![[chris-barber-image.png|80]] I'm Chris, living in Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego, from New Zealand, Australia, Stanford, and Santa Monica. > ![[matt-mochary 1.png|40]] "Chris is one of my favorite humans on the planet. Smart, doer and fun. But of course my view is very biased. I owe my entire coaching career to him, as he was the very first person to ask me to coach!" – Matt Mochary, coached the CEOs at Coinbase, Notion, Reddit, and managing partners at Benchmark, Sequoia > ![[griffin-choe.png|40]] "Chris and the thinkers he recommends have had an enormous positive impact on my life" – Griffin Choe, leading AI security efforts at Figma > ![[josh-singer.png|40]] "I have met none like him. I regularly think "what would Chris Barber do"" – Josh Singer, Founder of Eigen > ![[rafael-cosman.png|40]] "I've known Chris Barber for around a decade now and he is a great guy and someone that we are honored to have as an angel investor." – Rafael Cosman, Founder of Protogon Research I run a bootstrapped tech business. It's a marketplace that helps startups find executive coaches. We've helped companies like Sequoia Capital find coaches for their portfolio companies. I enjoy helping with: * **Customer/user research:** Figuring out what customers want and getting the first few users is hard. You need to focus on 1) asking the right questions 2) getting customers comfortable talking and 3) interpreting the answers correctly, to know the difference between what customers *say* they'll use and what they'll *actually* use. * **Cold emails for networking:** Decent cold emails can be a superpower for entrepreneurs. I've met great friends, mentors, peers and more from cold emails. * **Management and cofounder relationships:** The emotional side of management, interpersonal conflict, and collaboration, with cofounders, employees, and key suppliers. * **Recruiting software engineers:** I've helped companies hire 100+ software engineers. I can help founders with hiring. Links to things I've made or written: * My business: https://www.prismaticco.org * Podcast I was on about emotional communication: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3GWncyea7Fh7pk7xLn5pLe?si=2t7MPBLWQV-LUtzDMiyOug * Podcast I was on about emotional regulation: https://x.com/dkazand/status/1927849362153165169 * Essay I wrote about fundraising with comments from various investors: https://chrisbarber.co/The+friend+iteration+method+for+pitch+decks+and+YC+apps * Essay I co-wrote with Charlie Songhurst about chaos & conscientiousness in startups: https://chrisbarber.co/The+Chaos-to-Conscientiousness+Phase+Transitions * AI-era career & startup advice essay I wrote with comments from Sam Altman, Charlie Songhurst, Kevin Bryan: https://x.com/chrisbarber/status/1965062418780057962