Archita Fritz

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

I help private equity–backed CEOs and value creation teams turn fragmented go-to-market efforts into a system that drives top-line growth, margin expansion, and commercial readiness for exit.

Most of the companies I support are post-acquisition, sitting around $15M–$50M in ARR, and moving fast toward their growth targets. But behind the scenes? The GTM motion is often still being driven by legacy sales instincts, founder-era marketing, and a whole lot of duct tape.

The symptoms are familiar:
⟶ Sales blaming marketing.
⟶ Marketing running plays that don’t align to revenue.
⟶ No clear ICP, no pricing discipline, and no real GTM narrative investors can buy into.

That’s where I come in.

With 20+ years across global MedTech, SaaS, and industrial technology—leading product launches in 80+ markets—I now partner with portcos as a short-term operator to unblock growth and build real commercial infrastructure.

Here’s how I support the PE lifecycle:

In the first 100 days
→ Run a GTM audit, identify gaps, and prioritize high-ROI quick wins.
→ Bring visibility to what’s actually driving pipeline, not just vanity metrics.

During the build phase
→ Align sales, marketing, and product around one repeatable commercial motion.
→ Fix positioning, pricing, segmentation, and campaign logic.
→ Install weekly operating cadence, dashboards, and conversion discipline.

As you scale
→ Shift from hero selling to system selling.
→ Equip reps with enablement that sticks, and codify what works.
→ Build segment-level GTM plays that actually reduce CAC over time.

Ahead of exit
→ Translate the growth story into buyer-ready clarity.
→ Highlight pipeline velocity, retention drivers, and future upside.
→ Package GTM IP as repeatable, not founder-dependent.

I’ve done this across portcos of AKKR, EQT, Cinven, and Nordic Capital, and across sectors from life sciences to enterprise SaaS.

Outside of portcos, I sit on four boards, keynote international stages, and host the Embracing Only podcast on leadership, identity, and transformation.

If you want marketing to “look busy,” hire an agency. If you want a GTM system that builds enterprise value, call me.

👉🏽 Learn more here: https://calendly.com/archita-e-fm/1-1-work-with-archita-intro-call

What my clients say:

“Archita turned GTM chaos into clarity! And she did it fast!”
— David Hall Rode, CEO, Blue Mountain (AKKR Portco)

“She built our product marketing function and aligned commercial with product.”
— Patrick Hughes, CRO, CluePoints (EQT Portco)

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.

New client, new year.
First week at Veristat and I got to be onsite for their Commercial Kick Off Meeting! 

Within the first five minutes, I somehow became the Rock, Paper, Scissors Champion! 
(Truly not sure if I peaked there, but it set the tone.)

I love being remote, but a week onsite upfront compresses relationship + context in a way that’s hard to replicate.

A few things I’m taking with me:

👉🏽 Commercial + Operations came together in a real way. You could feel how both sides contribute to the outcome, not in theory, in practice.

👉🏽 They brought in a customer, a family member, and two partners to speak. Hearing from a Veristat team member sharing what it’s like to be a family member navigating finding clinical trials for your loved one, and how that experience changes the way you think about timelines, communication, rigor, and care really struck a nerve. There wasn’t one dry eye in the room with folks recognizing the impact of the work they do.  

👉🏽 The trust Veristat has earned with sponsors is undeniable. There aren’t many teams sponsors rely on to take them from data → direction → regulatory submission with that level of confidence.

Personal bonus: I worked with Andrew (AJ) Mills for a minute many moons ago, so it’s been a joy to reconnect and jump in with his team again.

And I’m genuinely excited to partner with Kim Boericke as CEO, first time I’ve gotten to work this closely with a woman CEO, and you can already feel the clarity she’s bringing.

Grateful for the welcome, Veristat. Let’s go.

Archita Fritz 

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

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A friend said something to me this week that I can’t stop thinking about.

She met our friend group when we were in our late 20s, because she was marrying one of our friends.

And she told me:

“I remember being genuinely surprised by how many of you were chasing a title like it had a deadline. Like you’d decided, that by this age, I have to be that… or I’ve failed.”

I laughed when she said it, because she was right.

Back then, we used to call it “ambition”, but what it also meant to most of us was “don’t be left behind!”

We were all trying to stay ahead of our insecurity.
 
And what’s wild is… I see the grown-up version of that same chase all the time now.

It is usually not “VP by 30.”

But it’s more like, 

“We need to look further along by the next board meeting.”
“We’ll fix the foundation after we hit the number.”
“Just get through this quarter.”

I get why people say it. I’ve said it too.
Usually it means we’re in scramble mode.

A few years ago, I started asking myself a different question…

𝑨𝒎 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒊𝒕…
𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝑰’𝒎 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 “𝑰’𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅” 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈?

And then, separately, this week I flew in to celebrate a different and very dear friend—mid-week—for her wedding.

I cleared the time properly and showed up without negotiating with myself. We laughed and danced so hard our face and feet hurt.

And for once I wasn’t doing that mental math of what I “should” be doing instead.

And I had this quiet thought on the way home: I’m really glad I don’t live in that frantic chase mode the way I used to.

👉🏽 What was your “by ___” deadline that you have finally loosened the grip on? 

PS: And LinkedIN can you please take a moment to celebrate my gorgeous and dearest friend Sneha on her wedding day!

Archita Fritz at Sneha and Chris Rossi wedding in New York City 

Best thing I’ve done this year so far: breakfast with two women I respect.

Just coffee, tea, some scones were involved and a bit of laughter, with the kind of conversation that puts you back in the right headspace. 

Shea Conboy’s growth over the years has been a joy to watch. 
This past week I got to say it in person.

She was on my team many moons ago, and seeing what she’s built since then is genuinely brilliant. From building social media and event capability from the ground up at various life science companies to starting to build her impact in product marketing, so proud of everything! 

 I left that part of the breakfast feeling properly proud.

And then I finally met Kisha Wynter in person. Author of Your Power Unleashed and a guest on our  Embracing "Only" Podcast  in person for the firs time.  

We talked women in leadership, boardrooms, sponsorship, timing…and every so often we’d stop and laugh: “That’s literally in your book.”

On the way out, I caught myself thinking how often the right conversations get pushed “until things calm down”. 

If you care about women in leadership, your calendar has to show it.

I love catch-ups like this, because In Private Equity land, it’s easy to live in spreadsheets and operating reviews. Breakfast like this pulls you back to what actually moves companies...the people.

Who are you making time for this month?

PS: Check out the link to Kisha's book and her episode in the comments below.

Archita Fritz advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Shea Conboy

Archita Fritz Advisor to Private Equity CEO's and Kisha Wynter author of the book Your Power Unleashed.

These are all the things I would rather do than sit down and do homework with the three littles who live in my home rent free:

✪ Get grilled by a PE sponsor on CAC payback.

✪ Walk into a board meeting with one slide and pure courage.

✪ Explain (again) that “pipeline” isn’t a strategy.

✪ Untangle a CRM that’s 47 versions of “called - no answer.”

✪ Run win/loss calls where the feedback is: “Pricing.”

✪ Rewrite positioning while Legal replaces every verb with “may.”

✪ Align five execs on one ICP without anyone saying “everyone.”

✪ Explain our investor story using chaos, caffeine, and a prayer.

✪ Do a “quick” launch that somehow needs 14 approvals.

——

Because the mental health damage of doing homework and test prep with little humans is something else.

To every parent doing the nightly and weekend sit-down, I see you! 

PS: Anyone else have to take a mid-homework walk outside the house to save themselves from absolutely losing it?

PPS: Picture below courtesy my mid lunch walk last week in the middle of a Sales Kick off meeting! Trying to channel in those calm vibes right now.

You want to be “easy to work with.”
But a lot of you learn the wrong version of it.

Last week, someone I’d never met got combative over email. This person was several levels senior to me.

All I’d asked for was time on the calendar.

The reply wasn’t neutral, it was defensive and a tone that felt like: “know your place.”

In the past, I would have gone along with it. I  would have been extra polite, over-explained and tried to smooth it over.

I don’t do that anymore.

I stopped the email thread and moved it to a call.
On the call, this is what I said.

“We all want growth and a good way to work together. If that’s true, we’ll be fine. If what you actually want is friction or positioning, then this won’t be a good use of either of our time. Either outcome is okay, I just want it to be clear.”

Once that was said out loud, the defensiveness dropped and the real constraints came out. It turned into a productive discussion instead of a drawn-out thread.

By the end, they suggested spending more time together, not less.

Most people tolerate bad behavior because they want to be easy to work with. 

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆.

Going into this week: don’t confuse “easy to work with” with “easy to push around.”
If the tone is off at the start, address it early.

You’ll save yourself weeks of stress, and you’ll get better work out of the relationship.

Kicking off 2026 with a proud board moment: Inflectiv Group has made a minority investment in psLondon.

Huge congratulations to James Rose, Jan-Philipp Matthewes and the Inflectiv team, and a genuine welcome to Robert Pepper, Tony Speight, and everyone at psLondon. Excited to have you in the Inflectiv collective and for what we’ll build together.

Press release in the comments. 

Proud to share this marks Inflectiv Group’s third strategic addition, building a collaborative network of founder-led independents — now alongside Fresh Air and Hue & Cry | Certified B Corp.  

We’re continuing to grow selectively, making minority equity investments where there’s real alignment on quality, leadership, and culture.  
If you’re a founder exploring that kind of partnership, my DMs are open.

This week I got to do one of my favorite things: sit across the table from two C-suite leaders I genuinely love thinking with.

David Hall Rode and Amira Modi, thank you for the time, the candor, and the quality of the thinking.

I’m on my way back to Dusseldorf and smiling thinking about how grateful I am for leaders like them in my orbit. 

With David, we can brainstorm in 80 directions in 20 minutes… and somehow it doesn’t turn into chaos, it turns into clarity.

And then there’s Amira, who is the kind of leader who can zoom out to strategy and zoom in to the detail that will make or break execution.

She’s also one of the few women C-suite leaders in healthcare who brings both deep industry credibility and real commercial clarity. I’m lucky to have them both in my orbit.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞?

Because this is what separates teams that move from teams that stall.

Most teams don’t struggle because they lack ideas. They struggle because they can’t turn messy thinking into a clear direction people can execute.

