The best founder coach in the UK for a company past product-market fit is the one who has run the stage you are about to enter, works with founders specifically rather than executives generally, and can show you the scar tissue. This list has six names, not ten, because six is how many clear that bar. Dave Bailey is the obvious choice for a venture-backed startup under 30 people. Dominic Monkhouse is the choice from 30 people upwards, funded or bootstrapped, if the people problems have started and you care about culture.
A founder coach works with the person who started the company on the job of running it as it grows: the decisions, the team, the delegation, the shift from doing to leading. The best ones have founded or scaled a company themselves and combine coaching with straight mentoring from that experience.
Every “best founder coaches” list is written by a coach, and the author is always near the top. This one is no different. I am Dominic Monkhouse, founder of Monkhouse & Company, and I am on it. What I have tried to do instead of pretending neutrality is keep the list short enough to be honest. There is no padding here. I would send a founder to every person on this list if they were the better fit, and I say who is the better fit for what.
Most lists of this kind run to ten or fifteen names because ten looks thorough. It isn’t. Once you strip out the executive coaches who added “founder” to their homepage, the people whose websites went quiet in 2024, and the ones with a thousand followers and no track record, you are left with a handful. That handful is below.
How did we select the founder coaches on this list?
Five tests. Every name had to pass all five.
- Founded or scaled a company themselves. Not advised one. Not sat on the board of one. Ran one, with payroll and customers and a bad quarter.
- Works with founders specifically. The founder’s job is different from the hired executive’s job, because the founder built the role, the culture and the shortcuts. A coach who treats a founder as a generic senior leader misses the point.
- UK relevant. Based here or working with UK founders regularly enough to know the market, the investors and the exits.
- Verifiable in public. Named companies, named outcomes, a body of writing or speaking you can inspect before you pick up the phone.
- I would send a founder to them. This is the filter that shortened the list. If I would not personally recommend someone when I am not the right fit, they are not on it.
Other names you might expect are missing because they fail one of the five. Some UK “founder coaches” have never built a company. Others have stopped publishing. That is not a comment on their coaching. It is a comment on what a founder past product-market fit actually needs, which is someone who has been there.
Who are the best founder coaches in the UK?
| Founder coach | Best for | Operating evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Dominic Monkhouse (Monkhouse & Company)* | Founders past product-market fit, 30 to 300 people, funded or bootstrapped, who care about culture | Scaled Rackspace UK and Peer 1 Hosting UK to £30m ARR each; three companies on Sunday Times Best Places to Work lists; 200+ founder-CEOs coached; 12 client exits |
| Dave Bailey (Founder Coach) | Venture-backed tech founders, Series A to D | Three-time founder including Delivery Hero (IPO 2017); 250+ CEOs coached over eight years |
| Rachel Turner (VC Talent Lab) | VC-backed founders dealing with boards, investors and the startup-to-scale-up jump | Founded five businesses before 25; author of The Founder’s Survival Guide; works alongside Notion Capital |
| Eric Partaker | Founders who want a structured programme on company building plus personal performance | Co-founded Chilango; named CEO of the Year; runs the Founder & CEO Accelerator |
| Asher Ismail (Asher Coach) | Series A+ founders, 20 to 500 people, $5m to $150m raised | 20+ years building venture-backed companies including Uncapped; recommended coach for Cherry Ventures |
| Johnny Hammond | Tech founders who want an ICF-credentialled coach with founder experience | Built a DTI award-winning tech startup; ICF PCC accredited |
What does each founder coach offer?
1. Dominic Monkhouse / Monkhouse & Company (author’s firm)
Best for: founder-CEOs of companies past product-market fit, from 30 people up to 300, whether venture-backed or bootstrapped, who want the company to be a place people are proud to work.
I do not work with startups. I pick founders up at around 30 people, because that is where the job changes. Below 30, you can run the company on personal horsepower and a good product. At 30, the people problems start: delegation, org structure, who owns what, how you develop the next layer, why your calendar is full of things that are not the CEO’s job. It does not matter whether you got there in 18 months on venture money or ten years bootstrapped. The problems are the same, and they are people problems.
