About Tandem Compass · Riverbank, CA
There's a version of executive coaching that's all motivation and no method. This isn't it. We're a small Riverbank practice that runs careful, written, confidential engagements — and tells you honestly if coaching isn't what you need.
How we got here
Between us we'd sat in a lot of leadership chairs — and hired a lot of coaches. The good ones were rare, and the difference was always the same thing: a plan we could actually see.
Too often coaching felt like a warm hour that evaporated by Friday. Lots of encouragement, no record, nothing to point your manager to when they asked what changed. We started Tandem Compass to fix exactly that. Every engagement is written down — two or three goals, agreed with you and your sponsor, revisited at the mid-point and the close.
We stayed small on purpose. There are two of us, and the two of us run every engagement start to finish — no junior associate you've never met, no handoff. We work out of Riverbank and across the Central Valley, by video or in person, with the same people you spoke to on day one.
And if coaching isn't the right tool for what you're facing, we'll say so on the free fit call. We'd rather point you somewhere useful than sell you six months you don't need.
What we hold to
Goals, progress, and next steps live in a short plan you can re-read between sessions. Nothing important rests on what either of us happens to recall.
Your sponsor sees the goals and the progress against them — never the contents of our conversations. The notes are yours to keep when we're done.
You work with the people you met on the fit call, from intake to close. No reassignment, no handoff to someone you've never spoken to.
If coaching isn't the right tool, we'll tell you on the first call. And if the early sessions aren't landing, you stop and pay only for those — no engagement fee.
Who finds us
Directors, founders, and newly-promoted VPs across Riverbank and the Central Valley — usually at a moment that matters: a step up, a team that used to be peers, or a hard stretch ahead.
The two of us
Twenty years leading teams in operations and product before she started coaching full-time. Maren runs most of the 360° reads — she's the one who can take a pile of candid feedback and hand you back a picture you can actually use, not a scorecard.
A former founder who's sat on both sides of a tough board meeting. Dev leads the team-offsite work and the biweekly 1:1s — steady, unhurried, and good at being the clear-headed second opinion you wish you'd had before the meeting that mattered.
Start where everyone starts
Send a couple of lines about what's going on, or just call. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit — and we reply the same day during opening hours.
