What CEOs say.

“I can highly recommend coaching sessions with Dave. He has an exceptional ability to listen and then completely re-frame the discussed topic - allowing you to dissect it from multiple perspectives and come up with completely new ideas. This has allowed me to develop further as a leader and keep pace with the fast growth of Parloa.”

“As your company grows, the number of people who'll tell you the unvarnished truth seems to decrease. What I like most about my sessions with Dave is his ability to cut right through to the substance: when to challenge me, when to support, and when to simply probe deeper. I'll readily admit I was a coaching skeptic when we started, but I couldn't be more of a "fan girl" today - my sessions with Dave give me clarity, focus, and a roadmap to being a better CEO and a better leader that I feel I slowly chip away at with every session.”

“Coaching with Dave has transformed the way I show up as a leader in my business. I've clarified and learned to effectively articulate my vision and strategy with all stakeholders. This has led to successful fundraising, a more passionate and aligned team, and a galvanized customer audience. Dave has a unique ability, to uncover what's important by leading with insanely good questions, until the right problems and optimal answers are revealed. I highly recommend all startup CEOs work with Dave throughout their journey, to create more clarity for themselves and their company.”

“Dave has been an incredible coach to work with. He has a way of asking questions to dig to the core of challenges, suggesting solutions, and also getting actionable commits that drive real change. He has helped me to level up as a leader across all aspects of the business.”

“Dave's workshops relentlessly deliver on their promise session after session. I left with pragmatic tools and concepts that were immediately impactful on our company. I recommend this to every CEO with aspirations of growing as a leader.”

“I am a better CEO thanks to Dave. Thanks to his focus and structure, I see positive change quickly. I feel more confident in communication and delegation. Ultimately, the feedback I receive from my family, investors, and teams makes me greatly value his work.”

“I really look forward to my monthly sessions with Dave, as we discuss all kinds of matters that range from raising capital, to structuring teams, to planning with OKRs and to give effective feedback. What I like the most about working with Dave, is the fact that he has been an entrepreneur himself and he speaks not only from theory but from practice.”

“I’ve worked with a couple of coaches, and what’s different about Dave is that he’s also a founder. You feel like you’re from the same tribe. He comes up with simple frameworks and models you can apply to your startup, but that result in a different answer for each person. It’s almost a personalised coaching approach, but in a group, which I think is fantastic.”

“My sessions with Dave are super instrumental for me to go deeper and clarify what I should be doing as a founder and CEO. I’ve been able to pull myself out of the day-to-day, reconnect with my purpose and mission, and build a support system that is truly transformational, not only for me but also for the company.”

“Dave has been there, done it before and learned a lot of the lessons along the way. Taking his frameworks and applying them to what we’re doing has already generated a huge ROI for us. He helps you get out of what you currently know and expand your horizons.”

“Being a founder is learning by doing but without reflection there is little to learn. You can learn a lot through reading, listening, etc. but nothing has the impact of reflecting about great questions that are tailored to our everyday challenges. David is exceptionally good at asking pinpointed questions that help you to move forward and grow the company.”

“Dave is an amazing coach. He listens, he asks the hard questions and he doesn’t let me off the hook when I don’t go deep to the roots of the situation. He has helped me hugely while navigating the transition from Founder to CEO. In particular, how best to work with other experienced leaders in the company to be successful together. I especially like Dave’s use of structures and models. This is also how I operate, I need a clear and easy framework to understand a complex situation, even if it is an emotional or people situation. I fully recommend Dave to every founder who is ready to face their challenges, go very deep, and get to the next level.”

“Dave brings out the best in founders. He helps them translate their insights into clear strategy and decisive 'no-turning-back' action. Dave taps into the cutting edge research in business and human psychology to help founders understand themselves better and move forward with greater confidence.”

“Dave’s workshops are an MBA on steroids that provide founders with a vast set of tools and mental models. The exercises hold tremendous value and the content is both educational and inspirational. Dave’s delivery is littered with real life examples and is well paced and entertaining. Super helpful!”