I use the rule of three and ten. Companies change shape at 1, 3, 10, 30, 100 and 300 people. Each transition breaks whatever worked at the previous one. The work I do is getting founders from 30 through 100 to 300, and it is organised around headcount, not revenue, because headcount is what creates the complexity.
The other thing that marks out the founders I work with is that they care about culture, properly, not as a poster. The three companies I have run, Rackspace, Peer 1 Hosting and ITLab, all made the Sunday Times Best Places to Work or Best Workplaces in Europe lists over the years I led them. Many of the founders I coach have the same ambition and some have got there: Gerry Tombs took Clearvision to the top of the Sunday Times Best Companies list in its category before selling to Eficode; Mike Selfe’s Smartsourcing has won HR Asia Best Companies to Work For five years running; Macquarie Technology Group’s cloud business has been ranked the #1 Best Workplace in Australia in its category three years in a row. If a best-place-to-work list means nothing to you, I am probably not your coach.
Since 2014 I have coached more than 200 founder-CEOs and been alongside 12 client exits. Before that I scaled Rackspace UK and Peer 1 Hosting UK to £30m annual run rate each, in five years each. The work is not pure coaching. It is mentoring, diagnostics and operating rhythm, built on the Two-Day-Week CEO Blueprint.
Published price: Terms are discussed privately with founders exploring fit; details on the founder coaching page. It starts with a 15-minute call.
Watch out for: Not for pre-revenue or pre-product-market-fit founders, and not for anyone under about 30 people. Eight out of ten clients describe me as blunt. If you want a coach who only asks questions, pick someone else on this list.
2. Dave Bailey / Founder Coach
Best for: CEOs of venture-backed tech companies from Series A to Series D, particularly in London.
Dave is the most-cited founder coach in the UK for a reason. He has been a founder-CEO three times, including Delivery Hero, which listed in 2017, and has spent eight years coaching more than 250 venture-backed CEOs whose investors include Sequoia, Accel and Insight Partners. He publishes an essay a week, which means you can read a hundred of them before you decide, and his clients stay an average of two and a half years, which is its own reference.
If you are a funded startup below 30 people and your constraints are board, fundraising and the personal transition from builder to CEO, he is the obvious pick, and I would tell you so on a call.
Published price: Not published; terms shared privately.
Watch out for: Exclusively venture-backed. If you bootstrapped to 50 people over eight years, you are not his client and he will say so.
3. Rachel Turner / VC Talent Lab
Best for: VC-backed founders navigating board dynamics, investor pressure and the psychological load of running someone else’s money at speed.
Rachel founded five businesses before she was 25, then built a coaching practice around the shift from startup energy to scale-up leadership. She wrote The Founder’s Survival Guide and works closely with Notion Capital’s portfolio through VC Talent Lab. She joined me on Scale to Win episode 262, which is a good way to hear how she thinks before you speak to her.
Published price: On application, typically engaged through the fund.
Watch out for: The fund embedding means limited availability outside Notion’s portfolio. Less relevant if you are bootstrapped or PE-backed.
4. Eric Partaker
Best for: founders who want a structured programme combining company building with personal performance, and who like a cohort.
Eric co-founded Chilango, the Mexican restaurant chain, and was named CEO of the Year before moving into coaching. He now runs the Founder & CEO Accelerator, a ten-week programme, alongside one-to-one work, and has a large public body of writing on scaling yourself as well as the company. If your constraint is as much your own operating system as the company’s, his angle is unusual and useful.
Published price: Programme pricing on his site; one-to-one on application.
Watch out for: The peak-performance framing is a feature or a bug depending on temperament. If you want an operator’s view of your org chart rather than your morning routine, look elsewhere on this list.
5. Asher Ismail
Best for: Series A and later founders of 20 to 500 people who have raised $5m to $150m and are scaling fast.
