Sharpend

I work with startup founders to develop self-awareness, improve emotional intelligence (EQ), learn communication/leadership skills and scale with their business.

Prior to coaching I spent 7 years as founder and head of marketing at Looksharp, and then worked as a marketing executive and advisor to a number of leading San Francisco startups. 

Learn more at https://www.sharpend.co/

Executive Coach

500 Startups

Mentor

Parallel18

Various Companies

Advise, consult, and do marketing work for various venture backed startups.  

Specialties include:
-SEO
-Content Strategy
-Content Development
-Marketing Ops (automation through sale)
-Lead Generation 
-Business Development
-Data and Analytics
-Email Marketing
-PR and Marketing Communications
-Brand Strategy & Creative

Software Expertise includes:
-Google Analytics
-SQL
-Marketo
-Salesforce
-ExactTarget
-Mailchimp
-Optimizely
-SproutSocial
-Trello
-more

Marketer in Residence

Carta

Helped Carta through a critical rebrand, new marketing team hires and growth of demand gen channels that resulted in a 40% lift of net new MQLs.

Demand Generation:
-Managed Carta's inbound marketing efforts including webinars, white papers, and product marketing content. Webinars alone accounted for a 20% increase in monthly marketing generated revenues.
-Collaborated with Carta engineering team to implement site-wide SEO changes that resulted in numerous keywords moving from 50+ rankings into top 3 results and a 70%+ increase in organic traffic.
-Developed and launched Carta's first-ever event marketing series including two large-scale half-day events in New York and San Francisco. Each event was cash-flow positive and resulted in hundreds of net new leads, increased brand exposure and powerful online content.
-Worked closely with Carta's outbound email team to nurture new leads from lead generation through the sales pipeline.

Rebrand:
-Helped develop new brand messaging map, including key messages for press, current customers, internal stakeholders and more.
-Worked with engineering team to develop strategy for domain cutover and technical rebrand implementation.
-Collaborated with marketing, engineering, and design team to help redesign and rewrite content for every webpage on the Carta website and reposition product pages with new brand in mind.

Team:
-Hired and grew marketing team from 1 to 6 people. Led charge in interviewing, hiring and training new marketing hires.
-Used Asana to manage team goals and sync day-to-day work with broader business strategy.
-Developed marketing dashboards and pulled key marketing metrics using SQL, Google Analytics, Looker, and other tools.
-Presented marketing metrics at monthly KPI and leadership team meetings.

Digital Marketing

Looksharp

Founded Looksharp and led the marketing team from idea stage through Series A and beyond. Used an "Iterative Marketing" approach (running rapid fire tests and using data to track and scale campaigns) to drive user and revenue growth.

Overall:
-Grew student audience from 0 to over 10 million uniques annually through SEO, business development, content, press and more.
-Generated over 100,000 inbound B2B leads to support successful sales operation.
-Built reports using SQL and Google Analytics to measure campaigns and drive business strategy.

SEO:
-Worked with engineering and design team to optimize website and gain #1 ranking for over 90% of top keywords in the internship space.
-Developed content strategy and managed team of fifty plus writers to support SEO goals. 
-Used Optimizely to improve conversion rate on SEO landing page by over 50%. 

Content:
-Developed long term content strategy using personas, competitive positioning, and SWAT analysis.
-Managed editorial team of 50+ bloggers to create compelling daily content.
-Invented new recurring B2B content including 'Annual Internship Report' to monthly "College Hiring Webinars" and more that drove thousands of net new leads.

Data​:
-Queried SQL database to develop monthly cohort graphs used to analyze business KPIs.
-Queried Salesforce and Marketo to pull reports and graphs and analyze marketing / sales operation.

Branding and PR
-Developed relationships with top industry journalists and received press mentions in publications including: the WSJ, TechCrunch, WashingtonPost, Mashable and more.
-Managed brand transition from established brand to a parent brand including a number of technically challenging changes.

Founder

Founder -> CMO -> Exec Coach

I coach founders and co-founders from Series B - D. I specialize in co-founder dynamics--helping co-founders build more effective and fulfilling partnerships. 

I believe in a world where leaders have done the work to know themselves, in order to build lasting businesses and a more interesting future.

Nathan Parcells

Cat Totty

VC Talent Lab

VCTalentLab is on a mission to put leadership development at the heart of the VC ecosystem. I coach venture backed founders and their leadership teams to help them scale their leadership, team and culture as they scale their businesses.

Senior Coach Practitioner

Founder Coaches Network

Find the right coach and unlock success with the Founder Coaches Network, where I am a specialist Co-Founder Coach.

We are a trusted, professional network of independent coaches committed to supporting founders and their businesses, and advancing Founder Coaching as a profession.

We are committed to providing a ‘no wrong door’ approach to finding you a coach you can trust, who is a good fit for your business and your circumstances.

This means you can speak with any of our coaches knowing that, if they aren’t best placed to meet your needs, they’ll introduce you to a coach who is.

Every coach in the Founder Coaches' Network has experience working with founders, understands the journey of starting and scaling up a business, has trained and certified as a professional coach and is committed to their own continued learning.

Our coaches’ training and experience makes them highly adaptable. So choosing who to work with is simply a case of having a conversation with a coach who interests you.

Visit www.thefcn.co.uk/coaches and choose a coach to speak with first. You can't go wrong.

Founding Member - Co-Founder Specialist Coach

ZINC

I help Zinc VC's Founders build confidence and self-awareness so they can thrive in uncertainty, through Group and 121 coaching.

Co-Founder Coach - ZINC Venture Capital and Private Equity

CPO Track

I'm delighted to have been chosen as one of the CPO Track coaches, supporting senior Tech leaders to scale teams, grow as leaders and innovate.