“I saw Dave on stage, and what he said resonated and made sense. I applied it afterwards, it made even more sense, and I hoped to get even more from working with him. That came true.”

“You gain access to Dave’s knowledge and expertise built up over many years. He also brings together a network of founder CEOs, and sharing your experiences with them really helps you learn. It’s not just a one-to-one relationship. The group interaction really helps.”

“I've worked with several coaches. All have been good, none have stuck. Dave is the first I've stuck with. He's a rare breed of 'lesser spotted coach'. He has proper CEO and investor experience but doesn't try to solve it for you. His post-coaching notes are awesome too….well structured and highlighted.”

“Dave is a truly tremendous coach who really helped me through the numerous ups and downs that come with being a Founder who wants to scale. I highly recommend him for his breadth of knowledge and experience and his ability to dig into even the most unfamiliar problems.”

“Dave has been instrumental in my ongoing evolution from a founder to a CEO, elevating my thought process to becoming a much more conscious leader. The coaching sessions are the perfect monthly think time for stepping back on the past and present while trying to anticipate the future. Dave is a fantastic facilitator and listener to get your brain thinking in the right guide rails with the framework for me to continue using them outside of our sessions.”

“Dave’s workshops provided several frameworks which I am using as prompts for deeper thinking, along with different tools for arriving at clarity with my team. As a CEO, they’re a great way to take a step back and work on the essentials of how to create and share an inspiring story about your company.”

“I needed some sort of sense check and validation from an external source. The problems we face as founders are quite similar, despite the different industries and stages of the companies. That shared knowledge and wisdom is really transferable.”

“I've worked with Dave for many years and it's changed a lot in the way I lead my life, not just my company. I think through people’s emotions and the way they operate in a completely different way, and I think about strategy in a different way. I recommend working with Dave to every CEO.”

“Designed for CEOs by a CEO. Dave’s workshops are an effective way to focus on the why behind your business & learn from an expert while interacting with a quality peer group. Focused, concise & practical, filled with real-life examples to demonstrate key points. It was great to be pulled out of the day-to-day and spend time with such quality people working on the same problem.”

“Working with Dave has helped me understand more about myself - specifically my strengths and weaknesses. This realisation is helping me become a better person, a better thinker, and a better manager of other people. Having someone external to the company you can fall back on to get advice and feedback when you need it (which is all the time!) is the best thing about having a coach.”

“Dave’s workshops were extremely valuable for Zippi. Dave created a comprehensive yet short format that is delightful to attend and is focused on what matters. Throughout the course, Dave also constantly provided insightful feedback on my deliverables, which helped me gain clarity and understand what was the next logical step for us as a company. If you're a founder looking to better understand your own business and improve your pitch delivery, then Dave’s workshops are for you!”

“Dave has put together an incredibly applicable program with structured sessions, backed up by practical examples. The workshops helped me to clarify our mission, vision and strategy enormously, as well as improving overall focus. The group format also allowed me to share ideas and experiences with fellow founders in a friendly and collaborative way. I recommend Dave’s workshops to anyone seeking a pragmatic and logical way to enhance and clarify their business outlook.”

“The difference with Dave is more self-awareness, more self-discovery and more work on changing yourself and changing the company through your own transformation. It is very well structured, with frameworks, tools, accountability and practices. With the tools ready and somebody guiding me through, it happened over a few weeks and I felt much better.”

“Dave has a lot of experience coaching founders and making you a better CEO. He helped me get clarity on my own role: where I should leverage my time, what I should be doing and what other people in my team should be doing. I’m more confident in what my role actually is and under a lot less stress.”

“I had tried group coaching and one-to-one coaching, but they felt too ambiguous. I wanted something with more structure that would talk about things I wasn’t even thinking about and highlight my blind spots. That’s what I got with Dave. If you ask my team, they’ll say I’ve evolved like a Pokémon.”

“Dave always gives us new frameworks and tools we can use in our businesses, and forces us to take a time-boxed approach to clarify our thoughts and formulate a plan. You get re-energised, re-motivated and go and apply those things in your company. Working with him is a no-brainer. The tools are worth it by themselves; everything else is priceless.”

“I just wish I’d done the workshops a few months earlier! They gave me the headspace to develop a compelling narrative for investors and the team. A clear and structured process, personalised feedback, and the ability to connect with other entrepreneurs with similar issues. Keep up the great work, Dave!”

“Dave’s workshops were a game changer! By the end, we were able to craft a more effective pitch deck with a very compelling narrative. This has made a huge difference to Medway's future and our confidence and ability to raise capital has increased. I’m glad we did this together as co-founders as we came out more aligned and united.”

“What I like about working with Dave is the way he helps me think through my own problems. He doesn’t come with an answer and say, ‘This is the thing you should do.’ He helps you clarify and work through the internal things holding you back that you don’t realise. It’s one of the best investments I’ve made in the business.”

“Dave has a very clear understanding of what makes being a founder different, with clear, easy-to-test and easy-to-implement answers to the issues you face. There were so many moments where he explained something and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s why.’ Nobody teaches you how to be a founder.”

“Working with Dave has significantly helped me to become a better CEO. What I especially notice is that I'm making smart decisions faster. Dave has a unique ability to listen to what you're saying and present it back to you with the clarity that only someone on the outside, with great experience and with no conflict of interest, can provide. I've recommended Dave to numerous CEOs and would recommend to every CEO that is struggling to make better decisions. In my experience, that's virtually 100% of CEOs!”

“Dave helped me to explain the value of our proposition which has been a massive support in our fundraising efforts. CEO coaching helps you to clarify what you want from your role and your business and then gives you the strategies to turn this into a reality. I’ve had several new business line ideas which have come directly from our sessions. He is great at encouraging you to clearly articulate your own thoughts and provides accountability and space to think. I would be less effective in my role without him.”

“Working with Dave has been game-changing for me. The single most powerful thing he's given me is confidence in myself as a manager, leader and founder. He's equipped me with the hard skills I need to be effective and world-class at my job. On top of all of that, Dave approaches his work from a place of deep empathy - not just because he's a great & experienced coach, but because he's been a Founder before and "gets it"”

“Working with someone who is both so knowledgeable on being a CEO and also so empathetic to the strife of building companies is completely game changing for me. My two hours with Dave are the most valuable part of my week. I come out of our sessions invariably energised, with a fresh understanding and clarity on the problems that I brought to the session. I cannot recommend Dave enough.”

“Dave is my 'go-to' person when I'm facing the most difficult situations. He's a great listener, always insightful, and he's helped me to think strategically and rationally and grow as a leader. One of the most difficult parts of being a CEO/founder is that people often expect you to have the answers and appear strong all the time. By having a coach like Dave, you have someone you can show your vulnerabilities, share your fears and, more importantly, have a valuable second opinion on how to make important decisions that will shape the future of your company.”

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. Dave is a fountain of both knowledge and wisdom, and is an expert at navigating the line between mentor and coach effectively. He is excellent at differentiating clearly when he is actively coaching or when he is giving advice based on experience. I know that Huckletree is in a better place because of Dave.”

“For me, coaching is about identifying the most challenging topics you're facing, and discussing solutions from both functional and emotional perspectives. Dave helps me spend time on the most important leadership topics, tackle problems from different angles, and provides me with extra accountability. Since Dave has held several CEO roles himself, he's able to share first-hand experience that I really value. He's also extremely knowledgeable and experienced in coaching methodologies. With both sides covered, Dave is highly valuable.”

“Achieving clarity amidst the constant onslaught of opportunities and challenges as a CEO of a fast-growing scale-up is of the utmost importance. Dave is incredibly empathic and easy to work with. He is able to pinpoint issues quickly and keeps asking the right questions to facilitate arriving at a clear picture of a solution. Dave will challenge you - but always being in your corner of the ring. If you are taking self-development seriously I would highly recommend working with him!”

“This program was exactly what I needed to shift my focus away from operations to strategic mode. It’s like a management "offsite" with other founders working towards a common goal: thinking more strategically and clearly. Dave’s clear thinking helps immensely when it comes to nailing your approach on vision/strategy. This program is a must.”

