We get you and your team to your next level.
"Our team has referred scores of NEA leaders to Dave and Christy without hesitation — and that's rare."— Melissa Taunton, Partner, New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
We've Lived the Startup Journey You're On
We led product and engineering at startups like Orbital Insight and PredPol, and at well-run companies like Adobe, Tableau, and Intuit. Christy took a startup public, led teams across six countries, and built the Tableau Leadership Academy. Dave helped Tableau's founders scale from $100M to $1B, led all of technology at Lucasfilm, and scaled a Sequoia-backed AI startup that was bought by Steve Wozniak. Between us: more than $100M raised, three exits, dozens of leadership teams built.
We lived the insanely great quarters. We also lived the ones that nearly break you.
Now we're on a mission: to make the world better, one leader and leadership team at a time.
We've been in your chair.
We don't speak in B-school generalities. We've held the CTO, CPO, and VP Engineering seats at multiple startups, and also at well-run companies like Tableau, Adobe, Lucasfilm, and Intuit. We know what your week looks like — because we've lived it.
We coach you and your system.
Most coaches work only with you. We work with you and the system around you — co-founder dynamics, board management, leadership team, your management toolkit, your leadership style. When growth happens in one leader, it compounds across the rest.
Coaching depth, not just war stories.
Most operators-turned-coaches push their playbook on you. Most soft-skills coaches insist the answer is already in you. We bring the right balance of mentoring and coaching, because we're both seasoned operators and Master Certified Coaches — a rank held by less than 2,000 practicing coaches worldwide.
You hire one coach. You get two.
You work 1:1 with one of us, but your confidentiality agreement is with both of us. We often coach co-founders or multiple leaders at the same company. Our coordination is possible because we've worked together at four companies over 20+ years.
About Christy and Dave
Christy Brandt
My journey began by my father's side, immersed in his research on organizational development. His mission to create a better world inspired me deeply, and from a young age our family moved around the world serving diverse international communities. This experience sparked in me a profound commitment to service that I carry into my work with clients today.
But my true passion? Helping leaders like you achieve your fullest potential. I have empathy for how challenging and lonely it can be to lead, and believe the ripple effects on the organization by the leader are far and wide. In my opinion, a better world starts with our leaders.
Whether you're stepping into a new leadership role or refining your existing skills, I'll meet you right where you are in your leadership journey, tailoring every step to fit you and your team's unique needs and goals.
My own path led me to take a company through IPO, lead teams across six countries, and create leadership academies that transformed how teams grow and succeed together. I now use my hands-on leadership experience at companies like Tableau and Adobe to serve startup founders and Fortune 500 executives.
Read more about ChristyWhat will YOU do, when you don't need to work? I decided to pay it forward, and focus entirely on my life purpose: bringing out the best in those around me.
I bring three decades as an operator to my coaching. At Tableau, I helped the founders scale an epic company from $100M to $1B. At Lucasfilm as CTO, I led technology across the $2B company for the first time in its history and helped kick off Star Wars VII–IX. At Adobe, I ran development for most of the Creative Suite — look for my name in the Photoshop credits. At Orbital Insight, I led Product and Tech for an early AI company, acquired by Steve Wozniak's Privateer Space. Earlier still, my first startup raised a $50M Series C and nearly went public.
I also bring all of me to the work. I'm a lifelong learner in many domains: an aspirant lay priest in the Zen Buddhist tradition. A published poet. A teacher and mentor to the next generation of Master Coaches. Stage IV cancer survivor. A passionate advocate for women in leadership.
What clients value most is the combination. The deep operator who can see around corners. The human who brings his whole heart and his whole life experience. The coach who shows up with one goal: to get you to your next level, whatever it takes.
Read more about Dave
Dave Story
Client Stories
Andrew Kitchell
CEO / Co-Founder
Repeat client at:
- Lyric (Series D)
- Wheelhouse (Series A)
Joe Fraiman
President / Co-Founder
Lyric (Series D)
We worked with Andrew and Joe on their co-founder relationship in 2-on-2 sessions: surfacing the undiscussables, naming each partner's contribution to the friction, and rebuilding the operating agreement between them. Joe and Andrew then offered our coaching to their entire exec team.
"I've worked with Dave and Christy on a variety of topics — co-founder relationship, strategic planning, growing and evolving our executive team. Their ability to ask the tough questions in the best ways, and to invite real growth, is exceptional." — Andrew Kitchell
"Dave & Christy are without question the best, and I've worked with a lot of coaches over my last 9 years as a founder." — Joe Fraiman
Stefan Heck
Founder / CEO
Nauto (Series B)
We coached Stefan and several of his execs at Nauto, plus facilitated joint leadership team sessions. The persistent tension between sales and R&D resolved. Goals got sharper. Accountability stuck. The work took hold in weeks, not quarters — and deepened alignment around the company's mission to save lives.
"Christy & Dave's facilitations were thoughtful, tied to business success, and pragmatic. Rocket fuel for growth."
"I've worked with some fabulous exec coaches over the past decades and Christy is among the best."
Asha Visweswaran
CEO
Swing Education (Series C)
Through four years of coaching with Christy, Asha went from head of a function to COO to CEO. She built a stronger exec team and a culture of accountability. Two 360s showed dramatic growth: gaps identified in the first were listed as strengths in the second.
"As a former operator, Christy is able to seamlessly toggle between valuable coaching and consultative advice. Having 'been there before', she helps me see around corners, quickly grasps operational issues, and helps me think through the path forward."
Dwight Crow
Founder / CEO
Repeat client at:
- Whisper.ai (Series B)
- Additive.ai (acquired)
Dave coached Dwight at Whisper.ai through the kind of weeks that make or break a founder. Dwight then re-engaged Dave at Additive.ai — which was acquired for a life-changing amount.
"My management style improved notably with Dave's help. He helped me tremendously in making hard conversations productive and crafting a leadership style that felt authentic and effective."
"Dave has the right mixture of warmth, humor, and zero bullshit. He'll give you hard feedback in a way that is genuine and helpful. He doesn't talk in b-school generalities — he gets very specific on how things play out."
Kevin Harold
COO
Repeat client at:
- Lyric (Series D)
- Stride (Series C)
Christy coached Kevin for four years as he grew from operator to strategic COO. They worked difficult situations, hard conversations, exec team dynamics, decision-making rhythm. Kevin worked with both of us on his leadership team's hardest growth edges — surfacing blind spots, raising the operating bar, and resetting how the team made and kept commitments.
"Christy has been my superpower. She's changed what an 'executive coach' means to me. I've had other coaches in the past — many times those conversations looked more like 'rubber ducking,' just having me talk through what I'd do. Christy's sessions are different: tangible, practical, actionable, context-specific, and grounded in actual experience."
"I've been the beneficiary of Dave's depth of experience, his expertise, his willingness to press our leadership team's and my own boundaries and assumptions, his kindness, and his sense of humor. We were all made better through his coaching."
John Wang
Co-Founder / CTO
Assembled (Series B)
John evolved from technical co-founder to confident executive leader at Assembled while building and launching their second product line, their first AI-native product. He strengthened his influence across technical architecture, team structure, and company strategy, while becoming more himself as a leader.
"Comparing where I was before Dave to where I am today is honestly very crazy — a much deeper, more confident version of the real me."
Megan Bock
COO
Federato (Series B)
Christy coached Megan through the conflicting standards of being a female COO in a male-dominated industry — helping her show up authentically, without trading away performance. Megan built sharper feedback habits, tightened the cross-functional rhythm of the company, and learned to operate at the pace her CEO and the company demand. Investors now cite her as a model operator.
"Christy is remarkably intuitive and passionate about helping me show up as my authentic self, while still maintaining a high level of performance, accountability, and objective success."
Pawan Uppuluri
CTO
Repeat client at:
- Glossier (Series E)
- Thrasio (Series D)
Dave coached Pawan through her jump from Amazon to her first CTO role at Glossier, and then again at Thrasio through a major pivot. Each move asked her to lead in a radically different culture. Her CEO at Glossier put it simply: "Pawan's growth is remarkable. I mean that literally — people are remarking on her changes!"
"Dave introduced me to models and frameworks that I continue to use in building trust, applying decision styles, and ultimately, in bringing about transformational change in culture, people, and processes."
"Dave has been a powerful ally to me, especially being a woman in an executive leadership role."
Rebecca Sanchez
SVP Product
NoRedInk (Series B)
Christy coached Rebecca over 18 months as she tightened decision-making and drove accountability across Product, Engineering, and GTM.
