board management How to build a great startup board (hint: your board is not your boss) How to turn your board into your greatest ally, get more support, feel less alone, and do your damn job.
habits A powerful morning practice for imperfect leaders In 2014, I was facing the loss of a child, a messy divorce, and single-parenthood while leading a fast-growing company. This is the morning routine that helped get me through. It has served me to this day.
ceos Why CEOs should work 40-hour weeks If the data is correct, you are not doing yourself any favors by grinding it out after 5 o'clock.
productivity Distraction is Killing Your Business (and stealing your joy) Startup folk are renowned for geeking out on productivity hacks and innovating on the future of work. But most miss the easiest gain of all.
ceos I am a professional CEO coach. And sometimes I lose my shit too. A lot of CEO’s I work with carry questions of self-worth. This morning, I found the same questions exploding in my own head. Here is my effort in my own journal to coach myself back to center.
purpose This Question Unlocked My Life's Purpose I thought it was going to be just another casual meetup with a friend for Saturday brunch. But that ended up being the morning I discovered my life’s mission. And it has changed everything. Here’s the question that changed it all.
burnout Are You Valuable if You Don't Get Shit Done? This time of isolation and slowness has me facing a lifelong message I carry: that my value is tied to my productivity. If I work hard and have output to show for it, I matter and deserve to exist. That message no longer serves me. It might not be serving you either.
ceos Handling Layoffs with Grace In 2016, we laid off 80% of our staff. The remaining team stuck together, scaled the business, and sold it three years later. Here's how we got through the layoffs and how you can too.
ceos The Weightiness Every Leader Knows You aren't alone. One of the defining experiences of being a startup founder was the heaviness I carried at every waking hour. And I see and hear it in every other founder I speak with.
fundraising Struggling to Raise Venture Capital? The step you may be missing. Most founders I meet have a missing step in their plan for raising capital. The result is frustration and isolation.
cofounder issues 10 Questions Every Cofounder Team Should Discuss Most early-stage companies fail because of cofounder conflict. Here are 10 questions to help create alignment early.
ceos $17M raised, and I was fried. I realized in October of 2016 that I was burned out and wanted a path out of the CEO role. Here’s my own story and the secret internal dialogue I’m hearing as a coach to other founders.
entrepreneurship How to Price Your B2B Product One of my clients emailed today for guidance on what to charge her first customer. Here’s the advice I gave.
leadership The Away Debacle: Is Judgment the Answer? While the leaders are culpable, might our mob mentality reaction be inhibiting us from changing the systemic issues that encourage this kind of behavior?
startups So You Wanna Advise Startups? Here’s How to Do More Good Than Harm. The advisory relationship is one of the most helpful and misunderstood relationships in the startup world. Here’s how to get involved if you’re a domain expert and a mensch and why to stay the fuck away from founders if you’re not.
startups How to find great advisors for your startup (and avoid the shit ones) The advisory relationship is one of the most helpful and misunderstood relationships in the startup world. Here’s my personal take on how to get the best out of an advisory relationship from either side.
coaching Why I’ve Decided to Start Coaching Startup Leaders I spent 7 years running my last venture-backed startup. I don’t know if I would have survived without the help of the leadership coaches who came alongside me and
leadership The Hardest and Most Important Change You Can Make as a CEO Tears rolled down my face. I walked down Sandhill Road next to the famous venture capitalist who only days earlier had handed me a generous term sheet. Now, I was telling her my life was falling apart and explaining why she’d likely want to pull the term sheet and work with someone else.
