Hands-on coaching for founders and CEOs considering where and how AI features in the company and their personal operating model.
Three patterns we see in the CEOs we coach. If one of them sounds like your week, the work will fit.
You know AI matters. The week never gives you the hours to read deeply, test seriously, or sit with the strategic question long enough to land a defensible position — the day job keeps winning. The engagement is the structured thinking time you haven't been able to carve out, with someone who has already done the reading.
Your team is already using ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and a dozen tools you haven't formally approved. There's no policy, no shared practice, and no way to tell where it's actually moving the needle versus where it's noise. The work is to convert ad-hoc adoption into a coherent operating practice.
You've shipped a Copilot rollout, an AI feature, an internal tool. None of them moved company-level outcomes. Each one sat on top of an operating model that didn't change. The work is to diagnose why, then co-design AI-centred bets that reshape workflows, headcount, and cadence.
Coaching is the working format; the operating-model question sits behind every conversation. Sessions are built around the calls already on your desk, not a generic curriculum.
60 or 90 minute sessions, every one or two weeks. Sessions are working sessions: we tackle the decision in front of you and the AI-native angle on it. Async between sessions on Slack, Loom, or email.
Every CEO coaching engagement at Polyviam carries the same lens. We work out where AI actually creates value in your business and in your personal operating model. The point is to make you able to spot those places yourself.
Standard format is 1:1. Co-founder pairs occasionally run as a small group at slightly different cadence. Whole-team coaching is a separate offer — see team coaching.
When C-level coaching fails, it fails in a small set of recognisable patterns. These are the five Polyviam is structurally built to avoid.
You can clearly articulate where AI can have an impact on the economics of your business, and where it can't. Most CEOs can't.
You've changed how at least one core function (usually marketing or product) operates day to day, by redesigning the workflow around AI rather than bolting AI onto an existing one.
You've reshaped your own workflows around AI. Handing off what AI can do best and speeding up what still needs you in-the-loop, to give you back more hours for the things innately human.
“ We're obsessed with growth. It's all we talk about. And one of the people who've really helped us adapt to the next phase of growth is Jayson. You feel that he is playing the long-game with you from the start. ”
A founder coach typically works with the people who started the company — equity-rich, often pre-product-market-fit or scaling through it. A CEO coach works with the seat, regardless of whether the person founded the company or was hired into the role. The work overlaps heavily once a founder is operating at CEO altitude, which is when Polyviam usually starts. We don't coach founders before there is a working operating model to coach against.
No. Most of the work is remote, so geography is flexible. We coach founders and CEOs across the UK, US, and Europe most often, with some clients in Canada and Australia. Jayson is based in London. Occasional in-person sessions in London are possible.
Engagement pricing is on request and is sized to the scope. Coaching sessions are either 60 or 90 minutes, either weekly or fortnightly. Ongoing monthly contract.
This varies massively. Some of our clients have been with us for 3+ years and have an ongoing need. For others, the objective is more discrete and we may have cracked it in 3-6 months. The contracts are monthly ongoing unless otherwise agreed, leaving flexibility.
Coaching is the leader doing the work, with us alongside. Consulting is us doing the work and handing it over. Coaching is what you choose when you want to build the muscle. Consulting is what you choose when you need a defined-scope output to point at. Some engagements blend both. An initial call tells us which fits.
No. AI is a disruptor to businesses in many ways: economics, org structure and process, headcount, among others. Coaching without AI as the core lens isn't fit-for-purpose in 2026.
No. Polyviam works at mid-market scale and upwards, typically $10M+ in revenue or 100+ employees. Early-stage founders are well-served by Y Combinator partners, On Deck mentors, and a long list of dedicated founder coaches. The questions early-stage founders ask are different enough that the work shouldn't be the same.
Jayson Robinson is the founder of Polyviam and runs all coaching engagements personally. Over the last decade he has led growth and marketing strategy for B2B companies including BairesDev and Toptal — both US unicorns — alongside building his own businesses. He has designed and executed marketing strategies that have collectively driven over $120M in incremental annual revenue for clients.
Alongside operator work, he coaches and teaches. He has taught or coached over 500 product managers, marketers, execs, and founders from organisations like Spotify, Accenture, LEGO Group, and the UK Home Office (plus hundreds of lesser-known organisations).
Based in London, working with operators across the UK, US, and Europe.
More on the about page.
We'll discuss your goals and your level of fluency and maturity. By the end we'll know the type of engagement you need.
