My expertise is in helping driven Founders and Leaders become world-class CEOs. This Founder to CEO evolution is needed once the startup has found Product-Market fit (PMF) & is looking to scale. I use my 5D model to help the leader build their strategy, team & systems — so their startup ‘gets better, as it gets bigger’ — & they don’t burnout. More details below.
Over the last 15 years I have consulted & coached Founders, CEOs & Senior leaders of several startups across domains of Edtech, Education, Social enterprises & Technology. You can read their testimonies here.
If you want to speak with me on a potential consultation:
5D model of a CEO’s role
When I was CEO, the most common question I got: “What on earth does a CEO do?” After a decade of being a CEO & reading everything I could about it, I created my 5D model of a CEO’s role (see pic). My attempt was to create the most comprehensive yet simple & memorable articulation of a CEO’s role you will ever find. (When I shared it on Twitter & Linkedin, it got hundreds of saves/shares including by the founder of Reddit who shared it with a chef’s kiss).
Across these 5Ds — Direction, Diamonds, Delivery, Dollars & Decibels — there are 20 Areas that I support & consult CEOs on:
(I) DIRECTION → Define where the organization is going in an inspiring & memorable way
- Vision & Mission: Craft your big dream for the world and the role you want your org to play to make that dream a reality
- Strategy: Articulate who you are, your unique value & where you are going in the next few years in 1 line (Northstar) & 1 picture (flywheel). Figure out what you next product/service should be that will take the organisation to the next level
- Business Model: Create a sustainable & scalable model which streamlines your costs & gets you the money & resources you deserve for the incredible value you are creating
- Change Model: Describe how various parts of your theory of change coherently fit together to create your promised impact
(II) DIAMONDS → Recruit & Retain the best talent to pursue your Direction
- Org Design: Define which are the core teams (+ what’s the right size for each), who is on the leadership team (+ what should they own, who should they report to) and what should the Founder/CEO’s role be (where can you add unique value, what should your focus be, what should you delegate & how)
- Hiring: Build a world-class recruitment system that gets you the best possible talent without being a huge drain on time & resources
- Performance Evaluation: Create a system which clearly defines excellent performance, fairly evaluates people & gives them career paths they are excited about
- Surveys & Feedback: Design a system to regularly collect engagement & performance data so you always have a pulse on how people & teams are doing, are never caught by surprise & can address potential issues early
- Board: Create a world-class board, leverage board members strategically & run productive board meetings
(III) DELIVERY → Build a high performance culture that balances: Apt Support + High Ownership + Clear Accountability
- Goals & Planning: Create a Goal system that brings focus & alignment (within & across teams, from big picture to Individual level) and leverage Cycle Planning to deliver — quickly, with high quality, at scale — without burning everyone out
- Decision Making: Build a decision making system that leads to quick & high quality decisions that also have high team satisfaction
- CEO Calendar: Craft your calendar so you spend your ‘within org time’ in supporting your leaders (+ holding them accountable) & not in day to day fire-fighting
- CEO Dashboard: Create a dashboard that brings all key organisational metrics in 1 view so you can easily & regularly track how the org is doing & fix emerging problems before they become crises
(IV) DOLLARS → Deliver capital to pursue your direction & ensure there’s always cash in bank
- Fundraising Strategy: Define the ‘right’ funders for you, figure out how to attract them & show them your unique value
- Funder Engagement: Develop a simple system to keep funders updated and engaged in your organization so they stay invested and double down on their commitment
- Financial dashboard: Identify the key financial metrics for your organization & develop a dashboard & system to regularly review them
(V) DECIBELS → Communicate regularly to inspire & align all internal & external stakeholders
- Organisation Playbook: Build a fun & unique playbook that you can give to every employee to explain, inspire & align everything about your organisation
- Your Founder/CEO story: Learn how to tell your story powerfully so you can attract the people & resources you need (+ create variants for social media, elevator pitches, conferences)
- Your Organization pitch: Craft a pitch that shows the world your unique value and inspires people to take action (invest, buy, join)
- Lead Magnets: Create digital products that will build your brand, fill your funnel with relevant prospects & do automated outreach for you 24X7
Consulting Options
Across these 5Ds and 20 Areas, there are 2 Consulting Options I offer:
(A) DIRECTION
- Outcome → Using first-principles, create a ‘Direction’ that’s audacious, rigorous & inspiring
- For whom →
- A leader who is scaling their organisation & wants to make sure that all the Direction areas are aligned & coherent
- A leader whose organisation has attained some success & now they want to level-up by re-imagining their Direction
- Areas under Direction →
- Vision & Mission
- Strategy & Growth plan
- Business Model
- Change Model (Theory of Change)
- What you’ll get →
- I’ll deeply understand where you are as an organization, what’s worked so far, what’s not & where you want to go
- I’ll then diagnose the root causes for your challenges & share multiple solutions with their pros, cons & requirements
- Post that, I’ll support you in crafting a Direction that best fits your ambition & then help you articulate it to your team in a simple, memorable & inspiring way
- Project Details → Typically, 3-4 months, 8-12 calls
(B) DIAMONDS, DELIVERY DOLLARS, DECIBELS
- Outcome → Build world-class systems that accelerate your progress
- For whom → A leader who feels their organisation’s quality or speed or growth is getting limited because of their current systems
- Areas I offer support on →
- Diamonds (everything talent) → Org Design, Hiring, Performance Evaluation, Surveys & Feedback
- Delivery (everything performance) → Goals & Planning, Decision Making, CEO Calendar, CEO Dashboard
- Dollars (everything money) → Fundraising Strategy, Funder Engagement, Financial Dashboard
- Decibels (everything communication) → Org Playbook, Your Story, Organisational Pitch
- What you’ll get → For each area that you pick,
- I’ll review your existing systems, understand the challenges you are facing & help you identify gaps
- I’ll then share world-class exemplars & help you use them to create a new system relevant to your context
- Finally, as you roll all this out in your organization, I’ll help resolve any challenges & problems that emerge, to ensure a successful implementation
- Two Project options →
- (B1) Build world-class systems in any 2 Areas → Typically, 1-2 months, 4-6 calls
- (B2) Build world-class systems in any 5 Areas → Typically, 3-4 months, 8-12 calls
To know prices and more details, please reach out to me.
Testimonials
Nathan Pai Schmitt Co-Founder & Executive Director, HNC
My org has grown 3X every year for the past few years (currently ~$10M ARR). But we were struggling to manage this growth & I had reached my own "point of diminishing insight" around solving these scaling problems. That’s when we hired Gaurav as a consultant to help us with this. The question I put in front of him: "What do we need to do so our quality increases as we scale?". He 1st helped me figure out the principles needed for this. Then he worked with us in building org-wide systems to make this happen. The results have been transformative. We are now scaling much faster while increasing our quality & even the team stress is lower. After working with Gaurav, our organisation is proof that you can ‘get better as you get bigger’.
Girish Bhakoo Chief Investment Officer, TenCore Partners
I have known Gaurav for over a decade now. He has always been a deep learner and thinker. His learning lens is extremely broad—from lived experiences in challenged communities to reading from business, art, philosophy, psychology, history, etc. In addition, he has built exceptional teams throughout to help execute the vision. The teams he led always appeared to have that special energy and gleam that only comes through shared purpose, understanding, care, and ownership. Like others, I feel I learn and grow in his presence. And that’s before we start a conversation, which is always riveting and enlightening.