The strategy work most founders are skipping.
Most founders I meet have done a strategy offsite in the last 18 months. Almost none of them are doing the strategy work that actually compounds. Here's what's missing.
Writing and notes
Notes from the practice.
Essays and notes from my work with founders. Long enough to say something useful, short enough to read on a phone.
Featured
Why your category framing is probably wrong (and how to know).
The cheapest, fastest way to ruin a good product is to put it in the wrong category. A short field test for whether your framing is working.
The org chart you draw at 30 people is probably wrong by 50.
Functional silos are easy to draw and quietly expensive to keep. A simple test for when your structure has stopped serving the work.
What investors actually mean when they say the story isn't there yet.
The polite version is "the story." The real version is usually one of three specific gaps. Here's how to tell which one you're hearing.
Three questions to ask before adding a second sales channel.
The most expensive way to find a second channel is to start running it. The second most expensive is to start hiring for it.
On reading widely as a strategic advantage.
The best operators I work with read like they're trying to escape something. Why pattern-matching across fields beats reading more in your own.
Why I write memos instead of decks.
Slides flatten arguments. Memos make you defend them. A short note on why the format is doing more work than people think.