What do you do? What does your business do?

What is special about your product or service?

What is the feature you are so proud of that you can’t wait to explain it?

Here’s the thing. You probably do good work. Your ideal customers probably really need your product. Your features may be amazing.

But …

No one cares!

No matter what you say. No matter how fast you talk. No matter how excited you are. No one cares a tenth as much as you do.

Wisdom Partners coach (tag his linked in: Alex Caveny) says new products are like babies. Their parents love them more than any baby in the world. Everyone else has seen lots of babies, and they just aren’t that impressed. No one cares about your product or what your business does.

This is a difficult but crucial lesson to learn. For a long time at Wisdom Partners, we said things like:

• We do four things: coaching, community, consulting, and offsites. (We couldn’t figure out how to get that last one as a C.)

• We help founders scale their business.

• We help founders sort out their inner game so their outer game is more successful.

Those are all true descriptions of what we do and important for our ideal customers (founders leading growing businesses).

But …

Nobody cared. At least not enough.

Not because the work wasn’t real. Not because we weren’t good at it. But because we were leading with what we do instead of why it matters to them. And those are two completely different conversations.

Here’s the thing about human attention: it goes where the pain is. Always. If you want someone to lean in when you’re talking about your product or your company, you have to start where their nerve endings are, not where your features are.

Money follows pain. Which means attention does too.

Step one: Know (and love) your ICP.

ICP stands for Ideal Customer Profile. But I want to push past the marketing definition for a second, because knowing your ICP is an empathy exercise.

You need to know your customer well enough to feel their frustration. To understand what keeps them up at night. To recognize the moment they walk into a room carrying the exact problem you solve.

More than that, as cheesy as it may sound, you need to develop a genuine love for your ideal customers. You need to have such compassion for them that you feel their pain as deeply your pain. You need to care about their success deep in your bones.

If you can’t do that, you’re going to keep pitching at people instead of connecting with them.

At Wisdom Partners, our ICP is a founder who has built something that works. They have product, they have revenue, maybe they have funding, but they’re stuck firefighting instead of company-building. They’re the bottleneck in their own business. They’re at the elbow of the hockey stick, where the demands of the next phase are outpacing what got them here.

That’s specific. That’s a person with a real, nameable pain. And when we describe that out loud, founders laugh and nod and moan and say, “Yep, that’s me.”

That’s what knowing your ICP actually feels like.

Step two: Get them to explain their pain.

This is the move most founders skip. They get in front of a potential customer and immediately start talking about their product. They lead with the solution before they’ve confirmed the problem. More importantly, they push the solution before the customer has really owned the pain of the problem.

Don’t do that.

Instead, ask questions that draw the pain out. Then, as follow-up questions that dig even deeper. Let them describe it in their own words. What’s not working? What does a good week look like versus a bad one? Where are they losing time, money, or sleep?

Two things happen when you do this. First, they feel heard, which is rare and creates real trust. Second, you learn exactly which version of your solution to offer, in the exact language that will resonate with them. You stop guessing what matters and start responding to what they’ve told you.

People don’t buy solutions. They buy relief from specific pain, described in their own words.

Step three: Then — and only then — offer your medicine.

Once the pain is on the table, and they’ve articulated it themselves, that’s your moment. Not before. Not at the top of the conversation. Not after the first hint or mention of pain. After they explained the real pain in deeply honest words. After.

It feels like you’re waiting too long. It can actually be scary to wait and keep digging into their pain. It feels like you might miss your window. But you’re actually transforming the narrow window that barely shows the light into a huge door that they will invite you to walk through.

Because now your solution isn’t a pitch. It’s a response to their story. You’re not telling them what you do. You’re showing them that you understand exactly what they’re going through, and here is what relieves it.

That’s a completely different dynamic. The resistance drops. They’re asking themselves if this is the thing that fixes the deep pain they just described. And if you’ve listened carefully enough, the answer is obvious.

The short version.

Money follows pain. So stop leading with what you do, and start leading with what hurts. Know your customer well enough to feel it. Get them to say it out loud. Then offer the solution.

That’s how you make them care.

Note: This blog post was originally a workshop presentation at Informal Spaces in Oakland, CA, hosted by the amazing Kyle Valiton - who is a Wisdom Partners client and collaborator.

Subscribe now

A few weeks ago, a message went out on a founder WhatsApp group that we recently lost one of our own: a founder, a builder, one of the brave ones who chose to create something instead of standing on the sidelines. I’m so sorry for that loss. And it moved me to share something I don’t talk about often. It took me many years to acknowledge that I was living with low-grade chronic depression.

Part of why it took me so long to recognize what was happening is that my experience didn’t match what I thought depression looked like.

I wasn’t blue or hopeless. I wasn’t immobile or in danger. From the outside, I was a highly productive leader who had things together. But on the inside, I felt irritable, trapped, joyless, dry. Like most things were harder than they should be. Like the good stuff was always just around the corner, but almost never right here.

I was a successful, funny, and charismatic leader. But I was struggling on the inside, and I didn’t even realize how much.

That gap between how things looked and how they felt is exactly what makes this kind of depression so easy to miss and so hard to name.

I tried a lot of things to rebalance. Some of them helped, for a while.

Therapy (several kinds) was genuinely useful. But it wasn’t enough on its own. There was a gravitational pull that kept dragging me back down, and talk alone couldn’t lift it.

Lifestyle change was also helpful, but not enough. I learned to count my work hours and place limits on my insatiable drive to succeed. I learned to go to sleep 7 hours most nights. I learned to take a full day off every week. But most of those habits eroded over time, only to be reset again and again.

The breakthrough for me was medication. An antidepressant helped me rebalance my brain chemistry in a way that nothing else had. It didn’t change who I was. It gave me more consistent access to the life really want to live.

I still take it. And I don’t say that quietly or with apology. Maybe it hasn’t literally saved my life. But it has helped me enjoy more of it, more consistently, for years now.

Why this matters for founders specifically.

The founder identity makes this harder to see and harder to admit. We are supposed to be resilient. We chose this. We sign up for the hard thing on purpose. Struggling feels like a character flaw rather than a health condition.

But the pressure of building something, the uncertainty, the loneliness, the relentlessness of it, creates real conditions for mental health challenges. And the version that shows up in high-functioning people often doesn’t look like a crisis. It looks like irritability, flatness, persistent distraction, and a creeping sense that something is off though you can’t quite name it.

If that sounds familiar, I want you to know: you are not alone, and you are not weak. You might just need support that matches what’s actually happening in your body and your brain.

If you’re in that place.

Please reach out to someone. A therapist, a doctor, a trusted person in your life. If you want to talk to someone who has been through it and understands the founder-specific version of the struggle, my DMs are open.

We make it through this by being honest with each other. That starts with someone going first.

In memory of David

If you’d like to support the family he left behind, please consider contributing to the GoFundMe set up in his honor.

gofundme.com/f/easing-marinas-burden-after-davids-passing

Subscribe now

They’re not. Every founder struggles. The difference is what you do with it.

This week I had two conversations with Dr. Saeid Makmali, a tech executive and serial entrepreneur who runs SinanSoft, and Edgar Munoz, a multi-time founder building Moderne Development, a construction company integrating robotics and AI with traditional building methods. Different industries, different journeys. A lot of overlapping wisdom.

Here are the lessons that stayed with me.

1. Hire for culture fit before you hire for skill.

Saeid shared something that almost every founder who has built a team has experienced at some point. He had brought on people who were genuinely brilliant, but who didn’t fit the culture. They caused friction, drained energy from the rest of the team, and ultimately cost the company real opportunities.

The fix he made was structural. Now the culture fit interview happens before the technical one. Not as a formality but as a filter.

“Skills can be learned and improved. When there are culture fit issues, it’s really hard to fix them on the road.”

The framework I find helpful is three layers: competency, character, and chemistry. Competency is actually the easiest bar to clear. Character (are they a good person, do they have emotional intelligence) is harder. Chemistry (do I actually want to spend time with this person, do we give each other energy) is often the deciding factor for long-term success. The people who stay five-plus years on a team are usually strong in all three, not just one.

2. Failures are lessons. Treat them that way.

Wisdom comes from accepting hard moments as lessons, not failures. As Edgar puts it:

“You are really going through something that 99.9% of the population wouldn’t even attempt to do — just out of fear alone.”

