A career spent at the intersection of leadership, complexity, and change.
Executive coaching, offsite facilitation and strategy consulting for CEOs, founders and senior leaders, from an operator who has held the seat.
I am Ken Gavranovic: founder and CEO of Interland, now Web.com, from $0 to $200M+ ARR and a Nasdaq IPO; EVP and GM at New Relic, growing revenue from $300M to $500M; operator at Cox Automotive; COO in a VC-backed turnaround; 35+ M&A transactions and 18 exits. A thinking and execution partner who has held the seat: I coach and advise CEOs, founders, and leadership teams from Alpharetta, Georgia, remote with leaders everywhere, in person across the Atlanta metro, and on-site anywhere the work calls for it.
I made the money and I got the scars: the IPO, the mergers, the quarters that went wrong and the ones we turned. My first half was on purpose. So is this one. I did not move into coaching because operating ended; I finished that chapter and chose this work: shortening the learning curve for the people now sitting where I sat.
An operator who has held the seat, not a career coach.
The seats
- CEOs and founders
- COOs, CPOs, CTOs and GMs
- Leadership teams at companies backed by venture capital, private equity or a family office, and at founder-led and family-owned companies
- The leader one level below being built for one of those seats
The situations
- A new seat, and the first quarter in it
- A team that worked at one size and does not at the next
- A transition, a turnaround, or new ownership
- Stakeholder management and executive presence at the next level
- An offsite or strategic plan that has to leave the room with owners and dates
This is a fit if
- You own an outcome: a number, a team, a transition.
- You want candid, not comfortable.
- You will do the work between sessions.
- You want someone who has sat where you sit, not someone who has read about it.
This is not a fit if
- You want life coaching. This is executive execution.
- You want a consultant to build the plan and own it for you, unless that is the engagement we scope.
- You are sending a deputy to be coached in your place.
- You want a peer group rather than one-to-one.
Ken Gavranovic, AGS, LLC
A practical, candid thought partner who has held the seat.
Founder and CEO through a Nasdaq IPO. EVP at New Relic, VP at Cox Automotive, COO in a VC-backed turnaround. 35+ M&A transactions, 18 exits.
ICF Certified Coach and Certified Executive Coach (CEC). In practice since 2021.
BS in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude. MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in progress. Member, APA, ACA and LPCA.
I know what the room feels like.
Presenting to the New Relic board, with Benchmark at the table. Sitting across from Andy Jassy at Cox Automotive in the meeting that started its move to AWS. Three in the morning, the night before Micron Electronics and Interland merged into what became Web.com, working through the legal issues with CNBC waiting at nine.
Rooms I have been in
- Raise the next round, or take the sale? Made that call more than once.
- The board presentation. New Relic’s board, with Benchmark at the table.
- The meeting that moves a company to the cloud. Across the table from Andy Jassy, at Cox Automotive.
- 3 a.m. before two public companies merge. Micron Electronics and Interland, legal issues to clear, CNBC at nine.
- The keynote. Flown around the world to stand in front of rooms of hundreds, and deliver.
- Taking over after the executive before you was fired. Had the playbook, ran it.
- Driving change at a unicorn, and inside an 80-year-old corporate. Done both.
Situations I have coached through
- PE-backed portfolio company. A new leadership team that has not operated at this scale: I coach the leaders, or the team as a unit. The ninety days that have to stabilize before the sale. The sponsor just replaced your CEO and you are still here. Next round, or the exit.
- Venture-backed founder. All the drive and energy in the world, and a company that now needs focus, priorities, and a way to pair gut with data. The first real leadership team, hired faster than it gelled. Raise the next round, or take the sale.
- The leader taking the seat. First quarter in the job, with a team that was not yours yesterday. Taking over after the executive before you was fired. The big presentation: board, investors, all-hands. The transformation that stalled six months in.
From the trading floor to the main stage.
Responsibility and scale, from startup to public.
Ken has served as CEO of a Nasdaq-listed company, led product and technology organizations at multi-billion-dollar scale, and stepped into some of the most demanding executive roles organizations face during pivotal transitions.
As Founder and CEO of Interland, which became Web.com, he built the company from the ground up, scaling it past $200M in revenue and 650+ employees, and leading it through a successful public offering on Nasdaq. He later guided platform strategy at New Relic as EVP & GM, growing revenue from $300M to $500M. At Cox Automotive, he led a major cloud and DevOps transformation with a $250M budget.
More recently, as COO of Blameless, he turned around a Series B business, cutting burn roughly in half while growing sales, and guided it to a merger with FireHydrant. Across all of it, Ken was consistently called into situations where momentum mattered, complexity was rising, and leadership needed to be both decisive and steady.
Practical, human-centered, and grounded in experience.
Rather than adding noise or urgency, Ken focuses on simplifying complexity: helping leaders and teams see what matters most and move forward with confidence.
