UNPARALLELED ADVISORY SUPPORT FOR FOUNDERS AND CO-FOUNDERS
The One Great Story of the Heroines of the Imagination
The companies people remember, join, and buy from aren’t just the ones with the best product — they’re the ones staging a story worth being part of. Peter de Kuster calls this The Heroine’s Journey: the recognition that business itself has become a narrative act, and no one lives inside that narrative more completely than the founder who started it. The Heroine’s Journey is here, and it’s booming.
As a result, thousands of founders and co-founders find themselves cast as the hero of a story they never got to rehearse. Often, though, founders are left figuring out for themselves what the role actually demands — which of course differs from stage to stage, market to market, company to company. What’s more, neither business schools nor accelerator demo days are providing the guidance that matters most: not how to pitch, but how to become the person capable of leading what you’ve built.
That’s where Peter de Kuster comes in. He believes that personally transforming founders and co-founders is what will drive growth in the Hero’s Journey Economy — and that transformation, like any worth telling, follows the shape of a journey. That’s why he created The Heroine’s Journey Coaching: a guided passage that takes you from the Call to Adventure through the trials of building something from nothing, and out the other side as the leader your company needs you to become.
The Roles You’ll Discover Along the Way
Every heroine’s journey reveals capabilities the traveler didn’t know they had. Peter de Kuster’s coaching is grounded in a framework describing the distinct roles demanded of today’s complete founder — the abilities that emerge only once you’ve crossed the threshold and taken up the work.
Understand and embrace your roles as Catalyst, Storyteller, Orchestrator, and Champion, and you become capable of your ultimate role: guiding true enterprise transformation — not just launching a company, but building one that outlasts you.
This is where The Heroine’s Journey Coaching wants to take you.
Your Guide, Not Your God
In this coaching relationship, you’ll have rare, unprecedented access to Peter de Kuster — recognized as a foremost expert on the heroine’s journey applied to business and leadership. But a mentor’s role isn’t to walk the path for you. It’s to equip you, challenge you, and send you back into the arena changed. That’s the relationship he builds with every founder he coaches.
The Stages of the Journey
The Call — Departure
The Heroine’s Journey Coaching begins with a face-to-face exploration of your primary issues and opportunities — the ones you already know about, and the latent ones only deep conversation can surface. Together you and Peter build your Founder’s Hit List: the roadmap that sequences and prioritizes the work ahead. This day is scheduled at your location, on your schedule.
Crossing the Threshold — The Looking Excursion
Every heroine must leave familiar ground to see it clearly. Peter conducts a side-by-side tour of your company, product, and customer touchpoints — a collaborative Looking Excursion that reveals immediate opportunities and sparks new innovation. You’ll never look at your own company the same way again.
Trials and Allies
As you work together, your unique skills, knowledge, and personality come into focus. Peter uses them to recommend a customized set of trials to enlarge your perspective — places to visit, people to meet, publications to internalize. These aren’t busywork; they’re the tests and allies that build the acumen, network, and imaginative range every transformed founder needs.
The Refuge
Founders rarely have anywhere to be simply human. At key moments, you and Peter will meet offsite — away from your office, your team, your investors — to speak openly about the challenges you’re facing. He offers completely independent, unbiased counsel here. You’ll leave recharged and return to your company with renewed purpose.
The Return, Elixir in Hand
No heroine’s journey ends in the wilderness — it ends in the return, bearing something of value for those left behind. Your coaching relationship culminates in a co-designed, collaboratively staged moment that you bring back to your team, your board, or your customers: a public demonstration of everything you’ve gained, quite possibly a new direction or offering you’ve personally shaped. This is your elixir — proof of transformation, delivered back to the company you built, and your contribution to the one great story of the heroines of the imagination.
Start with a Conversation
The Heroine’s Journey Coaching is a completely personalized solution, built around your schedule and your journey — not a template. That’s why Peter won’t design a specific set of activities until he’s spent time understanding your exact situation.
Ready to answer the call? Email Peter de Kuster (peterdekuster2023@gmail.com) and we will arrange a phone interview to begin mapping your path forward.