TL;DR The ninety-day post-raise trap is a critical period of narrative silence where specialized startups lose their temporary organic press momentum after a funding round. To avoid this trap, technical and scientific founders must secure their launch window by building a primary owned trust channel. This strategic architecture preserves credibility with investors and regulators before…
Startups do not usually begin in boardroom meetings; they begin with a spark of frustration. A medical doctor notices a recurring inefficiency in the clinic; a scientist discovers a molecule that could alter the course of a disease; an accountant invents a cleaner way to audit financial ledgers. This is the classic birth of the…
The frustration of the technical plateau I have spent more than 25 years watching how people connect and more than 15 years working with startup founders and mentoring them. During this time, I have seen a recurring pattern that affects even the most brilliant founders and leadership teams. It usually happens when a company is…
Scaling a venture is one of the most difficult challenges a founder will ever face. Statistics from the innovation ecosystem show a sobering reality. Nine out of ten startups eventually fail. When we look at the reasons for these collapses, we find that the problem is not a lack of effort or funding. Many firms…
Back in 2017, my colleague Aviram Galim wrote two pieces that felt like warnings from the future. One was about the “art of making noise”. The other was a plea for businesses not to lose themselves in the trap of numerical KPIs. Back then, we were mostly worried about noisy social media ads and the…
I have spent a significant part of my career working with innovators, particularly those in the scaling stage. These are companies that have often moved past the initial excitement of a seed round and are now navigating the complex journey of global expansion. They are often between ten and two hundred employees; a stage I…
The narrative gap for biotech companies words have power. Most biotech companies focus on the dry data and heavy science – which are the core of their business and regulatorily required – but neglect the actual *human beings* they set out to help. I don’t think they mean to. I genuinely thing they are unaware.…
Healthcare innovation often starts from the right place, but forgets the goal along the way What good is innovation if it doesn’t get used? What good is the latest technology if it doesn’t impact lives they way it was intended? If someone is suffering from a health condition impeding their life, it stands to reason…
The above is the title of my most recent talk given at the Digital Marketing Europe 2021 conference. I decided to “write up” my talk as a post for the benefit of our readers because I think it’s important, especially in light of the latest pandemic year+ that we’ve all been experiencing with everything going…
A little before 2020 ended, Elinor had the chance to sit down for a quick chat with Sean W. from We Live to Build and talk about what “personal brand” means in her book. Specifically, Elinor shared from her experience and the experience of dozens of founders, CEOs and startups that we have helped over the…