Against conviction
The cult of founder conviction has gone too far. Belief without legible evidence is not a leadership trait — it is a…
Why most pivots fail
The pivot is the most romanticised move in startup lore — and the least understood. Most founders treat it as a creative reset; in practice it is usually an organisational acknowledgement that the original thesis was wrong, late.
Recent essays
All essays →Sequencing bets in year three
The first two years are about staying alive. Year three is about deciding which bets are worth being slower for.
On taste
Taste is what people call judgement once they have stopped being able to explain it.
The quiet org
You can tell a company is working when the loudest signal in the building is the customer, not the leadership team.
Fundraising is not the product
Treating the round as the milestone is the most expensive mistake a Series B founder can make.
Your first ten hires are a strategy document
You can read a company’s real strategy off its first ten offer letters more reliably than off its board deck. One is…