That reframe matters. Not as a motivational poster, but as a practical operating principle. When you accept that failure is built into the journey, you stop spending energy protecting your ego from it and start extracting the lesson faster. That’s failing forward.

3. Early revenue is not product-market fit.

This is something a lot of founders need to hear. Getting your first customers feels like a signal that you’ve found product market fit. Often it isn’t.

The real indicator isn’t initial interest; it’s indispensability. Are your customers saying they can’t imagine continuing without this product? Are they renewing, referring, and expanding? If they still see your product as optional, you haven’t arrived yet.

Some advice for founders approaching that stage: keep reinvesting in the product. Don’t stop building once the first dollars come in. True product market fit is validated over months of feedback, not weeks of excitement.

4. The founder has to keep evolving, especially after the early stage.

Both Saeid and Edgar touched on this from different angles. Saeid described the shift that happens when a company moves past its early survival phase: you can no longer operate primarily as a builder. You have to become someone who leads, influences, and develops others.

Edgar’s version of the same truth was more personal. For most of his career, imposter syndrome quietly ran the show — the sense that he didn’t belong in the rooms he was entering, that someone would figure out he wasn’t ready. Working through that, he said, was the real self-investment. Not a course or a credential, but a genuine shift in how he saw himself and what he’d already built.

His mantra for navigating it: three Ps. Positivity, perseverance, and patience. Nothing moves as fast as you want until it moves faster than you expected. The job is to stay in it.

The thread running through all of it.

What most of our guests share, more than any single tactic, is honest self-awareness. The willingness to look at what went wrong and own it. To keep investing in themselves even when the day job is already overwhelming. To stay in the present instead of either defending the past or chasing the future.

That’s what we built Founder Real Talk to surface. Not perfect stories. Real ones.

Check out their full episodes on YouTube or Spotify!

Subscribe now

They live on the wall. They show up in the all-hands deck. And for most of the people in the room, they feel like someone else’s words about someone else’s vision.

That’s not cynicism. That’s just what happens when we skip a step.

The step we skip is this: helping people connect what they personally want with what the company is trying to do. When that connection is real, the mission stops being a corporate artifact and starts being something people actually own. We call it wanting the same things. And it is the foundation of true alignment.

You don’t have to want it for the same reasons.

Let’s say your company’s mission is to make shipping easy. That’s a real business problem worth solving. But most people on your team are not going to lie awake at night, fired up about package delivery.

And that’s fine. They don’t have to.

Even companies with genuinely heartfelt missions (curing a disease, reducing recidivism, bringing clean energy to underserved communities) can’t assume their people are connected to the mission just because the mission is good. The reasons people care will always be different. The work is helping them find their reason.

Start with personal motivators.

One of the first things we do with senior leadership teams at Wisdom Partners is ask everyone to get honest about why they’re actually doing this.

Not the polished answer. The real one.

For some people, it’s money, and that’s legitimate. Maybe they’re saving for a house, building a college fund for their kids, or making up ground on retirement. For others, it’s recognition. They want to be the person on the stage that everyone asks, “How did you do that?” Some want freedom. Some want to feel like their work matters. Some want all of the above.

None of these motivators are wrong. But they have to be identified honestly before they can be useful. Pretending they don’t exist doesn’t make the work more noble; it just makes alignment harder to build.

Build the through line.

Once you know what someone genuinely wants, the next step is drawing the line between that and the company’s mission.

If someone wants financial security, show them how the company’s growth creates that. If someone wants to be known as an industry transformer, help them see the stage that this mission builds. If someone wants meaningful work, connect the daily tasks to the impact downstream.

That through line from personal motivator to daily work to company mission is what makes ownership real. When someone can draw that line for themselves, they don’t need to be nagged into fulfilling the mission. They want it. Not because they’re supposed to. Because it genuinely serves what they’re after.

The practical takeaway for founders.

If you lead a team, your job is not just to communicate the mission clearly. It’s to help every person on your team find their own reasons to care about it.

That means creating space for honest conversations about what people actually want out of their work and their lives. It means connecting those wants to the company’s direction in ways that are specific and real, not generic and motivational-poster.

When you do that well, something shifts. People stop working for the company and start working with it. The mission becomes ours, not just yours.

Subscribe now

And yet, something is off. Decisions pile up at the top. People work hard but drift from the mission. Or worse: they’re aligned and motivated, but no one is actually empowered to move.

This is what partial ownership looks like. And it’s more common than full ownership culture by a wide margin.

At Wisdom Partners, we talk about three core elements that make ownership culture work: alignment, accountability, and autonomy. Underneath all three is a foundation of authenticity. Without that, none of it holds.

But here’s what most people miss. You don’t get the benefits of ownership culture by having one or two of those elements. The combination matters. And each incomplete version of the three produces a very specific, very recognizable dysfunction.

First, the definitions.

Alignment is when everyone understands the mission and how their work connects to it. They’re moving in the same direction.

Accountability is when everyone knows what they’re responsible for, how success will be measured, and there’s a predictable rhythm of checking in on that progress.

Autonomy is when people have the freedom to take decisive action within their area of responsibility. They know the limits of their authority, and they act within them without having to check back on every little thing.

When all three are present, you get acceleration. The company moves faster than any one person could drive it. People bring better ideas to the table than the CEO could have come up with alone. Key leaders own their domains and push them forward. The bottleneck at the top disappears.

But most companies don’t have all three. They have two. And two out of three always produces a problem.

Alignment + Accountability, but no Autonomy: Micromanaging.

Everyone understands the mission. Everyone knows what they’re supposed to do and how it’s measured. But the leader is still making all the decisions. People can’t act without approval. The work moves at the speed of one person’s bandwidth.

This is one of the most common patterns we see in early-stage companies. The founder built a strong culture of clarity: people know the direction, they’re held to standards, but they never get permission to own it. The leader is the bottleneck, and everyone around them is waiting.

Accountability + Autonomy, but no Alignment: Grinding.

People know their numbers. They’re empowered to act. They’re working incredibly hard.

But they’re not working on the right things.

Without alignment, autonomy becomes fragmented effort. Accountability without a shared mission just means everyone is optimizing their own corner. You get a company full of motivated, capable people rowing in slightly different directions. It looks productive. It rarely compounds.

Alignment + Autonomy, but no Accountability: Drifting.

This one is sneaky. You can start out in a great place. But without accountability, alignment decays over time. Slowly. Quietly.

Some people even give the bad leadership advice: “Hire great people, and get out of the way.” But that just doesn’t work. You give people autonomy without a rhythm of checking in. And six months later, you look up and realize people have drifted away from the mission. Not because they’re bad. Because nothing was holding the direction steady.

All three together: Acceleration.

When alignment, accountability, and autonomy are all working, something shifts. The company starts to achieve things that surprise even the people inside it. Key leaders bring better solutions than the CEO could have designed alone. People are no longer waiting to be told, they’re driving.

No single person becomes a bottleneck. The organization scales beyond what any one person’s capacity could allow.

That’s the goal. Not just hard work. Not just good intentions. A system where ownership is real at every level.

The question worth sitting with: which two do you have right now? And what’s the one that’s missing?

Subscribe now

I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan. They traded away most of their stars this year. They’re rebuilding with a young roster. And somehow, they’re 2 & 1 so far. Who knows if it lasts, but it got me thinking about what this game actually teaches us about building companies.

The comparisons are closer than you’d think.

The season is a grind. Survive it.

The MLB season is 162 games long. Six months. Players compete almost every single day. And one of the first lessons minor leaguers learn when they get called up is this: the season will wear you down if you don’t manage it.

Veteran players learn to take rest days. They manage their bodies across the long arc of the season, not just game to game. Some who burn hot in April flame out in September.

Founders are no different. Burnout is real. Work-related injury, whether that’s the flu that knocks you out for a week, back pain, an anxiety spiral, or just months of running on empty, is a real cost to your company. One of the most underrated founder skills is learning how to survive the long season. You can’t sprint for six months. You have to build rhythms that are sustainable.

One of the most underrated founder skills is learning how to survive the long season.

Even the best teams lose consistently.

Here’s a number people don’t think about: the greatest teams in baseball history (record-breaking, legendary teams) finished with just over 110 wins. That means they lost around 50 games. Roughly ten games a month. Two or three times a week, even the best squads in the sport walk off the field on the wrong side of the score.

