Hi, I’m Jaco.

I work with leaders (CEOs, Founders & CPO) who are building something they deeply believe in. Not just something they think could work. Something they feel should exist.

Usually, they’ve already got somewhere. They’ve built the business, found their people, solved a lot of problems and made plenty of decisions along the way. They have a strong sense of why they’re doing it, and usually, that why is personal.

At some point, though, the thing becomes bigger. More people. More complexity. More responsibility. What once happened naturally between a few people now has to happen across an organisation.

It’s a bit like a garden.

In the beginning, you can walk around it yourself. You know every plant, where the soil is good, what needs water, what needs pruning and what you’re trying to grow. Other people come into the garden and they just get it. They see what you see. They want to help.

But eventually there are too many people for you to tend to everything yourself. You need irrigation. You need paths. You need good soil. You need people who know how to care for different parts of the garden. You need to work out how the whole thing can grow without you standing over every plant.

That’s the work I do.

I work with founders, CEOs and leadership teams to make what matters to them possible through more people.

Sometimes that means coming alongside a founder or CEO as a fractional leader. Sometimes it means working with a leadership team on the culture they're creating — and designing the structures, systems, ways of working and experiences that allow that culture to become real. Sometimes it means working with a leader before they walk into a difficult room and helping them work out what needs to happen there.

The outer work matters. A strong why doesn't build an organisation by itself. At some point, the why has to become something people can experience.

And that's where the inner work matters too.

I want to work with people who have a strong conviction about what they're building. People who have a reason for doing this that goes deeper than growth, money or success. Not because those things don't matter. They do. But because when things get difficult and they will; I want there to be something underneath all of it that's worth protecting.

Something you're willing to be challenged about.

If I see you moving away from what you told me matters, I'll show you. Sometimes that means challenging a decision. Sometimes it means changing something in the organisation. Sometimes it means looking at your own leadership. And sometimes it means asking whether what you're doing still serves the reason you started it in the first place.

I've been doing this for more than twelve years, working across different organisations, industries and leadership teams. I've seen things work beautifully. I've seen things fall apart. I've seen what happens when a founder becomes the culture, and what happens when the culture learns to live without them.

I've learned a lot.

But before any of that, I'm just Jaco.

My wife, daughter, dog and I live on the Garden Route of South Africa. My friends say I laugh too loudly. My wife is still discovering just how much she loves my wordplay jokes. And my daughter has become the answer to every question that I have. When I'm not spending time with them, you'll probably find me lost in a forest with our dog or a deep into a book.

And perhaps that's part of why this work has become so personal for me.

I care about what we give our lives to. I care about the things we build, the people we build them with, and whether the things that matter to us actually make it into the way we live and work.

I don't believe your business should become an expression of you that requires you to be everywhere, all the time.

I believe the things that matter most to us shouldn't have to depend on us forever.

You know your business better than I do. You know the garden you're trying to grow. My role is to come alongside you, bring what I've seen, ask difficult questions when they're needed, and help build the conditions for the thing you care about to grow beyond what you can personally carry.

Because ultimately, the goal isn't for people to need you more.

It's for more people to be able to lead what you started.

If you're trying to build something like that, let's talk.