Archita Fritz

Assurance Services International

Member of The Supervisory Board

hubble

You can book a 1:1 with me here:
 https://www.hubble.social/architafritz

Advice on everything:
✔️ Build Commercial Engines
✔️ Product Marketing
✔️ Scale Founder-Led Growth
✔️ Position for Multiples
✔️ Workforce Planning & Leadership
✔️ Building a Boardroom Career
✔️ Career Transitions

Advisor

Ready Set Bold

Fractional Executive Partner
—————————————
I embed with mid market PE- and VC-backed portfolio companies for focused, 4- to 11-month sprints, turning strategy into measurable results.

Typical challenges I solve
	•	Mis-aligned Product Vision → Execution
I bridge the gap between roadmap, build, and commercialisation so every feature ships with a revenue story.
	•	Quality Whiplash
I create frameworks that balance urgent customer issues with long-range innovation—no more trade-offs between delight and disruption.
	•	Silo-Driven Slow-Downs
I replace hand-offs with hand-shakes, bringing Product, Sales, Support, and Finance into one transparent cadence.
	•	Ghost GTM Plans
I install a pragmatic, metrics-first GTM engine that prioritises, sequences, and launches for maximum speed-to-money.

⸻

Workplace Culture Strategist
——————————————
Using a data-backed diagnostic rooted in research and lived experience, I help organisations move from awareness to action on:
	•	Psychological safety & “speak-up” culture
	•	Cross-team communication loops
	•	Team health → performance → profit

⸻

By the numbers
	•	25+ product launches
	•	$2.1 B cumulative revenue impact
	•	128+ countries served
	•	20+ years leading global, cross-functional teams

⸻

Selected client roster
BlueMountain · CluePoints · ResMed · Sparking Capital · Adidas · NHS Lincolnshire · Verity HealXR · Spookfish Innovations · Bright Spaces · Vatis Tech · FlaminJoy

⸻

If you need a high-impact operator who can land both product and people wins—fast—let’s talk.

Strategic Growth Catalyst : People and Product (Fractional CMO)

DfX (Deal Flow Xchange) is rethinking how private capital moves.
It’s not a fund or a network — it’s infrastructure.
A transparent, intent-driven platform where founders, investors, and lenders connect directly to get deals done. If you're raising, deploying, or lending capital — this is where you should be.
→ Learn more or request access: www.dealflowxchange.com

Sign up for our newsletter → https://lnkd.in/ebsicefQ
Are you a service provider? Plug into our network → https://lnkd.in/dJQsCCGm

Advisory Board Member

Veblen Director Programme

Chairperson of the 11 member Board of VDP. 

Through the Veblen community we work with Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) to help place Board members that can move forward innovation, impact and growth. Additionally support aspiring Board members in building and landing Board Roles.

Chairperson of the Board

Rose Equity Partners

Non Executive Director

BetterLogiq

Board Member

Brydge Club

Brdyge Club is a private angel investing network for women who want to write checks, build wealth, and shape the future of innovation.

We’re reimagining what access looks like — not just for founders, but for female investors ready to move from the sidelines to the cap table.

If you’re an accredited woman looking to invest in early-stage companies with purpose and upside, apply to join the club. → https://brydgeclub.com/

Founding Member

Institute of Directors (IoD)

Member

Open-Intro

I am available for 1:1 direct meetings on Open-Intro. Book me at: https://open-intro.com/expert/archita-fritz

Expert on Open-Intro

Fractional Product Marketing Leader | I help operationalize product roadmaps for commercial success | Strategic Board Advisor | Workplace Culture

I’m a Fractional CMO for PE-backed, mid-market companies and founder-led teams in the middle of growth, pressure, and transition.

→ I identify the gaps: people, product, and process
→ I build the commercialization system they forgot to build
→ I help teams launch, enable sales, and scale—fast
→ I create clarity, culture, and structure so the full-time hire can succeed
→ I step out once the system works without me

This is not “marketing.”
This is what makes a business commercial—and scalable.

Where I’ve Done It
→ Took a company from $1.5M to $350M in revenue
→ Launched 25+ products across 80+ markets
→ Opened a $2.1B market opportunity through positioning and system-building
→ Built product marketing functions from scratch for 7 companies and 15 founders
→ Advised founders through post-acquisition transitions and culture realignment
→ Partnered with CROs and CPOs to align product, marketing, and sales enablement

Who I Work With
→ PE-backed CEOs who don’t have time to figure it out alone
→ Founders stuck between what worked and what will scale
→ Boards that need more than “just another hire”—they need traction
→ Teams that need clarity, coordination, and accountability yesterday

Why It Works
Because founder magic burns out without structure.
Because the board doesn’t want more activity—they want results.
Because clarity beats chaos, every time.

I build what should have been built six months ago.
And then I help you hire the person to run it long-term.

If you would like to chat or need advice, you can book a 1:1 with me here: https://www.hubble.social/architafritz

What Others Say
“Archita’s strategic vision opened a $2.1B market for us. Her leadership was crucial to our expansion.”
— Shiva Ralapalli, CEO, Verity HealXR

“She helped us connect the dots and activate our teams. She built our Product Marketing function and aligned commercial with product.”
— Patrick Hughes, CRO, CluePoints

“Archita activated me and the audience to lead better for my team and myself.”
— Katie Reget, VP of Sales, ResMed

“She had high expectations of the team, and I of her—and she exceeded all expectations.”
— Vlad Panait, VC Partner, Sparking Capital

Chief Marketing Officer

We rise by lifting others! Driven by a commitment to build psychologically safe workplaces where people can unapologetically be themselves Archita is resolutely focused to work with partners who want to look beyond metrics to help shape cultures of belonging and cancel out the silent acceptance of bullying and harassment in the workplace.

Archita is the strategy and marketing lead on campaigns, partnerships, products and promotion. If you want to partner with Speak Out on organisational campaigns or partnerships please connect with her.

Grateful to be named one of Product Marketing Alliance’s Top 100 Product Marketers globally, for the second year in a row.

For almost 20 years I did product marketing without knowing it had a name.

In med device we just called it:
“Get the product launched and don’t screw it up.” Or Upstream marketing! 

Only later did I realise there was a whole discipline behind what I was doing in the middle:

- between product and sales
- between the investment thesis and the actual customer
- between the board deck and the front line

Over those ~20 years, I’ve helped bring 45+ products to market across:
	•	medical devices
	•	life sciences
	•	B2B tech & SaaS
	•	manufacturing

While they have been across different industries, I have noticed the same patterns. 

👉🏽 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 (𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒅) 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒆𝒓.