What that looks like:
➟ People keep the real concerns to themselves because it’s not worth the friction
➟ The group talks through ten options and chooses none
➟ Everyone “agrees” in the room, then nothing changes after

What strong leaders do instead:
➟ Make it easy to say the unfinished thing out loud
➟ Keep the pace without steamrolling people
➟ Pull a real decision out of the noise
➟ End with a clear “here’s what we’re doing next”

It sounds very basic, but it really isn’t. And it’s a big reason some companies move faster with the same resources.

I’m grateful for leaders who make clarity feel normal and execution feel possible.

Archita Fractional Marketing Leader for Blue Mountain and other Private Equity Backed Middle Market Portfolio Companies 

This week I caught myself working like something was on fire, even though nothing was.

I’m onboarding a new client, and the engagement is off to a strong start. The work is clear, the team is aligned, and the trust is already there. 

I’ve been doing this independently for nearly three years, so none of this is new.

And yet, more than once this week, I caught myself pushing as if I still needed to earn the right to be here.

It was a strange moment of self-awareness, the kind where you can see your own behavior while it’s happening. I found myself asking a question I didn’t expect to be asking at this stage: 

👉🏾 Why am I going this hard when nothing is actually wrong?

This isn't new work or a new room, and it certainly isn’t about proving competence. By any rational measure, I already belong here.

And yet, something in me still behaves like 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭.

That question matters because it doesn’t point to a workload issue. 
It points to an identity issue. 

If you’re doing well in your role or building something that’s finally working, notice what shows up anyway. 

Pay attention to 
the extra effort that isn’t required, 
the urgency that isn’t real, 
the impulse to prove yourself in rooms that have already said yes. 

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒙 𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒎𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 
𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒖𝒔𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈.

I don’t have a neat answer yet.
Right now, I’m sitting with the question instead of rushing past it. 

Because something tells me this isn’t about working more or less. It’s about updating who I think I need to be in rooms that have already said yes.

PS: I came across a photo of one of my old teams I had the privilege of leading many moons ago. They were one of the first groups that ever held up a mirror to me around this pattern. Seeing that picture again felt like a quiet reminder I needed more than advice.

We’re in a pilot phase rolling out a suite of AI solutions at a PE-backed company.
And the impatience is… Olympic level.

Week 2:
“Why isn’t the AI delivering value yet?”

Because AI isn’t a vending machine.
You don’t insert “tool” and get “pipeline” back.

In the pilot stage, you’re not “deploying AI.”

You’re validating the conditions that make AI worth using

➟ Data integrity (what we think is true vs what’s actually in the system)
➟ Use case fit (what works in generic SaaS ≠ what works in this industry)
➟ Signal quality (which inputs predict response, and which are noise)
➟ Customer reality (how buyers actually reply, in the wild)
➟ Workflow adoption (if humans don’t use it, it doesn’t exist)

So yes, we should push for outcomes. But if you treat a pilot like a finished product, you don’t speed things up, you just create noise, churn, and “AI doesn’t work” opinions before you’ve even set it up properly.

If you’re a revenue leader in a PE-backed company, here’s the better question than “Why isn’t it working yet?”

“What do we need to make this work reliably, and at scale?”

If you’re in the messy middle of an AI pilot right now, what’s the biggest friction point you are navigating?

👉🏾  data, use cases, adoption, or expectations?

AI is not like a vending machine, you cannot put stuff in and hope to get pipeline out.

In a lot of mid-market PE portfolio companies, the issue isn’t lead generation. 

It’s that the company hasn’t agreed on the rules of the funnel, so leads get handled differently depending on who touches them. 

Marketing passes names,
Sales disputes quality, 
follow-up is inconsistent, 

and the CEO ends up asking for “more pipeline” when the real problem is a messy handoff.

There are other things that matter, and deal velocity is increasingly the bigger constraint I’m seeing, but without a clean handoff you can’t tell what’s working, what’s broken, or what to fix next.

When I’m brought in to steady this quickly, I put a basic GTM system in place in the first two weeks:

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 “𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅” 𝒊𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
One page that Sales and Marketing both agree to. If you can’t say the same sentence, you don’t have a funnel.

➟ 𝑫𝒆𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆.
Fit, intent, recency, and engagement, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but consistent enough to run the week on.

➟ 𝑺𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘-𝒖𝒑 𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒆. 
Who responds, how fast, and what happens when it doesn’t happen.

➟  𝑹𝒖𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅.
Routing, speed, fit, or follow-through, then fix one failure point each week.

This is not complicated. It’s just missing in more companies than anyone wants to admit.

In a recent engagement, this system helped moved leads from roughly 5–10 SQLs a month to 170+ sales-qualified leads in 60 days. 

Not because we “did more marketing,” but because we stopped debating opinions and installed a system the team could run.

If you’re a CEO and this feels familiar, ask one question in your next commercial meeting: what happens in the first 24 hours after a lead is marked sales-qualified? If the answer isn’t clear, start there.

Why Private Equity PE Portcos don’t have a Lead Gen Problem. They have a systems problem. “We don’t have enough leads” is the biggest misplaced diagnosis in private equity portcos

Good products don't sell themselves.
At least, they don't do it twice.

Most companies find their first "big win" through sheer grit and a great product. But when they try to launch the second or third product, the wheels usually start to wobble.

If your revenue is plateauing despite a great roadmap, the gap is likely in your Product Marketing foundation. Transitioning from a single-product company to a multi-product powerhouse requires a specific shift in "muscle memory." 

👉🏾 You have to move from selling a tool to selling a solution universe.

I helped a mid-market private equity portfolio company navigate this exact pivot. 

They had the talent and the tech, but their growth was capped by their position. By building a repeatable "pre-commercialisation" engine, they unlocked a 40% revenue lift across their entire portfolio.

1️⃣ Defining the Operating Model: 
↳ Moving away from ad-hoc launches toward repeatable playbooks.

2️⃣ Pre-commercialisation is more than just feedback: 
↳It’s about doing the heavy lifting, market sizing, competitor mapping, and message testing, long before the sales team ever sees the product. If you haven't validated that a "gap in the market" is actually a "market in the gap," you’re just setting your reps up to fail.

3️⃣ Internal Readiness: 
↳ Ensuring Sales knows not only what the product is, but also where it fits in the broader universe.

I’ve attached the one-pager we used to guide this process. If your team is struggling to move beyond your first "big win," I hope this roadmap helps you find some clarity this week.

Roadmap to take your company from a single product to a multi product universe. How to scale your company from a single product to a multi product solution. How Product Marketing can help you grow your product roadmap. How to commercialize your product roadmap.

At Christmas, I was lightly chiding my brother-in-law about how much he cares about football. 

Because I genuinely don’t relate. 

I’m not wired to tie my mood to something I can’t control for three hours on a Saturday/Sunday. My brain files it under: “entertaining… but not emotionally binding.” 

Also, I know basically nothing about American football. 

My strongest credential is still that I once stood on the inside of a football field because I was crowned University Homecoming Queen in 2004. That’s the whole resume!

Fast forward to Saturday, Jan 17. 
The Buffalo Bills lost 33–30 to the Denver Broncos.

My BIL and his entire family are huge Buffalo Bills fans. 
Like it affects the entire "household mood" fans.

So you can imagine, the family chat lit up immediately.

 And it wasn’t just analysis. It turned into people fast:
“He’s such a good guy.”
“He does so much with kids.”
“He deserves a ring.”

Bills fans… I’m sorry. 
That one looked painful.

---
And it made me think about something I see in Private Equity-backed leadership teams after a miss:

𝘐𝘯 𝘗𝘌, 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵.

The room starts hunting for the person attached to the number. Usually it is because we want the chaos to make sense, so we pin the story to a person.

In sports, it can swing either way just as fast:
one moment, one person… 
and suddenly it’s either pile-on or protective loyalty.

A few things I’ve seen the best PE teams do instead:

➜ Separate “bad outcome” from “bad decision.” 
Sometimes the call was right and the timing just didn’t cooperate. 
Sometimes you got lucky and you shouldn’t repeat it.

➜ Force specificity. 
Not “we need to execute.”
More like: “3 deals slipped 30 days” or 
“churn ticked up in X segment.”

➜ Make the next step small and real. 
One fix, one owner, one date, before the next LT/board call.

➜ Do a quick ‘what changed’ review. 
What we thought, what happened, what we’re changing. 
No courtroom or character trial.

Pinning it on one person is the quickest way to feel like you’ve explained it. It’s rarely the quickest way to improve it.

PS: Serious question...are you a “watch with people” fan or a “do not speak to me during the game” fan?

Picture credit: AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

Helping Founders Break the $10M Ceiling | Strategy, Cash Flow & Leadership Systems | Scaling CFO

I help founders simplify scaling.

You started your business. You pushed past $1M. Now you're stuck somewhere between $3M and $10M, working harder than ever but not moving faster.

The problem isn't effort. It's complexity.

Too many priorities competing for attention. Financials that don't tell you what to do next. A team that still needs you for everything. Growth that feels like grinding instead of building.
I fix that.

I'm Cruz Gamboa, founder of Ascend Growth Ventures. I combine Scaling Up methodology with CFO-level financial clarity to help founders cut through the noise and scale with confidence.

Before this, I spent 25 years in corporate finance - including Regional CFO at GE and strategic finance leadership at GE Capital. I've seen what works at scale. Now I bring that to founders building something that matters.

I work best with CEOs in professional services, coaching, SaaS, and service-based businesses who are ready to scale profitably without burning out.

One conversation can change your trajectory: calendly.com/cruzagamboa/call-with-cruz-ascend-30min

Cruz Gamboa

Scaling isn’t about being nice.
It’s about being clean.

Clean with roles.
Clean with standards.
Clean with truth.

You don’t fire people.
You outgrow misalignment.

As the Netflix CEO puts it:

“If I wouldn’t fight to keep you, I owe you honesty—and a generous exit.”

Not because someone failed.
But because one of three things is true:
•	The role evolved faster than the person
•	The seat was wrong from the start
•	The bar moved—and the company didn’t move it back

High-performing companies don’t drag this out.
They decide early and act with dignity.

No drama.
No ego.
No moral stories.

Just:
•	Radical clarity
•	Respectful exits
•	Fair severance
•	Clean energy left behind

Dragging misalignment is the real cruelty.
Clarity is the kindness.

Scaling isn’t loyalty to individuals.
It’s loyalty to the mission, the team, and the future.

Right people.
Right seats.
Right standards.

And when someone no longer fits?
You don’t shame them.
You set them free.

If you want to scale, stop managing discomfort.
Start architecting teams.

Managers hesitate.
Leaders make room.

#scalingup #founders #growth #ceo

Most businesses don’t fail because they’re bad.

They fail because they’re trying to be someone else.

Burger King copied McDonald’s for 30 years.
Same audience.
Same positioning.
Same “family-friendly” nonsense.

And they kept losing.

Because you can’t beat the market leader
by playing their game better than them.

By 2004, Burger King was dying.
So they asked the only question that actually matters:

“Who is already buying from us?”

Not who they *wanted*.
Not who looked good in presentations.

The truth.

The answer?
Men aged 18–34.
Heavy fast-food users.
People who came back again and again.

And those customers didn’t want:

➡️ Safe
➡️ Cute
➡️ Corporate

They wanted:

➡️ Flame-grilled food
➡️ Control
➡️ Edge
➡️ Personality

So Burger King stopped pretending.

They brought back “Have It Your Way.”
Not as a slogan.
As a strategy.

They built everything around that one customer.

Marketing got bold.
Messaging got raw.
Campaigns got polarizing.

Subservient Chicken.
Whopper Freakout.

Not for everyone.
Exactly the point.

What happened next?

Same-store sales jumped.
Franchises grew.
And net income increased 2860% in three years.

That’s not a pivot.
That’s a resurrection.

Burger King didn’t beat McDonald’s.

They sidestepped them.

McDonald’s owned families.
Burger King owned young men who wanted control.

Different customer.
Different lane.
No direct competition.

Here’s the real lesson:

If you try to serve everyone,
you get ignored by everyone.

The fastest way to grow isn’t copying the leader.

It’s finding the customer they don’t care about
and building obsessively for them.

Specific beats broad.
Always.

#ceo #founder #growth

Most businesses don’t fail from lack of effort.

They fail from listening to themselves instead of the market.

Dunkin didn’t pivot loudly.

They pivoted quietly by watching what people kept paying for. 

Then they let the data rewrite their identity.

That’s the real upgrade:
✅ Feelings → Facts
✅ Ego → Evidence
✅ deas → Income that repeats

The market is always talking.

Your sales are the language.

So here’s the uncomfortable check:
What do people come back for again and again?

And are you building more of that… or still pitching what you’re emotionally attached to?
#scalingup #CEO #founder #growth

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cruzgamboadrive

patagonia-solar-llc

Your First Product Is Not Your Last

The first $5M? Brutal.
The next $5M? Still hard.
After $10M? Growth accelerates.

Here’s the scaling truth Kevin O’Leary calls out:

The first $5M is about survival. You’re learning how to deploy capital, take smart risks, and build systems that work. 

Most entrepreneurs quit here.

The next $5M? 

Execution matters. You’ve survived the grind, learned what works, and can now scale with confidence. Decisions compound. Efficiency improves. Strategy becomes your edge.

Beyond $10M? You’re playing a different game. Capital works for you, not the other way around. Systems, processes, and disciplined execution create leverage.

Lesson: 

Wealth and business scales the same way. 

Master the first phase. 
Build discipline. 
Then scale.
#scalingup #founder #growth #ceo

Bill Gates could have flown First Class every day or flown on his own plane, even as a billionaire, 

But he chose to fly Economy until around 1997.

Why?

Because it wasn’t worth the money.

Same plane.
Same arrival time.
5× the cost for a tiny upgrade.

That’s how smart people think about scale.

Most people make money and immediately upgrade their lifestyle.

Smart operators upgrade what makes money.

More spending doesn’t equal more growth.
It usually equals more noise.

When you’re scaling, ask one question:
👉 Does this change the outcome?

If it doesn’t:
Cut it.

A fancy office doesn’t increase revenue.
A luxury car doesn’t improve execution.
Premium tools don’t fix broken systems.

Wealth has one real job:
Buy back your time.

Once you have enough, the goal isn’t more stuff.
It’s fewer constraints.

Less distraction.
More focus.
More leverage.

Scale isn’t about looking successful.
It’s about building something that works without you.

That’s real wealth.
#scalingup #ceo #growth #founder

He was 78 years old
…when he launched a vodka brand
…with no distillery
…in an industry that laughed at him

Sidney Frank.
The man behind Grey Goose.

No product breakthrough.
No secret formula.
No startup hype.

Just one insight most people missed:
People don’t buy vodka. They buy status.

Sidney didn’t make better vodka.
He made a better story.

France on the label.
Luxury in the bottle design.
A price so high it forced belief.

While others chased volume,
he chased perception.

He didn’t market to the masses.
He placed Grey Goose in elite bars first.
When bartenders poured it,
the world followed.

He moved slowly.
Protected exclusivity.
Ignored trends.

8 years later:
➡ Grey Goose became the default “premium vodka”
➡ Competitors copied the look
➡ Bacardi paid $2.3 BILLION

No overnight success.
Just disciplined positioning.

Lesson most builders miss:
Innovation gets attention.
Positioning creates power.

Experience didn’t slow him down.
It sharpened him.

Long vision.
Clear narrative.
Unshakeable belief.

#founders #scalingup #businessstrategy #longtermthinking

Most people think Starbucks’ rewards program is about free coffee.

It isn’t.

It’s about cash flow.

Starbucks Rewards is not a loyalty perk.
It’s a prepaid deposit system.

When a customer loads money into the app, Starbucks gets paid before any coffee is made.
Accounting-wise, that money sits as deferred revenue.

But operationally?
It’s usable cash.

That’s the move.

Instead of waiting for daily transactions, Starbucks created a system where millions of customers fund operations in advance.

No interest.
No bank fees.
No dilution.
No debt.

Every preload improves:
✅ Working capital
✅ Liquidity
✅ Balance sheet strength

And Starbucks holds that cash until the customer redeems it.

Some never do.

Unused balances.
Forgotten cards.
Abandoned apps.

That “breakage” flows straight to profit.

Multiply this behavior across ~29 million users and you don’t have a rewards program anymore.

You have a deposit base.

This is why Starbucks scales so efficiently:
▶ Stores expand faster
▶ Cash flow stays predictable
▶ Capital stress stays low

They didn’t out-market competitors.
They re-engineered when money moves.

The lesson:-

Growth isn’t always about selling more.
Sometimes it’s about getting paid earlier.

Starbucks didn’t build loyalty.
They built a financial engine and wrapped it in a green apron.#ceo #scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

Most companies scale faster by cutting people.
Publix scaled stronger by owning the opposite.

95 years. Zero layoffs.
Not luck. Not culture posters.
A Scaling Up system done right.

➡ Promote from within
➡ Clear succession planning
➡ Everyone thinks like an owner
➡ Leaders built, not bought
➡ Long-term value over short-term savings

When people own the outcome, execution compounds.
When leadership is grown internally, trust scales.

This isn’t a feel-good story.
This strategy may not be your strategy. 
For Publix, It’s a people strategy that beat Walmart.

You have to find what it's true for your company. 

Scale isn’t about size.
It’s about who owns the results.

#scalingup #growth #CEO

No Layoffs?

ADIDAS LOST €1.5 BILLION.
NOT TO NIKE.
NOT TO THE MARKET.
BUT TO ITS OWN BUREAUCRACY.

January 2023:
Dead Yeezy stock.
First loss since 1992.
Slow teams. Scared decisions. Broken speed.

9 months later?
Profitable. Faster. Sharper. Beating Nike.

The turnaround wasn’t magic.
It was leadership.

One CEO did 3 things most companies avoid:
→ Cut layers
→ Killed approvals
→ Simplified what already worked

No hype.
No noise.
Just speed, clarity, and conviction.

Big lesson:
You don’t lose because you’re small.
You lose because you’re slow.

Sometimes the fix isn’t more strategy.
It’s less nonsense.

#scalingup #CEO #founders #growth

ADIDAS Story

He didn’t fail for 10 years.
The market just wasn’t ready yet.

Hwang Dong-Hyuk sold his $675 laptop to buy food.
Lived with his grandmother.
Got rejected for a decade.

Studios said:

➡️ Too weird
➡️ Too violent
➡️ Not commercial
➡️ Too complex

Same script.
Same idea.
Same “no”.

Here’s the part most people miss 👇

This wasn’t a talent problem.
It was a timing + distribution problem.

He had the product early.
The market came late.

In 2018, Netflix expands globally.
Needs bold, non-safe content.
Needs local stories with global emotion.

One exec reads the script and says:
“This is exactly what we need.”

$21.4M invested.
Zero marketing push.
No homepage love.

Result?

✓ #1 in 94 countries
✓ 1.65B viewing hours
✓ $900M+ value created
✓ Best ROI in Netflix history

Scaling lesson most founders ignore:

Great ideas don’t die.
They wait.

If you’re early:
Don’t dilute the vision to get small yeses.
Build proof elsewhere.
Survive long enough to meet the right platform.

Scaling isn’t about changing your idea.

It’s about finding the right leverage.

One right distributor > 1,000 wrong pitches.

Ten years of “weird”
became a global empire.

Sometimes the world just isn’t ready yet.

Stay in the game long enough… and it will be.
#scalingup #founderstories #growth #CEO

The World Isnt Ready

Growth without cash flow is just noise. 📉
Dives deeper into why founders who master cash strategy scale faster, stay resilient, and win long term.

Full Cash Is King podcast episode premiering Friday 🚀

🔔 Turn on notifications so you don’t miss the next clips—and the full conversation.

👉 Set your reminder & watch the premiere here:
https://lnkd.in/eBnXhnie

#CashIsKing #DevinSizemore #PodcastShorts #BusinessPodcast
#CashFlowManagement #ScalingBusiness #FounderMindset
#SustainableGrowth #WealthStrategy #EntrepreneurLife
#YouTubePremiere #PodcastReels

GIANTS don’t fall overnight.
They fall one comfortable decision at a time.

They built the category.
Owned the market.
Had money, talent, and trust.

Then they did one thing wrong 👇
They stopped adapting.

Motorola. 
Intel. 
Netscape. 
Borders.