“Dave’s insightful coaching and powerful questioning helps me achieve clarity of focus, an essential requirement in the startup world. Highly recommended!”

“Dave’s workshops have brought structure into the often unstructured vision-strategy-story part of the CEO job, that’s too often crowded out by day-to-day-tasks. They’ve been my single best investment into coaching (and I have tried a few coaching programs), so I recommend you do this as early as possible!”

“In my first session with Dave, I realised these are problems that every founder goes through. It was nice to know there was comfort in what other people had experienced, and it gave me really valuable insights while I was going through these things for the first time.”

“Dave helped me address the immediate question I was trying to resolve: what is my role as CEO, what should I spend my time on and how do I make sure we’re not just working hard, but doing the right thing? He also brought my attention to other things where I can improve.”

“David is a rare coach who has the wisdom and empathy required to support entrepreneurs in building their businesses and driving results.”

“Dave’s workshops are like a secret recipe, and they feel a bit like cheating. Dave has distilled his experience working with hundreds of companies into six sessions. You'll understand a lot more about your company, how to explain it to your customers/investors/team, and you'll confront all those hard questions you've been avoiding, and make you more confident about what you're doing.”

“Honestly, this is the first time I've understood what it means to actually be a CEO. I'm now thinking of "founder" as more of a mentality, and a CEO as having a true functional role. Dave’s workshops have given me frameworks and tools to recognize, synthesize, and communicate the gut feeling of excitement I have about the business and communicate it with the right message to the right stakeholders. Getting to know the other founders and their businesses was really valuable. Great group!”

“Dave is the best - hands down! I make better decisions, quicker. Highly recommend.”

“Dave has been my CEO coach since early 2018, I couldn't hope for a better coach. I particularly enjoy the fact that he always manages to help me distill complex situations into clear decision points that help me move faster with clarity. But most importantly, Dave has taught me how truly show up for myself in ways that improved my emotional, mental, and physical health. He helped me find my own definition of "balance" and, in this sense, helped me in many ways beyond business. I often leave coaching sessions with Dave having found words that connect and explain thoughts and values that had been knocking around in my head for years.”

“I wanted to be pushed, guided and asked difficult questions. That’s exactly what I get from Dave.”

“Dave really helped illuminate for me that there is no one set way to do things. Knowing what is right for me, being able to stand behind it and say, ‘This is what I believe,’ is something you can give yourself permission to do. That was my biggest takeaway.”

“Dave didn't make it a one-size-fits-all program. It was highly curated, and customised the stage of the companies, so you can address the specific problems you're facing at your stage. That's one of the big selling points.”

“Working with Dave to simplify the vision and make it more powerful has been really valuable. It has landed really well, both internally and externally. Being a CEO is a specific job with core skills you need to do well, and anyone looking to become a better CEO should work with Dave.”

“I never realised how powerful founder leadership could be until I met Dave and went through the Founder Coach program.”

“Dave’s expertise has helped me think through how I communicate with my team, my investors, and other stakeholders in order to really get my message across effectively.”

“Dave’s workshops expanded my knowledge of how to be a successful CEO. The exercises with my team helped us unearth a deeper value prop and a more focused message, which has already led us to close two big deals! The workshops were a great combination of thought-provoking questions, video inspiration and exercises, and delivered a vast amount of value in every slide. I feel I’ve been given permission to build vital strategy and storytelling time into my day-to-day work. Thanks for an amazing experience!”

“The workshops are considered, action-packed and communicated with clarity. Dave was always fun and engaged the group with enjoyable and varied stories. I’m already seeing the benefits of the exercises to maintain simplicity and clarity in my team discussions. I can foresee this being a quarterly exercise. Keep being great at what you do!”

“Dave’s workshops are a great way to not only meet likeminded founders but also follow a very easy and repeatable process. The sequencing and templates were easy to follow and very meaningful, and Dave's delivery of the presentation content and group exercises was extremely effective. Highly recommended.”

