Do you need to hire a Chief of Staff? Or an Executive Assistant (EA)? Maybe a COO or Executive Coach? I often meet with founders who are unsure of if they should bring on someone like me or a Chief of Staff. A few months ago, I created a functional framework to guide founders. It started as a list of what each role involves. From there, I was able to build a mini-algorithim based on a survey about the aspects of each role. This tool has helped some founders in the past, and today I am opening it up to the world for free.

Hello world, just want to share that I officially graduated from the Hudson Institute of Coaching as a #HudsonCertifiedCoach 🎉 What?! How?! The Backstory In 2019, a founder I work with called me an executive coach, and told me I was providing more value than the coaches hired by the board. That…

In a transaction between two parties, sometimes cash for goods and services makes sense. And sometimes it doesn’t. In 2015 as we were launching the Make in LA accelerator, we decided to create a venture fund to receive equity because we realized that cash was too precious a resource for…

On December 31st, after more than 3 years, Toolbox LA closed its doors. It is too easy to focus on the heavy loss we are experiencing. This has been a deeply transformative year for all of us in the community building world. Everyone has experienced some sort of challenge in…

When we first met the founders of DASH Systems, Inc, we were excited by the cool factor of a delivery-by-air anywhere company, and curious about the business opportunity to expand the market beyond the currently addressable market for air courier. Joel Ifill, engineer, dad, & entrepreneur, had a dream to…

One month ago, we gathered our founders together (virtually, of course) and had an idea-sharing exercise around COVID-19. At that time, top of mind for many was ensuring their teams were healthy, managing cash flows, and optimizing hiring in the quarantined world. Much has been written about those topics and…

With a subject as diverse and complex as manufacturing, it’s easy for misinformation to spread. When one client develops a theory on why manufacturing has adopted a certain practice, it’s easy for that idea to be passed along down the line to other clients, regardless of how accurate it actually…

I wrote most of this in December and procrastinated on getting this out, in part because my 2018 year in review was so intense. But decided to push this out with all its flaws and shortcomings. Hope you enjoy. Founders Thriving and Not-Thriving 2019 was the year of the deal memo. Our deal flow…

With the rise of more than 1000 seed funds, we have seen a growing segment of venture capital, the “Hot Money VC,” who are motivated by what is hot and trending at the moment. …