Everyone around you has an agenda. Even the ones who agree with you.
I have one too. Yours.
Executive sparring. Your biggest decisions, tested before they cost you.
Twelve and a half years at Google. Now independent.
Twice a month at most. You start with a 10-minute audio briefing for the walk between meetings.
When did someone last tell you no?
The most expensive mistakes rarely look like mistakes. They look like a plan everyone agreed with.
Sometimes the cost is money. More often, it’s
Your credibility.
A year of momentum.
The trust of the people who followed you into it.
Getting it wrong is expensive. Finding out first isn't.
What you've been missing has a name.
You’ve worked with a coach. You know yourself better for it. The decision on your desk is still there.
You’ve brought in consultants. They came, found something, fixed it, and left. The work got done. The thinking left with them.
And the calls that matter most are still yours alone. The people around you either don’t know enough to challenge you, or have too much to lose if they do.
That’s what sparring is for.
A coach helps you find your answer. A consultant gives you theirs. A sparring partner tests yours, until you know whether it holds.
You’re the expert on your business. I’m the one with nothing to lose by asking. And because the thinking stays yours, so does the learning: every call you make sharpens the next one.
Who this is for
Leaders facing a call they can’t afford to get wrong, who want it tested before they commit. People who would rather hear the uncomfortable thing now than find out later.
Who this isn't for
Anyone who wants to be told what to do, needs a cheerleader, or is looking for a quick fix. If you’re carrying something heavier than work, I’ll gladly point you to someone better placed to help.
In their words
“Sascha has been one of the people I could always rely on for an honest perspective and a good challenge. He doesn’t give you standard advice. He challenges your thinking and helps you see things you might otherwise miss. Today, as a CEO myself, I still value having someone like Sascha to spar with.”
Martin
CEO at Digital Dinamics, former Googler
“Sascha has been an excellent thought partner. What I value most … is his ability to ask the right questions that often challenge assumptions, and surface perspectives I hadn’t considered. I consistently leave our sessions with sharper perspectives, renewed focus, and ideas I can put into practice immediately.”
Bernardo Cervantes
Co-founder and COO, Concerto Biosciences
A sparring story
When more is the wrong answer
You know the reflex. Bad news lands, and before you’ve finished reading it, you’re already fixing it.
A director with several team leads under them felt exactly that after a low performance rating. From everything I saw, they already gave their team more than most leaders ever do. Their conclusion came anyway, and fast: My team doesn’t see what I give them. I have to give more.
Not more budget. More of themselves: their time, their energy, their attention. And attention is the most expensive thing a leader has.
It surfaced at the edges of our conversations for weeks. Then I asked: how many low ratings had they handed out themselves this cycle?
They had to think about it. Eight.
And how many of those were really about performance?
Two.
The other six came from the curve. Most likely theirs did too.
That changed how they read the rating. As far as I could see, the team didn’t need more of them. It needed what it already had: trust and fairness.
That’s what sparring is for: one question that tests the conclusion before you act on it.
For a director, it was a rating. For you, it might be a sharp comment from the board, a key customer walking away, one bad quarter. The reflex is the same.
Before you give it more of yourself, check what the signal is made of.
Sascha Schneider
Who's across the table
Twelve and a half years at Google, working with leaders across Product, Engineering and Sales. One question I asked there freed up more than half a billion dollars.
It started by accident, in Dublin. Founders kept pulling me aside to think through their hardest calls. Not because I had the answers. Because I had no side to take.
Away from the table, I sail and dive. Both teach the same discipline: check the weather before you leave the harbor, not halfway across. I bring that to your decisions.
How it works
A first conversation
Find out what it’s like to think out loud with someone who wants nothing from you.
Thirty minutes. Free.
Before you commit
Bring the call you’re about to make. Over three sessions, we test it until you know where it’s strong and where it isn’t, and the questions that matter are still with you when you decide.
Three sessions, about six weeks.
Your sparring partner
Someone who knows your world, a message away. The big calls don’t have to be made alone.
Two sessions a month. Month to month.
What you bring stays outside the building. I reply within a day. If I’m on a dive, by that evening.
In the making
Sparring days at sea and on the trail.
For a handful of leaders a year. A full day outside, with the thinking spread across it instead of squeezed into an hour.
Bring the decision.
Not ready to talk yet? Start with the field notes. They begin with a 10-minute audio briefing, made for the walk between meetings.