Michael Costuros

Business Relations Expert

Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Industry: Professional Training & Coaching

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Michael Costuros's Overview

Current

President at Thriving Partners Consulting

Past

Founder | liveBooks, Inc. at liveBooks, Inc.
Co-founder, Director at The Transformation Collective (non-profit)
President / Design Director at Kitchen NYC

Education

San Francisco Art Institute

Recommendations

8 people have recommended Michael

Connections

493 connections

Websites

I love what I do!

Between the value I am able to create for my clients and the quality of relationship between us, I feel deeply satisfied and perpetually inspired in my work.

Personally I am committed to helping create a world that works for the next 7+ generations.

I believe that the key to avoiding a global economic collapse is enhancing the quality of our relationships, business and personal, while pioneering new and exciting ways to create sustainable lifestyles and businesses that work in harmony with Earth's natural systems.

When not in my native home town of San Francisco, you can find me exploring Peru.

I look forward to meeting you.

- Michael

Specialties

Partner Relationships, Founder Relationships, Team Dynamics, and Internal and External Communication Strategy

President

Thriving Partners Consulting

Privately Held; Myself Only; Internet industry

January 2010 – Present (2 years 5 months) San Francisco Bay Area

I am passionate about helping entrepreneurs, executives, and business teams achieve their full potential.

Most executives believe that the right partners, team, product and execution are the most important ingredients for success.

But really, it's the quality of interactions and relationships between the partners and between the people on those teams that have the biggest impact on your success.

Great people, poor relating, = poor results
Great people, great relating, = exceptional results

My specialty is identifying the highest leverage relationships in your organization, and quickly elevating them to a level that yields measurably improved results and morale.

I also truly enjoy working with founders who are frustrated with their partners.
After working with me they recapture the inspiration that lead them to partner in the first place, which, I don't have to tell you, has a HUGELY positive impact on the business.

If you are curious to discover how improving the quality of relationships in your organization can seriously boost your results, give me a call.

- Michael Costuros

Founder | liveBooks, Inc.

liveBooks, Inc.

Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry

January 2004 – June 2010 (6 years 6 months)

liveBooks.com is the leading provider of portfolio websites for top creative professionals such as professional photographers, architects and interior designers.

Founded in 2004, liveBooks rapidly grew to over 50 employees and 3MM in annual revenues in less than 3 years.

Beyond a great product and a great plan, I attribute liveBooks' rapid success directly to the quality of relationships between members of the founding team, and the "relationship first" culture we created as the company expanded to include offices in Eastern Europe, Orange County and San Francisco.

Today, liveBooks continues to enjoy steady growth and a high trust brand that is synonymous with integrity and service.

As founder, during my 6 years at liveBooks held most key leadership roles from CEO to VP of Marketing to Director of Culture. Today my primary contribution is as a member of the board.

Co-founder, Director

The Transformation Collective (non-profit)

Health, Wellness and Fitness industry

2003 – 2010 (7 years)

Founded by my wife and I, The Transformation Collective offers life coaching and weekly classes that teach practices to support the transformation and healing of life's challenges, (physical, psychological, interpersonal or spiritual), into insight, compassion and opportunity. All of our classes are focused on teaching skills that one can directly apply in their daily life.

www.TRANSFORMATIONCOLLECTIVE.NET

President / Design Director

Kitchen NYC

1997 – 2001 (4 years) Greater New York City Area

New York City at the end of the millennium was a thriving global center for the fine art, fashion, and design communities.

As conceptual artist I regularly participated in collaborative group exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, and Europe during this period.

As a website designer, I worked on many sites and special projects for the design and fine art communities, as well as commercial projects for clients such as Random House Books, Consult Paul, Women Model Management, Wonderlust Industries, and VH1.com.

As a creative consultant I worked on projects for Me.net, Duggal Digital, The New York Municipal Art Society, and Excite!.

I am infinitely grateful that I had the opportunity to fully submerge myself in this environment as a freelance creative at this historical period of unbridled optimism and cash flow.

It was out of this experience that my vision for the software that became liveBooks was born.

San Francisco Art Institute

BFA, Visual Communication

1993 – 1997

Thanks to the process of rigorous peer critique, I learned how to evolve my ideas to maturity, select the most appropriate medium to express them, and present them to the public in a visually compelling way.

Activities and Societies: Student union president, undergrad representative to the board of trusties.

Websites:

Interests:

Bioneers, NVC, conflict mediation, Zen Buddhism, traditional shamanic medicine, conceptual art and photography. I am inspired to support the creation of sustainable business, communities and people.

Groups and Associations: