Expert Insights

IDEAS / POST I was looking at a fast-growing lighting company recently. Beautiful products, polished site, confident testimonials. Honestly? I felt a little insecure. Everything they were doing looked right. High growth. Great design. Expanding markets. A team clearly proud of their work. And yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing. This […]

IDEAS / POST I’m working with a charity right now. Good, smart people doing important work. But their pitch, like virtually every charity pitch, focused on the steps they took to help people in despair. Pure methodology. Here’s what we do, here’s how we help. The disconnect: donors are overwhelmingly businesspeople. They feel comfortable with business

IDEAS / POST Last week, I ran a workshop for financial advisors on standing out from the crowd. If you’re familiar with the machinations of this industry, standing out is a tall order. Big brands (with big brand guidelines) and strict regulations are the order of the day. Add a fairly commoditized offering, and you

IDEAS / POST Why So Many Smart Founders Stall Out A few days ago, I spoke with a founder building a genuinely promising product – a smart platform for people managing chronic health conditions. It’s timely, very much needed, and it works. But he’s selling to the wrong audience. Institutional buyers, health systems, hospitals. The

IDEAS / POST There’s never been more advice available to founders. Playbooks, podcasts, courses, LinkedIn posts. It’s an endless firehose of tactics. So why do so many founders still feel stuck? Not from a lack of input. Or from a lack of effort. But because they lack that single, simple next step that starts them

IDEAS / POST   We just held the inaugural Growth Thinking Roundtable, with special guest Bob Gilbreath – ex-P&G brand leader, serial entrepreneur with multiple exits, and investor. Bob was joined by Rich Cooper – writer, entrepreneur and creative thinker, and Owen Works – an entrepreneur currently building out his second venture. It was a

IDEAS / POST Startup Speed describes how successful startups get things done… quickly, dispassionately, unburdened by ego. It feels familiar to Move Fast, Break Things but, in my opinion, is more productive, and less tech-bro-boastful. Startup Speed is exhilarating when you’re in the middle of it, but terrifying for anyone used to working in a

IDEAS / POST   I had a conversation with an entrepreneur that touched on an existential challenge you may be experiencing, too. His audience, mortgage brokers, help get home buyers the right mortgage. The good ones do a ton of work in the process. Sadly, when it comes time for renewal, the bank that holds

IDEAS / POST   Here’s how to know which one you’re building before your next growth decision kills it. You hit $1M in revenue because customers didn’t just buy your product. They bought into what you stand for. But here’s the million-dollar question you need to answer while you’re still building competitive advantage: “Are my

IDEAS / POST   The final post in our growth series on building revenue architecture,  inspired by Gregory Kennedy’s Startup Growth talk at Seattle Tech Week. As you grow from $0 to $100k, you’re trying to see what catches your ICP’s eye. From $100k to $500k, you want to scale what worked. But as you