A genuinely great team wins about 60% of its games. An average team wins 50%. The difference between elite and mediocre is ten percentage points.

Startup life is a lot like that. If you’re winning 55% of your bets (deals, hires, product decisions, partnerships), you are doing really well. If you win 60% of the time, that’s exceptional. 70% is unheard of, and it’s still a 30% failure rate.

The rollercoaster feeling that most founders describe? That’s not a sign that something is wrong. That’s just what the game looks like when you’re paying attention. The skill is not letting the losses swallow you whole. Don’t let a losing streak make you forget that you’re still in the race.

The at-bat is where it gets interesting.

In baseball, a batting average of .300 is considered elite. That means the best hitters in the world fail to get a hit seven out of ten times they step up to the plate. And yet, those same players go to the All-Star Game.

But here’s the part I find even more interesting: within a single at-bat, there’s a lot of room to work. You can swing and miss. You can foul it off. You can take a pitch you misjudged. And you’re still in it. A foul ball counts as a strike, but it doesn’t get you out; you keep swinging.

Last Thursday on opening day in the second major league at bat of his career, Cardinals rookie phenom JJ Weatherholt got two straight strikes last week: swing and miss, swing and miss. The next pitch, he hit it 440 feet to dead center. His first major league hit was a homerun!

That’s how a lot of founder moments feel. You miff a pitch. You pivot. You swing again. A lot of what it means to succeed as a founder is just staying in the at-bat long enough to get another good look.

A lot of what it means to succeed as a founder is just staying in the at-bat long enough to get another good look.

Close enough to pivot. Close enough to iterate. Close enough to still be standing when the right pitch comes.

Baseball season is long. Learn from it. And whatever your team is, enjoy it (unless you’re a Dodgers fan).

There’s wisdom in the grind. Don’t let it grind you down.

Subscribe now

A Dual Role: Qubits Ventures and Kapwa Capital

Can you tell us a little about the history of your two investment groups?

I have a couple of roles. I’m a Venture Partner at Qubits Ventures, which focuses on quantum tech and the future of computing, and I also founded Kapwa Angel Syndicate, which launched earlier this year. Qubits is based in Los Angeles, but I’m in Chicago, which is a hub for deep tech and quantum innovation. I stay connected with accelerators like Duality, helping with deal flow and supporting fundraising efforts.

On the other hand, Kapwa focuses on pre-seed to seed-stage companies with at least one founder from historically underrepresented communities, such as women, BIPOC, LGBTQ, and immigrants. Our mission is to help these founders access early-stage funding while building a community of angel investors, ranging from angel curious to angel serious. Our goal is to provide education and connections to empower new investors while helping founders move forward, even if that step isn’t always investment—sometimes it’s advice, feedback, or introductions.

Can you explain the significance of the name Kapwa?

Kapwa is a Tagalog word that means “kindred” or “togetherness.” It’s a central part of Filipino culture, representing the idea that we are all connected as humans and should support one another. That’s really the ethos of our syndicate. We aim to help founders, whether it’s through funding, feedback, or simply moving them one step closer to their goals.

What’s your investment thesis for both Qubits Ventures and Kapwa?

At Qubits Ventures, Fund 1 is focused on the entire quantum tech ecosystem—hardware, software, networks, and cybersecurity—all with a quantum angle. Many people think quantum tech is still far in the future, but it’s advancing rapidly. Fund 2 broadens the focus to include the future of computing, encompassing areas like AI computing, bio-computing, and quantum computing. It’s a fast-evolving space, and we’re seeing breakthroughs that were once thought impossible.

Kapwa, meanwhile, is sector-agnostic but focuses on U.S.-domiciled companies with underrepresented founders. These founders are incredibly capital efficient, often reaching significant revenue before they even start seeking outside funding. It’s inspiring to see how intentional and strategic they are about deploying their capital.

The First Impressions

What excites you about investing in a new company?

I get excited about companies that are tackling systemic challenges or opening up new possibilities. For example, one of the companies we invested in is Zenblend, a robotic smoothie bar that aims to be the Starbucks of healthy food options. The founder’s mission to make healthy choices more accessible resonated with us. We look for founders who are mission-driven and solving problems they’re deeply passionate about.

What do you look for in a startup founder?

We look for founders who have a clear mission that goes beyond just making money. Their connection to the problem needs to be personal. It’s also important that they show grit, persistence, and a willingness to grow as leaders. The journey is never easy, and founders need to be able to push through challenges without losing sight of their mission.

Succeeding as a Founder

What common challenges do founders face in your portfolio?

Many founders struggle with the transition from doing everything themselves to delegating and trusting a team. They’ve been solving problems on their own for so long that it’s hard to step back. Learning to balance hands-on work with strategic leadership is a big challenge.

What advice would you give founders to help them grow with their company?

Founders need to understand that they’re growing just as much as their company is. They should surround themselves with a support system that gives them honest feedback and perspective. It’s also important to build a team that complements their strengths. Self-awareness is key. You need to know where you excel and where you need help.

How do you help founders beyond funding?

Mentorship is a big part of what we do. We check in with founders regularly, ask about their biggest challenges, and provide specific advice or connections to help them solve problems. Whether it’s connecting them with potential customers, experts in their field, or helping with organizational design, we’re there to support them beyond just writing a check.

Personal Insights

What’s one fun fact about you that most people don’t know?

I have a family the size of a small village! I also travel to the Philippines at least once a year, which is very important to me.

What’s the best way for companies to reach out to you?

The best way to reach me is on LinkedIn: Maria Odiamar Racho. I’m always open to connecting with founders and investors who want to explore opportunities with Kapwa or Qubits.

Subscribe now

Can Your Customers Actually Trust You with Their Data?

Here’s a question most AI founders aren’t asking early enough.

You’ve built the product. The demo works. The pitch is sharp. But somewhere in the enterprise sales process usually at the worst possible moment a procurement team asks for your SOC 2 report. And everything stalls.

This is the most common and most avoidable deal-killer in AI sales right now.

The founders closing enterprise deals in 2026 aren’t just building better models. They’re building companies that buyers feel safe betting on. SOC 2 isn’t a checkbox. It’s a moat and this post will show you exactly why.

Why AI Raises the Stakes on Security

Traditional SaaS compliance was straightforward. Buyers wanted to know: Who can see my data? Where does it live? What happens if there’s a breach?

AI changed that calculus in three specific ways:

• Wider exposure surface. A CRM stores contact records. An AI assistant reads email threads, call transcripts, deal notes, and internal strategy docs. The data your product touches is far more sensitive.

• Unpredictable outputs. Buyers aren’t just worried about data leakage. They’re worried about what your model does with the data. Hallucinations, unintended disclosures, model drift — these have happened publicly and triggered regulatory scrutiny.

• A more complex regulatory landscape. The EU AI Act is in effect. US state privacy laws are multiplying. Healthcare, finance, and legal buyers operate under sector-specific frameworks that now intersect with AI in ways nobody has fully mapped yet.

As a panelist in Wisdom Partners’ Founder Real Talk series recently explained:

“If your customer can’t trust what they’re seeing, or trust the outcome you’re promising, it doesn’t matter how good your tech is. Trust is the product.”

That’s as true for an AI procurement tool as it is for a wildfire detection platform.

SOC 2 Is Not Optional in B2B Sales

Most founders treat compliance as something that happens to them, a requirement that ambushes them three weeks before close on a big deal. A couple of years ago SOC 2 was a requirement for only enterprise deals, but starting in 2025, customers across the spectrum are asking about SOC 2.

The founders winning right now address compliance early.

When you earn SOC 2 proactively, you:

• Remove the most common sales objection before it surfaces

• Walk into security reviews with evidence, not assurances

• Stop losing deals to compliance rather than capability

• Control the sales timeline instead of reacting to it

Companies that hold together in uncertain environments are the ones that build options, not dependencies. SOC 2 is exactly that in enterprise sales. As Merril Gilbert explained in a previous guest blog on building durable companies:

“A strong foundation is not a delay to growth. It is a competitive advantage built in reality, not best-case scenarios.”

You Might Need It Faster Than You Think

There are moments that force the timeline, and they never announce themselves in advance.

• A Fortune 500 prospect asks for your SOC 2 report before moving to contract

• An investor flags it as a condition of close

• A partner in healthcare, finance, or legal won’t onboard you without it

These moments show up when the stakes are highest.