Leaders are aligned around what truly matters.
Teams understand the purpose behind the work, not just the tasks.
Strategy is translated into clear priorities and sustainable operating rhythms.
Technology, product, and go-to-market operate as a cohesive system.
Leaders create environments that support accountability, learning, and trust.
A rare combination of vantage points: founder, public-company CEO, product and technology leader, growth-stage builder, enterprise transformer, investor, and advisor, and an understanding of how every one of those intersects.
Three people who were in those rooms.
I led the first institutional round of investment in Interland, which Ken founded. His talent is evident in the meteoric growth path he guided it to. Ken is wise beyond his years. I would gladly work with and invest in him again.
Ken led our $160M+ cloud, engineering, and DevOps modernization across a $3B+ portfolio. He brought clarity, velocity, and accountability to every initiative.
He brought a rare mix of focused execution, operational rigor, and infectious positivity. He drove alignment and morale even as we reduced burn by 50%. His leadership during our acquisition was steady, thoughtful, and deeply collaborative.
A trusted perspective, in the boardroom and the press.
Author of the Amazon best seller Business Breakthrough 3.0, with 100+ published articles, international keynotes, and features across leading outlets.
Built, scaled, taken public, turned around.
I founded Interland in my twenties and rode it from zero to $200 million in revenue, 650 people, and a Nasdaq IPO, then through the merger that made it Web.com. Everything I teach about scaling I learned the expensive way first.
At New Relic I helped grow revenue from $300 million to $500 million as EVP and GM, leading 450 people across four countries. At Cox Automotive I ran a $250 million multi-brand cloud transformation: 99.9 percent uptime, recovery times cut 70 percent. As COO of Blameless I cut burn roughly in half, stabilized revenue, took the win rate from near zero to eighty percent by rebuilding how we sold, and guided the company to its merger with FireHydrant. Along the way: 35 M&A transactions and 18 exits, three as an operator.
The other half of the story is the human one. I am an ICF Certified Coach and a Certified Executive Coach, with a BS in Psychology, Summa Cum Laude, and a master’s in clinical mental health counseling underway. The tech side started with computer science in 1990. I sat on the Forbes Coaches Council, contribute to Thinkers50, and co-authored Business Breakthrough 3.0. That pairing, the operating seat and the trained human side, is the whole point of how I coach senior operators. If you are weighing coaches, I wrote up the six questions to ask any executive coach, including me.
Home is Alpharetta, Georgia, in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, with my wife Heather and our two daughters. I work remotely with leaders everywhere and on-site anywhere the work calls for it.
Operator experience
- Founder and CEO, Interland (Web.com): Nasdaq IPO, $200M revenue, 650 people.
- Executive Vice President and GM, New Relic: revenue $300M to $500M.
- Vice President, Cox Automotive: $250M cloud transformation.
- Chief Operating Officer, Blameless: turnaround to strategic merger.
- Across the career: 35+ M&A transactions, 18 exits, three as an operator. Full career on LinkedIn
Certifications
- ICF Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation.
- Certified Executive Coach (CEC), Center for Executive Coaching, ICF-accredited program.
Education
- Bachelor of Science, Psychology, Summa Cum Laude, 2026.
- Master of Science, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, in progress.
Memberships
- International Coaching Federation (ICF), member 009666050I.
- American Psychological Association (APA), member C2505590611.
- American Counseling Association (ACA), member 6768630.
- Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia (LPCA), member.
Recognition
- Forbes Coaches Council, former member. Profile
- Better Business Bureau, Accredited Business, A+ rating. BBB profile
- Thinkers50, contributor.
- Business Breakthrough 3.0, co-author, Amazon best seller.
- In the press: Forbes, CNN, CNBC, Wired, WSJ, TechCrunch. Media page
Four questions, answered straight.
If you are weighing coaches, I wrote up the six questions to ask any executive coach, including me. These are the four that come up most.
Have you operated at my level?
Yes. Founder and CEO of a company I took public, then EVP, VP and COO seats at companies larger and smaller than yours. The record is above, seat by seat, so you can check it.
How does an engagement run?
A 45-minute discovery call first, to see whether this is the right fit. If it is, calibration meetings agree what success looks like and how we will measure it. Then standing coaching calls, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, with ad hoc access between them. The full process is on the executive coaching page, and what it costs is in the cost guide.
Are you certified, and can I check?
Yes, and so are a lot of coaches. Fewer bring the rest of it: the operating seat, a psychology degree and a counseling master’s underway, a published book, and a BBB-accredited A+ business behind the practice. All of it is checkable: the member numbers are listed above, the BBB profile is linked, and the record on this page is seat by seat.
Where are you?
Alpharetta, Georgia, in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. In person across metro Atlanta, remote with leaders everywhere, and on-site anywhere the engagement calls for it.
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