Stop being the bottleneck in your own company.
I'm Noah Isaacs, a CEO coach for founders of seed to Series A companies. I ran a venture-backed company to 300 people, made most of the mistakes you're about to make, and now spend my time helping a dozen CEOs avoid them. Together we pick the one thing that matters, build the team that owns it, and get you out of the middle of every decision.
What's keeping you up at night?
Any of this sound like your week?
- Everything routes through you. Product, customers, hiring, the board. You are the bridge between every team, and you can feel yourself becoming the bottleneck.
- Your priority list keeps growing. If I asked three people on your team to name the single most important thing right now, I would get three answers.
- You are still running every deal. Revenue can't grow faster than your calendar.
- The hard calls sit for weeks. The hire you keep not making. The person you keep not exiting. The raise you keep not starting.
- You have never done this job before, and there is nobody inside the company you can say that to.
None of this means you're doing it wrong. It means the company got bigger than one person can hold. That's the moment I'm useful.
What you get
From reacting to leading.
One priority your whole team can repeat
We write a rallying cry: one time-bound objective for the next quarter or two, and the three to five things that have to be true to hit it. It fits on one page. Your leadership team grades it green, yellow or red every week. Nobody has to guess what matters anymore, including you.
A team that owns outcomes
Most CEOs hold on to work because they don't trust the team to carry it. Sometimes that is a trust problem. More often it is a people problem. We build role scorecards, I sit in on interviews and debriefs, and when someone is in the wrong seat we deal with it early and generously instead of eighteen months late.
Decisions made, with a direct opinion behind them
Pricing, the first sales hire, the board deck, whether to raise or get to profitability. I will tell you what I think and why. The opinion comes from three places: what went wrong at my own company, what I've watched work across a dozen CEOs, and years of studying how the best operators actually did it. You can disagree. You will not have to wonder what I actually think.
How it works
Simple format. Real work.
We start with a conversation
An hour on whatever is keeping you up at night. You leave with a point of view on it, and we both find out whether this is a fit.
The first month, we build your scorecard
Why the company exists, how you behave, how you win, the single most important thing right now, and who owns what. It fits on one page, and your team is using it by the end of the month.
Then one hour every two weeks, and as much time as you need in between
Text me, Slack me, send me the deck the night before the board meeting. Every session ends with three commitments, and every session starts by checking them.
Month to month. Cancel with a month's notice. No annual contract. More detail on the format.
Clients
What clients say.
“He pushed me through my last fundraising round, and honestly, it would not have happened without him.”
“Noah helped me gain clarity on priorities, align our vision and strategy, and translate that clarity to the broader team.”
“He literally sat down with me for hours to refine my fundraising pitch and deck, which was critical in me raising a recent round.”
Backed by
Clients backed by
- Goldman Sachs
- Capital One
- Y Combinator
- Khosla Ventures
- Founders Fund
- General Catalyst
- Sam Altman
- Narya Capital
- Altos Ventures
- Allegion Ventures
- Harlem Capital
- Haymaker Ventures
- Caffeinated Capital
- Techstars
- S3 Ventures
- Crosslink Capital
- Haystack
- Overture Ventures
- Antler
- Skyview Ventures
- 1984 Ventures
Investors in the company Noah ran and the companies he coaches, not in Realize HQ.
Who this is for
Who I work with.
A good fit
- You are the founder and CEO, or a co-founder who runs a large part of the company.
- Venture-backed B2B, under about 100 people. My clients sell into credit, permitting, property tax, home services, private debt, healthcare data and more. The industry does not matter. The stage does.
- The company pays for the coaching, not you personally.
- You want a direct opinion, not a mirror.
Probably not a fit
- You want a specialist in one function. If your problem is purely a product problem or purely a sales-technique problem, I will tell you and point you to someone better.
- You want a coach from your industry. I have run one industry. I have coached a dozen.
- You are mainly looking for inner work. We will do some of it, because how you are doing affects how you lead. But if that is the main thing you want, there are coaches who specialize in it, like UpBuild, and I will point you there.
- You have not raised yet and are paying out of pocket. Come back after the round. Read the essays in the meantime.
About Noah
I have sat in your chair.
I co-founded Bowery Valuation and ran it as CEO from zero to 300 people. We raised over $80 million from Goldman Sachs, Capital One and others. The company is profitable, does tens of millions in revenue, and I am still on the board.
I also over-hired before rates spiked, raised more money than we needed and used it to paper over problems instead of fixing them, and spent years without a clear enough answer to which customer we were for. Most of what I coach is the list of things I would do differently.
I left in 2024 to coach full time. Today I work with about a dozen CEOs. Combined, their companies do over $100 million in revenue.
Questions CEOs ask
How much does CEO coaching with Realize HQ cost?
$4,000 a month. That covers one hour every two weeks and unlimited access in between. Month to month, cancel with a month's notice, no annual contract. The company pays, not you. Leadership offsites are priced separately.
What stage of company does Noah Isaacs coach?
CEOs of venture-backed B2B companies from seed to Series B, typically under 100 people. Nearly all of them are founders. Most clients are at $1M to $10M in revenue. Earlier than that, the company usually cannot afford it and the problems are different. Later than that, you probably need a coach who has run a 500-person company.
Is this therapy?
No. We will talk about how you are doing, because it affects how you lead. But the work is strategy, people and execution.
I'm not the CEO. Can we work together?
Sometimes. I coach a Head of Operations and a technical co-founder today. What matters is that you own a real part of the company and the CEO is on board.
My co-founder and I are not aligned. Can you help?
Yes, and I will work with both of you. Sometimes the answer is a better working relationship. Sometimes the answer is a clean, calm decision about who does what. Both are better than another six months of the same argument.
How is a CEO coach different from an advisor or a board member?
An advisor gives you an intro. A board member watches the numbers. I am in the work with you every two weeks, and I have no stake in the answer except that it is right for the company.
Do you take board seats?
Occasionally, with clients I have worked with for a while.
How do I know if it's working?
Your team can name the most important thing without checking. The hard decisions are getting made. You are spending your week on the things only you can do.
One hour. One problem.
Bring the thing that is keeping you up at night. You will leave with a point of view on it either way.
Get in touch