When nobody truly owns that layer, you get:
- beautiful products that never hit their number
- sales teams improvising a story that doesn’t match reality 
- leaders wondering why the plan works in Excel, but not in the market

In PE-backed and high-growth companies, product marketing is not “nice-to-have marketing”.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 

- pressure-testing the thesis against real customers
- choosing which problems to solve first
- arming GTM teams so revenue doesn’t depend on heroics

That’s the work I care about.

The recognition is just a visible signal of an invisible job a lot of us have been doing for years.

To the team at Product Marketing Alliance – thank you for shining a light on this craft and for putting me on the list again this year. 🙏🏽

Read up about all the other 99 here: https://lnkd.in/d7qWTUBX

And to the CEOs / value creation leaders reading this…

𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴.
𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘦𝘵… 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦.

PS: Congratulations to the other Product Marketing leaders recognized for this. Honoured to be amongst this cohort. Full list in the comments below.

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz 

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | 2 x Top 100 Product Marketing Leader

Archita Fritz, Top 100 Global Product marketeer as recognized by Product Marketing Alliance. Archita Fritz Value Creation Partner to Private Equity CxO‘s and PE firms 

Last weekend I went back to Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA to teach the leadership module I sat in 8 years ago.

While it was a new cohort with senior EMBA leaders from multiple countries, industries, and P&Ls.

One thing hasn’t changed as much in these 8 years.

When I asked where they feel the most pressure right now, the top answer wasn’t “strategy” or “performance.”

It was this:

“𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐’𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦.”

I see the same pattern in my private equity client work too. 

We still don’t really train our current or next generation of leaders to stay self-aware under pressure.

And yet it’s self-aware leaders who quietly build:
	•	better teams
	•	healthier organisations
	•	stronger communities

In the room, we had a lot of healthy debate as the leaders could describe the system ‘issues’ in perfect detail…

promotion rules, politics, cultural norms, short-term targets.

But when the pressure hits, the behaviours they tend to default to, looked familiar:

↳ hovering and micromanaging
↳ snapping
↳ telling instead of listening
↳ those “devil emails at midnight” Mita Mallick  writes about

Often followed by this sentence I hear in almost every geography: 

“In a high-performance culture, you have to be more direct.”
“In my country, this style of leadership doesn’t work.”

𝑪𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅.
𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆.

This is why I teach leadership as an operating system: within my Leadership OS™: 
Me → We → System → Future.

If Me is ignored:
	•	We don’t feel safe
	•	System changes don’t stick
	•	Future stays a story on slides

“Me” work for a senior leader isn’t a fancy offsite. It’s tiny, in-the-moment reps:

➟ Notice your first reflex under pressure: attack, withdraw, or hover.
➟ Name it: “I’m in micromanager / attack / rescue mode right now.”
➟ Choose one different move: ask a question, delay the midnight email, or take 90 seconds before you walk into the room.

To the EMBA leaders who spent Saturday with me….thank you!

You challenged the ideas. 
You challenged me. 

Many of you didn’t agree with everything we discussed, and you still stayed in the conversation.

That’s where real leadership work begins.

PS: Mita Mallick every student got a code to a copy of your book and thank you for taking time to record with us before!  To more aware leaders.

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In my house, there were only two correct answers to:
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Doctor
Engineer

But in the breaks at school, over steel tiffins from 5th grade onwards, I’d lean in and quietly tell my friends:

“I want to be a DJ.”

It was 90’s India. MTV VJs and radio DJs were everything, loud, free, fully themselves.

If my mum had known I was harbouring that dream, it would’ve been squashed instantly.

So I did what a lot of us do:

I kept the ‘wrong dream’ off fhe record. 
Got the grades, followed the path, got a scholarship, moved countries, started working on that engineering degree and collected responsibilities.

And then while at Michigan Tech in  Houghton, Michigan someone says, “There’s a student radio station here… 91.9 FM.”

Bam.

That hidden dream finally found a doorway.
A few months later, “Chai with Archita on WMTU 91.9FM” was on air, the only world music show in the entire Upper Peninsula.

It wasn’t a grand career move.
It was one small, very real way to let 10-year-old me exist in my actual life.

We quieten and defer a lot of these dreams.
We don’t just do this with childhood dreams.

We do it with adult ones too:
“I’ll start when work calms down.”
“When the kids are older.”
“Once this promotion is sorted.”

Here’s your Sunday nudge:

This isn’t just about childhood dreams.
It’s also the adult ones you quietly downgraded to “later” or “maybe when things calm down”.

👉🏽 What’s the thing you keep labelling “maybe one day”…and what’s the smallest real way you could let it live in 2026?

👇🏽In the comments, I’ve linked my latest newsletter, “Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill” , it’s a short read and a simple way to stop postponing the thing you already know you want (including a 90-minute option if you want support).

PS: I found this old student planner with a picture from my DJ days on a family trip back to Michigan last summer…wild what we forget we’ve already been brave enough to do.

Partner to Private Equity CEOs | GTM & Value Creation | Board Member | Top 100 PMA Product Marketing Leader

Archita Fritz advisor to Private Equity CEO’s also helping corporate individuals activate their childhood and adult tiny dreams they keep deffering to ‘some day’ 

The worst career advice that stuck in my head in my 20s was this line:

“Be brief. Be brilliant. Be gone.”

I heard it before my first big sales meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I was a quality engineer in MedTech, one of the only non-sales people in a huge room full of suits. That line was meant as presentation advice, but my brain took it everywhere.

Every time I bumped into someone senior, my internal script was:

You’ve got 20 seconds.
Don’t waste their time.
Say something smart.
Exit.

I wasn’t silent.
I laughed at the right moments, made safe comments about the weather, asked where people had flown in from.

But inside I was thinking,

“I don’t know these people. I don’t know the politics. I don’t know what they actually care about. How the hell am I supposed to be ‘brilliant’ in small talk?”

It made every hallway chat feel like a tiny performance review.

Fast forward a lot of years.

Now I get short windows with private equity operating partners and CEOs in a completely new world to me. 

The time is still limited. 
Their calendars are still packed.

But I use that old line differently now.

➟ In formal updates: 
“Be brief” still holds. 
Know your point, land the point and stop talking.

➟ In human moments: 
I drop “be brilliant” completely.

𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒖𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

I focus on two things only:
	1.	Know why I’m in the room.
	2.	Be a normal human about it.

That’s it.

“Be brief, be brilliant, be gone” is great for slides and steering committees.

As a personality setting, it quietly convinces you you’re not worth anyone’s time unless you perform for it first.

I know I’m not the only one who had to unlearn that.

PS: Yes, that’s me in the ‘suit’, in that same room just many years later. I still believe in “be brief” for updates. I just refuse to make people feel like every hello has to be “brilliant” to count.

