In sport, nobody reaches the top alone. In startups, most people try to.
Scaling a company is one of the highest-pressure environments there is. The pace is relentless, the stakes are personal, and every hard call lands on you. Athletes train for exactly this kind of pressure with a coach who works on the mind, not just the game. Most leaders carry it alone.
Here’s what that pressure looks like:
The pace is relentless and there’s no break
Every high-stakes decision ultimately lands on you
You’re expected to have answers you don’t always have
There’s little room to show doubt in front of the team
The higher you go, the fewer people you can be honest with
World class athletes have a coach for exactly this. That’s what 1:1 coaching is: the mental corner for the people leading under pressure.
THE SETTING
Private & confidential
One person, one coach. What’s said in the room stays in the room. That’s what makes the real work possible.
THE FORMAT
In person or online
We coach in person in Germany and online anywhere, whatever fits your calendar.
THE RHYTHM
A regular cadence
We agree the cadence and session length upfront, built around your schedule. An ongoing rhythm, not a fixed count of sessions.
What we work on.
The mental side of high performance: the patterns, habits and blind spots that strategy alone can’t fix.
Who we coach, in three tiers.
Coaching is tailored to the altitude you lead at. Pick the tier that fits, or we’ll find it together on the call.
Tier 1
Executive
C-level & founders
The mental game at the very top: presence, hard calls, pressure.
from 259€/hr
Tier 2
Leadership
Team leads, Heads of, directors
Growing into bigger leadership than you’ve held before.
from 229€/hr
Tier 3
Individual Contributor
Individual contributors
The challenges too personal or too sensitive for a group.
from 179€/hr
All displayed rates are excl. VAT
On its own, or alongside a group program.
A team trains together and an athlete still has their own coach. Same here: One to one coaching stands alone, or runs alongside our group formats.
If you’re not sure which combination fits, the intro call is where we figure it out.
We work with the founders and operators inside
Germany’s leading startup & scale-ups.
Leadership at a fast-growing tech company isn’t the same as leadership anywhere else. The pace is higher, the structures are younger, and the pressure lands differently. We know that world, because it’s where our people come from and who we work with every day.
120
alumni in our group programs
+200
founders & operators worked with
6
leadership journeys delivered in 2026
+3000
hours of leadership & founder coaching
+15
years of experience building & developing teams
4.4
rating on Trustpilot
COACH
The coach in your corner.
Lea coaches the founders and leadership teams inside every Deep Work program.
Her background is unusual by design: former basketball pro athlete, strategy consultant and licensed CBT psychotherapist. That mix is what lets her work on both sides of performance at once, the mindset and the mechanics of leading a team.
She's lived the cost of getting it wrong. After burning out at the top of sport and consulting, she rebuilt her whole approach around one idea: people are the real asset, and leaders grow fastest when they grow together.
Over the past five years she's worked with hundreds of founders, executives and teams.
FAQ
How often do we meet, and for how long?
We agree a regular cadence and session length upfront, built around your schedule. Most engagements run as an ongoing rhythm rather than a fixed number of sessions.
Who will I be working with?
Lea Mersch, Deep Work's Co-Founder and Lead Coach. A former pro athlete, strategy consultant and licensed CBT psychotherapist, she's coached hundreds of founders, executives and teams over the past five years.
How do I start?
Book an intro call. It's a fit conversation, not a pitch. We get to know your situation and figure out whether, and how, we can help.
Till Westermann
CEO & Co-Founder, Deep Work Club
Let’s talk.
Tell us what you’re navigating. Book an intro call, or reach us directly.