The founders who are ahead aren’t waiting for the forcing function. The good news is that the old assumption that SOC 2 takes six to twelve months of painful manual work is no longer true.

How AI Is Compressing the Path to SOC 2

The traditional compliance workflow looked like this: assign someone to own it, build a spreadsheet of controls, manually screenshot evidence from a dozen tools, and pray nothing fell through the cracks before the auditor arrived.

For a lean startup team, it was a real tax on engineering and ops bandwidth.

AI changes three things specifically:

1. Continuous evidence collection. Your compliance posture is always current, not reconstructed under pressure before each audit cycle.

2. Intelligent control mapping. Work you do once for SOC 2 automatically satisfies requirements for ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR. Compounding returns most founders don’t realize they’re getting.

3. Real-time gap detection. You find and fix control failures before auditors see them, not during the audit itself.

The result: startups that would have previously needed six months can now be audit-ready in weeks, with a fraction of the internal lift.

For a detailed breakdown of exactly how this works in practice, this guide is worth reading: How AI Automates SOC 2 and HIPAA Compliance — From Manual Spreadsheets to Audit-Ready in Weeks

The question isn’t whether you’ll need SOC 2. You will.

The question is whether you’ll have it the day the deal requires it or whether you’ll be the founder explaining to a prospect why they should wait.

Start the compliance clock now. The timeline is shorter than you think, and the tools have never been better.

Thanks to Jon Ozduruk of DSALTA for authoring this post. If you need help getting compliance, and you want to do it in weeks not months, please reach out to DSALTA.

Subscribe now

They are too long to remember, too vague to use, and too safe to create real alignment. And that becomes a serious issue once your company starts to grow.

In month two of our Ownership Culture implementation Program, we focus on alignment. And alignment starts with clarity about mission. Not a paragraph on a website. Not a list of values framed in the lobby. A real mission that can guide decisions when trade-offs get hard.

The Most Common Pitfalls

The first is design by committee. Everyone wants their priorities represented. No one wants to leave something important out. So the statement grows. Fifteen words turn into twenty. Plain language gets replaced with corporate phrasing. It sounds thoughtful, but no one can repeat it from memory. Worse still, no one uses it to make decisions.

The second problem is confusion between vision and mission. Founders often try to compress the entire future of the company into a single sentence. They aim high, which is good, but the result is abstract and distant. It might inspire. It rarely directs action.

A good mission statement does three things.

1. It sets a North Star.

2. It acts as a decision-making filter.

3. It attracts the right people.

Notice what it does not do. It does not try to get everyone to agree with it.

In fact, if no one disagrees with your mission, it may be too safe to matter.

A really strong mission statement should attract the people you want and quietly repel the ones you do not. It is not about securing agreement from the people already on payroll. It is about clarity that forces alignment.

Agreement is polite. Alignment is directional.

You can agree that something sounds good and still behave in ways that contradict it. Alignment shows up in choices. In priorities. In what you are willing to say no to.

So how do you create that kind of mission?

We start with personal motivators. Before writing a single sentence, founders need to be honest about why they are building in the first place. That includes selfish motives. Maybe you want freedom. Maybe you want generational wealth. Maybe you want influence. Maybe you’re just trying to support your family. Pretending those motivations do not exist only makes alignment harder later.

Next comes the vision. The vision is the change you want to see in the world. It is aspirational and, maybe even, unachievable. It is the horizon you move toward, not the business model itself.

Only after that, do you define the mission. The mission is the specific role your company will play in advancing that vision. It should be concrete enough that someone could reasonably disagree with it. If no one could say, “That is not for me,” you probably have not drawn a clear enough line.

There is also a practical exercise we use during the word-smithing phase. Everyone writes the mission as long as they want. Get everything on the page. Then reduce it to fifty words. Then twenty. Then ten. Then five to seven.

Yes, really. Your mission statement should not be longer than seven words. Five is better. The discomfort of cutting is the point.

When you are forced to choose what stays and what goes, you discover what truly matters. AI can help compress language, but it cannot decide what is essential. That requires conviction.

Alignment is not about everyone nodding in agreement. It is about building a company where decisions consistently point in the same direction.

If you asked your leadership team to write your mission from memory, would their answers match?

If not, you do not have alignment yet.

And that is where the real work begins.

Subscribe now

When something goes wrong, we look outward first. We blame the prospect, the hire, the timing, the market. Almost anything before we look at ourselves.

Two recent conversations made that impossible to ignore. One was with Chris Fitzgerald, founder of an AI-powered OSINT platform. The other was with Giulia Eve Flores, founder of Lila Studios. Completely different industries. Same lesson.

The business reflects the founder.

Selling Ahead of Reality

Chris shared a mistake that will sound familiar to anyone selling into enterprise.

They had a strong interest early. Big firms are leaning in. Real momentum building. The signals were there. But the product was not fully enterprise-ready.

Instead of slowing down and resetting expectations clearly, they stretched. They assumed the deals would wait. Some did not.

His summary was simple. Time kills deals.

But the deeper lesson was ownership. When a deal stalls, it is easy to blame budget cycles or slow buyers. It is harder to ask whether you created misalignment by overpromising or moving too fast.

That shift changed how they approached sales. More clarity. Fewer assumptions. Less ego. No new tactic. Just better self-awareness.

The Hire You Almost Lose

Chris also shared a hiring story that stuck with me.

They nearly let someone go early on. There were mistakes, misalignment, friction. The obvious move would have been to cut quickly.

Instead, they paused and asked a harder question. Is this actually a performance issue, or a leadership issue?

The person was smart, motivated, and deeply aligned with the mission. But onboarding was loose. Feedback was not immediate. Expectations were assumed instead of clearly stated.

They chose to invest time instead of firing fast. That hire became one of their strongest contributors.

Founders love the phrase hire fast, fire faster. Sometimes it is right. Sometimes it is a shortcut for avoiding your own growth.

The Founder Is the Nervous System

Giulia left a stable career with no safety net and built Lila Studios from zero to multi six figures in months. When I asked what drove the growth, she did not start with tactics. She said something that stayed with me.

“I am the nervous system of my business.”

When she was anxious or trying to force outcomes, things stalled. When she regulated herself, acted from clarity, and made decisions from the version of herself she was becoming, doors opened.

You can frame that spiritually or practically. The practical truth is hard to ignore. Your internal state shows up in your calls, in your hiring decisions, in your investor conversations, and in your pricing confidence. Desperation leaks. Groundedness attracts.

Founders underestimate how visible they are.

Fail Fast Means Let Go Fast

Early on, you need speed. Ship before you are comfortable. Show the product before it feels perfect. Have the conversation before you feel fully ready.

But failing fast is not just about shipping fast. It is about detaching fast.

If something does not work, kill it. Do not protect it because you spent months building it. The sunk cost is gone. Protecting your ego only extends the loss.

Do Not Bend the Company Around One Deal

Landing a large enterprise or government deal can feel existential. The instinct is to drop everything and tailor the product around that one client.

That instinct can quietly turn your startup into a custom shop.

Respect big opportunities. Do not surrender your roadmap to them. Balance ambition with discipline.

The Weekly Question

Underneath all of this is a simple pattern.

There is such a tendency to blame everything but yourself. The slow sales cycle. The underperforming hire. The unclear market.

Sometimes it really is external. Often it is not.

The question that changes everything is simple: What did I do to contribute to this outcome?

That question is uncomfortable. It is also where leverage lives.

You are not just building a product. You are building yourself as a founder. The company will keep reflecting on you until you are willing to look.

If you want the full context and nuance behind these lessons, listen to the full episodes with Chris Fitzgerald and Giulia Eve Flores on YouTube or Spotify.

Subscribe now

Your calendar is shaped by other people’s availability. Investor calls. Team issues. Customer needs. Sometimes emergencies.

Early in my leadership journey, I had to confront something uncomfortable: I could not build a successful organization at the expense of my family. I am deeply mission driven. I care about the work. But I also knew that if my organization did well while my marriage or my kids suffered, I would not feel successful. I would feel like I failed.

The problem was not my commitment. It was my schedule.

When I led a nonprofit, Sundays were heavy workdays. Some mornings were wide open. Some evenings ran until midnight. I had kids. I was married. There was no clean way to say, “I’ll just work eight to six and call it done.”

So I built guardrails.