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz, Private Equity Advisor to CEO’s and Operating Partners “You don’t owe brilliant on demand. You already earned your seat.” 

I hit every work and life goal I set as an 19-year-old… and then I “manifested” a toxic boss. :) 

When I was 19, I sat down with a pen and paper and wrote my 20s out like a checklist.

By 21, I wanted a dream job, a sponsored visa, to graduate debt-free and buy my dream car.
By 24, be engaged.
By 25, marry a kind, steady man I could build a life with.
By 27, live in a new country and do something meaningful there.
By 30, become a director and have my first child.
By 32, have my second kid. 

And in many ways, it worked.

Career, visa, marriage, kids, international move, director title, the list filled up with neat little ticks. I even added a third little human who never appeared on the original checklist and is one of the best plot twists of my life.

I’m very aware there’s a lot of privilege in that paragraph, education, opportunity, support, luck. A lot of people work just as hard and don’t get the same outcomes. That’s exactly why it took me a while to admit: something still felt off.

If I look back now, my late teens were performance as survival.
My 20s were listen. learn. lead. Watch closely, take notes, then step up.
My early 30s were operate. expand. prove. Bigger scope, M&A, more responsibility, more “you’ve made it” from the outside.

𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭. 

Not a cartoon villain, but the kind of leader who can turn every win into a question mark. Praising you in one breath and poking holes in the next, until you start to doubt your own judgement. Even when the results are right in front of you.

I would never have called that time a gift back then. Now I can see it cracked the checklist wide open. 

👉🏽 It forced me to finally ask different questions:

What do I actually want my days to feel like?

If no one was clapping, would I still choose this work, this pace, this version of “success”?

Where am I performing a role instead of living my own story?

That’s when my late 30s quietly shifted into a new chapter: ask. unlearn. choose.

𝑨𝒔𝒌 better questions.
𝑼𝒏𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 the scripts that were never really mine. 
𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒔𝒆 a life I can actually recognize myself in. 

So if you pressed pause on everyone else’s expectations for a moment, family, culture, your 18-year-old self….

👉🏽 what would your version of success look like right now?

Archita Fritz keynoting at Impact Players in Belfast Ireland

Some of the worst value destruction I’ve seen didn’t come from a bad strategy. It came from a decent plan no one felt allowed to question.

This photo is from my first “proper” photoshoot in Los Angeles.

It looks calm and glossy.

What you don’t see is everything wrapped around it:
      •	12 weeks postpartum
	•	a big product launch in Barcelona
	•	a main-stage talk in Los Angeles 
	•	24 hours later next launch in Seattle
      •	48 hours later back to Dussledorf 
	•	flights, decks, rehearsal, inbox, repeat 

On the outside, it looked like momentum.
On the inside, the script was pretty simple:

Don’t slow down.
Don’t drop anything.
Don’t question the plan.

And that’s what so many companies feel like right now.

On paper, everything looks great.

Inside the business, people are sprinting from one “critical” thing to the next with almost no space to say:

“With what we know now, this plan needs to change.”

That’s what I talked about with Dane 🦘 Groeneveld on the The Future of Teamwork  podcast. 

In the episode, we get into:

1️⃣ Why “we’re on a PE clock” is not a leadership strategy
2️⃣ How noise around GTM, value creation and “transformation” confuses CEOs who actually want to do the right thing
3️⃣ What healthier high-performance can look like when you lead with clarity, ownership and space to challenge the plan

🎧 Episode with Dane Groeneveld, here or anywhere you get your podcasts.

https://lnkd.in/gwpeyWPp

P.S. This was a really fun photoshoot with my fellow high-performance queen and co-host of the Embracing "Only" Podcast  podcast circa 2020. 

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

Archita Fritz at a photo shoot before getting on stage at Podcast Evolutions. Private Equity commercial and leadership advisor 

If the idea of slowing down today makes you feel a bit guilty, this is for you.

𝑴𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌.
𝑾𝒆 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆.

That little voice that says:
“If I slow down, I’ll lose momentum.”
“Everyone else is sprinting to year-end. I can’t ease up now.”

I know that voice well.

But life isn’t one straight line up.
There are stretches where you push, and stretches where you flatline a bit so you can climb again.

Today is Thanksgiving for my friends in the U.S.(and for those of us celebrating over here too).

We are having a small Friendsgiving tonight, and I have decided my pause is today and tomorrow.

Then the year-end sprint picks up again.

If you’re reading this while you’re:
↳ prepping food
↳ cleaning the house
↳ answering “what time should we come?” for the fifth time
↳ or just trying to get through a regular Thursday

You still get to claim a small pause:
➟ ten quiet minutes in the car before you go back in
➟ one meal where your phone stays in another room
➟ a short walk with no podcast, no call, just your own thoughts

I hope you claim one small, imperfect, very human pause in the middle of it all.

Not because you “earned it”, but because rest is part of how you do your best work and how you show up for the people you love.

If you needed permission, this is it.

PS: I got to pause with the lovely humans in this photo below about a month ago and we took the whole weekend. Truly grateful for these ladies, and the ones not in this picture too. 🧡

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

A lot of brilliant people I work with...VP, Director, C-suite and other leaders, are quietly asking the same question right now:

“What if I don’t want 2026 to look like 2025… or 2024… or the three years before that?”

Not because you want to quit.
Not because everything is awful.

But 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂 𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒍𝒆, 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆, 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕.

Before I ever left corporate, I sat with that same feeling.

For almost three years while I was still in my global / EMEA roles, I quietly started building optionality for myself, testing different ways of working, building my own IP, saying yes to advisory and board-style work, and learning how to talk about what I do beyond a job title.

That’s the work that turned into what I have now...

PE-backed CEO work, 
a portfolio of board roles, 
advisory, speaking, 
and The Embracing "Only" Podcast with Olivia Grant-Cream.

And that’s why we created Embracing “Only” in the first place, to give people the space to talk honestly about what comes after you’ve succeeded at everything everyone told you to do.

And today, for the first time ever, I am sharing a low-touch, high-impact end-of-year invitation with our 3K newsletter subscribers:

👉🏾 A subsidised 90-minute 1:1 Activation Session
👉🏾 Specifically for those exploring a portfolio career
👉🏾 Or for those exploring a Board career
👉🏾 5 spots only
👉🏾 10% donated to Olivia’s GoFundMe 
(Read more about Hurricane Melissa efforts in the comments below)

And if it’s not the season for paid support, we included a few free episodes to guide your next step.

If 2026 needs to feel different for you…start here.

PS: If you had to pick one word for what you want more of in your work life in 2026, what would it be? 

