Mentoring
Mentoring
Most of the founders and senior leaders I work with aren't short of ambition or intelligence. What they're missing is someone who has actually operated in the territory they're trying to navigate — who understands the technology from the inside, has run commercial teams, and has made the expensive calls that can't be undone.
I work 1:1 with a small number of founders and senior leaders, typically on AI strategy, product direction, and GTM. If you want a thinking partner who has been in the room where those decisions get made — not just advised on them — get in touch.
Background
I've spent 25 years building and operating technology businesses. I've been a founder four times, a COO, a CEO, and a CMO — often across the same company lifecycle you're in now.
That background covers the things that tend to cause the most friction:
- The technology side.
MEng in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from UCL. I understand how systems actually work — which means when you're trying to decide what to build, what to buy, or how to use AI in a way that's real rather than theoretical, we're not starting from first principles. - The commercial side.
Executive MBA from Bayes Business School (top 5% of cohort). I've run GTM for B2B SaaS businesses, built international operations across 11 markets, managed the full journey from first revenue to exit. - The AI side.
This is recent work, not repackaged thinking. I've built agentic automation that reduced a sales team's manual workload by 4–6 hours per week per person. I launched the first MCP AI connector for LinkedIn Advertising. I've helped Trint overhaul their GTM positioning, strategy, and CMO hiring. I'm consistently cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as a leading voice in AI-driven B2B strategy.
I've mentored 50+ founders and senior leaders through Techstars, UCL, NXTP, and Bayes Business School, and chaired the Cass Entrepreneurs Network — a community of 3,000 alumni and VCs. Several mentees have gone on to Y Combinator. This isn't something I do occasionally — it's work I've done consistently for over a decade.
Who this is for
This isn't a course or a generic "startup coaching" programme. It's for people carrying real responsibility, who want a thinking partner with deep experience in technology and B2B.
Founders & startup leaders
- You're building or scaling a B2B product or service
- You're making calls on AI, data, automation and tools with imperfect information
- You want a sounding board who has actually built and shipped things, not just advised from the sidelines
Leaders inside growing companies
- You run marketing, product, operations or a related function
- You're being asked "what's our AI strategy?" and "how do we do more with less?"
- You need to turn technical possibilities into concrete plans your team and execs can get behind
You're probably already good at what you do. The value here is in sharpening your thinking, language and decisions - especially where technology is involved.
What we work on together
Every mentoring relationship is different, but most of the conversations fall into a few themes.
Product & services
- Clarifying what you're really building and who it's for
- Turning insight into simple, testable product bets
- Deciding what to build now, next and never
- Packaging and positioning services and SaaS so they're easy to buy
Marketing & go-to-market
- Tightening positioning and messaging so the whole company can repeat it
- Joining up brand, demand, ABM and outbound into a simple system
- Using data and intent signals intelligently, without drowning the team
- Making marketing and sales tell the same story
Business processes & "how work happens"
- Mapping key workflows (for example: lead -> opportunity -> customer -> renewal)
- Spotting the friction points that slow everything down
- Designing a lightweight operating rhythm: meetings, rituals, dashboards that people actually use
- Working out what to stop doing as well as what to start
AI, tools & automation
- Separating hype from useful reality in your specific context
- Identifying high-leverage workflows where AI can augment or automate work
- Working out what to build versus what to buy
- Becoming more confident talking about AI and technology with your team, your leadership and your board
Underneath all of this, the real work is translation: turning complex technology and messy reality into clearer choices, trade-offs and next steps.
How mentoring works
The format is simple on purpose. The value is in the conversations, the thinking and what you go away and do - not in a fancy portal.
1:1 sessions
- Regular sessions over video (usually every 2 or 4 weeks)
- Focused on your current challenges and upcoming decisions
- Expect to leave each session with more clarity and 1-3 specific next steps
Light support between sessions
- Quick questions or sense-checks over email/DM
- Review of key documents (narratives, plans, decks, workflows) when it helps move things faster
- Not "always on", but enough to stop you getting stuck for weeks
Clear focus over time
- At the start, we'll define what a "good" 3-6 months would look like for you
- We'll keep coming back to that as context, while responding to what's happening week-to-week
- If your situation changes significantly, we'll deliberately reframe rather than drifting
You're not signing up for a lifetime arrangement. Most people work with me for a specific phase, then either "graduate" or we reduce the cadence.
What it's like to work with me
I've operated as CEO, COO, CMO, and CTO — often in the same company. That breadth is deliberate. The problems that stall businesses rarely sit cleanly in one function, and the most useful thinking usually happens at the edges between them.
The combination that tends to be most useful: I can hold a technical conversation and a commercial one in the same room, and I've been on both sides of the table — as the person being advised and as the person making the call.
If you're looking for someone to nod along and tell you everything is fine, I'm probably not the right fit. If you want clear thinking, honest feedback, and someone who understands both the technology and the business, we'll work well together.
“Riaz helped me make sense of competing priorities and provided insightful advice and feedback. I’d recommend him as a mentor to any business leader.”
- Plain language, even for complex topics
We'll talk about AI, data and systems in ways that a non-technical board member could understand - because that's usually what you need. - Challenge, not cheerleading
I'll ask awkward questions when something doesn't quite add up. The goal isn't to catch you out, it's to help you get to a sharper, more coherent story. - Bias to making things real
We'll write things down - narratives, decisions, simple diagrams - but only if they help you and your team act. This is not a theory seminar. - Respect for your context
I'm not going to force-fit a generic framework onto your company. We'll start from where you are: your people, your market, your constraints.
Mentoring, or consulting/fractional - which is right for you?
Mentoring / coaching is usually best when:
- Think more clearly and make better decisions, faster
- Pressure-test strategy, plans, or a difficult call with an independent sounding board
- Build capability (your thinking, your leadership, your operating rhythm) rather than outsource delivery
- Navigate ambiguity, stakeholder dynamics, or "I know something's off but can't name it yet" problems
- Stay accountable to the work you already know you need to do
- Keep execution in-house, with light-touch guidance and structure
Consulting / fractional is usually best when:
- Ship outcomes, not just advice: a plan, a process, a narrative, a system, a rollout
- Diagnose a complex problem and drive a structured workstream to resolution
- Lead cross-functional alignment (Product / Marketing / Sales / Ops) and reduce handoff friction
- Add experienced capacity to your team for a defined period (e.g., 1-3 days/week)
- Stand up a new initiative (AI adoption, GTM reset, positioning, pipeline motion) with momentum and governance
- Create repeatable operating mechanisms: scorecards, cadences, decision frameworks, enablement assets
Not sure which is right? In the application form, just say you're unsure and I'll tell you what I think after reading it.
Apply for mentoring
I work with a small number of people at any one time so I can give each relationship proper attention. Tell me a little about where you are, what you're working through, and what would make mentoring useful.
“When I started working with Riaz, I was scaling my agency and needed help thinking through the strategic side — when to bring people on, what to prioritise, and how to build systems that could support real growth. What shifted was my ability to see what actually mattered and approach problems differently. Riaz works with you to achieve the goals you identify together. He's not prescriptive — he tailors his approach to what you need to achieve.”