The job of the CEO: 1) Hold the vision 2) Recruit and retain the team needed to execute that vision 3) Resource that team with: a) capital b) clarity c) care

One of the biggest surprises of my work has been this: Many founders aren’t missing better strategies. They’re missing community. The loneliness I see behind the scenes is far more common than most people realize. I wrote about why this happens—and why I think building real connection may be one of the highest-leverage investments a leader can make. Read here: mattmunson.me/why-so-many-fo…

Many founders don’t burn out because they work too hard. They burn out because they’ve spent a lifetime bending themselves around everyone else’s needs. I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to stand up straight. New essay: mattmunson.me/standing-strai…

This morning I was standing chest-deep in the Pacific Ocean, saying out loud: I am free and powerful. Over and over again. Yes… a bit unhinged. But it was exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve spent a lot of my life looking for answers everywhere else. Advisors. Friends. Coaches. This is the simple practice that’s helping me finally hear my own voice. mattmunson.me/sanity-notes-0…

Years ago, during a guided journey with my therapist, I saw something I didn’t fully understand. I saw a small child sitting in a dark underground prison. Alone. Cold. Shivering. It took years for me to realize that child was me. Over time I began to see the same pattern in many founders I work with. Many of us learned early in life that the way to survive was to push through pain. Work harder. Carry more. Sacrifice ourselves for the good of the group. For a long time that strategy works. It gets us into great schools. It helps us build companies. It earns us admiration. But eventually the same strategy starts to break us. I meet founders every week who arrive at that moment. Some just have a quiet sense that the way they are living and working is no longer sustainable. Others show up to the first call in tears. They are not sure they can get out of bed the next day. I wrote a longer reflection about this pattern and what it looks like when founders begin finding their way back to themselves. mattmunson.me/white-knucklin…

We spend so much time worrying about the things that might go wrong. But the losses that truly knock us over almost always arrive uninvited. I wrote a short open letter to anyone navigating loss right now. You are not alone. mattmunson.me/loss/

There are four types of executive coaches. Framework coaches. Performance coaches. Integrated coaches. And the rare unicorns. Framework-driven coaches are the most common. They learn models. Question frameworks. Reframing tools. You might hear questions like: “What would your 80-year-old self say about this?” or “Let’s break this into SMART goals.” There is nothing wrong with frameworks. Every coach uses them at times. But meeting a coach who only uses frameworks can feel a bit like watching an artist paint by numbers. You might get a decent elephant. But you won’t get Picasso. The next category is performance-driven coaches. They help leaders set goals, track progress, and hold themselves accountable. They help with productivity, focus, and execution. For some leaders this is exactly what they want. But most founders I know are already very good at pushing themselves. What they often need is not more pressure. They need perspective. That’s where integrated coaches begin to operate differently. Integrated coaches use frameworks and performance tools, but they also bring their full presence and experience into the conversation. They notice patterns. They challenge assumptions. They help leaders see themselves more clearly. When you sit with a coach like this, something interesting happens. The room slows down. Clarity appears. And then there are the unicorns. If you were climbing Everest, the unicorn is the guide who has lived at altitude most of their life. They have climbed mountains. But more importantly they have lived through storms. They have led rescues. They have lost friends. They have faced their own limits. That depth changes the quality of guidance. The rare coach who has built companies, led people, tasted both victory and failure, and rebuilt themselves a few times becomes something different. Not just a technician. A partner on the journey. My coach is a unicorn. My therapist is a unicorn. I hope to become one someday.

Years ago, when I was running my own company, I hired my first coach on the recommendation of a tier-one VC. Then I hired a second. Both were smart. Both were well credentialed. And both felt useless to me. I fired them both. Here's my take on what makes coaching worth it, and when: mattmunson.me/is-executive-c…

I see this leadership mistake over and over again in startups: Founders avoid clear accountabilities because they’re afraid it will kill excitement, autonomy, or creativity. What it actually kills is anxiety. Clear accountabilities don’t slow teams down. They create calm. Trust. Speed. Safety. I learned this long before startups, racing sailboats, where clarity was the difference between panic and performance when conditions changed. I wrote a short Sanity Note on why clear accountabilities are more liberating than freedom without structure: mattmunson.me/clear-accounta…

If you’re a founder with meaningful equity, this might be the most financially valuable thing you read this week. QSBS has changed for 2025, and most people don’t understand how it works. Here’s a simple breakdown. mattmunson.me/the-founders-g…

My physical therapist once told me something that completely changed the way I lead: Most founders are wired like prey trying to do a predator’s job. It explained so much about stress, fear, and why certain conversations feel impossible. Here’s the story — and the shift that changes everything. mattmunson.me/predator

A theme that’s come up again and again in my coaching this month: Founders quietly beating themselves up because their company doesn’t look like the monster funding rounds they see on LinkedIn. I get it. I used to do the same. Whenever I saw a “$100M Series B” headline, it triggered a whole silent comparison spiral. If they were raising that kind of capital, what did it say about me? About my company? About my worth? Here’s the truth I wish I’d learned earlier: Those rounds have almost nothing to do with you. They’re a snapshot of someone else’s moment, someone else’s risk profile, someone else’s runway, someone else’s story. But comparison tricks you into abandoning your own path to chase someone else’s signal. This is what I tell my clients now: Your job is not to keep up with the most breathless headline on social. Your job is to build something real. Something durable. Something aligned with the actual life you want. And the founders who thrive over time almost always have one thing in common: They measure themselves against who they were yesterday, not whatever showed up in their feed this morning. If you find yourself comparing, you’re not alone. But you also don’t have to live there. There’s a much saner path forward.

I could feel my chest and shoulders tighten as my client described a recent conversation with her co-founder. "I don’t think she can run product for us anymore. It isn’t working. But I don’t know how to tell her. I’ve shared my concerns with her. But I don’t know how to find the words to tell her I’ve decided. That we need to replace her as head of product. She has been critical to our success so far, but it isn’t working anymore. We need someone who can take us from here to the next stage of growth. And I know it will break her heart." There are moments in any partnership where it feels like there are no good options. Where the only choices on the table seem to be: 1) Betray myself and duck my own truth. -or- 2) Hurt someone I care about. Coaches often talk about finding a third option when only two show up. But sometimes there really are only two. And one of them breaks the heart of someone you love. Read more here: mattmunson.me/painful-conclu…

Often, what holds me back from writing is a belief that I have to say it better than anyone has ever said it before. The truth is, I simply need to share something true that can be of assistance to at least one reader out there. That is enough. When I hang onto that, I write freely. Reminding myself today. And sharing with you in case it inspires you to write something. If it does - please drop a note in the comments! I'd love to hear.

I was walking through LAX this morning, and I couldn't help but smile. On the wall was a photo of the Challenger space shuttle being flown into Los Angeles on top of a 747. Walking next to my good friend Alan, on our way to our plane to Mexico, I pointed at the photo, smiled, and told him proudly, “I was there that day, watching from the rooftop of my office in Santa Monica! Our whole team watched it together.” But there is more to the story. The truth is, I almost missed it—one of the most memorable sights of my life—because I was sitting at my desk in our office with my headphones on, focused on some spreadsheet. Read the rest of the story here: mattmunson.me/spaceships/

I wrote this in my journal today " I want to relax and trust that I am a good coach. I want to relax and trust that my business will be steady over the next 20 years. That I can write when inspired. Coach who comes my way. And it will be ok. " Our business is at an all-time high. And yet, I find myself resisting trusting what we have built. It isn't easy for me. I share this because I think many founders feel the same way. You’ve built something that works — but part of you still can’t rest. Still scanning for what might collapse if you stop pushing so hard. Maybe the next level isn’t about doing more. Maybe it’s about trusting what you’ve already built. It’s already working. You can exhale.

Although I was a CEO of a fast-growing startup, I had never managed anyone before. I had no idea how much I did not know. As a coach, I hear similar sentiments from CEOs all the time. Many founders are first-time managers, as are many of the young managers on their growing teams. One of the most critical building blocks of great management — and one of the most misunderstood — is the one-on-one meeting. What makes this meeting format so crucial while being so frequently misused? Let's look at the basics. Continued here: mattmunson.me/one-on-one-mee…

If you are navigating burnout as a founder, you are not alone. I realized in October of 2016 that I was burned out and wanted a path out of the CEO role. Here’s my own story and the secret internal dialogue I’m hearing as a coach to other founders. mattmunson.me/how-to-deal-wi…

Founder guilt is real. If you rest, you feel lazy. If you grind, you feel hollow. The problem isn’t your schedule. It’s your self-worth system.