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

Most people reading this are not trying to blow up their lives. You’re in full-time, high-pressure leadership roles. You’re running teams, carrying nu

Open article: Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill: A Small Invitation for the “Onlys” by Archita Fritz • 4 min read

Before 2026 Finds You on the Same Treadmill: A Small Invitation for the “Onlys”

Seventeen years in MedTech left me with one permanent side effect…

I can’t look at a growth story without picturing the humans who have to carry it.

Once you’ve watched an ICU team on a bad day, you stop believing pretty plans.

Back then I worked on devices that lived in acute care settings of hospitals, if we were pitching a new product idea or a big launch, it was never enough that the slide looked smart.

Someone would always ask:
“Okay, what does this look like on a bad shift?”

Every “big bet” had two parts:
- the upside case
- and a ruthless pass on what had to go right in real life, with tired people

We didn’t just ask, “Is the market there?”

We asked things like:
↳ Who has to change their behaviour on a bad day, not a good one?

↳ How many steps are we adding to their shift?

↳ Where does this break first when the ward is short-staffed and everyone is on hour eleven?

If that part didn’t hold up, the launch didn’t move.

Not because we were nice, but because ignoring it was the fastest way to get shut down.

In Private Equity (PE) backed high growth companies, I see the reverse.

Weeks of work on TAM, pricing, scenarios and upside. Then “execution risk” gets one slide and a hand wave at best.

You’re doing serious work on the market side of the thesis and almost no serious work on whether the organisation can actually absorb the plan you’re buying.

That’s not a minor gap.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒆𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒌.

Alix Partners data shows 56% of PE-backed CEOs are replaced within two years, usually for 

➟ ‘failure to execute the thesis’, not because the market disappeared.

Because of MedTech, I’m wired to stress-test a plan, not just get excited about it.

Now, when I look at your “growth story”, that’s the part my brain refuses to skip.

If your story only lives in the spreadsheet and not in the calendar and nervous system of the people who have to execute it, it’s not a strategy.

It’s a wish.

PS: My dad beaming while on his “daughters” stretcher, after finding himself on it after a fall a few years ago. Almost a decade later still so proud I helped launch The Stryker PrimeX into this world! 

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

How MedTech Marketing helps stress test Private Equity backed high growth companies! 

I sat through 103 B2B SaaS product demos this year.
Not one of them made it easy for me to just experience the product.

No login-free walkthrough.
No short, honest flow I could click through on my own.

Best case, I got:
 – a “Book a demo” wall
 – a discovery call
 – 15–20 minutes of slides
 – then a partial screen share of a half-broken sandbox

And then the call ended and I realised I was still guessing:
 “What does this actually change for my client/their customer next quarter?”

I see this as someone buying tools, building AI SDR stacks, and working with PE-backed leadership teams:

𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 “𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕” 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒘.

The closest I’ve seen are things like demo hubs (e.g. Klue’s demo arena, something by Rob Hoffman).

 But even those stop just short of:
“Here. Click through this one real workflow like it’s your own.”

If I were running GTM for a SaaS company in 2026, 

I’d start with one question:

👉🏾 How easy is it for a serious buyer to actually experience what we do, without jumping through hoops?

My answer would need to look like this:
 – One ungated, 60–90 second interactive walkthrough from the website
 – One real workflow, end-to-end, that looks like a real day in the life
 – Clear language: “You’re [role]. Here’s the moment you’re in.”
 – A concrete outcome: “This is what changes for you next quarter.”
 – A link I can replay and share internally without booking another call

And honestly it isn't about being clever, it's about respecting buyers’ time and brains.

This is where interactive demo platforms like Guideflow actually make sense to me:

not as “prettier sales decks”, but as a way to finally ship:
 – one link
 – one clear walkthrough
 – one shared product story for buyers, teams, and investors

I wish I could tell you I saw five perfect examples of this in 2025.
I didn’t.

Which means: whoever builds it properly in 2026 will stand out fast.

And yes I made my own version of Wrapped for Product Demos to bring this home! :)

👋🏾  If you’ve seen a truly ungated, “just let me in” product walkthrough this year, drop it below. I’m genuinely curious, and I’d love to be wrong.

#GuideFlowPartner #sponsored

PS: You can check out and complete a real product walk through on the GuideFlow website at: https://lnkd.in/ez6Fc6b6

——

Hi 👋🏾 I’m Archita. I spent 17 years in MedTech and now partner with investor- and private equity–backed CEOs, boards, and commercial leaders to build growth plans their teams can actually execute.

"Book a Demo" Button Wrapped across multiple B2B SaaS

In private equity, this line is a red flag:
“We can’t prove marketing’s impact on revenue.”

If nothing in marketing can be tied to 

pipeline, 
win rate, 
deal size, 
or sales cycle,

you don’t just have a marketing problem
you have a value-creation problem.

Not everything needs perfect attribution.

But something needs a clear chain:
product marketing → sharper story → better opportunities → better economics.

And before anyone jumps in with
“but brand / comms / PMM is hard to attribute”
I agree, not everything gets a perfect CAC number.

But every marketing function should have a clear, testable path to:
better pipeline
better win rates
better economics

That’s the bar I hold in my PE work, and it’s why I loved Product Marketing Alliance’s “How to Prove Product Marketing ROI” so much.

The article is a sharp breakdown on proving product marketing ROI, and I turned the core ideas into a short carousel you can save, share, and forward the next time someone says “how do we prove product marketing drives ROI.”

This is the work I do with PE-backed companies, turning “marketing is a cost centre” into a testable revenue engine.

👉🏾  Original article linked in the comments.

PS: Where do you draw the line between “we can’t measure this” and “we just haven’t been forced to?”

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

How to Prove Product Marketing ROI

You keep hiring “change agents”…
and then designing their jobs so they can’t change anything.

New CEO.
New CRO.
New Head of GTM or Chief of Staff.

And then the same soundtrack in most Private Equity backed portcos when I step in: 
“Marketing isn’t working.”
“Sales isn’t executing.”
“We need more leads.”
“We’ve outgrown our GTM.”

That’s what this grid is about:
7 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘎𝘛𝘔 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺.

Because underneath the language, you usually find:
Not a skills problem, but an 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 problem
Not a sales problem, but a 𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 problem
Not a people problem, but an 𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 problem 
(this org is simply done pretending to transform)

And then the “change agent” becomes the easiest person to blame.

For me, the real multiple in PE looks more like:

(𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆) × (𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒓𝒈 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒃)

If either piece is close to zero…
zero honesty × anything = still zero
any amount of honesty × zero emotional capacity = still zero

The lower of those two sets your real ceiling. Your model won’t go further than your honesty or your team’s emotional bandwidth.