"Working with Christy has been one of the most transformative experiences of my career. She created space for honest reflection while keeping me focused on practical action. I especially valued the balance she struck between being a thoughtful sounding board and pushing me toward clear commitments — every session left me with new ways of approaching challenges and concrete next steps."
Recommended by Top VCs
Partners at NEA, Sequoia, Emergence Capital, SignalFire, Bessemer, B Capital, Flourish, and others refer their portfolio leaders to us.
"Our team has referred scores of NEA leaders to Dave and Christy without hesitation — and that's rare. It's not just the professionalism, it's the ethics and the way they treat people. We really appreciate that."Melissa Taunton, Partner, New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
What changes for you
Coaching with us is a long game with weekly proof. Here's what shifts.
For You as a Leader
- Sharper thinking, faster — with a partner who challenges you and amplifies your best ideas
- See around corners on this week's problem and next quarter's
- Less friction inside you, less friction around you, so you and the team simply get more done
- Master the hard conversations — the ones you've been postponing
- Understand the way your team sees you — we check in with them, so you know what they actually think
- Set the pace the company needs — without burning out
For Your Team
- Decisions made faster, with higher quality and stronger commitment to follow through
- Positive accountability without nagging, using a framework we call Clean Commitments
- The "undiscussables" finally discussed — productively, in a safe forum
- A clear vision of where the team is going, an honest assessment of where it is, and committed actions to close the gap
- An exec team that self-improves, so they scale their leadership with the company's growth
What we work on with you
Three domains. Distilled from our operating careers and our coaching practice. Each as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Managing Self
Leading Others
Building Healthy, High Performing Teams and Cultures
Who we work with best
While we work with all functions, our sweet spot is founders and CxOs who came up building things — CEOs, CTPOs, CTOs, CPOs, and COOs who want their coach to have depth in their domains, as well as broad business & GTM skills. We're often the coaches of choice for leaders skeptical of soft-skills-only coaching.
Most of our clients are at companies that have hit product-market fit and are scaling fast — usually Series A and later.
What we look for:
- Leaders who recognize they need to grow at least as fast as their company is growing
- Leaders self-aware enough to know that a thought partner with real operator experience is a force multiplier, not a luxury
- Leaders who are ready to go deep and work on themselves
Where we're usually not the right fit: pre-revenue Seed founders still finding product-market fit.
Woman in Leadership?
We want to meet you! We reserve 20% of our capacity to lift women in leadership. We both believe more diverse teams make better decisions and perform better. We will go out of our way for you, even if you're not (yet) at the CxO level.
How We Work
How often do we meet?
You'll coach 1:1 with one of us. We meet at the cadence that's right for you — generally weekly or fortnightly. Sessions are generally an hour, and you can book more time as you need it; our retainer doesn't go up no matter how much we meet.
Where do we meet?
Via Zoom or phone. We encourage the occasional phone call or outdoor walk — each has a different quality worth exploring. We're in the SF Bay Area and welcome in-person meetings.
Engagement Length & Fees
While you decide how long we work together, we prefer clients who are looking for a longer partnership, not just a quick fix. Today, our average is 2.5 years, and some are more than five years.
$4,000/month, with an initial commitment of six months ($24K), then renewed quarterly.
What's Included
- 1:1 coaching at the cadence you need — weekly or fortnightly is most common; book extra calls when something is urgent, with no change in retainer.
- The right tool, right when you need it — you don't need another book to skim. You need the seven pages that apply to your situation. We draw from our library of best practices, and drop just the part you need into your coaching log.
- Unlimited async review (within reason) of board decks, documents, emails, and presentations.
- "Game tape" review — we watch recordings of your meeting and coach the moments you can't see by yourself. "At 8:12, did you notice...?"
- 2-on-2 pair coaching — work on your co-founder or key peer relationship with both of us in the room facilitating, so you can tackle harder, riskier topics.
- Christy-and-Dave consulting call — swap a coaching session for a joint working session when a topic warrants both of us.
- "Rolling 360" with concrete suggestions — every quarter or two, we interview three or four of your key stakeholders (your board, co-founders, peers, reports), show you how you're really perceived, and outline specific actions you can take.
What's NOT included?
Additional work like leadership team facilitation, workshops, org design, and deeper consulting that involve significant synchronous hours are priced separately. No surprises: We'll give you a fixed price for the work before we start.
Let's Talk.
Drop us a line and we'll get right back to you.
