Zack is the CEO of ZBiotics, making genetically engineered probiotics. He was formally trained as a scientist, not a manager. His coach treats leadership the way a sports coach treats a skill: name the gap, then drill it.
If you're running a company well, your company is going to have new needs every six months. So if you don't think you are able to evolve with those needs, get a high-performance coach.
Zack wrote about his experience working with a Titan Coach on LinkedIn
See it on LinkedIn →Answers are verbatim from the recorded interview.
In the early days when I'm sleeping under a bench as a scientist, that's actually the only job I was formally trained for. Then we got a few employees and we launched a product. You go from doing to managing to leading, and it becomes more and more clear that I need somebody who's done this before to help me make that transition.
I played a lot of sports growing up, and there is a playbook for how you can be a great leader. These are skills you can learn. So here are the skills that you need that you're not good at right now, and here are the drills you can do to get better at them.
Compared to other coaches I've worked with before Titan, my experience with Matt has been that he very much tailors his approach to my needs.
If you're running a company well, your company is going to have new needs every six months. So if you don't think you are able to evolve with those needs, get a high-performance coach.
Zack Abbott, Co-Founder and CEO of ZBiotics, in conversation with Titan. Lightly edited for clarity.
Hey, I'm Zack, CEO of ZBiotics, and we make genetically engineered probiotics. There's these new problems, these new things that our biology is not involved to deal with. And we can't just go out in the ground and pull out the same ingredients that we've been using for the last several thousand years to magically solve these new problems. We need modern biotechnology to invent new ingredients to solve these problems.
I'm trying to launch the world's first ever genetically engineered probiotic. The best idea, the best way to get started was a product that would help people feel better the day after drinking. We have one product on the market that's doing really well. We've launched a second product in the last year.
Whatever stage you're at, you're always, if we just get to here, everything's gonna be great. As we scaled up, the problems get more complex, and you start layering in more challenges and more of a complex business model. At each stage of the company, my job as a CEO really has changed a lot.
In the early days, when I'm sleeping under a bench as a scientist, that's actually the only job that I was actually formally trained for. It was being a scientist. Then we got a few employees, and we launched a product, and now we're selling a consumer product. And you go from doing to managing to leading, and it becomes more and more clear that I need somebody who's done this before to help me make that transition. And so I think that that's when I realized having a coach would be really helpful.
Compared to other coaches I've worked with before Titan, my experience with Matt has been that he very much tailors his approach to my needs. I played a lot of sports growing up, and there is a playbook for how you can be a great leader. And these are skills you can learn. So here are the skills that you need that you're not doing good at right now. Here are the drills or the things you can do to get better at them. That idea to me as a performer was, oh, yeah, well, I definitely want, why am I gonna try and figure that out myself? Let's get somebody who's done this before who can help me get there. And so I think especially at this complexity of the company, it just felt like this was a no-brainer.
If you're running a company well, your company is gonna have new needs every six months. So if you don't think you are able to evolve with those needs, get a high-performance coach. Get somebody who understands what your needs are and helps you develop those skills. And Titan is the best way to accomplish that.
Short interviews with founders who have trusted a Titan coach.
Titan matches Series A–C founders with coaches who have run companies themselves. Tell us where yours is and we come back with a shortlist
See how Titan works →
