Executive coach in New York City.
I coach founders, CEOs and senior executives in New York City, and I held the seats before I coached them: founder and public-company CEO of the company that became Web.com, taken to a Nasdaq IPO; VP at Unqork and Chief Product Officer at Coursedog, two New York companies; EVP at New Relic while it grew from $300M to $500M; COO in a VC-backed turnaround. Across those seats and the investor’s side of the table: 35 M&A transactions and 18 exits, through mergers, acquisitions, private equity buyouts full and partial, venture rounds and an IPO.
I lived on Long Island for over three years, and my wife is a lifelong New Yorker who worked in the city before we moved to Georgia. My practice runs nationally: standing coaching calls on video with leaders everywhere, and on-site work, offsites, working sessions and consulting, anywhere in the country when the engagement books time for it. New York City companies get the same terms and the same operator.
Three ways to work with a New York City company.
Executive coaching, on a standing cadence
A standing cadence on video, weekly, every other week or monthly, with access between calls, on the same terms as all my executive coaching: a practical, candid thought partner who has held the seat you sit in. Executive coaching in New York City for CEOs, founders and senior executives, and leadership team coaching when the team is the unit.
Offsites, in your room
Executive offsites, strategic planning sessions, retreats and leadership alignment workshops, run by an operator, not a moderator. See facilitation for how the room works. Executive offsite facilitation in NYC: strategic planning sessions, leadership retreats and executive team alignment, run where your team meets.
Consulting, on your site
Operational work happens where the work is: your floor, your standups, your board meeting. From strategy consulting to AI consulting, on site when the engagement calls for it. Strategy consulting for New York City companies: transformation leadership, board counsel, integration after an acquisition, and work with private equity portfolio companies.
Who I work with in New York City.
I have sat on every side of the table, so I understand how the whole organization moves, not just the seat you are in.
Technology founders and CEOs
CEO coaching for founders and first-time CEOs: scaling past the team you started with, investor expectations, and the move from founder-led to a real leadership team. I have made that move myself.
Leaders of PE- and VC-backed companies
A sponsor with a playbook and a clock, and a board that wants the plan delivered. I spent a decade as a managing partner at a venture firm, and I was COO in a VC-backed turnaround.
Executives inside New York’s financial institutions and headquarters
The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, the banks and asset managers around them, and the many Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the city. Change inside a large, regulated enterprise is its own seat: I led transformation inside an 80-year-old enterprise at Cox Automotive.
Leadership teams
Leadership team coaching: the team as a unit, not only its leader. Executive team alignment, clear decision rights, and an offsite that turns into follow-through. More on facilitation.
COOs, presidents and product leaders
The second in command, whether the title is chief operating officer or president, and the most senior product leader. I have held the COO seat and the product seat. More on coaching for COOs and coaching for Chief Product Officers.
Finance and private equity leaders
Executive coaching for leaders in banking, asset management, private equity and fintech, a world I have worked inside.
Also coached, each with its own page: VPs of engineering and directors of engineering, IT directors, general managers, and B2B SaaS founders.
Twenty-five years in the seats you sit in.
A trusted perspective, in the boardroom and the press.
Co-author of the Amazon bestseller Business Breakthrough 3.0, with 100+ published articles, international keynotes, and features across leading outlets.
From the clients I have worked with.
- A startup founder raising capital: $5M raised.
- A services company growing 30 percent a year: the team aligned behind a plan it owned for another 30 percent.
- A law firm scaling from a handful of offices to nearly twenty while holding its margins.
- An enterprise product leader trusted by the board and the Street, brought together with the founder and the engineering team.
- A VP stepping into the CTO seat under a new private equity owner: new teams aligned, growth and delivery accelerated through the change.
- A first-time founder growing from $1M to $10M in one year, bringing the leadership team and a leadership style that scaled with it.
- A CEO who wanted to keep growing while the team saw no path: one strategy offsite, a different direction, and a joint plan and number the team owned, another 25 percent year-over-year growth.
- A regional company moving from organic growth alone to organic growth plus acquihires and acquisitions: revenue doubled, from a 30 percent grower to a 150 percent grower.
