Executive Coach San Francisco
Executive Coach San Francisco: 27 Years Coaching Founders and Senior Leaders
Coaching is a structured 1:1 leadership engagement. Executive coach San Francisco. $7,500 for 4 months. Coop has coached executives at SF companies from early-stage startups to Fortune 500.
Trusted by leaders at
PayPal | Lattice | Imperfect Foods | Baton | Cellares | Boeing
How the coaching process works
What leaders say about coaching with HPO
“Coop has been an invaluable resource for my executive team and I. As a first time founder trying to scale a new business during a global pandemic, I don’t know what I would have done without Coops strategic guidance and counsel.”
Andrew Berberick
Cofounder, Baton
“From all his reps working with early stage startups, Coop has incredible pattern recognition on everything we have run into. He can speak with a high level of detail towards what has worked and hasn’t worked at other companies, and can abstract away overarching principles to navigate virtually any situation.”
Nate Robert
Cofounder & CEO, Baton
“I had the great pleasure of working with Coop last year. He’s a true master of human communication. His easy-going style and techniques make it easy to discuss and unravel complicated situations. Coop is great at advising through political situations and helping you “lean in” to push forward. ”
Ashraf Karim
VP Product Management, PayPal
What San Francisco executives bring to coaching
70% of coached individuals report improved work performance and leadership effectiveness (ICF, 2023). Every coaching engagement starts with what matters most to you right now. For San Francisco executives, that often looks like one of these:
Scaling yourself alongside the company. The skills that got you to VP or C-suite don’t always get you through the next phase. When the company doubles, your role changes. Coaching helps you identify which habits to keep, which to retire, and which new skills to build.
Board and investor relationships. Presenting to your board, managing investor expectations, and handling the politics of growth-stage governance. These are high-stakes conversations where preparation matters as much as instinct.
Building and retaining a leadership team. Hiring well is half the job. Developing your direct reports into leaders who can run their own functions without you is the other half. We work on how you delegate, develop, and hold people accountable.
Having conversations you’ve been avoiding. The underperforming VP you haven’t confronted. The co-founder disagreement that keeps surfacing. The feedback your team needs but you haven’t given. Coaching gives you the structure and the practice to have those conversations well.
- Making better decisions under pressure. When the stakes are high and the data is incomplete, you need a thinking process that holds up. We build that with you by working through your real decisions in real time.
- Managing up and across. Working with your board, your investors, your CEO, or your peers requires a different set of skills than managing down. We work on how you influence people who don’t report to you, how you frame problems so they get traction, and how you build the credibility that gets you heard.
- Leading through growth and change. San Francisco companies grow fast. Roles change, teams restructure, and the skills that worked at 50 people don’t always work at 500. We help you identify which parts of how you lead need to evolve and build the specific capabilities your next phase demands.
- Building a culture that retains talent. The Bay Area talent market is competitive. The leaders who keep their best people do it by developing them, giving them ownership, and creating an environment where good work gets recognized. We work on how you build that kind of team culture, one conversation and one decision at a time.
Who you’ll be coaching with
Michael "Coop" Cooper
Executive Coach San Francisco, High Performance Orgs
Michael “Coop” Cooper built the High Performance Leadership Operating System over 27 years coaching 3,000+ executives and training 150,000+ employees in 37 countries. He’s direct, warm, and occasionally irreverent. He’ll give you honest, specific tools you can use immediately, not corporate platitudes.
Why San Francisco leaders work with us
86% of organizations report positive coaching ROI (ICF/PwC, 2024). Leading in San Francisco means leading through constant change: funding rounds, reorgs, market shifts, board pressure. The pace is relentless and the margin for error is thin.
We’ve coached 3,000+ leaders in 37 countries over 27 years. Many of them in the Bay Area, dealing with exactly the challenges you’re facing now. We know what it takes to lead through a Series B, a reorg, a founder transition, or a board that’s lost patience. We’ve seen these situations hundreds of times.
San Francisco’s leadership culture rewards speed and decisiveness. But the leaders who last are the ones who also build depth: deep relationships with their teams, deep clarity about what matters, and deep skills they can use under pressure. That’s what coaching builds.
We’re based in San Francisco. We know the market, the culture, and the specific pressures of leading here. When you work with a coach who understands the Bay Area ecosystem, every conversation starts from context, not explanation.
Find us in San Francisco
Executive coach San Francisco FAQ
Is the first session free?
Yes. 55 minutes, no credit card, no commitment. You bring a real challenge, we coach you through it.
Do you only work with clients in San Francisco?
No. Based in SF, coached leaders in 37 countries. Sessions are by phone. Geography doesn’t limit what we can do.
What does the full program include?
4 months, 8 sessions, baseline assessment, 90-day and 180-day measurement. $7,500. Built on the High Performance Leadership Operating System.
What makes your coaching different from other SF coaches?
27 years, 3,000+ leaders, 37 countries of pattern recognition. Plus structured measurement at baseline, 90, and 180 days. Evidence, not theory.
Is coaching confidential?
100%. If your company pays, we share only attendance and overall responsiveness. Everything else stays between you and your coach.
Can my company pay?
Yes. Many SF clients have coaching covered by professional development budgets. We provide documentation for HR and finance.
Do you coach startup founders?
Yes. We’ve coached founders from pre-seed through Series D and beyond. The coaching adapts to your stage: early founders work on hiring and decision-making frameworks. Growth-stage founders work on scaling themselves, building a leadership team, and managing investor relationships.
Can I meet my executive coach in person in San Francisco?
Sessions are by phone, which removes scheduling friction and works across time zones. Many Bay Area clients prefer this. If you want to meet in person in San Francisco, we can arrange that for specific sessions when the situation calls for it.
How does executive coaching help with San Francisco’s tech leadership challenges?
Tech leaders face a specific combination of pressures: speed of execution, technical complexity, talent competition, and investor expectations. Coaching helps you build the decision-making frameworks, team development skills, and stakeholder management capabilities that these pressures demand. We’ve coached hundreds of Bay Area tech leaders through these exact situations.
Join 3,000+ executives who upgraded their leadership operating system