I’m an executive coach and technical advisor to engineering leaders and founders, certified through UC Berkeley Haas. Before coaching, I spent two decades leading engineering: VP of Engineering at IMVU, SmugMug, and Caffeine, and four years as a Technical Advisor inside Amazon. I’m also the founder and CEO of NICER, a Public Benefit Corporation making earthborn bodycare. I’m doing the founder job right now, not remembering it.

Eric Ries and I go back to IMVU, the first Lean Startup, where my team helped start the DevOps movement and coined the term “continuous deployment.” Twenty years later, Eric sent me the manuscript of Incorruptible and asked whether a bootstrapped founder could use it as a guide. I did. NICER’s charter now carries the mission in its own text, a founder bridge for the early years, and a reserved seat for a mission guardian. Eric sits on NICER’s advisory board.

If you’re a founder who wants the mission to outlast your control of the company, the part I help with is the part before you call your lawyer: what you’re protecting, in what order, and what you’ll trade for it. I write the Continuous Growth newsletter on leadership and self-awareness.