Startup Coaches, Events, and Resources

I’m a Stanford GSB MBA, McKinsey & Co, and Northwestern alum who’s excited to join you in the trenches of building and scaling startups! As a co-founder of Bluebird Kids Health, I’ve helped grow a 100+ person team and raise $32.5M in venture funding in under 2 years. I know firsthand the highs, lows, and unexpected hurdles of the entrepreneurial journey, and I love being a springboard for others figuring it out - whether that’s breaking into startups, navigating compensation negotiations, fundraising as a founder, building a strategic framework, or just figuring out your next career step. I bring both strategic insight and real-world experience, and I’ve successfully coached entrepreneurs and operators to successfully take on the challenges of launching and growing. I’ve been in your shoes — and I’d be excited to help you chart what comes next!

I've started multiple companies during business school and am currently the Co-Founder of Lifespark, a fast-growing men's reproductive health company. I'm passionate about all things consumer, healthcare, and tech.

Entrepreneur & VC investor turned executive coach. Went through the founder journey myself, from incubating an idea at a Stanford class, to customer discovery and early prototyping + MVP development, getting early traction, raising angel checks, putting together a core team, and launching => after a couple pivots built to 10M USD revenue while operating in five countries. Was backed by elite investors like Founders Fund. While at Stanford, was a student of Steve Blank's, the creator of the "Lean Startup Approach", in his class "The Lean Launchpad". Certified coach under the Co-Active Training Institute, Upbuild, and the Aletheia Advanced Coaching Training program. Have personally guided over a hundred people in exploring venture capital and entrepreneurship, as well as in general career coaching. I would love to meet you and hear about your goals. Please feel free to reach out if interested in exploring further.

I’m a former VC and the CEO/founder of a venture-backed startup funded by Silicon Valley and Singapore-based investors. I’ve spent 20 years in finance, strategy, and investing where I've been evaluating hundreds of founders, reviewing pitch decks, shaping investment narratives, and leading diligence across early-stage and growth-stage companies. As a former Partner at Turret Capital and Director of Investment Strategy at Catcha Group (Southeast Asia’s leading venture builder), I’ve overseen a $1 billion portfolio and worked directly with founders on business models, GTM strategy, traction storytelling, and fundraising readiness. I’ve also raised capital for my own company, giving me firsthand insight into what investors actually look for in a pitch. My specialty is helping founders win high-stakes opportunities by crafting clear, compelling, investor-ready materials. I support early-stage teams with pitch deck creation and refinement, business plan development, investor narrative strategy, market sizing, competitive analysis, and overall fundraising preparation. Whether you're refining your pre-seed story or preparing for a Series A raise, I bring both investor and founder perspective to help you communicate your value with precision.

I work with startup founders the same way I approach real-world decision making. No hype, no theory, and no pretending there is a one-size-fits-all playbook. I focus on helping you make clear, practical decisions based on your actual situation, not what sounds good online. My background is built around working with real people, solving real problems, and cutting through bad assumptions that hold businesses back. Whether it is structuring your next move, thinking through risk, improving decision-making, or getting unstuck, I bring a disciplined, straightforward approach that helps you move forward with clarity and confidence instead of guesswork. I am also the author of Who’s Got Your Six?, which focuses on accountability, trust, and making better decisions when it matters most. That same mindset carries into how I work with founders. I am not here to impress you with jargon. I am here to challenge weak assumptions, help you think clearly about risk and opportunity, and build a plan you can actually execute. Whether you are early stage, trying to stabilize, or looking to make smarter strategic moves, I bring a disciplined, straightforward approach that helps you move forward with clarity, confidence, and a much higher level of awareness than most people operate with.

Hey! I’m Michael, a founder and operator with a track record of building and scaling brands that reach over 25 million people monthly. I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of Famous Media Group, the parent company of AsianFeed, one of the largest Asian-centric digital media brands in the world. Through this work, I’ve partnered with leading organizations including Netflix, Disney, NBC, Instagram, Sony Pictures, the White House, and the U.S. State Department, and have contributed to high-impact initiatives such as the first-ever Lunar New Year activation at the Super Bowl and the 2024 Japanese State Visit. My work has landed me on Forbes 30 Under 30 and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, and I’ve been featured in outlets including CNN and Vox. After years of building and scaling a company, I earned my MBA from The Wharton School, adding a strong strategic and financial lens to my hands-on operating experience. I work with founders who are launching something new or scaling what they’ve already built, offering practical, real-world guidance rooted in experience rather than theory. If you’re looking to turn an idea into a company or grow an existing business with clarity and confidence, I’d love to help you move forward.

Former elite college professor of entrepreneurship, bringing a rich background in founding, scaling, and advising both mission-driven small businesses and venture-backed startups. I combine deep operational experience with a sharp strategic lens, honed across roles as a journalist, consultant, founder, and impact investor. My work sits at the intersection of purpose and performance—supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, in building resilient, revenue-generating companies that create lasting value. Whether you're refining your pitch, navigating fundraising, or building systems for growth, I bring tailored, candid guidance rooted in real-world insight—and a genuine passion for seeing you win.

Built a career in strategy, marketing, and growth. From management consulting to leading brand at IBM and eBay, I now bring that corporate rigor to my coaching clients. I help you with strategy and systems to win right-fit clients at healthy margins. I share what I've learned and coach you so you can say exactly what buyers needs to hear to sign a five, six and seven-figure+ contract. And we avoid the big business ‘nice to haves’ a growing business can (and must) do without. Because in a sea of sameness, your moat is what you stand for, who you serve best, and what only you deliver. Sharpening one client's positioning increased their deal size 40% and cut their sales cycle 35%.

Hi everyone! With over two decades of experience in the startup ecosystem, I have a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs and companies thrive. As the founder of multiple accelerator programs, including the highly-competitive USC startup accelerator and Hong Kong's first funded accelerator, I've guided over 3000 companies across diverse industries such as AI, edtech, and healthtech. My expertise lies in strategic growth, market entry, and improving unit economics, having helped startups raise over $350M and achieve successful exits. Additionally, as an adjunct professor at USC, I teach courses on growth marketing and venture initiation, making complex concepts accessible. Let's work together to turn your startup vision into reality. Reach out to get started!

I’ve been involved with dozens of successful early-stage startups as a Co-founder, CEO, Investor, Advisor. I’m passionate about helping others avoid the pitfalls of early-stage startups, team formation, idea validation, development, and go to market strategy. I currently help run a Venture Studio in Utah called Philo Ventures where we're building startups with a team of software engineers, product strategists, ux designers, marketers. Part time I also help run a student startup incubator based at Brigham Young University called 'Sandbox' where undergraduate students take a year off of their normal coursework and get college credit while we pair them up with experts from the community and teach them how to start a software startup.