Founders Are Human (FAH)

A Group Coaching Program for Founders Wanting Interpersonal Mastery

Founders Are Human is a 10-week group coaching program for founders who want to learn how to master the relationships in their lives: with themselves, their teams, their board, and their organizational and personal ecosystem. This is for founders who want a practical and applied understanding of what makes people tick, what ticks them off, how to respond in those situations, what is behind their behaviors, and how to have difficult and constructive conversations when the going gets tough. Each cohort is limited to 12 people for effective depth and individual attention.

The FAH program was born from my work with a number of Thiel Fellow Founders (Founders given $100K to drop out of school and start a business) and recognizing that they had shared pain points limiting enjoyment and holding back growth:

• Not being aware of their emotional influence and being surprised when tiny shifts in gesture, tone, words, and body language impact the room

• Not fully owning their authority with “key talent” (executives, advisors, investors), letting it become a draining power struggle and time suck that feels “difficult to get out of”

• Not fully owning their power with investors and money, preventing them from embodying the confidence needed to fundraise or get alignment

• Not fully owning their boundaries or calling people into accountability in time (waiting too long), increasing conflict and inefficiency

• Not fully owning their personal wants and needs so team members are left guessing what the founder really wants and they rebel or withdraw

• Overly relying on intuition or facts without balanced decision-making; blindly optimistic due to an emotional resistance to analyzing pitfalls

• Emotional volatility with every win and loss of the company; not letting excitement or enjoyment in due to the fear of future disappointment

• Physically low energy or getting sick, poor sleep; can’t remember the last time really tasting food OR eating to avoid difficult emotions

• Aversion of conflict creating more conflict

• Playing a drama triangle role when under stress - either being in the “fight” role where they feel frustrated and alone and their team steps on eggshells around their ‘mood’, being in the “flight” role where they seem to lose rational-decision-making capacity and are trying to please or “care-take” a team member that is expressing big emotions (e.g. crying or yelling), or being in the “freeze” role where they overthink and feel helpless - like there’s no “right” move and they withdraw and defer decision-making.

• Not asking for help from team members, proving they have to do it themselves while their team feels disempowered

This program allows us to get the best of both worlds: addressing shared pain points while maximizing potential solution sets. Everyone will implement behavioral experiments on a weekly basis and learn from each other’s trials - you get to innovate on the most important thing to your company’s success - your ability to see and respond appropriately to reality as it is!

Program Details

1. Date and time: Thursdays March 30th - June 8th 2023 (break week of May 11th) // 8-10am PST | 11-1pm EST | 5-7pm CET UK (Europe Friendly)

2. Group Coaching: 10 Weekly two-hour group coaching sessions where we deep dive into a topic, receive live coaching and learn from each other.

3. Harrison Assessment and 1:1 Executive Coaching: Take the Harrison Assessment up-front and set intentions at the beginning + Session at the end for integration and next steps.

4. 1:1 Peer Sessions: Meet with a different Founder every week to learn from each other, broaden your perspective, and build community.

Testimonials: Founders Are Human (FAH) Alum

“Before the program, I thought setting boundaries or communicating why my wants are important were rude and aggressive. To be honest, I also felt quite different from other founders being based in Europe and being earlier stage, and I was skeptical.

From the first day I sat in a Founders Are Human group, I felt connected, understood, and heard, both by others and by myself. I learned a lot about what types of events or personalities trigger my emotions and how I can find myself serving everyone else except for myself. I finally understood that to be the person I wanted to be for others, I had to create space for myself. Basically, I learned to stop being so fucking nice to everybody all of the time!

Since participating in the program, I’ve become a lot more thoughtful and deliberate in my response to work and personal life. I’m continuing to experiment, and I’ve made a lot of progress in becoming a better leader with clearer expectations. Outside of work, I made some great friends and even grew out of my chronic migraines with a more controlled approach to managing my thoughts and my nervous system.

This program is for you if you want to level up as a founder or want to find a more controlled and calm oasis in the life of being a founder. I can’t recommend working with Mina enough – the biggest opportunity here is the opportunity to work with her.” 

~ Aaron Hannon, CEO & Co-Founder of Luminate Medical, Thiel Fellow, FAH 2022

“Companies in Silicon Valley do not die of starvation, they die of indigestion. And as a founder, once you've reached some success, your job is to navigate around those blockages that develop. But often what you are fighting is not the issue itself, but the speed that you as an executive can embrace and adapt to a new world order. One where you no longer have that key customer contract supporting 50% of your monthly burn, or suddenly have a 10x larger staff and your cultural shorthands no longer work, or when your light of excitement for this company is just not there in the morning.

