Brian is an executive coach and owner of Dashing Leadership. He helps early-stage founders grow into more effective leaders. Previously he started and ran Fitocracy, one of the largest fitness social networks of its time, and sold it in 2015. Afterwards, he joined 500 Startups as a venture partner and later led major product initiatives at Credit Karma and Eaze.

If you’re interested in learning more about how coaching can help you perform better as a leader, please schedule an introduction call at www.dashingleadership.com If you want to keep up to date on Brian you can follow him on Twitter @brianmwang. If you are a founder and working on something innovative,, have a question you’d like to hear VCs or founders answer on the show you can DM me and follow Mike on Twitter @mikegelb. You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc.

One of Brian’s favorite author’s is Haruki Murakami. A book that inspired Brian personally is Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. A book that inspired Brian professionally is Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson.

On this episode you will learn -

What attracted him to entrepreneurship and founding Fitocracy? What were some of the learnings from his experience as a founder? What is coaching and what attracted you to it? How is coaching different to advising and mentoring?
What are some of the ways that you help founders? How is the impact different to advising and mentoring? What’s typically the cadence?
What are some typical or common areas that founders might need help in that you think about?
How do you think about effective leadership?
What is one piece of advice that you would have for all founders?

Bonus: Brian Wang (Dashing Leadership) - Why A Founder Might Need A Coach and a Conversation About Curiosity, Judgement and Culture