Introducing The xQuotient
I'm launching a new kind of executive coaching company
Hello!
I’m thrilled to announce that I have started a new company, The xQuotient, and it’s a different kind of executive coaching company. You might reasonably ask: what makes The xQuotient different?
The Short Answer
The xQuotient is purposefully designed to meet the needs of high achievers in a rapidly changing workplace and world.
My practice focuses on entrepreneurial thinkers (growth-minded leaders in both entrepreneurial and corporate settings) and investors (private equity and venture capital) who seek intellectual curiosity, creativity, accountability, self-inquiry, and decisiveness in the pursuit of sustained and balanced performance.
Why me? Because I have sat in your chair, I understand your challenges and opportunities (and if I don’t yet, I’m here to listen), and I’m committed to helping you get where you want to go.
If that resonates, please visit www.xquotient.io, reply to this email ( or email patrick@xquotient.io), or share this note with a friend or colleague. I’ll be delighted to tell you more.
The Full Answer
I’ve been connecting the dots to this chapter for over 15 years. Having had a front-row seat to the 2008 financial crisis (and ending up on a heart monitor due to stress), I found myself underemployed, resentful, and a bit lost, yet also unexpectedly liberated to try something new.
I used this blank slate to re-imagine my professional life, doggedly pursuing opportunities that challenged my intellect and offered greater meaning. I learned to combine higher-risk endeavors, such as early-stage investing, writing two business books, and starting a FOMO-centric media company, together with stable cash-flow generators like advising investment firms and international organizations. In tandem, I felt my experience base swell, fed by the entrepreneurs, investors, and podcast guests I met along the way.
It was not a clean, linear path. I struggled with imposter syndrome, suffered from reference anxiety, and learned hard lessons from failed experiments. Over time, I realized that external accomplishments are only a part of the equation for lasting success; the equally vital element is the journey of internal growth.
Why Start a Coaching Company Now?
I’ve long been asked: “Have you considered becoming an executive coach?” Since this made me coaching curious (blame FOMO for that!), I used my podcast, FOMO Sapiens, to interview coaching icons like Marshall Goldsmith. While they encouraged me to take a closer look and said I’d be a natural, I remained stuck in the idea phase.
One day in late 2022, my friend Mitul Desai, an entrepreneur with deep experience in the mental health space, asked me if I had considered getting into coaching. This time, I answered with a question of my own: “Yes, have you?” Unbeknownst to me, Mitul had coached the C-Suite of a European tech unicorn among other notable clients. Within minutes, we had decided to partner up and move from idea to action. What changed? Having long been a solopreneur who secretly wished for a business partner, I jumped at the opportunity to link arms with an experienced, like-minded individual with high integrity and expertise in coaching and mental fitness.
For the next 12 months, we learned as much as we could, interviewing coaches and coachees, researching the psychology of performance, and partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to offer a seminar on mental health and the workplace to over 500 Wall Street professionals. Beyond this fieldwork, I enrolled in the intensive coaching seminar at Columbia Business School. I was joined at Columbia by my close friend from Harvard Business School, Danielle Hootnick, who later agreed to join our founding team, bringing intellectual and emotional intelligence, deep passion and integrity, and an extensive track record in asset management.
What is The xQuotient?
At The xQuotient, our worldview is rooted in a fundamental reality: the combined changes wrought by the pandemic, remote work, technology, mental health pressures, and economic turbulence require a new approach to driving performance.
Based on a shared vision, more than 70 years of experience in high-performing organizations, and academic research, our methodology focuses on 3 quotients: (i) pursuing excellence in the “work” everyone performs each day (iQ), (ii) cultivating successful relationships (eQ), and (iii) prioritizing health and mental fitness (health quotient or hQ). These quotients, taken together, drive how we onboard clients, set goals, and measure growth. Our objective is for each client to solve for x, their personalized point of equilibrium, and sustained performance, as measured by The xQuotient.
Just as fundamental is the personal relationship at the center of this work. Human connection - both intellectual and emotional - is critical to building trust and taking constructive action. In the parlance of 2024, it’s all about the vibe. While we share many fundamental attributes, each team member brings their own particular experience, energy, and approach to the coaching relationship.
How You Can Help
If you’re reading this, thank you for being part of my trajectory. Of course, I’m not abandoning what got me here. I’ll still be writing, podcasting, speaking, and investing/advising companies across the globe. These are symbiotic with the work I am doing at The xQuotient, and they make me a player/coach who can offer more to his clients.
I invite you to be part of this next exciting chapter. Just hit reply and start typing.