Human beings care about harmonies. About originality. About the tension that comes from the new. And we care about the dynamics between and among people who are working together.

That’s why we listen to the whole song, not one musician’s isolation track.

If you see a set of rules that don’t make sense, that are overly stern, that seemed designed to be offputting instead of helpful, it’s possible that the poster is leaving part of the memo unsaid:

THIS IS MUCH HARDER THAN WE THOUGHT, AND WELL, MAYBE IF WE MAKE A LOT OF RULES, PEOPLE WILL LEAVE US ALONE.

On building “Flavored” startups

1. Enterprise software is (mostly) not flavor-based. Sure, there are enterprise fads like the metaverse, but generally speaking, large companies only sign contracts when it feels like there is an obvious commercial advantage to doing so.

2. Networks are (mostly) not flavor-based. If you’re using an app because of the content created by its other users, it’s not necessarily a guarantee for success, but at least if it fails it probably won’t be because it hit a flavor-based asymptote. For instance, BeReal leveraged a unique flavor of photo sharing to build a network, but people are still using it because they like the way it helps them stay in touch with their friends. If it were just a single-player utility, it would not have scaled in the same way. Another historical example is Instagram versus Hipstamatic. Both had a cool new flavor called “photo filters,” but one had a network and the other did not. Here’s a more recent example: the network is what sets Substack stands apart from its flavor-based competition.

3. Tech-enabled services are not flavor-based. If you act like a tech company but really do grocery delivery, banking, education, housing, healthcare, or any other real-world service, your competition is mostly not flavor-based because starting this type of business involves a lot of cost and complexity. (Also, some, like ride hailing and delivery, are networks.) The downside is that your cost structure is probably not as great as pure tech companies, but the upside is that you have less competition.

All of these types of products can involve some flavoring to help them get off the ground. The point is not that flavoring is bad. It’s good! But it has a very specific role. Flavor provides an initial product wedge. It’s helpful for standing out initially but doesn’t provide long-term differentiation or durable advantage.

Be brutally honest: What do you do all day, and how neatly does it align with what your boss, or your boss’s boss, thinks you do? Executives tend to think managers focus on high-level tasks, such as leading institutional change and helping employees chart their personal growth. Managers, meanwhile, tend to find themselves tackling more mundane problems, like how (or whether) to hold meetings and find talent. Start taking back your time by using collaboration tools and visualization strategies to streamline your meetings—or better yet, get rid of them altogether. Moving work forward doesn’t always mean “let’s meet.” When you do, think about how you can make that time more about building interpersonal connections—starting with conversations that are less about substantive "outcomes" and more about an attitude or philosophy towards the work.

I believe there are seven key phases in SaaS companies’ go-to-market success. I’ve outlined each phase below and hope to elaborate on some of these in later posts and videos. Most of the phases center around a mantra I call “triple, triple, double, double, double”, (T2D3 for short), referring to a company’s annualized revenue growth. (

Little decisions compound and then anchor systems.

Our commitment to defending sunk costs keeps those systems long after they’re no longer serving a purpose.