Executive coach in San Francisco.
I coach founders, CEOs and senior executives in San Francisco and the Bay Area, 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; EVP at New Relic, a San Francisco company, while it grew from $300M to $500M; founder and CEO of an AI company that shipped a generative AI product Fortune 500 teams use; 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.
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. San Francisco and Bay Area companies get the same terms and the same operator.
Three ways to work with a San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco and the Bay Area: 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 San Francisco companies: scaling leadership, AI strategy, board counsel, and work with private equity and venture portfolio companies.
Who I work with in San Francisco.
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 San Francisco’s technology companies
Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb and Databricks, and the AI companies founded here or moved here, OpenAI and Anthropic among them. Change inside a company growing that fast is its own seat; I held it as EVP at New Relic.
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.
Leaders taking a company through AI
AI companies have been founded in San Francisco or moved here for its talent and its venture capital, and every board now wants an AI answer. I have sat in that seat as the CEO of an AI company. See AI consulting.
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 San Francisco.
San Francisco runs on technology. Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb and Databricks are headquartered here, and a new wave of AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic among them, were founded in the city or moved here for its talent pool and its proximity to venture capital. For my years at New Relic I flew from Atlanta to San Francisco every week, Sunday to Friday, to work with the team at its Spear Street headquarters, and presented to a board that included partners from Benchmark, Trinity Ventures and Madrona.
The city has been here before. Startups invigorated its economy in the dot-com boom of the late 1990s; in that boom I founded an internet infrastructure company, took it to a Nasdaq IPO, and through a merger with MicronPC it became Web.com. Since then I have sat on the venture side, and gone back to the operating side as Chief Product Officer through an $80M exit. When we talk about what you are facing in San Francisco, the seats are the ones I have held.
Executive coaching in San Francisco: the questions people actually ask.
How do I choose an executive coach in San Francisco?
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.
What makes your coaching different from other SF executive coaches?
The seats, and the access. Founder and public-company CEO, EVP of a San Francisco public company, Chief Product Officer and COO, 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 San Francisco?
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 San Francisco and Bay Area leaders do you coach?
Founders and CEOs of venture-backed companies, executives inside technology companies scaling fast, leaders taking a company through AI, COOs, presidents and product leaders, VPs and directors of engineering, IT directors, general managers, and whole leadership teams.
Do we need to meet in person in San Francisco?
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 San Francisco?
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:
(628) 213-7984
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.