Guardrails are simple weekly rhythms that keep you on a healthy path when your schedule is unpredictable. They are not rigid rules. They are boundaries that protect what matters most.

Here are the ones that have kept me steady.

Most founders do not work nine to five.

Your calendar is shaped by other people’s availability. Investor calls. Team issues. Customer needs. Sometimes emergencies.

Early in my leadership journey, I had to confront something uncomfortable: I could not build a successful organization at the expense of my family. I am deeply mission driven. I care about the work. But I also knew that if my organization did well while my marriage or my kids suffered, I would not feel successful. I would feel like I failed.

The problem was not my commitment. It was my schedule.

When I led a nonprofit, Sundays were heavy workdays. Some mornings were wide open. Some evenings ran until midnight. I had kids. I was married. There was no clean way to say, “I’ll just work eight to six and call it done.”

So I built guardrails.

Guardrails are simple weekly rhythms that keep you on a healthy path when your schedule is unpredictable. They are not rigid rules. They are boundaries that protect what matters most.

Here are the ones that have kept me steady.

One Full Day Off Every Week

First, I take one full day off every week. At least twenty four consecutive hours. Not “mostly off.” Not checking email between errands. Off. No work. No replies. No quick calls. It is harder now that email lives on our phones, but I almost never respond on my day off. That boundary resets my mind and reminds me that the organization does not own me.

A Cap on Weekly Work Hours

Second, I cap my weekly hours. There were seasons when I worked seventy or eighty hours a week. That is not sustainable. For me, fifty to fifty five hours is a healthy rhythm. Closer to fifty is better. More than fifty five starts to cost me clarity. You might be able to grind for a while. Most founders can. But long term leadership requires energy management, not heroics. Know your number and respect it.

A Weekly Date Night

Third, my wife and I have a weekly date night. Almost every Friday or Saturday we go out. Sometimes it is a walk and ice cream. Sometimes it is something more expensive and involved. The point is not the activity. It is the intentional time. We are about to celebrate twenty five years of marriage, and that relationship has been one of the most stabilizing forces in my life and leadership. It’s awfully hard to build a strong company while dealing with drama from unhealthy primary relationships.

Family Night

We have also tried to maintain a weekly family night. That has become more complicated as the kids have gotten older and their schedules have filled up. Right now Wednesday works because my son does not have swim practice. So I avoid work meetings that night whenever I can. You do not drift into a healthy family culture. You schedule it.

No More Than Two Evenings Out for Work

Another guardrail is limiting how many evenings I am out for work. I try not to be out of the house more than two evenings a week for work related commitments. That one decision has shaped hundreds of smaller decisions. If I already have two nights booked, I usually decline the third. Not because the opportunity is unimportant, but because my life outside work matters too.

A Sleep Floor

Finally, I protect my sleep. I aim for seven or eight hours a night, but I have a floor. Unless it is a true emergency, I do not go below six hours. Emergency means a flight or a time zone issue. Not “I want to finish one more thing.” I will cancel a meeting. I will shift a workout. I will stop mid project. Sleep deprivation leads to poor thinking, irritability, and burnout. There is research comparing sleep deprivation to being drunk. One leader once said, “If you would not take the meeting after two beers, do not take it after four hours of sleep.” I know founders who operate on four or five hours for years. It is not wise, and it eventually shows up in your decisions.

Why Guardrails Matter

Guardrails give structure to a life that would otherwise feel reactive. They protect your relationships. They protect your thinking. And they make long term leadership possible.

Ownership culture starts with owning yourself, with taking control of your own schedule and how you show up. If you cannot lead your own rhythms, you will not sustainably lead an organization.

Take a minute and ask yourself: where are you drifting right now?

Then pick one guardrail. Just one. Set it this week.

That is where it starts.

Subscribe now

Merril Gilbert is the author of Fired to Founder and advisor to founders and business owners navigating growth, transition, and capital decisions. As CEO of Curious Futures and creator of FoundHer Forward, she works across multiple sectors, bringing an operator’s perspective informed by emerging technology and shifting economic conditions. Her work focuses on how companies build durability, reduce risk, and make clear decisions in uncertain markets.

Reframing the Moment

We are early into 2026, and many founders are realizing that the way they used to plan no longer fits the reality in front of them.

For a long time, planning followed a familiar rhythm. You looked at what worked, made adjustments, and set targets for the year ahead. Conditions shifted, but not radically. There was room to correct course.

That assumption is harder to hold now.

What leaders are dealing with today is not a lack of ambition. It is a lack of certainty. Inputs change quickly. Decisions carry more weight. Timing matters more than it used to. Planning still matters, but it looks different.

The question many founders are quietly asking is not how to grow faster. It is how to keep the business steady enough to respond when things change.

Why 2026 Changes the Equation

This is what makes 2026 feel different.

Capital is still available, but access takes longer and expectations are higher. Investors want to understand not just the opportunity, but how the company actually operates when pressure shows up.

Founders are holding more responsibility for longer periods of time. The space between decisions and consequences has narrowed. Mistakes are harder to unwind.

A few realities are shaping this year:

• Capital is selective.

• Timelines are uneven.

• Risk stays with founders longer.

• Growth without structure creates strain.

In this environment, the companies that hold together are the ones that have planned for disruption rather than assumed stability.

Optionality Over Dependency

Stability begins with optionality. Optionality is the ability to make choices without being forced into them.

Companies that depend too heavily on a single customer, funding source, or individual decision maker are exposed when conditions shift. When one thing breaks, everything feels urgent.

Companies with optionality have room to respond. They can slow without stalling. They can pursue capital without being dependent on it. They can adjust direction without unraveling the business.

This is why stability is more than a clean P&L. It shows up in revenue quality, customer retention, margin awareness, and the ability to reduce risk in measurable ways. Founders who can demonstrate grounded traction and thoughtful tradeoffs create more paths forward.

Stability is not the opposite of growth. It is what allows growth to hold.

Stability as a Leadership Skill

In uncertain environments, leadership becomes the primary asset.

Leaders who operate with clarity and integrity build stronger teams. They surround themselves with people who know their roles and can make decisions when disruptions arrive. This matters more than speed.

A stable company does not require constant founder involvement to function. It runs because responsibility and trust are distributed. The work does not bottleneck at the top.

Resilient companies also rethink how they measure value. What can the organization deliver consistently? Where are the pressure points? What assumptions need to be tested before they become problems?

These conversations happen across leadership, not in isolation. Alignment allows obstacles to surface earlier and opportunities to be acted on without delay.

Scaling in 2026 is costly. A strong foundation is not a delay to growth. It is a competitive advantage built in reality, not best case scenarios.

Bringing It Together

In a recent episode of the series Fallout, a character says, “chaos is easy, planning is hard.” It captures the moment many founders are living through.

Stability is not passive. It is intentional. It requires planning for different outcomes and choosing realistic paths forward. It means using tools that support the business rather than extract from it. It also means relying on human judgment, not just automated signals.

Stability is the opposite of chaos. It creates the conditions for focus, trust, and durability.

What would change if stability, not scale, became the metric you led toward?

Subscribe now

This week’s two Founder Real Talk episodes land on the same uncomfortable truth from different angles: founders don’t lose because they aren’t smart. They lose because they either stop moving or move without a learning system.

Connor Engelsberg (Orvyn): The Real Differentiator Isn’t IQ. It’s Failure Tolerance + Memory

Connor’s episode is the technical founder’s version of the same principle: progress is less about brilliance and more about how much failure you’re willing to metabolize.

Orvyn is solving a problem that sounds small until you’ve lived it: finance PowerPoints that need to be perfect, going through a dozen to two dozen iterations, where “tiny” changes consume hours or days. Their promise is brutal and clear: take that crank-turning work and compress it into minutes.

But Connor’s most founder-relevant insight is what it took to get there. PowerPoint is a terrible substrate to build on. There’s no clean playbook. For months, they couldn’t even get to the point of putting it in users’ hands. He describes it as “death by a thousand cuts”; not one cinematic failure, just repeated tries, glitches, workarounds, and restarts.

That’s where his advice lands: the thing that matters most is how willing you are to fail and try again. Not intelligence. Not credentials. Not vibes. Endurance.

Luke Miller (MediaRide): Speed Wins When You’re Buying Signal, Not Status

Luke’s most valuable founder lesson isn’t “move fast.” It’s why moving fast matters: because it’s the only way to buy signal before you burn months on assumptions.

He’s seen the founder pattern a hundred times: a company shows up wanting a “big, grandiose deliverable”; the flagship brand video, the perfect polished piece, the expensive thing that feels like progress. Luke slows that down and pushes them smaller: faster deliverables, quicker iterations, more reps. Not because he’s conservative, but because he’s optimizing for learning.

Here’s the strategic move founders miss: marketing should behave like product development. Your job isn’t to create the best artifact. Your job is to build the fastest learning engine. Small deliverables create feedback. Feedback creates clarity. Clarity compounds into positioning and pipeline.

Founders also need to watch out for the quiet killer that shows up right when things start working: ICP drift. When cash is coming in, it’s tempting to say yes to “almost right” clients and “close enough” projects. Luke learned (again) that saying yes this week can cost you the next quarter. Six months later you realize you’ve been building work you don’t want, for customers who won’t refer you, in a way that muddies your positioning.

And he ties it all to founder capacity. When you’re sprinting nonstop, your judgment degrades. You take the wrong work. You overbuild. You overthink. Luke’s shift wasn’t just better strategy; it was building the recovery habits that let him execute strategy under pressure.

Momentum Is Only Real When It’s Paired With a Learning System

Luke and Connor are describing the same operating system from two different founder worlds:

• Luke is on the market-facing side: don’t bet months on one perfect deliverable; ship smaller, learn faster, stay inside your ICP.

• Connor is on the build-facing side: hard products require endless failure; the edge is staying in it and remembering what the failures taught you.

The shared lesson is not “hustle.” It’s not “grit.” It’s more specific:

Your company grows when you can run a high-velocity loop without losing coherence.

That loop has three parts:

1. Ship something small enough to learn from quickly

2. Reflect in a way that changes future behavior

3. Aim that loop at the right customer

Most founders break the loop in predictable ways:

• They overbuild because they’re afraid to ship.

• They ship randomly because they’re afraid to choose.

• They “learn” but don’t institutionalize it, so they repeat mistakes.

• They chase cash that doesn’t match their ICP, and then wonder why growth feels chaotic.

If you want a simple founder KPI for this week: How quickly can you run a cycle that makes you smarter?

Listen + Subscribe

If you’re building in the messy middle, these two episodes are a reminder that the game isn’t perfection; it’s compounding learning.

• Listen to Ep 3 with Connor Engelsberg (Orvyn)

• Listen to Ep 4 with Luke Miller (MediaRide)

And if you want more founder-to-founder lessons like this each week, subscribe to the Founder Real Talk Channel on YouTube or Spotify so you don’t miss the next episode.

Subscribe now

This week, that showed up in two very different industries.

On Monday, we shared our conversation with Kira Shishkin, four-time founder and CEO of informed.now, a news-by-text concierge service built for a world drowning in noise. On Wednesday, we posted our chat with Nafaa Haddou, co-founder and CEO of FireSafe AI, a company using AI and multi-source sensing to prevent and mitigate wildfires.

Different domains. Same underlying constraint: trust.

Kira is rebuilding trust in information. Nafaa is rebuilding trust in systems that protect communities. And both conversations landed on the same truth for founders: if your customer can’t trust what they’re seeing, or trust the outcome you’re promising, it doesn’t matter how good your tech is. Trust is the product.

Below are the lessons that stuck with us most, and how they apply even if you’re not in media or climate tech.

When your mission rejects an industry norm, distribution becomes the hard problem.

Kira shared a challenge that’s both obvious and sneaky: when you’re anti-advertising (ethically and philosophically), it becomes difficult to advertise yourself.

That tension forced informed.now to evolve. They’re still not running paid ads, but they’ve leaned into organic growth through creators and real users who champion the product because it genuinely improves their life.

This is a classic founder pattern:

• Your differentiator creates a new constraint.

• Your constraint forces creative distribution.

• Your distribution becomes the real moat.

If your stance rejects the default playbook, don’t fight the constraint; design around it.

In “physical world” startups, trust isn’t abstract; it’s operational.

Nafaa’s story is personal. A wildfire impacted his family and community in the Mediterranean, with significant loss. He and his younger brother (and co-founder) asked a simple question: could we do anything about this?

That question became FireSafe AI.

Their platform ingests data from satellite down to local sensing (cameras, drones, etc.), assesses wildfire risk, and aims to detect ignition events quickly — with the goal of helping responders act faster and reduce false alarms.

In their world, trust is not a branding exercise. It’s whether operators believe the system enough to take action. It’s whether the alerts are credible. It’s whether the product integrates into real infrastructure and real response workflows.

In high-stakes environments, “trust” means reliability + speed + interoperability. The product must earn belief through performance.

Fundraising must be run like a project, not a permanent background task.

Nafaa gave one of the most pragmatic lessons of the week: they didn’t run a tight fundraising process early on. It dragged on, pulled attention away from sales, and compounded the cost — especially in an industry with seasonality and long sales cycles.

His fix is simple and founder-friendly:

• Build a targeted investor list (50–60)

• Commit to an intense 2–3 week sprint

• Book everything

• Set a hard cutoff date

• If you don’t hit it, stop; go back to customers, milestones, traction

• Then run another process later

There’s no ego in it. Just truth: lingering fundraising steals from the only cure-all that consistently works: building and selling.

The best founders are stubborn and open.

If you take nothing else from this week, take this:

“You need to be stubborn, but open.”

You need conviction to survive the clock, the uncertainty, and the inevitable friction. But you also need openness to feedback, to hard conversations, and to the possibility that the right move is a pivot, or even stopping altogether.

Too much stubbornness becomes blindness. Too much openness becomes drift. The skill is holding both.

Conviction gets you moving. Humility keeps you honest.

These were two very different episodes, but in both cases, the “tech” is only half the story. The real work is rebuilding systems people can depend on.

And that’s true for founders in any industry.

If you can create a product that brings clarity where there’s noise, or reliability where there’s risk, you’re not just shipping features. You’re restoring trust.

Listen to the episodes:

• Episode 1: Kira Shishkin (informed.now) — YouTube | Spotify

• Episode 2: Nafaa Haddou (FireSafe AI) — YouTube | Spotify

If you want more founder-to-founder conversations like these, subscribe to the Founder Real Talk channel on YouTube and Spotify. We will share new episodes twice a week.

Subscribe now

Most founder content focuses on outcomes.

Revenue. Growth. Headlines. Wins.

But if you’ve built (or are building) a company, you know the real work rarely looks like the highlight reel. It looks like uncertainty.

Hard decisions with incomplete information.

Moments where you’re questioning whether you’re doing it “right.”

And long stretches where progress is happening — just not loudly.

That’s why we’re launching Founder Real Talk, a podcast for founders, by founders, created to have the conversations that usually happen off-camera, behind closed doors, or late at night with people who’ve been there.

Not theory. Not polished advice. Real stories, real scars, real strategies, and real lessons from the people actually building companies.

Each episode dives into:

• The decisions that shaped a company’s trajectory and its mission

• What worked and what didn’t

• The mindset shifts required at different stages of growth

• The “good, bad, and ugly” parts of being responsible for a business, a team, and a vision

You’ll hear from founders and executives who’ve raised capital, scaled teams, navigated tough inflection points, and learned the hard way what growth actually demands.

This podcast exists because founders don’t need more noise.

They need clarity, context, and an honest perspective.

Don’t Miss Out

Founder Real Talk officially launches on February 9th. You can watch the episodes on YouTube or listen to them on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

• YouTube Channel

• Spotify

If you’re building something, whether you’re early-stage, scaling, or recalibrating, this podcast is meant to feel like a conversation with people who understand the weight of the seat you’re in.

No performative success.

No pretending it’s easy.

Just real talk about what it actually takes to grow a company.

Stay close.

This one’s for founders

Most founders assume great leadership looks like inspiration: big speeches, high energy, constant motivation. Adam Kroener’s experience points in a very different direction. The leaders who get the best performance out of their teams aren’t necessarily charismatic. They’re precise. They understand who their people are, what they want, and how to align that with real responsibility. At Wisdom Partners, we’d describe this same idea with different language: ownership creates agency, and agency drives performance.

Motivation Isn’t the Starting Point, Agency Is

People move fastest when leadership helps them move toward their own goals, not when they’re pushed toward someone else’s vision. That only works if people actually have control over outcomes. Without agency, motivation decays quickly.