Not stupid.
Not unlucky.
Just late.

The market doesn’t punish failure.
It punishes complacency.

Scroll through this carousel if you want a reminder of one brutal truth:
➡️ Past success is not future security.
➡️ Comfort is more dangerous than competition.
➡️ If you’re not improving, someone else is preparing to replace you.

Stay hungry.
Or become a case study.
#SCALINGUP #CEO #FOUNDER #GROWTH

CRITICAL MISTAKES

Most people don’t need a new year.

They need a new operating system.

2026 won’t reward louder marketing, more hustle, or more tools.
It will reward founders who build clarity early and compound it fast.

What I’m seeing with founders between $3M–$10M is consistent:
• When financial visibility improves, decisions slow down in the right way
• Leadership shifts from reactive to intentional
• Teams stop guessing and start executing
• Growth becomes calmer, not heavier

Breakthroughs rarely come from doing more.
They come from removing noise and tightening the system.
That’s the mindset I’m taking into 2026.

Less chaos. More leverage. Fewer moves. Better ones.

If you’re also thinking about how you want to operate differently next year, I wrote a short piece on what actually creates momentum at this stage.

DM me or write "2026", and I will share the memo I wrote for my clients and friends with you.

#ceo #founder #scalingup

He refused to touch a $1.50 hot dog, and it helped build a ~$250B business.

Jim Sinegal.
Costco co-founder.

Inflation hit.
Costs rose.
Wall Street pushed the obvious move:

“Raise prices.”

Jim’s response was blunt:

“If you raise the price of the hot dog, you’re done.”

No slides.
No consultants.
No narrative gymnastics.

Just a rule.

So Costco did what most companies won’t:

They redesigned the system.
* Built their own production capacity
* Reduced supplier dependency
* Ruthlessly simplified SKUs
* Absorbed costs where trust mattered most

Instead of passing pain to customers, they owned it.

While others:
→ Blamed inflation
→ Shrunk products
→ Optimized short-term margins

Costco:
→ Held the line on iconic prices
→ Added ~5M new member households
→ Sustained ~92% renewal rates
→ Scaled to ~$250B in annual revenue

Here’s the part most founders miss:

They weren’t protecting a hot dog.

They were protecting trust.

And trust compounds faster than margins ever will.

Most companies raise prices to survive.
Strong companies redesign economics so prices don’t have to.

Boring moves.
Brutal discipline.
Unfair long-term advantage.

So what’s the one price, promise, or principle in your business that you refuse to break, no matter the pressure?

#scalingup #founders #leadership #pricing #ceo

A Sony engineer watched his daughter play Nintendo in 1984 and thought “the sound on this thing is garbage.”

Ken Kutaragi secretly built a better chip and gave it to Nintendo. Sony almost fired him for it.

Then he convinced Sony to partner with Nintendo on a CD-ROM console called the “Play Station.”

June 1991. Sony announces the partnership at CES.

Next morning? Nintendo takes the same stage and dumps Sony for Philips.

Sony’s board wanted to quit gaming entirely. Called it a “toy business.”

Kutaragi stormed into the president’s office. “Are you going to be a laughing stock to Nintendo for the rest of your life?”

The president’s response: “Just do it.”

They had to exile Kutaragi’s team to Sony Music because headquarters refused to house the project.

Then Kutaragi pitched Sega on a joint console. Their board laughed: “That’s a stupid idea. Sony doesn’t know how to make hardware.”

Betrayed by Nintendo. Rejected by Sega. Nearly killed by his own company.

December 1994. PlayStation launches. 100,000 units sold day one.
At E3, Sega announced the Saturn at $399. Sony’s Steve Race walked to the mic, said “$299,” and walked off. Standing ovation.

By 1998, PlayStation was 40% of Sony’s total profit. 563 million PlayStations sold across all generations. The PS2 is still the best-selling console ever.
The prototype’s codename? “PS-X.” Everyone knew the X was a reminder of who crossed them.

Most founders think this is a story about revenge. It’s not.
Kutaragi’s biggest fight wasn’t Nintendo or Sega. It was his own organization that thought the vision was beneath them.

That’s usually the real constraint. Not your competition. The blind spots inside your own company that nobody’s willing to name.

#scalingup #founder #ceo #growth

In 1997, Jeff Bezos was stressed for all the right reasons.

Amazon was losing money.
Online retail wasn’t proven.
Most investors thought he was wrong.

Here’s the part people miss:

Stress doesn’t come from working hard.
It comes from knowing what to do and not doing it.

So Bezos acted.
Packed boxes himself.
Made the calls.
Shipped anyway.

No fancy office.
A door for a desk.
A Honda Accord in the parking lot.

Fast forward to amazon have $2.6 TRILLION market cap.

Lessons for founders:

▶️ Action kills anxiety
▶️ Clarity is earned through execution
▶️ Fancy setups don’t build big companies
▶️ Ignore opinions, obey the math
▶️ The long game compounds quietly

If something is stressing you out right now,
it’s probably your to-do list calling you out.

#scalingup #founder #ceo #growth

If everything is a priority, nothing scales.

That’s why most companies don’t stall from lack of ideas.
They stall from lack of focus.

The Power of One fixes that brutally fast.

Here’s the rule:

At every level of the business, there is ONE thing that matters more than everything else.

Not a vision board.
Not 12 KPIs.
One outcome that moves the needle now.

Company:
→ One #1 priority for the quarter that makes growth unavoidable.

Leaders:
→ One measurable result they own. No hiding. No excuses.

Teams:
→ One clear objective that directly supports the company's priority.

Individuals:
→ One commitment that, if done daily, makes execution inevitable.

Why this works (and why most won’t do it):

➡️ Focus beats intelligence
➡️ Clarity beats motivation
➡️ Ownership beats meetings
➡️ Execution beats strategy decks

Scaling isn’t about adding more people, more tools, or more plans.

It’s about removing everything that doesn’t matter
until what’s left cannot fail.

That’s the Power of One.

What is the one thing in your business that is calling for your full dedicated attention?

What are the things you are willing to pause so that you can fix it and remove the constraint?

#scaling #founders #growth #ceo

This is Why Companies Fail

Most founders do not have a growth problem.

They have a strategy stacking problem.

That is what the 7 Strata of Strategy solves.

It is a framework created by Verne Harnish to force clarity on the 7 layers that actually drive scale, profitability, and differentiation.

Not vision statements.
 Not buzzwords.
 Real strategic leverage.

What is the 7 Strata?

A practical checklist for building a strategy that compounds.

It answers one question:

“Why should the right customer choose you, pay you more, and stay longer?”

When to use it

Use the 7 Strata when:
• Revenue has stalled between $3M to $10M
 • Sales feels harder than it should
 • Margins are thin
 • Marketing sounds generic
 • The team cannot clearly explain why you win
 • You are scaling but complexity is rising faster than profit

It is especially powerful during:
• Annual planning
 • Strategy resets
 • Go-to-market changes
 • Repositioning
 • Pre-scale phase

What each Stratum means

Words You Own
 The category in the customer’s mind.
 If you do not define it, the market will.

Sandbox
 Who you serve and where you win.
 Focus creates power.

Brand Promise
 The measurable result customers can expect.

Brand Promise Guarantee
 How you reduce risk and increase trust.

Differentiating Activities (3 to 5)
 What you do differently that competitors cannot easily copy.

X-Factor
 Your 10x to 100x structural advantage.
 Process, data, network, cost, or ecosystem.

Profit per X + BHAG
 Your economic engine and long-term target.

This is where strategy meets money.

Why 7 Strata?

Because advantage is layered.

Most companies operate with 2 or 3 layers.

Strong companies stack all 7.

Each layer multiplies the others:

Positioning
 → Focus
 → Trust
 → Differentiation
 → Structural advantage
 → Profit engine
 → Long-term dominance

Miss one, and growth leaks.

The founder truth

If your strategy cannot be explained on one page, it cannot scale.

Clarity is not a branding exercise.
 It is a profit lever.

If you are operating between $3M to $10M and growth feels heavier every year, your next breakthrough is probably not more hustle.

It is a sharper stack.

If you want, I can share the worksheet I use with founders to map this in under 60 minutes.

Just DM SEVEN

#scaling #growth #CEO #founder

Cash flow isn’t optional—it’s the #1 rule behind sustainable business growth 💸
In this episode, Devin Sizemore breaks down how smart cash strategy fuels scale, stability, and long-term success.

Full podcast episode premiering 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝟳𝗔𝗠 𝗘𝗦𝗧 🚀

🔔 Turn on notifications so you don’t miss the next reels and the full episode.

👉 Set your reminder & watch the premiere here:
https://lnkd.in/eBnXhnie

#CashIsKing #DevinSizemore #BusinessPodcast #PodcastReels
#CashFlow #EntrepreneurMindset #ScalingBusiness #FounderTalk
#SustainableGrowth #WealthStrategy #StartupGrowth

Most founders brag about revenue.

That’s a mistake.

I’ve seen companies doing millions a year…
and the owner is still stressed, still stuck, still one bad month away from panic.

Why?

Because revenue doesn’t buy freedom.
Profit does.

More revenue without profit just gives you:

• More people
• More complexity
• More risk
• Same lifestyle

That’s not growth.
That’s leverage working against you.

Here’s the truth:

Growth does not start with selling more.
It starts with a profitable system.

There are only 3 levers that matter:

1. Price – Are you charging what it’s worth?

2. Volume – Are these the right customers?

3. Cost – Are you efficient without breaking delivery?

Everything else is noise.

Fix those three, and profit shows up.

Profit gives you:

➡️ Margin for mistakes
➡️ Proof the model works
➡️ Room to breathe

Profit turns into cash.

Cash pays the team.
Cash pays you.
Cash funds growth without stress.

Then you reinvest:
Better people.
Better systems.
Better clients.

That feeds the engine.

The engine creates more profit.

And now growth funds itself.

Stop asking:
❌ “How do we get more revenue?”

Start asking:
✅ “How do we make this system more profitable?”

Revenue is movement.
Profit is power.

If your business feels fragile, it’s because it is.

Fix the system.
The money follows.

Are you focused on more revenues or more profit in your business?  What would your business look like if you had more profit with the same amount of revenue?

#scalingup #growth #Ceo #founder

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