- A venture-backed company growing 120 percent year over year to a private equity exit.
- A stalled company merging with another to reignite growth and scale.
- A leader moving from a privately owned company to a private equity-owned one, hitting the ground running and delivering the ninety-day expansion plan.
From the people who worked with him.
Working with Ken is genuinely trajectory changing. Ken isn’t interested in telling you what you want to hear. He challenges your thinking, holds you accountable to results, and holds himself to the same high standards.
I have watched Ken boost the output of software teams, raise hiring standards, and transform behavior by example. Every conversation with Ken leaves you inspired.
His leadership during our acquisition was steady, thoughtful, and deeply collaborative.
He brought clarity, velocity, and accountability to every initiative.
What is different about leading a company in New York City.
I grew up on Galveston Island and learned my business pace in the years I lived in New York: the speed, the directness, the results. From taking a company public on Nasdaq in Times Square, to hundreds of trips into the city, to leading inside two companies based here, a good part of my career has run through this city.
New York City is the largest global center for trading in public equity and debt. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are the world’s two largest stock exchanges, the banks and asset managers of Midtown and the Financial District sit around them, and the city leads in hedge fund management, private equity and the volume of mergers and acquisitions. Leadership here runs on the market’s clock: the board, the investors and the next deal set the pace as much as the plan does.
The other New York is Silicon Alley: the technology companies of the Flatiron District and Union Square, fintech beside the banks that buy from it, the media and advertising groups of Midtown, the new towers of Hudson Yards, and the startups of Brooklyn and Long Island City. Leaders here are scaling faster than their teams, often with a public market or a sponsor watching. When we talk about what you are facing in New York, the seats are the ones I have held.
Executive coaching in New York City: the questions people actually ask.
How do I choose an executive coach in New York City?
Start with which seat the coach has held and what happened to the company, then the credentials, then how the cadence works week to week. I wrote up six questions to ask any executive coach, including me.
How is your coaching different from other NYC executive coaches?
The seats, and the access. Founder, public-company CEO, EVP, VP, Chief Product Officer and COO, two of them at New York companies, in public, private, PE-backed and VC-backed companies, from startup through IPO and exit. You work with me directly for the whole engagement, not a matched associate.
How much does executive coaching cost in New York City?
Most of my clients are funded by their company. The price depends on cadence, length and how much of the work is on site; you get a scope and a number on the discovery call. What the market charges is in my guide to executive coaching costs.
Which New York City leaders do you coach?
Executives in finance, private equity and fintech, leaders at technology and venture-backed companies, CEOs and founders, COOs, presidents and product leaders, VPs and directors of engineering, IT directors, general managers, and whole leadership teams.
What is different about leading a company in New York City?
The markets and the pace. New York is the largest global center for trading public equity and debt, so a lot of leadership runs on an investor’s clock, and Silicon Alley adds venture-backed companies scaling fast.
Do we need to meet in person in New York City?
No. Most of my clients work with me on video on a standing cadence, with access between calls. On-site work, an offsite, a strategic planning session or a working session with your team, happens where your team is, anywhere in the country, when the engagement books time for it.
Do you facilitate executive offsites in New York City?
Yes: executive offsites, annual and quarterly strategic planning sessions, and leadership team working sessions, run by an operator, in your room or the venue your team chooses. See facilitation for how the room works.
How do we start?
With a discovery call: forty-five minutes on video about the problem on your desk. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so on the call.
How do you measure progress?
Against goals agreed before the work starts, in writing when the company is paying, and checked at ninety days. Progress shows in words, not scores: decisions made with more clarity, work delegated and kept delegated, a board conversation that went the way it should, a team that runs without you in each decision.
Start with the real problem.
Forty-five minutes, no pressure, no pitch. Bring the real problem on your desk and you will leave with a sharper version of it, and a straight answer on whether I am the right person for it.
- Send the note, or book the call if you would rather pick a time.
- Forty-five minutes, on video.
- A scope and a number if it makes sense to work together, and a straight no if it does not.
Or reach me directly:
(332) 287-0127
ken@kengavranovic.com
In person, or remote. City by city.
Executive coaching across a table or on video, offsites in your room, consulting on your site.