Dan Lee, CEO of Nooks, on how coaching helped him scale from 20 to 300 people
Dan's instinct as a founder is to always push. That instinct helped Nooks scale from $0 to $10M ARR. This year Nooks is on track to 10x that with 300 people and over 1,500 customers. He explains what his coach taught him about scaling past himself.
Working with a coach has really accelerated my own learning as a leader and my own growth, in being able to break down problems and drive focus.
Dan wrote about his experience working with a Titan Coach on LinkedIn
See it on LinkedIn →The founder and the company
Who is Dan Lee?
Dan Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Nooks, the AI sales platform for outbound teams. He studied AI at Stanford and left after two years to build the company. Before Nooks he held machine learning roles at Scale AI and Cerebras Systems. Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list for AI.
Who founded Nooks?
Nooks was founded in late 2020 by Dan Lee, Rohan Suri and Nikhil Cheerla. Dan Lee is the CEO. The company is based in San Francisco and began as a virtual office for remote teams before it turned to sales.
What is Nooks?
Nooks is an AI sales platform for outbound teams. It combines an AI dialer, sequencing, buying signals and call coaching in one workspace where reps and AI agents work together. More than 1,800 companies use it, including HubSpot, Deel, Rippling, Cursor and Notion.
How much funding has Nooks raised?
Nooks has raised $70 million. Kleiner Perkins led the $43 million Series B in October 2024, at a reported $285 million valuation. Lachy Groom led the $22 million Series A in April 2024, and Tola Capital led the $5 million seed in 2021.
Does Dan Lee work with an executive coach?
Yes. Dan Lee works with an executive coach from Titan, which matches Series A to C founders with coaches who have built or coached companies at scale. In his Titan interview he says coaching accelerated his own learning as a leader while Nooks grew from 20 to 300 people. He reports 9× ARR growth.
From the conversation
Why did you start looking for a coach?
When we're 20 people, I'm hands on keyboard, I'm in the sales floor with our customers, hearing about their problems. As Nooks has scaled from 20 to 200 people, that's just not possible anymore, and there are just a lot more problems that I haven't encountered myself before.
What did you expect coaching to be?
Before Titan, I thought coaching was kind of this fluffy, nebulous, I didn't really know what to expect.
What did the matchmaking give you?
Each coach had a very different style. Some felt like they'd operate at a higher altitude, some felt like they would operate very much in the details. It helped me understand more what I was looking for in a coach, and striking that right balance.
What does the working relationship look like?
My coach actually works not only with me, but also with my two co-founders, and we meet biweekly to talk about what are the most important one or two problems that each of us is focused on at any given point.
What changed for you?
My natural tendency is to always push because the job's not done. One thing I've been working on with my coach is being more nurturing and supporting, recognizing wins and celebrating. And as a result, people have run through walls.
Full transcript
Dan Lee, Co-Founder and CEO of Nooks, in conversation with Titan. Lightly edited for clarity.
How Nooks found its focus
Hey, I'm Dan. I'm CEO of Nooks. We're building human-agent collaboration for GoToMarket. The first couple years we were in the wilderness, trying things out, seeing what stuck. It was only really when we started focusing on GoToMarket that we actually started taking off.
How scaling changed his role
When we're 20 people, I'm hands-on keyboard, I'm in the sales floor with our customers, hearing about their problems, shipping improvements, and seeing the immediate feedback. As Nooks has scaled from 20 to 200 people, that's just not possible anymore.
Why he sought a coach
I first started thinking about getting a coach when, as we've scaled, there are just a lot more problems that I haven't encountered myself before. Before Titan, I thought coaching was this fluffy nebulous, I didn't really know what to expect. But I think working with a coach has really accelerated my own learning as a leader and my own growth. Just being able to break down problems and drive focus.
How Titan matched his coach
I think the matchmaking process with Titan was helpful because each coach had a very different style. And some felt like they'd operate at a higher altitude. Some felt like they would operate very much in the details. And I think it helped me understand more what I was looking for in a coach, and striking that right balance. My coach actually works not only with me, but also with my two co-founders. And we meet bi-weekly to talk about what are the most important one or two problems that each of us is focused on at any given point.
How coaching changed his leadership
My natural tendency is to always push because the job's not done. One thing that I've been working on with my coach is, in that mode, more of nurturing and supporting. Recognizing wins and celebrating. And as a result, people have run through walls and people have been going above and beyond to really drive the outcome.
What Nooks is building next
Today, Nooks has grown to 250 people and 1,500 customers and serving some of the best go-to-market orgs, HubSpot, Cursor, and Deel, and Vanta, and Drata. We tripled revenue last year, and we're on track to triple again this year. The opportunity's massive. Every year, there's about $2 trillion that companies spend on sales labor. And agents can now do a lot of the job. So, I think that we're actually best positioned to take the job of the sales rep and reimagine what does that look like when humans are actually working with agents.
Dan Lee and Nooks: quick facts
| Role | Co-founder and CEO, Nooks |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Daniel Lee |
| Company founded | 2020, San Francisco |
| Co-founders | Rohan Suri, Nikhil Cheerla |
| Education | Studied AI at Stanford University; left after two years to build Nooks |
| Previously | Machine learning at Scale AI and Cerebras Systems; IEX |
| Recognition | Forbes 30 Under 30, AI |
| Total raised | $70 million |
| Latest round | $43 million Series B at a reported $285 million valuation (October 2024) |
| Investors | Kleiner Perkins, Lachy Groom, Tola Capital |
| Links | LinkedIn · nooks.ai · Crunchbase |