2% of CoachNova, for the coaches building it

I took a break in the middle of a very busy period to be silent. To be a human being, not a human doing. For seven days I was silent, looking at an Italian lake.

It was my first time. Remarkably easy. The transition back to human doing, less so. But I loved it.

I'd gone away from AI, but then I ended up observing a rogue lawn mower robot for too much time. How ironic.

Did you ever go on a silent retreat?

A lot has happened in the last three weeks. Here is what matters most.

When we grow together, we earn together. That is the whole idea.

We are opening a stock option pool of 2% of CoachNova for the coaches shaping the product with us. 1% pooled in year one, 1% in year two. Points open 1 July 2026. Rolling twelve months. First allocation 1 July 2027. The pool is divided by the points earned across the community, so the more of you are in, the more meaningful each share becomes.

Four ways to earn in:

• Featured case study. A signed release, a measurable client outcome, used in CoachNova marketing. Five points.
• Research cohort. We are drafting an efficacy study with one of our coaches, possibly with EMCC. Likely to start in Q4. Five points. If you would like to help design the study, reply. That work should be rewarded too.
• Onboarding mentor. Guide a newly subscribed coach through their first sixty days on the platform. Five points.
• Public content. A video testimonial, an article, a LinkedIn post. You name CoachNova in your own words. Three points.

This sits alongside the 10% referral fee we already pay on every coach you introduce. Both stack.

A thank you to the eight coaches who have already recorded testimonials with us in the last four weeks. Landing in August. Can't wait to show you all.

Eric was principal product manager at Apple. He now coaches CTOs at Series B to D scale-ups worldwide from his home base in Palo Alto. A product mind who has sat in the coach's chair, and one of the voices pushing hardest on how we describe what we are building.

He joins Thomas Marzano (former head of brand at ASML and Philips, now AI brand strategist), Laura Foltina (AI Governance and Privacy Lawyer, AIGP, CIPP/E) and Nirish Shakya (senior UX/UI designer and coach) on a small board that is close to the work.

Each of them will get a proper introduction in the next few issues, and on the new advisor page landing on the website soon.

At our last community call I asked the room how you describe CoachNova when you introduce it. "AI-augmented" felt utilitarian. Eric pushed us to see this as a step-function shift in the coach and coachee relationship. Richard was crisp: the coach leads, AI is the tool.

Since the call I workshopped it with our advisor and brand strategist Thomas Marzano. We landed on supervised AI coaching. It holds the professional standard, puts the coach explicitly in the supervising role, and refuses the framing where AI is doing the coaching.

You will see it appear across the website and in the manifesto over the coming weeks. Reactions welcome.

Two threads Nick teased in the last issue. Here is where each one is.

The coach AI twin is in beta test now. Five coaches are in the first wave and the second iteration lands this week. Three shapes have already emerged:

• Joanna is bootstrapping AI twins for past clients from a year of pre-CoachNova recordings, with a sales sequence ready to relaunch to that list.
• Chris is designing a three-month programme with intentional mid-programme breaks, an AI twin holding the space between live sessions.
• Martins and Eric raised in-session use: a twin as a live sounding board while coaching. On the roadmap once fidelity is locked.

The coachee app is coming in early August. That is the one you asked us for: not an inbox, a place that belongs to the work, with room to practise a hard conversation and space to reflect across sessions. The screenshot is where a new coachee lands after onboarding. Their space to think. The next sessions and open commitments sit under it, ready when they are.

While you wait, we also refreshed the page you can share with clients starting on CoachNova: coachnova.ai/coachee.