PS: If you’re in PE or leading a portco or growth focused company...Which box in this grid do you hear the most right now and where do you disagree with this framing? I’m especially curious where you think it is a people problem, not a system one.

----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

What leaders say when Go-to-Market is Failing in Private Equity and Beyond


Most leaders I know are caught between three browser tabs:


1️⃣ Targets that went up
2️⃣ Headcount that went down
3️⃣ LinkedIn telling them AI + “efficient growth” will somehow square the circle

So I pulled the tools I use to answer these questions,  into a FREE Growth Toolbox you can grab below. 👇🏾

25+ of the most used assets I developed based on the work I do with companies. 

If you sit anywhere near private equity, that contrast is just louder.

You’re not short on ideas.

You’re short on clarity about:
↳Where the next €5–10M realistically comes from
↳Which customers you should actually fight for
↳Where AI genuinely creates leverage (vs. theatre)
↳How to push harder without frying your best people

That’s the work I do with portcos across EQT, Accel-KKR, Cinven, Nordic Capital and others.

Whenever something actually worked, we turned it into a reusable tool.

𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘭𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦:
👉🏾 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑬𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒕𝒉 𝑻𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒃𝒐𝒙

 25+ practical assets, including:
➟ “Quality of growth” scorecards
➟ GTM & ICP clarity frameworks
➟ Europe & market expansion checks
➟ AI focus maps (using the stack you already have)
➟ Product marketing & commercialization templates
➟ Leadership & anti-fragility prompts

It’s built with private equity portfolios in mind…but if you own a number, run a team, or live between “big targets” and real life, there’s probably something in there that will help you think and act more clearly this quarter.

If that sounds useful, just grab it.
👉🏾 The link to the toolbox is here: https://lnkd.in/eCunKCjU

No “comment GROWTH” ritual. 🙃 
Just the tools, in one place, so you can get back to making real decisions.

PS: If there’s a specific best practice, learning, or toolset you’d love to see next, around value creation, GTM, product marketing, or leadership, drop it in the comments. I’ll use that to decide what to build and share next.
----
Hi, I’m Archita. I work with Private Equity (PE)-backed CEOs and value creation teams to fix what’s slowing growth, usually misalignment, messy messaging, or GTM systems that don’t scale.

I also serve on several boards, where I support founder-led and investor-backed companies navigating growth, governance, and strategic clarity.

👉🏽 Book a 1:1 via my featured section. (Serious enquiries only — otherwise, start with the Hubble link.)

Callum Laing

I take companies public and run a $100m MAS regulated fund. 
I am a partner at the Unity Group, the founder of Global Investment Leaders Directive (GILD) for capital raisers.  And I run the Veblen Director Programme, for first time board members.  
Author of 'Boardroom Blueprint - Boost your career with a board seat in 60 days'
My exclusive network of UHNW individuals meet every quarter for lunch at the 'Captable' Singapore (coming to Dubai soon) 

Founder & former CEO / Chair of MBH Corporation PLC, an agglomeration of small, profitable companies from around the world.  Grew it to $180m in revenue.
Advisor to multiple public and private boards.  

Involved in more than 100 M&A transactions and $500m in shareholder value creation.

Best selling author of 3 other business books, I've published over 2500 interviews with Entrepreneurs and Investors around the world. EnterpriseZone.cc
Host of the daily 'CallumConnects' micro-podcast (top 5% worldwide, top 25 for entrepreneurs, 500+ episodes).

Previously served as Singapore High Commissioner to the World Business Angel Investment Forum, an Ambassador to DealGateway.com and on the Board of Advisors to Kinguin, a $100m turnover eGaming business.

The Agglomeration model helps small businesses to scale using publicly listed holding companies.

If you're interested in taking your business, investments or career to the next level, press the blue Follow button above.  

Author of: 
"Progressive Partnerships - The Future of Business" 
"Entrepreneurial Investing - Connecting sophisticated capital to talented small business"
"Boardroom Blueprint - Boost your career with a board seat in 60 days"
Co-author of:
"Agglomerate - Idea to IPO in 12 months"

The Veblen Director Program is designed to get you that elusive first PLC Director position and to provide you with an enviable global network of other Directors that you can call on at will for the rest of your career.

There is no point pitching Richard Branson, even if you get the chance.
(Genuinely that is my book he’s pretending to read, not AI generated!) 

I once spent a week with Sir Richard on Necker Island.

One by one, people worked up the courage to corner him and pitch their big idea.

And without fail… nothing happened.  He smiled politely, nodded, and edged away slowly.

Not because their ideas were bad. But because they didn’t understand the process.

One person, one conversation, one shot is almost never how big opportunities happen.

The real value isn’t in getting 20 minutes with a billionaire.

The real value is in having 20 conversations with people he already trusts. 
 
People who can open doors. Or 20,000 conversations that build a movement he can’t ignore.

People love to say ‘Quality trumps quantity’.  I would argue: “Volume is Value”
A large network of “ordinary” people can be far more valuable than a small network of people with titles.

The goal isn’t one shot with Branson, it’s creating so much value that Branson can’t ignore you!


Send me a connection request for more…

Successful Investor / Entrepreneur and M&A practitioner. I also help ambitious people to raise money, get board seats and take companies public.

My best productivity hack came from something I used to dread: long-haul flights.

Running a global business means you’re always “on.” There’s always a message, a meeting, or a family obligation pulling at your attention. Real downtime is rare.

Years ago I realised the one environment I couldn’t escape was business travel. And while I never enjoyed long-haul flights, I discovered they gave me something I couldn’t get anywhere else: uninterrupted deep work.

No WhatsApp messages. No email notifications. No Zoom calls. No clients, staff, or family competing for my attention. Just me, my laptop, and hours of clear space, with someone occasionally bringing food and coffee.

It turned into the perfect environment for writing my books and getting my best work done.

I admit this hack isn’t practical for most people. But it worked for me.
What’s the best hack you’ve found for doing deep work?

–
Send a connection request if you would like to get access to a bunch of free resources!

Stop Chasing. Start Growing.

I used to look at successful people 30 years older than me and think: "How do I get into their circle?"

Wrong question.

Many of those relationships I envied weren't built at networking events or LinkedIn DMs. They were forged years ago - through shared risks, late-night strategy sessions, and watching each other's backs when nobody else cared.

So I flipped the strategy. Instead of just chasing established power, I started investing in ambitious peers who were hungry but hadn't arrived yet.

Ten years later, many of those "nobodies" are now the "somebodies".

The insight: networks compound like investments. The earlier you get in, the bigger the returns.

