About Polytrope

Hi, I’m Nick Barr. I am a coach, strategic advisor, and a fractional product leader to mission-driven startups.

I am a perennial friend to founders, and I've advised and mentored startups within the Union Square Ventures, Betaworks, and Techstars ecosystems. My coaching practice makes use of the methodologies that have served me well in my own development – those include the Enneagram, Internal Family Systems, and a nondual meditation practice.

The name “Polytrope” comes from the Greek polytropos, the hard-to-translate description of Odysseus that I write about extensively here.

Polytropos means something like: requiring great skill and ingenuity; taking many twists and turns; fundamentally ambiguous. It is a commitment to a particular way of living that I attempt to embody in my practices.