CPO Track Coach

Cat Totty Coaching

Coaching offers you a relationship like no other. It’s a confidential space to discuss and move forward with mental blockers, fears, nagging voices, habits, limiting beliefs, big decisions and assumptions that are affecting you and your company. Examples of topics people tackle with me - managing others and giving feedback, keeping my focus as the business changes fast, feeling as confident inside as I appear outside and leading in uncertainty.

When we’re in the bottle, we can’t read the label. I help raise your awareness with searching questions, reflecting language and reconnecting you to clarity that's often covered up by day-to-day firefighting. It’ll feel challenging and constructive both at once, with immediate, tangible actions after every session.

You can also use the time as regular, calm thinking space to examine a topic from all angles and form your confident point of view - free from others' agendas.

Please DM me to discuss further. I do concentrated work with a small number of Founders and leaders at any one time.

CO-FOUNDER & CMO, Flash Pack, Lee Thompson "Cat has a tonne of experience at high growth businesses. Cat’s coaching went way beyond anything I could have hoped for. As the co-founder of a fast growing business, you have to keep adapting and growing to keep up. I strongly recommend Cat to all business leaders, especially those going from start-up to scale-up."

CEO & FOUNDER, Flash Pack, Radha Vyas, “Absolutely transformative”

CEO & FOUNDER, Progression, Jonny Burch “I understand my biases and strengths”

CPO, Zinc VC and Private Equity, Eleanor Ford “Cat provides enormous value.”

Co-Founder & Founder Coach - Senior Practitioner

Skye

I work with Skye, a brilliant New York based Founder and CEO coaching company, supporting leaders through their unique challenges in rapidly growing businesses.

Co-Founder & CEO Coach

Noble Caledonia

Based on a small expedition ship, I drive boats once or twice a year in Antarctica and South Georgia, with the fantastic Noble Caledonia team. We're passionate about responsible experiences and creating advocates for the future protection of Antarctica and it's impact on our global climate far beyond.

Antarctic Field Guide and Boat Driver

Antarctic Expeditions

Having lived and worked in the Antarctic I continue to guide on expeditions once or twice a year, driving small boats and giving educational lectures on Antarctic history to small groups of visitors following the strict IAATO regulations. I hope we create legions of ambassadors who will protect the continent having experienced it first hand.

Antarctic Guide and Small Boat Driver

Tech Nation

Matching Founders to groups and coaches as proud Coaching Partner to Tech Nation's Climate programme. 

In 2024, Aata Ltd and I were awarded the contract to design and deliver the coaching element of two programmes. 

Libra - the growth programme for underrepresented tech founders seeking support as they scale https://technation.io/programmes/libra/

Climate - the growth programme for climate tech startups committed to reducing global emissions, eliminating the world’s waste and restoring nature https://technation.io/programmes/climate/
I also coached cohorts on this programme.

// The Tech Nation brand and assets were acquired by the Founder Forum Group in 2023.

Skills: Founder Coaching · Group coaching · Contract Management · Programme Design

Group Founder Coaching Lead - Climate

Chief

I’m a Founding Member at Chief, a global network for female leaders to strengthen their leadership, magnify their influence, and pave the way to bring others with them.

Founding Member - Chief

Founder Coach | Antarctic Guide

Hi, I partner with Co-Founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurial Execs to master high-stakes relationships—with investors, peers, teams, the Board, and themselves. I've worked with 150+ Founders and CEOs. Find out more and book now for my Co-Founder Skills Retreat, running July 2025: https://events.sharpend.co/co-founder-alignment-day/

🌿 I work with outliers—those defining new categories, innovating bioplastics, and protecting the Antarctic.

Being at the cutting edge can be lonely. I create a confidential, challenging, and constructive space to work through ideas and fears—because even the most exceptional leaders are still human. 🌱

As a Senior Coach Practitioner, I offer highly challenging, fully confidential coaching with tangible outcomes. I quickly reveal assumptions and break down blockers to help leaders move forward and do their best work. Hack and assess your thinking and emotions in a way no other conversation can. Many clients enjoy working outdoors in London or the Alpes.

CEO, ASF, Andrew J. Kelly: “If you seek a coach who can guide you in conversation and perspective toward a better understanding of yourself within situations and strategy, I wholeheartedly recommend Cat.”

MD ex-Wolff Olins, VP ex-Zoopla, Rich Houston: “Kept me on my toes with provocative but thoughtful questioning. Cat's varied background brings a strong holistic grasp of business.”

CO-FOUNDER & CMO, Flash Pack, Lee Thompson: “Cat has a tonne of experience at high-growth businesses. Cat’s coaching went way beyond anything I could have hoped as we scale the business.”

SOLO to the SOUTH POLE, Cat Burford: “With Cat's guidance, I am better equipped for success in Antarctica. I wholeheartedly credit Cat for shaping my mindset and readiness for this monumental journey.”

EXEC PRODUCER, Oatley + ex-Netflix, Billy Linker: “Cuts through the BS and gets you to answers.”

CO-FOUNDER & CTO, pFibre Science, Dr. Dinaz Stutterheim PhD: “Cat’s impact? A funded startup.”

I studied Physics at Oxford and Theatre Arts at RADA, working as a theatre director in the West End with A-list actors. Years in business strategy across corporates and startups added a commercial eye. I’m a generous connector, angel investor, and public speaker in English and French. My dual-nationality background places me in a lively overlap of arts, science, business, and adventure.

I’ve also run the Post Office in Antarctica. 🐧

Cat Elnécavé Totty

CEO Advisor

BECOCO are building the most sophisticated clothing recommendation tech out there. I work with the Founders on rapidly evolving positioning, vision, mission, pitching and grants. We’ve just been awarded a 3rd Innovate UK grant.

taplio

The Battle

Nathan Parcells

Cat Totty

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