Ozlem Akkurt

Policy → VC → AI startups → coaching. Reinvention is a skill I can teach!

Stanford Graduate School of Business
ReadyOn
Successful clients at

Available tomorrow

Starting at 6:30 PM UTC

My stated schedule is for only a month and will update it early October once I know more about my availability but will be reduced hours.

Questions?

You can start chatting with Ozlem before you get started.

Work with Ozlem

Job Search Diagnosis: Find What’s Blocking Your Job Search
$4930m of coaching

Protected by the Leland Experience Guarantee

About

I'm Özlem. I coach high-achievers who want to succeed without disappearing in the process because for a long time, I was the one disappearing. I built my career in fast-moving tech startups; I joined one as its second US hire and helped it grow from a handful of us to around 100 people. On paper it looked great. I'm a Stanford GSB grad, originally from Turkey, the first in my family to walk this path so I knew how to push. What I didn't know was how to stop. So I kept going, until burnout stopped me for me. The four years since have been a different kind of education, which is messier, more honest. And what surprised me most: the more I leaned into this inner work, the better I got at the day job. It gave me more sustainable tools and helped me show up more aligned on the inside — which shows up in everything you do, especially the hard conversations with a client or a teammate. I found myself following that instinct since: GSB's Touchy Feely and executive coaching, hundreds of hours of therapeutic training, a psychedelic-assisted therapy & research certificate at CIIS, yoga teacher training in San Francisco, silent Buddhist retreats from California to Nepal, radical honesty workshops in Costa Rica and Colorado, Holotropic Breathwork in New Mexico, human design in Turkey — not to collect certificates, but to learn how to be a whole person, not just a productive one. I coach the way I actually am: direct, honest, and fully in your corner. This is for founders, operators, and driven people in the middle of burnout, a big transition, or that quiet 3am question: *"is this even the life I want?"* and who'd rather not walk it alone. I've walked it. I'll walk it with you. If any of this resonates, reach out!

Ozlem also coaches for MBA and Mental Health & Wellness. View all.

Ozlem’s Career Coaching Qualifications

Experience level: Analyst

Policy in Rwanda and the Congo. Venture in Istanbul and San Francisco. AI startups from pre-seed to Series B in the Silicon Valley. None of those moves were obvious, and each taught me how a reinvention actually works and what to carry, what to drop, how to tell the story so the next door opens. I work with people who know the current chapter is ending but can't see the next one yet. We map what you're actually good at, test options before you leap, and build the narrative to land it. And because career change is rarely only about the career, I'm trained in breathwork and mindfulnesses practices, and bring it in when it's useful. If you're between chapters, send me a message.

Ozlem can help with:

Career Planning

General Exploration

Networking Strategy

Professional Networking

Resume Review

Why do I coach?

Because I've sat with every one of these questions myself: "Everyone's getting promoted or pregnant — and I'm still wondering how you're even supposed to know what you want." "I've outgrown the future I once begged for, and I owe it to myself to reimagine life from where I stand now." "Why do I feel stuck, comparing, and full of doubt, when on paper I've made it?" For years I was the "unstoppable motor." I could outwork and outstrategize almost anything, until my body and mind finally called it. Burnout stopped me cold. What carried me through wasn't another productivity hack; it was people, coaches, mentors, teachers, who could see me clearly, hold space without judgment, and help me get honest about what I actually wanted underneath all the achieving. I first tasted that at Stanford GSB, in Touchy Feely and executive coaching, then went deeper through therapy, breathwork, and my own recovery — and learned that the bravest move isn't pushing harder; it's turning toward the hard thing and sitting with it. That's the work I do now: helping driven people stop running from themselves and start building a life that actually fits and to win, yes, but without crushing their soul to do it!! If any of these questions are yours too, I'd love to talk.