This is exactly what we see inside companies that struggle to scale. Leaders try to compensate for unclear ownership with pressure, reminders, and urgency. The result is disengagement, avoidance, and eventually attrition. The issue isn’t effort. It’s that people don’t clearly own anything meaningful.

Ownership culture flips this dynamic. When someone owns an area of responsibility and connects that with what they want out of life, they stop waiting. They start deciding. Motivation becomes internal because the outcome is theirs.

Accountability That Comes From Care, Not Control

One of the most important overlaps between Adam’s leadership approach and our work at Wisdom Partners is the role of accountability. Adam talks about being transparent, direct, and willing to “call people on their stuff”, but always from a place of care.

This matters. Accountability without agency feels punitive. Agency without accountability feels chaotic. Ownership culture requires both. Leaders don’t disappear; they shift from managing tasks to managing people, clarifying responsibility, setting expectations, and creating the conditions for people to succeed.

This is why ownership culture always starts with the leader. If you find yourself frustrated that your team “isn’t stepping up,” that frustration is information. It usually means ownership isn’t as clear as you think it is, or it’s still sitting with you.

Systems Beat Speeches

Motivation isn’t one-and-done. It’s an ongoing engine. Engines need systems.

At Wisdom Partners, we operationalize this through clear Areas of Responsibility and Directly Responsible Individuals (DRIs). This removes ambiguity. Everyone knows:

• what they own

• why it matters

• how success is measured

Once those systems are in place, leaders don’t need to constantly inspire. People move because they have authority, clarity, and accountability.

Hiring for Ownership, Not Dependence

The easiest teams to lead are made up of people who already see themselves as owners. We see the same pattern. High-performing organizations don’t rely on leaders to generate momentum; they curate environments where self-driven people can take responsibility and make decisions.

This is also why ownership culture compounds over time. As you hire people who expect agency—and systems that support it—leadership becomes less about pushing and more about guiding direction.

Sustainable performance doesn’t come from inspiration. It comes from agency, clarity, and responsibility.

If your company feels stuck, slow, or overly dependent on you, the solution isn’t better motivational speeches. It’s clearer ownership. When people truly own outcomes, effort increases naturally, and leadership becomes lighter, not heavier.

Subscribe now

An Introduction to ICA and Vasana Ly’s Journey

ICA is a unique venture fund focused on fostering community development. Can you tell us a bit about how it operates?

ICA is certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) by the U.S. Treasury. Unlike many CDFIs, which primarily offer debt financing, ICA provides venture capital, focusing on supporting early-stage businesses founded by women, low-income individuals, and minority entrepreneurs. ICA began as a coaching organization, eventually evolving to offer accelerators and venture investment.

What brought you into this line of work?

My journey is a personal one. I come from a family of immigrants who turned to entrepreneurship as a necessity, creating businesses to support each other and the community. Now, I find myself helping entrepreneurs with similar stories, offering them the support to succeed in ways my family could have benefited from. It’s a full-circle moment for me.

Investment Approach and Values

What is ICA’s investment thesis?

ICA is centered on advancing small businesses, focusing on founders from underrepresented backgrounds. We see many food companies and consumer goods products (CPGs), particularly those with scalable and community-oriented models. Our goal is to empower founders who are often excluded from traditional venture capital, creating opportunities that drive local economies.

What excites you about investing in a new company?

Seeing founders pursue their dreams is what drives me. I’m especially inspired when I encounter founders who create businesses that serve community needs, often born from personal experience or cultural context. Their resilience and vision make my work deeply meaningful.

What do you look for in a startup founder?

I look for clarity and strategic thinking. A founder who understands their current challenges and how capital can address those is likely to succeed. Misdiagnosing problems or overestimating the power of funding can derail progress. I seek founders who see the right path forward and align their capital needs with that path.

What challenges do founders face most often?

A significant challenge is shifting from a hands-on role to a more strategic leadership position. Many entrepreneurs are highly involved in day-to-day operations, and it’s tough to pivot to a broader management role. We help founders develop the skills to step back and view their business from a higher level.

Supporting Entrepreneurs Beyond Capital

How does ICA support entrepreneurs beyond just funding?

We offer a full ecosystem, from community events to formal coaching and accelerator programs. Through peer learning and one-on-one coaching, we connect founders with resources and insights tailored to their unique challenges. Post-investment, we stay actively involved, collecting financials and providing continued guidance to maximize our entrepreneurs’ success.

What is ICA’s vision for community impact?

Our end goal is not only to support individual businesses but to foster regenerative, inclusive economies. We focus on job creation, diversity, and fair wages, incentivizing founders to create valuable roles within their communities. Our impact goes beyond the entrepreneurs themselves, reaching into the lives of their employees and the broader economy.

How can founders get involved with ICA?

Generally, we invest in founders who have completed our programs. We post applications for our incubator lab and accelerator program early in the year, accessible through our website and social media. We’re always open to connecting with entrepreneurs who align with our mission of supporting women, low-income, and minority founders.

Is there a fee for joining the programs?

Our Lab program has no fee. For the Accelerator, we take a 1% ownership stake, allowing us to support participants without upfront costs.

How can interested founders or partners reach you?

Our website has contact information for all our team members, and we encourage potential partners to reach out, especially if they resonate with our mission to build inclusive economies.

Subscribe now

Here’s an exercise that might resonate: Imagine you were your own boss. How would you evaluate your performance?

One of my clients once struggled to prioritize tasks and limit overwork, so I suggested she imagine a fictional copy of herself. Then, she gave this person advice on how to structure her work to help the company. By stepping into the boss’s mindset, she gained clarity about what her business needs from her (in the short-term and the long-term) and how to align her actions with her goals.

You need to be able to regulate your emotions to adapt to every new situation, but always have clear milestones. Your long-term goals are deeply rooted in the “why” that inspired your business or idea. Staying true to that clear purpose is what will fuel your growth and keep you motivated even through uncertain times.

You will gain the ability to experiment, revise, and keep moving forward with confidence. Staying adaptable and constantly auditing your approach is a key part. Ask yourself: Are my systems efficient? Are there tasks I could delegate?

Practical Tips to Optimize

Prioritize Revenue-Driving Activities
Not all tasks are equal. Focus on what brings in the most revenue and use tools to streamline the rest, like scheduling or invoicing software.

Embrace Outsourcing
Outsourcing is an investment, not an expense. For example, Kylie Jenner built her cosmetics empire by outsourcing manufacturing and packaging while leveraging her influence. Today, even drop shippers use third-party solutions to streamline operations.

Invest in Personal Development
Whether it’s taking a course, attending a workshop, or hiring a coach, personal growth is vital. Building your skills now will pay dividends when business picks up. In recent years, 86% of organizations saw a return on investment from their Coaching engagements, and 96% of those who worked with an Executive Coach said they would do it again (Source: Forbes). Every great founder you can think of has gotten some way of support in their journey.

Consider Getting Support
A virtual assistant (VA) can free up your time for higher-value tasks. Think of it this way: you’re creating leverage, not adding a burden. Whether you need support for a particular project or area, or just an extra set of hands to take tasks off your plate, you can find a VA with specialized skills to improve your operational efficiency.

Interested in coaching or finding the right VA? Schedule a call with us!

Conclusion

As a founder, you’ve already proven your resilience by starting this journey. But thriving, not just surviving, requires adaptability, clarity, and the right tools. Remember, success doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a series of deliberate, consistent steps forward. You’ve got this.

Subscribe now

Start with Purpose

You need to hold all-hands meetings frequently. The frequency of all hands depends on how fast things are changing and how much uncertainty you might have. Once a month is the minimum but the bigger your team or more uncertain, weekly or bi-weekly is best.

• Create alignment across teams and departments

• Highlight progress and challenges

• Celebrate achievements

• Surface critical issues

• Shape how your team thinks about the company’s mission, goals, and strategy.

As a founder or leader, you’re often deep in the trenches of the business. Don’t assume your team shares your perspective. Use this time to remind everyone why they’re here and what you’re collectively working toward. Frame the meeting around this purpose.

A Balanced Agenda

A great all-hands meeting doesn’t feel like a monologue or a polished pitch. It’s a dynamic exchange. The whole meeting should usually be between 45-60 minutes. If you do them less often, you could push it to 75-90 minutes. Here’s a structure that works:

1. Warmup: Whether your team is remote or in person, you can use technology to engage attendees right from the start even before the meeting officially begins. Five minutes before start time, post a poll, word cloud, or icebreaker question via a QR code. This can energize the group, generate some laughs, and foster connection. (We like Slido for this.)

