Free coaching for people who are running an AI safety startup or who are considering starting one.
Ways Nonlinear coaching can help you:
Ways Nonlinear coaching cannot help you:
How does it work?
First, you apply.
If you're accepted, you'll get on a call with me, Kat Woods, an experienced EA charity entrepreneur. Calls usually last 30-60 minutes and are by default one-off. I'll try to help you as much as possible over the call.
If we like the idea you’re starting and it seems like the advice is adding value, then a subsequent call will be planned. If after a few calls it seems like it's a good fit for both parties, a regular call will be established.
The regular call will be catered to you, so may be as much as once a week or as little as once every two months. It depends on your needs.
What if you want to start a meta or governance charity or a for-profit?
I give coaching to anybody considering starting something that might help with AI safety. This includes meta, governance, technical, for-profits, and anything else that could feasibly reduce extinction or suffering risks from transformative AI.
How is this different from Nonlinear career advice?
Ongoing. Career advice is a one-off call. Coaching is an ongoing relationship with regular calls.
Pre-startup or during startup. Career advice is specifically for people who are considering starting an AI safety org. Coaching can be for people who have already started something or for people who haven't started something but are planning to.
What's the price?
It costs nothing. This is funded by donations so it's free for you.
You can just pay me and my donors back by starting an amazing org that saves the world in expectation.
If you're interested in this, you might enjoy reading:
Ways Nonlinear coaching can help you:
- Avoid common pitfalls. If you're early in your entrepreneurial journey, it's really helpful to have an experienced mentor to help guide you around the most common pitfalls. I have over 11 years of experience in EA and charity entrepreneurship. After starting four charities I’ve made all of the mistakes already so you can go make new ones.
- Fundraising advice. Being good at fundraising is one of the best paths to true freedom. If you're good at this vital skill, you can simply focus on what's highest impact and be able to do that full-time instead of doing what a boss thinks is best. I can help you understand the funding landscape and level up this incredibly important skill.
- Productivity without a boss. Having somebody who cares about your progress and who's checking in regularly can make a huge difference when working on your own. I will both provide accountability directly and help you set up systems so that you can reliably get things done without having to rely on a boss to get you to do things.
- Strategy. Simultaneously the most fun and also the most challenging aspect of running an org. I can help you take a giant tangle of ambiguous considerations, untangle them, and come up with a solid plan.
- Find a co-founder. If you haven’t found a co-founder yet, I can guide you through the process of finding one and deciding which skills and traits would most complement your own.
- Ideas. AI safety can be pretty daunting and having a good idea can be the difference between saving the entire world or creating a hellscape. We have a prioritized list of hundreds of AI safety ideas. I can also help you do market and prioritization research to find an idea that could dramatically increase your impact. (You can also check out a prioritized list of AI safety ideas here or add your own ideas to the sub-reddit to get feedback)
- Tools and services. Finding the right tool can be the difference between something taking years and millions of dollars or it taking hours and costing $10. I can point you toward the tools and services that could take your org to the next level.
- Mental health. How do you have the biggest possible impact while not only maintaining your sanity, but flourishing? My secondary passion after EA is figuring out this whole happiness business, and I have a massive toolkit available to help with your mental health.
- Build your network in the field. I can introduce you to people in the field that are relevant to your startup. One person described it as “having a well-connected ally in the field.”
- Hiring the right people is absolutely key to how well your org goes. If you’re new to hiring or have limited experience, I can help guide you through things like writing the job ad, advertising it, interviewing people, and making the final call.
- Continuous learning & self-development. Not only will I provide ongoing and catered learning for you, I'll also help you develop your own lifelong learning habit. I'll point you towards books, classes, practices, and help you actually put them into practice.
- Confidence. Self-doubt is inevitable. I can help you have hope when you’re facing really tough obstacles. It can be reassuring to have somebody there to remind you of your vision and strengths when it’s hard to remember.
Ways Nonlinear coaching cannot help you:
- Operations / admin. I don't provide operations or admin advice. If you'd like help with that, I recommend checking out Anti-Entropy, Impact Ops, or the EA ops Slack channel.
- Legal. I don't provide legal advice.
- Technical advice. I can help with all of the non-technical aspects of running an org (e.g. hiring, management, strategy, fundraising). However, I do not have a technical background, so cannot provide mentorship in that realm.
- Non-AI safety orgs. This service is exclusively for people working on things that could reduce AI x-risk or s-risk. This can be direct or indirect work, or as a non-profit or for-profit. However, it does have to be primarily oriented around reducing risks from transformative AI.
How does it work?
First, you apply.
If you're accepted, you'll get on a call with me, Kat Woods, an experienced EA charity entrepreneur. Calls usually last 30-60 minutes and are by default one-off. I'll try to help you as much as possible over the call.
If we like the idea you’re starting and it seems like the advice is adding value, then a subsequent call will be planned. If after a few calls it seems like it's a good fit for both parties, a regular call will be established.
The regular call will be catered to you, so may be as much as once a week or as little as once every two months. It depends on your needs.
What if you want to start a meta or governance charity or a for-profit?
I give coaching to anybody considering starting something that might help with AI safety. This includes meta, governance, technical, for-profits, and anything else that could feasibly reduce extinction or suffering risks from transformative AI.
How is this different from Nonlinear career advice?
Ongoing. Career advice is a one-off call. Coaching is an ongoing relationship with regular calls.
Pre-startup or during startup. Career advice is specifically for people who are considering starting an AI safety org. Coaching can be for people who have already started something or for people who haven't started something but are planning to.
What's the price?
It costs nothing. This is funded by donations so it's free for you.
You can just pay me and my donors back by starting an amazing org that saves the world in expectation.
If you're interested in this, you might enjoy reading: