Leadership
Most founders treat board meetings like status updates. That’s a mistake. It’s your chance to lead with a clear narrative—build conviction before you ask for help. Investor support must be constantly earned.
Leadership
Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, stated that the key to building great companies is getting the right people on the bus. This is a critical concept for successful founders. You need the right people on your bus to find and scale product-market fit. The wrong people slow
Leadership
Fear. Uncertainty. Doubt. As a founder, it’s easy to believe these feelings are weaknesses. They lay the foundation of imposter syndrome. But when properly channeled, fear, uncertainty, and doubt are founder superpowers. They help you find the path to profitable, scalable growth. They allow you to stay in control
Leadership
The Scooter company Bird filed for bankruptcy yesterday. Another high-flying unicorn falls to earth. This is an important reminder that you can’t believe the hype in the startup press.
Growth
The dog on the left is a Bavarian Mountain Scent Hound. As you can see, it’s a very serious-looking dog. Hounds are notoriously difficult to train to be off-leash. When a hound dog catches a scent, it puts its head down and starts running. They lose focus on everything
Leadership
“If we have data, let’s look at the data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” This is a famous quote by Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Netscape. But it begs an important question. Why don’t you have data? Why are you and
Leadership
I was reminded today of one of the great powers in the world of entrepreneurship. The founder superpower that can be used for good or evil. Well, to be clear, not really evil. Unless you consider the wasting of time and money to be evil. Which I suppose I do.
Leadership
Last week I wrote a post about creating an environment to support happy and motivated employees. I used a framework I heard about from Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and Wharton professor who writes quite a bit on this topic. Adam broke this topic down to three questions we need
Leadership
I was listening to Adam Grant recently, and he outlined a way of thinking about what makes employees happy that really resonated with me. His take was that employees want to know: Is this a safe place to work? Is this a fair place to work? Can I make an
Leadership
Often when I get the chance to speak to a group of students, someone invariably asks me to describe the ideal employee. What are the traits of a prospective new hire that I look for, and would give them the best chance of success? In the book “The Five Dysfunctions
Leadership
One way I’ve measured my career development is in the dramatic decline in the awesomeness of my offices and desks over the years. At the age of 26, I started my new role as an audit and tax supervisor at the national accounting firm Kenneth Leventhal. Their Boston office