There are ways to engineer access to those with established networks, but it’s even more powerful to build a network of your peers and grow up together.

Look around your peer group today. 
Who's showing up consistently? Who's solving real problems? Who has that restless energy that says they won't stay where they are?  

Start placing bets, not all will pay off, but this is an investment you won’t regret! (and will probably be more fun along the way!)


For a bunch of free resources, send me a connection request.

Jamie Dimon is worth $2 billion. He’s run JP Morgan Chase for nearly two decades. His career advice? Not that useful.
One of my best-performing posts was laying out his 6 rules for success:
Work hard

Learn as much as you can

Respect colleagues

Chase responsibility, not salaries

Look after your health

Be disciplined

Sounds reasonable, right? The kind of advice your parents gave you. The kind HR puts on posters. 
But… plenty of people follow that advice and never end up with a fraction of Dimon’s success.

Hard work and continuous learning aren’t differentiators. They’re entry requirements.

Let’s take a closer look at what Dimon did v’s what he says:
 - At 26, Sandy Weill spotted him and made him his protégé.
 - When Weill left American Express, Dimon followed.
 - When Weill bought Commercial Credit, Dimon was his right-hand man.
 - Through Smith Barney, Travelers, Citigroup,  Dimon wasn’t just changing jobs. He was following access.

One relationship shaped his entire trajectory.

Not his Harvard MBA. Not 80-hour weeks. Not “selfcare.”

Dimon’s advice isn’t wrong, it’s just incomplete.

If you’re not in the room with the right people, everything else is noise.
You can out-work, out-learn, and out-perform everyone… and still get passed over for the person who is known and trusted by the right people.

You already know this. I’m pretty sure you can give me at least one example in the comments of a time when you lost out to someone who just happened to know the right people? Or maybe it’s worked in your favour?

The good news is Access Engineering is something anyone can do. Get deliberate about building the right relationships and putting yourself in the right rooms. You will still need to score the goals, but at least you’re on the pitch!

––
I’ve put together free resources and a 3-hour workshop on how to do exactly this.
Send me a connection request and I’ll share them with you.

Most businesses are still hiring like it's 1995. I do it differently.

After nearly 20 years and hundreds of freelancer hires, I've completely abandoned traditional recruitment. 

Every single person on my team started as a freelancer. Here's the system that has worked incredibly successfully for me, hopefully it can work for you too:

The Attraction Phase:  
Don't post "$10/hour for admin work." Post "Virtual Assistant role - $10,000" i.e. the amount you would pay them if they work for you for a year.  And even if it is your least favourite job, take the time to make it sound interesting.  Will you give them training?  Will there be other opportunities if they are good?

They have choices, you need to sell the opportunity, not just try and buy time.

The Filter:
(Be Ruthless) Your role here isn't to give someone their first break. Look for:
$10,000+ already earned on platform
90%+ ratings or 4-5 stars
Clear effort in their application

Skip the lengthy interviews. Pick 3-5 candidates and give each a paid trial task ($50 is fine). Different tasks, similar complexity. You're testing responsiveness, communication, and results.

Try and guess who will deliver the best work.  In 20 years, I’ve never guessed right.

The Reality Check:
The best proposal rarely delivers the best work. For example, many many people (outside of sales and marketing!) often undersell themselves but over-deliver on results. Stay open-minded.

The Smart Scaling: 
Found 2-3 good people? Hire them all on short contracts. Some will fit your culture, others won't. That's fine - end contracts that don't work, expand roles for those that do.

I've had $10/hour VAs grow into company directors because I could see their actual performance, not just their CV.

Why this beats traditional hiring:
Past performance doesn't predict future fit with your team
Personal circumstances change
Company culture fit is impossible to assess in interviews
Short-term contracts let you scale up or down without drama
The labour market is shifting toward freelancing whether you adapt or not. Smart businesses are already there.
What's worked (or failed) in your freelancer hiring experience?


Send a connection request if you would like to get access to a bunch of free resources!

Nobody Cares. And That’s a Gift.

Ben Horowitz wrote a piece years ago called Nobody Cares. His point: no matter how tough your circumstances, nobody cares. Not your investors, not your employees, not even your mother. All that matters is whether you find a way through.

I should have learned that lesson earlier.

When I launched an IP Engineer recruiting company at the height of the dot com bubble, and that bubble burst, I told myself the timing was the problem. 

When I tried to scale a sports events company off the back of banking sponsorship, just before the Global Financial Crisis, I blamed the market. 

When white collar criminals destroyed $250m of shareholder value on my first IPO, I convinced myself it was “bad luck.” 

But the truth is nobody cared about the reasons. They cared about results. More specifically they cared about how I reacted to the circumstances.

Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time lost 42% of points he played.  But it was how he handled that loss that made the difference.

You can waste energy justifying or you can get busy solving.

Today, I look back and realise those failures were just stepping stones. Each one, and many more, were painful and humiliating, but they trained me to focus on what I can control and keep trying to help the people I was trying to help.

Ben Horowitz is right:

“The press doesn’t care, your investors don’t care, your board doesn’t care, your employees don’t care, even your mama doesn’t care. Nobody cares.
And they are right not to care. A great reason for failing won’t preserve one dollar for your investors, won’t save one employee’s job, or get you one new customer. “

As my fellow New Zealander’s have a habit of saying ‘Just toughen the %^&* up!’

Ever felt sorry for yourself when you should be focused on moving forward?

The Wealth Hack Nobody Talks About.

"AI will kill your job. Start a business or stay broke forever."

That's the story everyone's selling. And it's missing the biggest opportunity of the next decade.
You don't need to quit your job. You don't need to risk your savings. You don't need to become the next Elon Musk.

You just need to stop thinking like an employee.

Here's what I mean: while everyone's panicking about AI or debating whether to start a business, there's a third path hiding in plain sight.

Equity through introductions.

The smartest people I know aren't grinding 80-hour weeks or betting their mortgages on startups. They're making strategic introductions and taking equity stakes in return.

At Unity Group, we start introducer equity at $150,000. No capital required. No business plan. No sleepless nights. Just the right connection at the right time.

Think about it: every major deal needs smart introductions. Every growing company needs the right partners, investors, or clients. Every successful transaction has someone who made the critical introduction.

That someone could be you.

Connections aren't just networking. They're assets. And assets generate wealth.

The question isn't whether you know valuable people. It's whether you know how to monetise those relationships ethically.

What's the most valuable introduction you could make right now?

–
If you would like free access to a global capital raising platform send me a connection request with ‘GILD’ right now.

How do you go from $32.17 to $150,000 in one day? 

In 2007, Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists, played in a Washington D.C. subway.

