Scaling Tip: Spend Less Time Talking. And Spend More Time Talking
One of my top 10 scaling tips for CEOs as they take a business from startup to scaleup keys in on communication patterns. As your company grows from 0-25 employees to a place where you no longer work...
View ArticleMeasure Twice, Cut Once
The old carpenter’s axiom of being extra careful to plan before executing is something not enough executives take to heart in business. Just like cutting a piece of wood a little too long, sometimes...
View ArticleEverything vs. Anything
I heard two great lines recently applied to CEOs that are thought provoking when you look at them together: You have to care about everything more than anything and You can do anything you want but...
View ArticleShould CEOs wade into Politics, Part III (From Tim Porthouse)
I’ve gotten to know a number of Bolster members over the last few years, and one who I have come to appreciate quite a bit is Tim Porthouse. I’m on Tim’s email list, and with his permission, I’m...
View ArticleYou’ve Seen One, You’ve Seen One
Like all CEOs and VCs, I’m a big believer in the power of pattern matching. I just wrote a whole blog post about the limits of pattern matching after hearing the quote above at a board meeting...
View ArticleWhen it’s Time to Hire Your First Chief Business Development Officer
(Post 1 of 4 in the series of Scaling CPDO’s). For most startups the idea of hiring a CBDO is a pipedream, it’s a role that only global corporations have, right? After all, strategic partnerships and...
View ArticleFamily vs. Team?
I used to describe our culture and our employees and our leaders at Return Path as a family. That was a mistake. It was just plain wrong. It served us well in some respects, but it bit us in the ass...
View ArticleFighting Confirmation Bias
I was mentoring a first time founder the other day who asked me, “How do you know what advice to follow and what advice not to follow?” (For the record, it’s a little ”meta” to answer that question!)....
View ArticleSigns your CBDO isn’t scaling
(This is the third post in the series… The first one When to Hire your first CBDO is here, and What does Great Look Like in a CBDO is here). The metrics for understanding whether or not your CBDO is...
View ArticleBook Short: Less is More
Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, by Leidy Klotz is a great read, and in concert with the philosophy of the book, this will be a short blog post. The book’s basic premise is that less is more,...
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