Because big businesses aren’t built on gimmicks. You can blitz your way through Sand Hill Road and spike up the App Store charts on gimmicks, but you can’t actually use them to replace Gmail, or Salesforce, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram, or Instagram. Even seemingly instant successes can’t become lasting companies without putting in the... See more
Birkenstock IPO’d today at a ~$8B valuation.
Its CEO Oliver Reichert did a massive turnaround in the past decade: sales 5x’d from $125m in 2012 to $1.3B in 2022.
The wildest part: he has zero background in footwear or fashion.
Prior to taking over the top job... See more
1) All businesses are loosely functioning disasters.
2) Operating a small business feels like a daily knife fight where you get out of bed, try not to get stabbed, get back in bed, and do it all over again.
3) Small businesses don't stay small on purpose.
4) Most companies don't make much money.
5) What money they make is almost always reinvested back... See more
The best tech companies drive strategy through product. This is why founders and CEOs tend to be product leaders, and product / design / engineering is more important than ops / marketing / finance. Here’s what this looked like for me as a business leader at Amzn and Facebook: