Expert Insights

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 […]

IDEAS / POST   How to get strangers to trust you when your network is tapped o You’ve sold to everyone in your address book. You’ve scraped your way to $100k, then $200k ARR by leveraging every personal connection, favor, and introduction you could find. This is exactly how most technical founders reach this milestone

IDEAS / POST   Part 1 of a 3-part series on scaling from $0 to $1M, inspired by Gregory Kennedy’s Startup Growth presentation at Tech Week Life is learning. If you’re going to keep moving forward, you need to throw open your arms, and let knowledge hit you in the face like a rain squall.

IDEAS / POST   What Paul Graham’s “The Lesson to Unlearn” teaches us about how to create value instead of just performing competence Jacob Beckerman, CEO of Macro, recently pointed me to Paul Graham’s essay “The Lesson to Unlearn.” It’s a brilliant diagnosis of how school trains us to win by hacking bad tests, and

IDEAS / POST   Three weeks ago, I attended Web Summit in Vancouver. If you haven’t heard of the show, it’s impressive. 20,000 attendees. Startups, investors, and journalists from around the world. Six stages. Back-to-back keynotes, panels, and pitches. An exhibition floor packed with new ventures. But I wasn’t just there to collect insight. I

IDEAS / POST There should be a special place in hell for spray and pray outreach. At least that’s what I think every time I get a LinkedIn introduction where the person tells me they have a perfect solution for me. It’s the modern day equivalent of Chamber of Commerce networking lunches where, on cue,

IDEAS / POST   Most founders launch for all the right reasons. They experience a problem firsthand, build something to solve that problem, and iron out the kinks until it works. With any luck, they score a few early wins, and they start to feel the wind in their sails. In my experience, however, that

IDEAS / POST   I just returned from a whirlwind trip, speaking at Creative Destruction Lab in Vancouver, and the Banff Venture Forum in Banff. My topic was building brands that drive revenue today, and sustainable, scalable growth into the future. The talks landed extremelywell, particularly with the investors in the audience. Now here’s the jolt