Executive Coach for $3M–$50M Founders · Herb Cogliano, Certified Scaling Up Coach and CEPA

Scale it. Architect it. Choose it.

Build a company your leadership team runs, so you choose what comes next.

I help founders of $3M–$50M companies build the leadership team that can take them to $100M, while that team takes over the decisions that land on your desk today. You win back time for family, health and life, and you build the kind of value that keeps every door open: sell, hand off, recapitalize, or architect and scale. Your choice, on your timeline.

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I work with six to eight founders at a time.

2x founder · Led our family company to three Inc. 5000 appearances · Book foreword by Verne Harnish

Herb Cogliano

Aspire Growth Advisors is an executive coaching practice for founders of $3M to $50M companies across the U.S., led by Herb Cogliano, a Certified Scaling Up Coach and Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA).

Nearly four decadesbuilding and leading founder-led companies
Founder Independencemy book, with a foreword by Verne Harnish
7 client storiespublished by Verne Harnish on Scaling Up
Certified Scaling Up Coachsince 2019
Certified Exit Planning AdvisorCEPA, Exit Planning Institute

Who I work with

Founders building toward their next stage.

Most of the founders I work with come in somewhere between $3M and $50M. Many are building toward $100M and beyond.

They've got a leadership team in place, or the start of one. They want more growth. And they want a business that keeps growing while they spend more of their time on the work only they can do, or on the life they built the business for.

Most of them don't want to walk away. They want to stay in charge of where the company goes and stop being the one who does everything to get it there. And they're tired of figuring it out alone.

Three disciplines, one advisor

One build, connected.

Growing a company, stepping back from it, and building its value usually means three different advisors with three different playbooks. I bring all three, and I connect them. Think of it as one build: Scaling Up is the engine, Founder Independence is the architecture, and exit planning gives you the reward: options.

01 · The engine

Scale it

The Scaling Up Performance Platform

Verne Harnish's Scaling Up Performance Platform gives a growing company its operating rhythm: a one-page strategy, clear quarterly priorities, meetings that keep the team pointed the same way, and a real handle on cash.

I've implemented it with founder-led companies as a Certified Scaling Up Coach since 2019, and I taught it for six years in the Scaling Up Master Business Course at Growth Institute. I apply it selectively. We work on no more than two Critical Numbers at a time, starting where the gap is biggest, so your team owns each step before we add the next.

People. Strategy. Execution. Cash.

02 · The architecture

Architect it

Founder Independence

You built the business as its best operator. The next stage asks you to become its architect. Your team may be ready for more than you've handed them. The real question is what your seat becomes.

You've probably heard for years that you need to work on the business, not in it. Hardly anyone shows you how. Founder Independence is the method I built (and wrote the book on) to do that in stages: who owns which decisions, the guardrails that make it safe, and a 36-month path to a company your leadership team runs, with you still setting the direction.

From operator to architect.

03 · The reward

Choose it

Exit planning, as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor

A company that runs on its leadership team is worth more. To a buyer, to an investor, to a successor in your family, and to you.

As a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, I help you build that value on purpose, years before you need it. Then every door is open: sell, hand off, recapitalize, or architect and scale.

The choice is yours.

A quick check

Three questions. Answer them honestly, just for yourself.

If you stepped away for 90 days, what would break first?

Do the big decisions still wait for you?

Does your family get what's left after the business gets you?

If any of those gave you pause, that's where we'd start.

Request a conversation Want a number? Take the 5-minute Founder Independence Diagnostic →
Herb Cogliano, looking off to the side

Meet Herb

Founder first. Advisor second.

I've started a business from nothing twice. I know the blank page, the first hire, and the years when everything ran through me.

I also spent over three decades in our family business. I learned the business from the inside, built the leadership team that let me step back from running it, and in 2018 we exited. I'm grateful for every one of those years.

I learned most of what I teach the hard way. Now I coach and advise founders so they get there faster, with fewer bumps and bruises.

Nearly four decades in business · 2x founder · Led our family company to three Inc. 5000 appearances · Multiple Best Places to Work awards
Certified Scaling Up Coach · CEPA · MBA

More about Herb →

Founders I've worked with

Seven stories, published by Verne Harnish.

Featured story · Market Veep

79%

revenue growth over two years, and a spot on the Inc. 5000 Regionals list.

The situation. Jennelle McGrath's marketing firm was in demand, but a popular operating system never took hold with her team.

What changed. We put Topgrading and job scorecards in place, started quarterly planning, and built a monthly cash-flow summary.

"There's an actual framework and plan."
Jennelle McGrath, Founder, Market Veep, as told to Verne Harnish
Read the story by Verne Harnish →
"Since engaging with Herb, our revenue growth has tripled!"
Greg Dewald, Founder & CEO, Bright!Tax
"Your ability to help us uncover what we are capable of seems magical at times."
Mike Wolfe, CEO, Delgado Stone Distributors
"Herb is a straight shooter, get 'er done, but done with heart and purpose, kind of guy."
Donloree Hoffman, Director, Truspace and CDI Spaces
All stories and testimonials →
A New Book
Founder
Independence
Build a Business That Works for You,
Not Because of You.
Foreword by Verne Harnish
Herb Cogliano
Scaling Up Coach
CEPA · MBA

The book

Founder Independence

Build a Business That Works for You, Not Because of You

Foreword by Verne Harnish

You built a company that grows. This book shows you how to build one that runs without you: how to hand authority to your leadership team without losing control, and keep every door open, so you choose what comes next.

“What I particularly like about Herb’s definition of independence is that it doesn’t mean leaving. It means choice.”
Verne Harnish, from the foreword

Coming early 2027.

Join the early-access list

Speaking

I speak with CEO groups, leadership teams and conference audiences about scaling and Founder Independence.

Signature talk: Founder Independence: From Operator to Architect

Heard on The Chris Voss Show, The Art of Scaling, 360 Leadership Podcast and more.

Topics, bio and booking →

How we start

Two conversations.

1

A discovery call

Request a conversation. We talk about where the business is, where you want it to go, and what's in the way.

2

Your assessment, read back

You complete a short Scaling Up assessment. I analyze it, diagnose where the real gap in your scaling is, and recommend a program to achieve your vision. We'll determine together if we're a fit.

No chasing. No convincing.

Once we start, we have scheduled appointments, and you can call me between sessions when something can't wait. We build in order, over about 36 months: first the operating system that runs your company, then the seat you want to sit in, then the value you're building. Each step makes the next one easier. You work with me directly, every time.

Request a conversation

When you're ready to choose what comes next, let's talk.

I work with six to eight founders at a time, so each one gets my full attention. The first two conversations are for both of us to decide whether we're a fit.

No pitch. Our first conversation is about your business, whether we work together or not.

Request a conversation