Four independent coach rankings – one per discipline. Evaluated on the basis of your track record – and above all: the anonymous feedback from at least 4 founders you have genuinely accompanied.
THE PRINCIPLE
Coaching is not coaching. A patent attorney guiding MedTech startups through IP strategy does something fundamentally different from a growth coach scaling SaaS scale-ups. That is why we create four independent rankings – with the same methodology, but calibrated to the reality of each coaching discipline.
STRATEGY · LEADERSHIP · OPERATIONS · FINANCE
IP · LEGAL · PATENT · REGULATORY · DOMAIN
TECH · PRODUCT · R&D · DEEP TECH
SALES · MARKETING · GTM · SCALING
“Specialist” corresponds to the official Innosuisse designation “Special Coach”. 140 unclassified coaches will be assigned to their discipline before the first ranking.
WHAT YOU GAIN
The Selection brings coaches measurable advantages – not just “visibility”. Here is what you actually get.
Swiss founders filter by discipline, stage, and industry and contact you directly without a hub intermediary. No cold calls, no generic enquiries – only founders who match your expertise.
See disciplines →Silver, Gold, Platinum or Diamond – a verified quality signal for your LinkedIn profile, website, and hub applications. NZZ-ZHAW validated, not self-declared.
See badge levels →Years of coaching work often remain invisible. Anonymous, aggregated founder feedback makes your impact verifiable – for Innosuisse reviews, hub applications, and premium engagements.
How founder feedback works →FOUNDER FEEDBACK
Self-assessments can be polished. Founder experiences cannot. That is why we weight the anonymous feedback from your coachees more highly than any other data source.
SHEET B SURVEY · ANONYMOUS · AGGREGATED
You nominate between 4 and 10 founders you have genuinely accompanied. We contact them with a standardised 10-item survey. With fewer than 4 returned reviews, your profile is marked as Provisional – without official Selection Status.
What concrete results can you attribute to the coaching?
Multiple choice: Funding · Pivot · Team · GTM · Survival · Other
Did the coach tell you uncomfortable truths you needed to hear?
Scale 1–10 · measures critical sparring vs. echo chamber
Did the coach open concrete doors (investors, clients, talent)?
Scale 1–10 · measures network impact
Did this coaching change the trajectory of your startup?
Scale 1–10 · the most honest outcome indicator
Would you recommend this coach to other founders at your stage?
NPS-style: 0–10 · Net Promoter Score for coaches
The complete survey instrument (10 items) is available in the methodology documentation. Bias protection through Trimmed Mean and Plausibility Cross-Checks.
HOW THE RANKING WORKS
Self-assessment, anonymised founder feedback, and objective third-party data (Innosuisse, hub affiliations) flow into five weighted sub-indices – with founder feedback as the most important source.
SELECTION BADGES
These four tiers apply independently in each coach discipline. A Diamond Specialist Coach is not compared to a Diamond Business Coach — each ranking stands on its own.
Recognised quality — a credible signal for hub applications, LinkedIn, and founder pitches.
High-impact coach — actively featured in NZZ media and shared with Innosuisse and hub partners.
Excellence tier — direct introduction to the Founders Hive network and ZHAW research programme.
The highest coach recognition in the Swiss ecosystem — editorial feature and priority placement in the annual NZZ ranking.
HOW TO APPLY
Register with your work email and select your coaching discipline. No subscription required. Your profile is private until you choose to publish it.
Answer structured questions across the five dimensions – founder feedback, track record, expertise, founder fit, and availability. You can save your progress and return at any time. Sensitive fields (hourly rates, client names) are never published.
You nominate between 4 and 10 founders you have genuinely accompanied. We contact them with a standardised 10-item survey. Without at least 4 returned reviews, your profile receives a Provisional status – without official Selection Status.
Your profile is submitted and reviewed now – your final score and badge will be issued in October 2026. You decide whether to publish your result. If your score is below the Silver threshold, nothing is published without your consent. Accepted profiles are published in the ranking with your website and LinkedIn link — directly visible to Swiss founders searching for coaches in your discipline.
YOUR DATA
The assessment requires detailed information about your coaching practice. Here is exactly what we do — and do not — do with it.
FREQUENTLY ASKED
READY TO APPLY?
Choose your discipline, submit your profile, nominate 4 accompanied founders for the anonymous feedback. You control at every step which data becomes public.
Submit your profile →