How mentorship and coaching contribute to startup success

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Entrepreneurship is hard. Rejection, failure, and endless grit are all a part of the journey, no matter how brilliant your idea is. The good news is that going through these hardships strengthens us, and the greater your support system, the greater your chance of success.

This is where mentorship and coaching come in. As we heard from CoinGeek’s Kurt Wuckert Jr. during his Boulder adventures with Brad Feld, mentorship is a key part of the support system for entrepreneurs. The ability to work with and learn from others who have been there is enormously helpful and will result in positive feedback loops.

Closely linked to mentorship is coaching, a more formalized approach to offering support to entrepreneurs (or any professional) who are keen to reach their full potential. For entrepreneurs, engaging with a coach can be a lifeline when the fear of failure or constant rejection becomes overwhelming.

While I was at iGB Live 2025 this summer, I had the pleasure of re-connecting with former colleague Emily Leeb and long-time friend Claire Adamou. These amazing women are now heading up Saroca, a transformational management consulting firm that helps individuals, teams, and organizations achieve their objectives through customized, practical solutions.

Prior to their speaking engagement on how to avoid burnout as an iGaming professional, the three of us had a chance to meet, share some memories and shoot a few interviews.

“Nobody does significant, fantastic things by themselves,” shared Leeb, Saroca’s CEO and second-generation transformational leadership coach.

“Anywhere where human performance matters, we cannot see our own swing. We cannot look at ourselves objectively, no matter how hard we try. We need these support systems in place,” she said.

When asked how coaching can impact the startup journey, Saroca VP Adamou emphasized its importance and wished she had taken advantage of coaching 20 years ago when starting her career. Adamou also revealed that she works with a coach now, even though she is a coach herself.

“It really transforms the way that I view myself and the way I show up in business,” Adamou confirmed.

“At Saroca, obviously that’s our bag, that’s what we do, and we work with so many companies and individuals within the industry. We work with entrepreneurs, we work with C suites, we work with leaders, managers and those that really just want move to the next step,” she said.

“I would love to meet someone that’s tried coaching and it didn’t work for them and they have a negative experience because it doesn’t exist,” Adamou added.

In addition to providing personalized coaching services, Leeb and Adamou co-host a podcast, “Saroca Speaks,” which features empowering conversations to inspire listeners and help them achieve a growth mindset. Some episodes feature a guest who provides unique perspectives and advice, many from different corners of the online gambling industry.

Coming up on August 26, 2025, I am delighted to reveal I will be joining Saroca Speaks as a guest, sharing my perspectives as an online gambling and frontier tech professional of 20 years. I can’t wait to share our conversation with you, and in the meantime, don’t forget to subscribe to their channel so you don’t miss a thing!

Watch: Inside the mind of an entrepreneur