2. Opening Remarks: The CEO should start with a brief overview of the current state of the business from her perspective. Lean into whatever the main thing is at that time. Also be sure to address the question every team member is silently asking: What does this mean for me? What can I do about it? Frame your remarks around what’s relevant to them. If you have to do layoffs, are announcing a strategy change, or are worried about securing funding, none of that matters to the individual team members as much as What does this mean for me? Your goal is to get them engaged with that question.

3. Key Updates: Share metrics, milestones, or significant events. Keep it concise and focused. Consider handing off specific updates to team leads or department heads for added perspective. Address areas needing attention, especially those requiring cross-functional collaboration. Be transparent about challenges while emphasizing solutions.

4. Spotlights: Celebrate wins. Highlight contributions from individuals or teams who’ve gone above and beyond. A “show and tell” moment of a cool new feature or tool can humanize the meeting and inspire others.

5. Q&A–The Real Magic: At this point, you should have about half of your time left. The unscripted nature of a Q&A is where trust is built and influence happens. Address tough questions head-on. Plant a question or two in advance if there’s a tricky topic everyone’s thinking about but afraid to raise. Respond authentically and calmly, focusing on what’s actionable and within the team’s control.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Avoid the Founder Show. Resist the temptation to turn the meeting into a performance. A fancy or polished presentation often paradoxically equates to lower impact because it feels less genuine and engaging. Instead, aim for authenticity and intimacy. Your team needs to feel like they’re getting the unvarnished truth and a clear path forward.

Carrying the Whole Burden. The CEO is responsible to make sure everything fits together in a way that influences people positively by the end. But the senior leadership meeting is where much of the planning happens. Ask them, “What’s important for the team to hear? What would help them have a better understanding?”

Defensiveness. Be proactive in addressing concerns, even the hard ones. For example, if the team is worried about runway, don’t dodge it. Reframe the concern by explaining why you’re confident and what actions they can take to help. The key is to be a non-anxious presence. Responding with poise and honesty demonstrates your credibility and sets the tone for future discussions.

For example, what if someone asks, “What happens if we run out of money?” That’s a tough one. You don’t necessarily want to answer that directly because the specifics might not help anyone and could even cause unnecessary panic. Instead, I translate that question in my head to: Why am I not panicking? Then, I answer it from that perspective: “Well, here’s why I’m not that worried. We have a great business and incredible investors who believe in us. As long as we give them a good reason to continue supporting us, we’ll be fine. What you can do to help with that is [insert actionable suggestion].” This approach shifts the focus from the fear of running out of money to the confidence and actions that will prevent it. It reframes the question into what really matters to them and how they can contribute. The key is not to answer the literal question but to address the concern behind it.

Squeezing the Q&A. It’s really easy to let the monolog presentations go on and on, and all of the sudden you only have time for two perfunctory questions. Sometimes the CEO gets excited and or starts to ramble. Other times less experienced speakers may mis-time their segments. Because the Q&A is where the magic happens, you need to carefully reign in all the other segments to give plenty of space for honest and open dialog in the second half.

Forgetting a Moderator. A good Q&A session will result in questions that require intense concentration on the part of the leader. It’s really hard to give great answers and to manage a chat board (in a virtual meeting) or scan the crowd for the right next question (in an in person meeting). A friendly moderator can give you some mental and physical breathing space between questions and keep the conversation flowing. Just make sure you and your moderator are aligned on the importance of surfacing the hard questions.

Transparency vs. Overload. Finally, strike the right balance in transparency. Most teams default to being overly cautious, and bring your team behind the curtain to understand the real situation as much as possible. Define the boundaries of what’s shared openly. For example, it’s okay to say, “We don’t discuss individual salaries,” as long as you’re upfront about it. There should be no unacknowledged privacy. Problems arise when people feel there’s secrecy without acknowledgment; it erodes trust.

Why All-Hands Matter for Founders

As a founder, your goal isn’t to micromanage decisions but to influence how your team makes decisions when you’re not in the room. All-hands meetings are one of your most effective tools for doing that. By shaping their thinking and addressing concerns openly, you’re building a team that’s aligned, engaged, and empowered.

A great all-hands meeting isn’t about what you say; it’s about how you make your team feel and think. Nail this, and you’ll see the impact ripple through every corner of your startup.

Subscribe now

From VC to Advisory: Matt’s Journey

How did you get started in the industry?

My journey began during college at a startup, where I worked on an AI co-pilot aimed at enhancing call center agent performance. That experience sparked my interest in building and scaling businesses, which led me to pivot into the investing world. I started at Peterson Partners, gaining exposure to both private equity and venture capital, and later joined LFX Venture Partners, a Series A to C fund in San Francisco focused on supply chain technology. Over time, I realized that instead of negotiating deals from the investor side, I wanted to represent and support the same founders I had once worked to secure deals with. Now, at Peak Technology Partners, I focus on advising founders—helping them understand what investors look for and preparing them to achieve exceptional outcomes, whether they’re raising growth equity or pursuing an acquisition.

How does PEAK work with founders, and what makes the process unique?

At PEAK, we’re a boutique tech investment bank specializing in two key areas: growth equity raises (usually $15-20 million+) and M&A, which represents about 75% of our work. We’re generalists, so we’re prepared to work across sectors, from software to tech services, bringing a competitive edge to the process. Our founders appreciate our process-oriented approach, where we build competitive tension to drive up valuations and create the best possible outcomes for them.

Navigating a Complex Market

The market has a lot of mixed signals right now. I’m hearing both that the funding market is tight and that there is a lot of “dry powder” waiting to be deployed. Can you unpack that a bit?

It’s definitely a challenging time. IPOs are sparse, and big names like Figma and Canva are staying private longer, which creates friction. This has increased hold times for PE and VC investments, and firms are feeling the pressure to deliver returns. With money tied up, only the top funds are aggressively investing, leaving others to pursue smaller add-ons and bolt-on acquisitions. Until more capital flows back into IPOs or significant M&A, it’s very much an investor’s market.

What would you say to founders considering a Series B and wondering if they need a bank?

When raising larger rounds—typically $20 million or more—you’re entering a space dominated by institutional investors who handle these types of deals every day. A bank like PEAK not only provides access to the right network but also ensures the founder and their company are positioned in the best possible light. Founders are the experts on their business, but we specialize in crafting and telling their story to attract top-tier investors while securing more favorable terms. Our process allows founders to stay focused on running their company while we manage the complexities of negotiations and positioning. It’s important to note that raising a Seed or Series A round doesn’t fully prepare you for the intricacies of a Series B round and beyond (as well as growth equity rounds). This is where our expertise makes the difference.

I think in metaphors, and I’m thinking about selling stuff. When I sell a car, I feel like I can pretty much do that myself. When I sell a house, I know I need a real estate agent. If I were to sell a skyscraper, I’d want a full legal team to manage the deal. Is that kind of how it plays out with fundraising?

That’s a great analogy. Each round of fundraising (or M&A) becomes increasingly complex. The bigger the round (or M&A), the more critical it is to have professional advisors guiding you through every aspect of the deal. I can guarantee that the investors on the other side of the table have a team of experts supporting them, so it’s essential that you level the playing field by having your own experts on your side. Just like you’d rely on a real estate agent to sell a house or a legal team to manage the sale of a skyscraper, having experienced advisors is key to navigating the intricacies of larger rounds (or M&A) and ensuring the best outcome.

Founders and Their Vision

What’s a common challenge you see among founders?

One big challenge is planning for the endgame—what they want their company’s outcome to be. Many founders start with a vision of reaching unicorn status, but they don’t always map out scenarios where the company may reach $200 million instead. Sometimes, pursuing growth at all costs leads to burnout or a less-than-ideal exit. Founders need to stay realistic about their goals, their team’s goals, and their company’s trajectory.

How can founders reach out if they’re interested in working with PEAK?

You can reach me through LinkedIn. We’re always open to conversations before any formal engagement—whether you’re looking for market insights, introductions, or strategic advice on increasing your valuation. I especially enjoy collaborative “jam sessions,” where we can brainstorm ideas and plant the seeds for relationships that could prove to be fruitful in the future.

Subscribe now