For 43 minutes, he performed on his $3.5m Stradivarius.
1,097 people walked past.
Only seven stopped.
He earned $32.17 in tips.

That same man sells out concert halls, earning $150,000 for the exact same performance.

So what changed?
Not the music.
Not the violin.
Not the talent.
The room.

In a concert hall, Bell’s value was recognised.
In a subway station, he was invisible.
This is something we all inherently feel.  You can be extraordinary, with huge amounts to offer, and still be overlooked if you’re in the wrong room.  Or not in any room.

The CARES framework is about getting in the right room. It’s about engineering access so your value is seen, rewarded, and multiplied:
Connections.
Authority 
Reach 
Equity 
Service 

The performance didn’t change. Just the room he was in.
Your value doesn’t change. But you need to be in the right room.
Where are you still playing subway stations instead of concert halls?


–
If you would like to see many examples of people who have used CARES to get amazing results, send me a connection request and I’ll send you some resources.

Four extraordinary people. One unexpected lesson: even winners wish…?

People think success comes from chasing opportunities. The real shift happens when opportunities start chasing you.

I hosted a webinar with four guest speakers who each had an extraordinary year. More than 500 people registered to hear them.

On paper, their bios make it look effortless.

But what they shared were the doubts, fears, and false starts they fought through before taking action.

And when I asked what they’d do differently, every single one said the same thing:

“I wish I’d started sooner or moved quicker”.

Yet from the outside it already seems like they had moved mountains in an incredible short time period.

If you’re serious about your future and want to move from chasing opportunities to attracting them, I strongly recommend you carve out time for the replay:

https://lnkd.in/g-V2pJ8C

What’s something you’ll look back on a year from now and wish you had started today?

Most partnerships fail because people design them to need the other person to succeed.

Yesterday I spoke with a business owner who'd built something fantastic over 14 years. When she got to the part about her journey from A to B, she laughed: "And you can imagine, it's been very smooth."

Every partnership she'd tried had gone sideways. Cost her money. Let her down. Now she needed big partnerships to scale, but she was gun-shy.

Here's what I told her: the number one reason partnerships fail is misaligned expectations.
We assume the other person is as enthusiastic as we are. Sometimes they start that way. But stuff happens. Priorities change. They get distracted.

If you expect them to deliver what you're hoping for, you'll be disappointed more often than not.
But all partnerships can be structured so you win even if they underdeliver.

Leverage the announcement. Leverage the signing. Leverage the credibility of shaking hands with them. Design it so that partnership works for you whether they show up or not.

This makes partnerships simple. You always win, never lose.

And sometimes, just occasionally, you get a partnership that delivers even more than you expected. That's just a bonus.

Most people design partnerships hoping the other person will make them successful. Smart operators design partnerships where success doesn't depend on hope.

What's the worst partnership experience that taught you the most?

You've Got It Backwards.

Most people are waiting. "Once I make it, then I'll give back."

Wrong sequence.

Service isn't what you do after success. Service is how you build success.

Look at anyone who's genuinely made it. They didn't climb to the top and then start helping people. They helped people climb with them.

Here's what changes when you flip the script: instead of asking "what can I get from this relationship," you start asking "what problem can I solve for this person?"

That shift? It's everything.

Because when you lead with value, three things happen fast:
People remember you when opportunities arise
Your reputation spreads through their networks
You become the person others want to partner with

This is why the CARES framework works. It's not about building connections to extract value. It's about building connections to create value.

Connections become deeper when you serve first. 
Authority grows when you solve real problems. 
Reach expands when people want to share what you're doing. 
Equity follows when you're essential to the outcome.
Service is the ‘why’ behind everything you do.

The people making real money aren't chasing deals. They're creating so much value that deals chase them.

Stop waiting for success to give you permission to serve. Start serving to earn your success.

Who could you help right now that would change everything for them?



Send me a connection request with ‘Inner Circle’ to learn when my next free event is

Think Graham Norton's couch meets LinkedIn Live - unscripted, dynamic conversations with business leaders at the cutting edge of entrepreneurship, investment, and growth

Tune into the conversations that normally happen behind closed doors.  Learn about some of the big breakthroughs in 2025 and some of the plans for '26.

Format: 45-minute live streamed panel.  No script. No agenda.  Just a chance to hear business leaders on a virtual couch discussing what's working for them.

This episode's guests:

Archita Fritz - Commercial and Leadership Activation Partner to Private Equity CEO’s

Elton Leung - Strategic Investor & Scale-Up Partner

Christian Secci - CEO at Alfred24 & Global Board Leader

Where The Most Influential Voices Have the Conversations That Matter

When a deal looks terrible, maybe you’re looking at it from the wrong angle.
I once looked at buying a $1bn fund where the manager was earning $30m a year.

For holding money in a bank.

My first reaction? This guy's a genius salesman or these families are getting fleeced.

Turns out I was asking the wrong question entirely.

The question wasn't "What's he doing with their money?"

The real question was "What problem is he actually solving?"

Those 10 families, $100m each, didn't want alpha. They wanted certainty. 

They'd explicitly told him: make money if you can, but never lose money.

He'd started with a strategy getting 8-9% safely. When that stopped looking safe, he moved it to a bank getting 4-5%. Families got 1-2% after his fees.
And they were happy.

Because he solved the actual problem. Peace of mind on $1bn has a price tag. Apparently it's $30m a year.

Here's what I learnt: When something looks like a terrible deal from the outside, you're probably measuring the wrong thing.

You're valuing what you would want. Not what they actually need.

Most of us are so busy judging other people's choices through our own lens that we miss what's actually being bought and sold.

The families weren't buying returns. They were buying sleep.

What looks overpriced to you might be solving a problem you don't have.
(And yes, I know in real terms they were losing money to inflation, but it wasn’t critical to them with this particular cash allocation).


–
Send me a connection request if you would like to know about the regular events I hold for UHNW individuals or would like other free assets.

Perfect leaders are forgettable. Authentic leaders are unforgettable.

I’ve interviewed over 2,500 Leaders over the past 15 years on EnterpriseZone, in this series I’ll share some of my learnings.

"I am brilliant and imperfect."

Trina Kennedy RSW, BAHSA's belief transformed her entire approach to leadership. Instead of chasing perfectionism as a measure of worth, she stepped into authentic self-expression.

"This shift liberated me to take risks, share my story authentically, and focus on the impact of my work rather than chasing unattainable standards."

The pattern shows up across every successful leader I've interviewed:

Moyo O.: "I've witnessed the power of vision and alignment... These moments reminded me that belief, clarity, and preparation can open doors beyond your wildest imagination."

