Kevin O’Brien
Exited Founder | Executive Leadership Coaching
Studied at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Hiring Manager at Apprenticscope
Available tomorrow at 1:00 PM UTC
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Kevin's Coaching Offerings
Custom hourly · $200/hr
Get help with Emotional Intelligence, AI Strategy, and .
Kevin’s Leadership Coaching Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Executive
60+ people coached for Leadership Coaching
I am a successfully exited founder (GreatHorn, sold to private equity in 2022), with over a decade of experience as a working CEO, a deep background in the startup community, and have served as a board director, advisor, and mentor to multiple early stage companies. I have served on state advisory boards focused on developing leadership and talent, as well as serving in leadership roles at multiple early stage companies across my career. Following my own company’s exit, I have formalized my coaching practice, seeking to give back as well as remain engaged in meaningful work with entrepreneurs and executives earlier in their own careers. I specialize in helping with authenticity, conflict resolution at the C-level and with complex boards, and with strategic change management.
Kevin can help with:
Emotional Intelligence
AI Strategy
Conflict Resolution
Change Management
Ethical Leadership
About Kevin
I am a former (retired) CEO and founder, and spent over a decade running companies in the cybersecurity space. I have a deep background in venture capital, executive leadership, board management, and entrepreneurship, and have served as a mentor for Techstars (a globally recognized accelerator program) for 10 years. I specialize in helping senior executives, founders, and entrepreneurs become more effective, authentic, and successful leaders.
Why do I coach?
In my time in the CEO seat, I had the good fortune to be a client of a world-class coach; in my post-exit, post-founder life, I have transitioned to selectively doing the same, in the interest of helping fellow founders and executives in a similar fashion.
Work Experience
Board of Directors
Apprenticscope
October 2022 - Present
Hiring Manager
Independent board director at the market-leading B2B SaaS platform used by hundreds of public and private organizations to optimize and manage registered apprenticeships. Mentoring, Fundraising and +3 skills
CEO and Co-Founder
Greathorn
March 2015 - April 2023
Hiring Manager
Co-founder and CEO of the first cloud-native email security platform, exited to private equity in 2022. Led the organization from inception through exit, raised significant venture capital, helped hundreds of companies stop phishing business email compromise for cloud email platforms. Product Management, Mentoring and +4 skills
Founding Team
Project Climate
April 2020 - October 2020
#1kproject - Inspired by the immense needs felt by families in the pandemic, we came together to connect families in crisis with direct support of $1k each month for 3 months from a sponsor family. Within a few tweets, a team of entrepreneurial, tech, and design talent came together to start The $1k Project. We use personal networks to directly match a family impacted by the pandemic with a family committed to giving them $1k for 3 months. Startup Environments
Vice President
Conjur
June 2014 - February 2015
Hiring Manager
Founding team member at successfully acquired startup (CyberArk), helping to define initial go-to-market strategy. Key results include: • Built core sales and marketing team • Tripled lead generation and grew inbound sales opportunity funnel by 400% • Developed go-to-market target segmentation, including press and analyst relations, resulting in a 150% month-on-month increase in inbound inquiries • Established repeatable revenue and sales model, including key personas, lead-to-close sales funnel, opportunity development, and all related enablement and training materials • Served as public face for the company, securing high-profile speaking engagements for executive team Product Management, Sales Management and +1 skill
Education
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Bachelor of Arts - BA, Philosophy
2000 - 2004
Activities and societies: USAF (United States Aikido Federation), Volunteer - Boston Homelessness Program Studied philosophy (focus on metaphysics) at the University of Massachusetts, including work on Kripkean analysis and substance dualism. Supplemental studies in German, Japanese, computer science, and film.