“As a founder and CEO, creating clarity is key to successfully lead a team and/or stakeholders. Dave has broken down vague concepts like vision, messaging, communication and strategy into an interactive learning session based on logic and examples to give you a clear path forward. For me the vision session was the most eyeopening and could not have come at a better moment. As well as meeting and interacting with other founders around the challenges was very engaging and rewarding. I would highly recommend any startup CEO to get into the course.”

“The experience felt full of kindness, curiosity and fun, and it’s given me a structure to think about communication, and strategy. If you’re looking for an actionable framework to the most important things a CEO must think about, this is it.”

“David will be there to prompt you, question your thinking, steer you in directions you may not have pondered, give you insight from the lessons and experiences that have shaped his career, and connect you with his vast network to help unlock problems you are facing.”

“I found Dave to be incredibly inspiring and I learnt a lot. It was very well organised and there was a lot of valuable information to digest. I felt that every attendee was incredibly aware of their own challenges and willing to improve as a person.”

“I loved the templates and how the class was structured from the bottom-up of needs, vision, strategy, story telling, pitch, and delivery. I really like Dave's teaching style and it really helped me understand the root of our business and how to best explain what it is that we do exactly! I'm definitely going to recommend it to others.”

“The role of CEO is a complicated one, and can often be a lonely one. Through the roller coaster ride of wins and challenges of running a startup, having the listening ear and wise advice of a seasoned executive coach like Dave helps to clear the fog, squelch the fear, and correct the ship. I'm grateful for the guidance Dave has provided along my journey, often when I've needed it the most. He earns my highest regards and recommendation.”

“Working with Dave has given me more confidence in my decision-making and an awareness of my own thought patterns, feelings and actions. We've touched on just about everything across our business and my own thinking, and I believe there has been a positive impact across the board.”

“Dave helps me to separate the wheat from the chaff and refocus on the truly important priorities. Dave’s coaching has been invaluable in helping me stay focused on the truly important priorities for my business, and not lose sight of the big picture.”

“Working with Dave is very different. He has done it before, from scratch all the way up, and has experience working with hundreds and hundreds of CEOs. He explains complex situations with clarity and simplicity, then turns that experience into tools and methods you can apply to everyday challenges.”

“Dave’s models synthesise all the complexity into a really simple process you can follow. At the end, you have an actual answer or a plan you can implement almost immediately. They’ve given me the confidence to tackle everything from strategy to complicated negotiations. It almost feels like cheating.”

“Dave helped me to believe in myself again. Ultimately, this allowed me to be future-focused and to truly believe that my best work is still ahead of me.”

“Dave’s support and true partnership were invaluable to me through a very challenging period, which ended up in an acquisition.”

“David is a terrific coach. He is a brilliant blend of EQ and IQ. His entrepreneurial and investment experiences combine to put him in a very uniquely advantageous position to help emerging entrepreneurs best negotiate the rollercoaster of start-up life. I would very highly recommend him!”

“Dave helps me to reframe my doubts and my whole team has said how much my leadership has changed as a result. I've even started to practice coaching with them. I never thought I would recommend coaching, but now I'm the guy that raves about it, the same way people do about crazy fitness trends.”

“Dave’s empathy and keen mind have helped us focus on what's important...which in every case is people.”

“Dave’s workshops are full of little gems that really made me reflect on our business and sparked further questions. The structure and concepts were awesome: impactful, provoking and practical. I also absolutely loved to watch how Dave handles questions and observe his process of asking follow-ups and really digging into what the participants are saying. A MUST for every Founder!”

“I wouldn’t have paid for Dave’s workshops as a first time founder but wouldn’t think twice now. I’ve learnt new skills and frameworks that are already saving me hours of work and unnecessary stress.”

“I 100% recommend any founder to apply to this program. Dave has a ton of frameworks, and his case studies are amazing to work through. The program really changed my outlook on the mission and vision of my company and more importantly how to present our objectives and work to the team.”

“From the outset, it was as if you were chatting with a good, wise friend. I loved the way Dave’s workshops allow CEOs to dissect their own unique challenges as entrepreneurs. You really do not understand the business you are building without them. Best investment I have ever made for my company and for myself... Loved it!”

“Dave really cares, and it shows up in all the details.”