Dr Darren Chua openly discusses his stroke: "My own struggles have shaped my passion for guiding others toward better health and performance."

Barbara Hales, M.D. admits her early mistake: "For years, I believed that doing good work would naturally lead to recognition, referrals, and opportunities. But I had an 'if I build it, they will come' mentality."

This connects perfectly to building genuine Authority in the CARES framework for getting ahead:
Connections
Authority
Reach
Equity
Service

 - people don't follow perfect leaders, they follow leaders who've overcome challenges they recognise.

Your vulnerabilities aren't weaknesses to hide. They're connection points that make your expertise credible.

What struggle have you overcome that could help others facing the same challenge?

–
Send a connection request if you would like to get access to a bunch of free resources!

They Let You in the Room. Now What?

Access without authority is just expensive networking.

You finally get that invitation. The one you've been working toward. You're sitting at the table with people who matter.

And then someone asks your opinion.

Silence. Polite nods. The conversation moves on without you.

Here's what nobody tells you: getting in the room is the easy part. Staying relevant once you're there? That's the real challenge.

Authority isn't what it used to be. Your MBA doesn't impress anyone anymore. Your job title gets you through the door, but it won't keep you in the conversation.

Today's authority is earned in real time. 
Are you solving problems that matter? 
Publishing insights that change how people think? 
Sitting on boards where your judgment gets tested under pressure?

Study the people you want to influence. What do they respect? What makes them lean in when someone speaks?

Then build that deliberately.

Because access gets you noticed. Authority gets you remembered.

And there's a big difference between being in the room and owning it.

What's the fastest way you've seen someone build real authority?

They had been trying to raise money for 5 years!

They wanted to build and scale their business through acquisition and every advisor told them the same thing: “You need to raise capital and then approach companies”

At Unity-Group we did the opposite. We showed them a backdoor.  A collaborative IPO where instead of needing money, they could use the stock as currency to do acquisitions.

Within months, they were public.  Within a year they had done 4 acquisitions and had grown from the 316th biggest in the country to being in the top 10 by fleet size.  

No capital raised or deployed, they now had the kind of credibility and access usually reserved for companies 10x their size.

Ironically finance companies were now knocking on their door! 

Conventional wisdom is great.  If you want to be conventional.

Most small businesses don’t realise it is often the gatekeepers who are the ones holding you back.  But there are always ways around gatekeepers!

What’s the biggest “gatekeeper myth” you’ve seen hold back ambitious founders?

If one of your goals is to get yourself a board seat in 2026, it is worth reading this great take from Guy Ofek! Can't wait to see what he achieves next year.

Still recall the exact second I hit “submit” on the Veblen Director Programme  application earlier this year....

That single click - one of Tony Robbins’ famous “massive actions” - just paid another dividend in saffron negronis and pure human rocket fuel.

Last night in Singapore, five of us (Hetul Patel, Ashim Gupta, Marisa Agrasut, Hilda Dimasi  and yours truly) turned a quiet corner of The Elephant Room into a mastermind on steroids. Four hours of cocktails (and mocktails...) that look like Bollywood jewellery, zero small talk, and a ridiculous amount of laughter, wisdom and next-level ideas.

Hetul and Marisa (Batch 2 legends) reminded us what real #accountability looks like - those early Veblen accountability groups were apparently run like military operations (and the results show). 

I’ve been in several of those groups now and can confirm: nothing moves the needle on your goals faster than a handful of people who actually care whether you hit your 90-day rocks or not.

That’s the Veblen effect in one night:
➡️ Surround yourself with smarter, kinder, more driven humans
➡️ Watch the tide rise and lift every boat (especially the slightly battered ones)
➡️ Collect what I call “living moments” - the kind you’ll still be smiling about in 2035
➡️ Discover opportunities you didn’t even know existed

If you’re a founder or CEO who’s tired of going it alone, do yourself a favour: surround yourself with people who push, support and celebrate you - all at the same time!

I found Veblen isn’t just a programme. It’s a cheat code for a bigger, richer life.

Grateful for Hetul, Ashim, Marisa and Hilda. 

Already counting down to the next one.

Here’s to more living moments in 2026 🥂🚀

#VeblenDirectors #AccountabilityWorks #LivingMoments #SingaporeCrew #HighTideRaisesAllBoats

You know that moment when you hit retirement and think "finally, freedom" ... only to realise you're not done yet?

That's exactly where Leon Rubinstein found himself.

After decades scaling high-tech startups across borders and managing a corporate VC fund for Xerox Europe, he had the experience. He had the expertise. But retirement? That felt like sitting on the sidelines.

Then he discovered something most executives miss: board work isn't consulting with a different title.

Here's what Leon learned (and what most first-time directors get wrong):
The "Nose In, Fingers Out" principle You're not there to do the work. You're there to help CEOs see what they can't see from the trenches. Strategic altitude beats operational involvement every time.

You don't need all the answers. Your job? Ask better questions. Point to blind spots. Then leverage your network to bring in the real experts. Value comes from connections, not just knowledge.

Industry expertise is overrated When Leon was offered a board seat in an industry he knew nothing about, he asked "why would you want me?" The response? "Why not." Fresh perspective often beats insider thinking.

Knowledge without action is just theory. You can read every book on board governance (including my Boardroom Blueprint!). But real progress happens through community. The accountability. The introductions. The spark that comes from meeting people across continents and industries who push you forward.

Leon's now building his board portfolio in Portugal, using everything he learned about intentional networking to open new doors.

Your experience has value beyond your last job title. The question is whether you'll deploy it.

What's stopping you from pursuing board opportunities? Is it clarity on the role, access to the right networks, or something else entirely?

Stop Hiding. Start Getting Lucky.

If you think personal branding is narcissistic, you're watching the wrong people.

While you're staying silent to avoid looking self-promotional, someone with half your experience just landed the opportunity you wanted. Why? Because they were visible when it mattered.

Luck might be random, but you can engineer more access to it.

Every business breakthrough I've seen started the same way. Right person, right time, right visibility. 
But that "right person" had to know you existed first.

Most people get this backwards. They think reach means shouting "look at me." Wrong. 
Reach means sharing what you know that others might value.

What did you figure out the hard way that could save someone else years of mistakes? 
What insight keeps coming up in your conversations that makes people say "I never thought of it that way"?

Share that. Consistently.

Not because you're building a personal brand. Because you're increasing your surface area for the opportunities that are already looking for someone like you.

The person who could change your career is scrolling right now. The question is: will they find you?


Send me a connection request and I’ll send you some resources to help you scale.

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taplio

The Battle

Archita Fritz

Callum Laing

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Archita Fritz's LinkedIn Performance

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