What Growth Founders Need to Add to EOS
EOS is a proven operating system—a framework built for stability, not for answering the novel questions that arise when founders are building for growth. If you have big ambitions and unanswered questions, you need to bolt on something more. It starts with the right mindset and the right tools.
Journey of a Founder: Series A Is a Reckoning—Operator Imperatives for Getting to Series B
The Journey of a Founder series continues. You’ve raised a Series A. You’ve got early traction and capital to grow. But now the real work begins. What does it feel like to lead a company through this phase, and what actually helps you reach Series B? In this founder/operator roundtable, we explore what happens after the early wins, from hiring and trust-building to evolving your founder role and avoiding the ops pitfalls that can sink momentum. This is the messy middle, what I sometimes call “the reckoning.”
Event 2—Part 1: Hosted by John Gauch and Jimmy Malik.
Journey of a Founder: A Startup Story
Every startup faces pivotal moments—turning an idea into a product, finding early customers, securing funding, and scaling successfully. But what challenges arise at each stage, and how do you navigate them? Check out a recording or transcript of our roundtable with two experienced founders. This is an online event where we break down the founder’s journey from Inception to Series A—exploring key milestones, common challenges, and actionable strategies to move forward.
Event 1: Hosted by: John Gauch and Jimmy Malik.
Why Startup Founders Need Thinker-Doers for Their Teams
Startup founders need thinker-doers—individuals who can balance analysis, idea generation and implementation. These are the talented people who thrive in fast-paced, resource-limited environments. Hiring and nurturing thinker-doers will accelerate your progress and improve the odds of your startup succeeding.
Navigating Startup Fundraising: Insights from an Experienced COO
If you're new to startup investing, or developing a fundraising plan and want to make sure you're not missing anything important, this blog post is for you. Read about essential startup fundraising strategies: crafting pitches, building investor relationships, exploring funding options, and more.
More Overlooked Traits of Successful Startup CEOs
Last month, I highlighted six under-recognized traits of successful startup CEOs (entrepreneurs, founders) and detailed three in my blog. This week, I cover the next three, including what I mean when I say, “Focus on discovering what is right versus being right--quickly.”
Overlooked Traits of Successful Startup CEOs
To build a successful startup is hard. Worth it, but hard. It takes a rare combination of skills and abilities. However, we must expand and add some nuance to the traits we commonly associate with startup CEOs and founders.
When You Need a Fractional COO and Don’t
It’s usually a bad sign if a product claims that it can do everything for everyone. Swiss Army Knives aren’t really great knives at all, but they do have a Job to be Done—they make great gifts even if they’re barely ever used afterward. I try not to fall into this trap. This blog posts lays out some of the signs that you don’t need the help of a fractional COO at all.