Fireman 🚒 turned SaaS founder. CEO @ Precision. Prev COO @ SaaS Academy, CEO @ UpLaunch (acq. 2020). Husband, father of 3 boys.
Frederick, MD
Joined July 2011
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🛸 Matt Verlaque retweeted
Explained AI agents to a team twice last week and still lost the room 😅
Their feedback was "this feels too theoretical." Fair enough.
So I built their weekly prep doc as an automation, live on the call. Questions stopped pretty fast.
Turns out nobody buys AI off a slide deck.
you hired someone
gave them no process, no skills, no coaching
and you're shocked they don't work like you?
people don't come out of the box awesome
if you're not training your team at least every other week
you're allergic to making money
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admit to your team when you're wrong
never be indecisive in front of them
leader A: "i got it wrong, it cost us a quarter. here's the new plan and the data behind it"
leader B: "i got it wrong. i'm overwhelmed. stick with me, guys"
same mistake
only one still has a team
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we have about 400 hours of work we'd love to do every week and 40 hours to do it
so i'll say it in meetings
"i'm pretty sure you need me for 30 minutes, not 90"
respectfully ruthless
politeness at the expense of effectiveness is choosing to be slow
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my philosophy sounds harsh
i just assume i'm an idiot
which is amazing
because it means someone out there is better at the thing than me
so i go figure out what they already know
there's someone better than all of us at anything we want to do
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when i'm disappointed in how my team is performing
and i finally get honest with myself
most of the time it's my fault
one of the most powerful questions a leader can ask (credit jerry colonna):
how did i contribute to the circumstances i said i didn't want?
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most prospects can't say why they booked the call
so tell them
"most people come to us for one of three reasons. i'll ask which one fits you on the call"
if they don't have a strong opinion, assign one
now they show up already knowing how to think about it
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claude with no training is just a human with no training
they'll do whatever
so don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
give it what you'd give a new hire
skills, templates, examples, a checklist for slop
then judge it
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if you're 100% intolerant of mistakes
dude, go find a mirror 😂
founders make more mistakes than anybody on earth
we just act like we're immune
being a dick never makes any of it easier
it just makes you feel better
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everybody wants a self-managing team
nobody wants to push the management back onto the team
next time someone asks "what should i do?"
ask what they think
most of the time they'll have the right answer
if it's crazy, great. now you get to coach them
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two colors matter on my calendar
red for revenue
yellow for heads-down work
anything else isn't making money or building the vision
if you don't protect time for the work you do alone
everybody else will come steal it
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high performers like to win
but you can't win if nobody told you where the finish line is
nothing kills a high performer faster than missing an expectation that was never clearly communicated
if your best people keep missing, evaluate your leadership first
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i moved into a firehouse at 18
20 to 25 runs a day, every day, every night
a year there was like five years of experience at a normal pace
best way to learn anything is to go all in
don't dabble
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a slack message is not urgent unless you define it
at my company an emergency is a phone call
we agreed to that out loud
how often does my phone ring for one?
somewhere between 0 and 0.5 times a month
everything else can wait a couple hours
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🛸 Matt Verlaque retweeted
There are really just two types of VCs — problem solvers and problem amplifiers
A problem solver quickly diagnoses what’s happening and has a deep network of experienced people who can help you solve the problem.
A problem amplifier is the first investor to send you something you obviously saw and says “hey, did you see this?” with no thoughts on a game plan for what needs to happen next.
someone on your team screws up
before you get mad, check 3 things
1. did you build a system that let it happen, or no system at all?
2. did you teach them how to think about the problem?
3. did you coach them on it more than once?
only then is it a people problem
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