These battles are fought with the highest leverage by sound decision-making. Decision-making you can only make under pressure when trained for it. That steady hand given by self-knowledge is something Mina is one of the best in the world at teaching. Her practice was the highest leverage effort I spent after my Series A – particularly when transitioning from technical cofounder to executive.”

~ Jake Hillard, CEO & Founder of Red Leader Technologies, Thiel Fellow, Forbes 30 Under 30, FAH 2022

“What I love about working with Mina is not only does she take an emotional and logical and systems approach to solving traumas and problems of the past and present, she also gives you a toolkit and different phrases and systems that you can use for future situations to help you avoid trauma, emotional overwhelm, interpersonal conflict, and really anything that could come up in the chaotic world of being a Founder and a Human. I absolutely recommend working with Mina either 1:1 or in her programs, I’ve done both.”

~ Meghan Sharkus, CEO & Founder ExpressionMed, Thiel Fellow, FAH 2022

"Mina is an incredible, inspirational human, who has made me a better person. Working with her has been a life-changing experience, both for me personally and for my company. Her ability to connect, teach, question, and encourage helped the group as a whole evolve together and as individuals; understanding our wants, needs, and boundaries. If you have the opportunity to work with Mina, I hope you you take advantage of it!"

~ Stephanie Mill, CEO & Founder of CodeGem, Thiel Fellow, FAH 2022

“Mina has been my first touch point with executive coaching and it has been an extraordinary journey. Mina truly builds a relationship with each one of her clients where she's able to connect with their experiences and backgrounds as individuals while still putting it in the context of your company and important workplace deliverables. I've loved working with her (both in the program and with co-founder coaching) and couldn't recommend her enough!”

~ Kiara Nirghin, Co-Founder (Stealth), Forbes 30 Under 30, Thiel Fellow, FAH 2022

“Mina’s Founders are Human program has enabled me to dissect and unravel my individual and organizational behavior and decision-making.

The program has equipped me with a set of tools to improve the relationships in my life and be a better leader, such as understanding the wisdom of emotions, leaning into difficult conversations, building an identity outside of work, and cultivating a work culture led by curiosity.

Founders are Human has taught me how to integrate my cognitive, emotional, and physical sources of knowledge. After each session, I felt like I had unlocked a new layer of understanding that I could directly apply to my life and work. Even more, through this program and Mina’s unique abilities, I have gained a group of other founders who are committed to continuously learning and embarking on this journey together.”

~ Erin Smith, Founder of FacePrint, Forbes 30 Under 30, Thiel Fellow, FAH 2022

Ilayda’s Initial Intentions and Subsequent Takeaways

Starting intention: How do I stay human with growing external success? What does it mean to be human?

“I used to think people became less human with rising external success. But now I’m seeing that they don’t lose their humanity but try to hide it. In reality, they don’t feel ok with it or with hiding it. The human part of themselves says “Hi, I’m here” but they try to look brave. Now I see that we are always human. We are human. The question is how to empower and live in harmony with our humanity.”

Starting intention: I want to learn how to navigate difficult conversations and not avoid conflict

“I am 10 times better at having difficult conversations and not avoiding conflict. I’m not ‘care-taking’ others – from learning that I’m not responsible for other’s emotions, I’m more self confident since I’m not trying to control them and their emotions. I’m in my own power more. I’m just being myself and sharing my truth. It’s more respectful for the other person as well. Navigating difficult conversations is no longer so difficult when I know myself and I see it as just sharing what I think and how I feel. What made it difficult was the combination of not knowing what I wanted and spending all my energy trying to managing their emotions.”

Starting intention: I want to bring more love and joy to my business life. I want to not be afraid of my anger, my power, my bigness, and taking up space. 

“Before the program, I didn’t care about product-founder fit in the sense of aligning my values with the industry. This was really about not caring for myself. Now I want to build something that represents myself – a reflection of my values. When I love myself, there is more love in my business life, since it is a reflection of my love. I used to think I needed a mask when I meet people, but now when I think about representing myself in business, I realize I don’t have to do it - wear the mask in business - I can just be me: eat food being me, create a business being me. Now I do the best work I can do being myself. That’s my power, my fire.”

Starting intention: I want to review my understanding of “creating an impact” as an entrepreneur - What is it? How do I measure it? Why is it that? 

“I previously thought impact was saving other people’s lives or improving their quality of life (effective altruism), and now I’m thinking that I don’t want to care-take or save / hero people, and that there are many other ways to create impact. I want to create impact that is empowering others and myself, that comes from seeing the inherent power in people.”