Asher has spent 20 years building venture-backed companies, most recently Uncapped, and is one of Cherry Ventures’ recommended coaches for the founders it backs. His clients come from Accel, Index and LocalGlobe portfolios. He trained formally as a coach, which is rarer than it should be among ex-founders, and his territory is the classic scaling list: letting go of detail, wartime CEO mode, co-founder conflict, managing investors.
Published price: On application.
Watch out for: Firmly venture-backed in framing. Bootstrapped founders may find the investor-management material less relevant.
6. Johnny Hammond
Best for: tech founders who want an ICF-credentialled coach who has also built a tech company.
The combination is rare. Most ICF-accredited coaches come from corporate HR or L&D. Johnny built a DTI award-winning tech startup himself and holds ICF PCC accreditation, so you get the coaching discipline and the founder scars in one person.
Published price: On application.
Watch out for: “Built a tech startup” covers a wide range. Ask about scale, team size and outcome relative to your stage.
Which founder coach is right for your stage?
Use headcount, not revenue. Companies change shape at 1, 3, 10, 30, 100 and 300 people, and the coach you need depends on which transition you are in.
| Where you are | What breaks | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| Under 30 people, venture-backed | Founder-to-CEO transition, board, next raise | Dave Bailey, Rachel Turner, Asher Ismail |
| Under 30 people, bootstrapped | Founder-led sales, first managers | Eric Partaker, Johnny Hammond |
| 30 to 100 people, any funding | Delegation, org structure, who owns what, your calendar | Dominic Monkhouse, Asher Ismail |
| 100 to 300 people | Leadership team horsepower, operating rhythm, culture at scale | Dominic Monkhouse |
What does a founder coach cost in the UK?
None of the coaches on this list publishes a rate card, which is normal for bespoke executive work. Terms are discussed privately once the coach understands the company, the stage and the scope. Programmes and cohorts tend to be cheaper per head and more structured than one-to-one work.
Before you compare prices, answer three questions: what is the problem, what is it worth to you and the business to solve it, and what would you pay to make it go away? If that number is bigger than the fee, the coach is value for money. If it is not, no discount will fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the best founder coaches in the UK?
Six clear the bar of having founded or scaled a company, working with founders specifically, and being verifiable in public: Dominic Monkhouse, Dave Bailey, Rachel Turner, Eric Partaker, Asher Ismail and Johnny Hammond. Bailey for venture-backed startups under 30 people; Monkhouse from 30 people to 300, funded or bootstrapped; the rest by the fit described above.
What is the difference between a founder coach and a CEO coach?
A CEO coach works on the job of running the company. A founder coach works on the same job, with one difference: you built the role, culture and habits, so the coaching redesigns them. Founder coaching is where you start; CEO coaching is where it goes once the seat itself is the work.
Which business coach should a tech founder in the UK choose?
One who has built a tech company, not read about it. Under 30 people and venture-backed, Dave Bailey or Asher Ismail. Past 30 people, Dominic Monkhouse, who ran two hosting businesses to £30m ARR. The sector matters less than the stage; the people problems at 50 staff are the same in SaaS and services.
Do I need a founder coach if I already have investors and a board?
Your board is not your coach. A board protects its investment, sets expectations and eventually decides whether you stay in the seat. A coach is the one person with no stake in that decision, which is exactly why you can say the true thing to them first. Most venture-backed founders on this list’s client rosters have both.
When should a founder hire a coach?
When growth is still happening but the way it is happening depends too much on you. The signs: you cannot take a holiday, senior people ask permission before spending money, and less than half your week is on work only the CEO can do. That lands at about 30 people.
Are there founder coaches in London specifically?
All six work with London founders. Bailey, Turner, Ismail and Hammond are London-based; Partaker is London-connected; Monkhouse works from a farm in the New Forest and coaches London founders by video. Location matters less than it did; stage fit matters more.
What should you do next?
Work out which transition you are in. If it is the one from founder to CEO of a funded startup, read Dave Bailey’s essays and book a call with him. If it is the one where the company has got to 30 people and the people problems have started, whatever the funding, read how founder coaching works at Monkhouse & Company and book 15 minutes. Come with the problem. Fifteen minutes is enough for both of us to know.