com/testimonials.
I need to make good decisions and move fast. Cat is like a sparring partner (she'll actually contend with me, which makes me sharper). When market conditions shifted rapidly around us, Cat helped me stay clear-headed under pressure and make better decisions when it mattered most. She's direct, pushes back, and challenges my thinking until I find what's right. Any founder navigating a high-stakes environment should have Cat in their corner.
As someone who is often the one to coach others through big life decisions, Cathryn has coached me through multiple significant decisions. She's a professional who can work with people at every phase of their entrepreneurial process, and regularly illuminates possibilities that many might fail to notice. Cathryn has helped me prepare and refine strategies that have proven successful time and time again. I would recommend Cathryn as a coach to anyone, at any level.
I have worked with Cat in multiple environments including retreats and weekly masterminds, and I can confidently say she is an exceptional coach and facilitator. I attended three retreats that Cat designed and led, and each one was incredibly well organized, intentional, and impactful. I left each retreat with greater clarity, perspective, and motivation. In the weekly masterminds she facilitates, Cat consistently brings thoughtful insight, powerful questions, and practical guidance. She has a rare ability to both support and challenge people in the right ways, creating an environment where accountability and growth happen naturally. Cat brings professionalism, clarity, and genuine care to the people she works with. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a thoughtful, skilled, and empowering coach.
I attended 2 retreats Cat's organized and have done ~170 hrs of Master Minds and coaching with her. I can 100% vouch for her abilities as a coach. She will help you BELIEVE in yourself and then couple that with an organized action plan.
I'm looking to partner with VC firms to provide executive coaching to their portfolio founders. Below are examples of what that could look like:
Ongoing coaching sessions with individual founders on a cadence that matches their needs: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly. This approach leverages consistency to avoid crisis.
Providing each founder with 4 sponsored sessions, after which the founder assumes fiscal responsibility if they want to move forward with coaching.
Strategic sessions during company inflection points like fundraising rounds, leadership hires, layoffs, pivots, etc. to bolster founder performance when it matters most.
Referral basis for most founders, retainer for few. Connecting your most at risk founders with coaching as needed.
Condense 8 coaching sessions into one retreat, providing founders with the initial insights, tools, and exercises they need to continue strengthening their mindsets.
Let's work together to design the right partnership for your portfolio.