Having worked closely with Bruno as my business coach, I’ve seen first-hand the depth of his experience supporting founders and early-stage startups. He combines strong commercial and startup-relevant experience with a high level of emotional intelligence, which allows him to meet founders where they are and provide guidance that is both practical and deeply human. His coaching had a meaningful impact on my decision-making, confidence, and ability to navigate the challenges of building a company, and I believe he would be an excellent contributor to the Founder & Startup Support Programme.

We have rigorous standards for those who coach our investee companies. In short, we demand that our investee companies are coached by people who have started, grown, and exited their own technology company; have trained as a coach; and demonstrate a high standard of excellence in guiding founders through the behaviour changes and skillset acquisitions necessary to excel as a leader.

Bruno Lago is one of two coaches in New Zealand who met our rigorous standards and to whom we entrust the investee companies in our fund. This trust has been repaid handsomely and consistently. He has successfully guided our founders through critical leadership transitions, enabling them to step confidently into executive roles, restore and build investor confidence, and secure follow-on capital at healthy valuation uplifts.

The qualities that stand out in Bruno are not only the fact that founders trust him—because he has the stories and scar tissue from having been a founder himself—but also that he doesn’t fall into the trap of telling founders what to do. Rather, he listens, establishes deep rapport and trust, asks the right questions, and collaboratively arrives at the best solution for the founder’s unique context. Very few people can do this to Bruno’s level of proficiency.

Crucially, Bruno cares deeply not only for founders’ commercial success, but he achieves these outcomes in a way that enhances, rather than compromises, the mental health and well-being of the founder. This is critically important; it is something that many understand the importance of, but very few know how to do.

I was lucky enough to be involved in 1-1 and group coaching with Bruno. During a time of change for me, Bruno was able to support, teach, mentor, and guide me to transition from a technical founder to a CEO leading our company. He had the ability to dive into strategic discussions that were important, but also dig into the personal drivers for me and unlock my inner blockers to enable success. I valued his approach to pitching, which was a significant part of my ability to raise capital to scale. He also provided practical ways of scaling a company by understanding how to manage and mentor employees to be their best. My company, Litmaps, would not have achieved its goals without Bruno.