Cameo Doran

Chief Product Officer ⇢ Fractional Prices with Full-Time Impact ◆ Digital Transformations ◆ Advising Startup Founders and Executives Building Innovative Products ⇢ AI / XR / Web3

I’ve always been fascinated (and a little frustrated) by how many great companies can’t seem to ship great software. I’ve sat inside teams where brilliant ideas died in Jira backlogs, and I’ve watched the opposite too: features rushed out fast, only to flop because they were poorly executed or customers didn’t care. Both hurt. Both waste time and burn cash.

Cameo Labs is my answer to that problem. I started it because I couldn’t stand watching founders lose momentum on ideas that should have changed their business and their lives. 

My mission is simple: help founders build the right product, fast enough to matter.

Since starting, I’ve led projects that:

- Shipped an EdTech platform that closed $3M in contracts in under five months.
- Migrated 1,000+ servers with zero downtime, saving $6M.
- Built an AI training platform that scaled to $1.5M ARR in 9 months.

I’m dorky about this stuff. I love the messy early product conversations, poking at assumptions, figuring out where speed really matters, and then helping a team pull off what feels impossible. That’s what gets me up in the morning.

If you’re a founder under pressure to ship something that can’t wait, I’d love to hear about it.

Chief Product Officer / Fractional Product Management

As the owner and founder of Cameo Labs, I am dedicated to helping CEOs and executives of $100M - $500M businesses in the Edtech, Fintech, and SaaS sectors achieve rapid and transformative innovation. 

At Cameo Labs, we understand that staying competitive in today’s market requires more than just innovative ideas—it demands strategic execution and a customer-centric approach.


I founded Cameo Labs to empower our clients by streamlining their product development processes, aligning their business strategies with technological advancements, and fostering a culture of continuous innovation.

We operate differently than most agencies. 

Our holistic approach combines technology, strategic foresight, and customer insights to create cohesive and impactful product visions. Our clients have experienced faster innovation cycles, improved product success rates, and higher customer satisfaction.

With a proven track record of success, we are committed to turning your challenges into opportunities for growth and success. Our goal is to be your trusted partner, helping you achieve your business vision and lead your industry.

Let’s Connect:
Discover how Cameo Labs can transform your business. Visit http://cameolabs.com or reach out to me directly to explore how we can work together to drive your business forward.

From Vision to Execution | Faster Products, Better Results, Bigger Impact | SaaS Companies | Strategic Software Partner

What fresh hell is this? 

I swear the point of AI was to make it so we didn’t have to work so hard but instead we’re using it to work even while we sleep? 

I actually really like the idea of seeing what my lucid dream brain could do with AI, but please don’t make it always be about work.

How is Sam Altman so sure he knows what people want?

Back in his YC days, he was famous for telling founders they didn’t know what their customers wanted until they actually talked to them. 

Now he’s out saying that cost isn’t the bottleneck, speed is.

Did he talk to anyone?

I work with founders and executives on AI strategy every week. Nobody is asking for more speed. 

Right now the biggest concern is accuracy. Can we trust this thing when it’s wrong so often? How do we build something reliable when the models hallucinate and we need human review for everything. 

Speed doesn’t matter if the answer is garbage.

You know what takes longer than waiting 10 seconds for a response? Spending 20 minutes fixing output that is screwed up.

Sam says people want results in 1/100th of the time even if it costs more. The people I talk to would pay more for results that are actually correct, even if they take longer.

But that’s OK because at this point, it’s pretty hard to take any claim from Sam Altman seriously anyway. 

What do you think? Do you think speed will be the competitive battlefield for LLM’s?

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A couple of weeks ago Satya begged people to stop calling AI output slop.

So of course someone wrote a Chrome extension that replaces “Microsoft” with “Microslop” all over the web. 😂😂

This is what happens when billionaires ask the internet to be nicer.

The Streisand effect is real. You can’t tell people to stop criticizing something and expect them to comply. 
Especially when that something affects how they work, what they create, and whether they have jobs.

If you don’t want people calling your output slop, make better output. If you don’t want people questioning your technology, build technology worth trusting.

Asking for less criticism while scraping human knowledge, justifying mass layoffs, and rejecting intellectual property rights is wild.

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I Have always hated the annual review process. What a waste of time and effort for everyone involved. 

As a manager I was often asked to participate in the sham, and pretend that it was justification for the raise (or lack thereof) that has already been decided by upper management.

Futurist & Tech Investor 😇 | Keynote Speaker: AI, Blockchain & Emerging Tech | Author of The “Strategic Millionaire” and the upcoming “The Future of Wealth” | Helping Audiences Build Wealth Through Future Tech Investing

On the surface, this seems like a nasty side effect of Al.

But really people have been trying to get away from reading the Classics for as long as there have been Classics.

That's why Cliff Notes had a thriving business for so long. But not anymore.
RIP Cliff Notes.

With Cliff Notes, you knew you were cheating. You knew you weren't reading the real book.

Do you think people realize the same for this?
"Maximize your reading potential and avoid difficult language today" sure does sound catchy.

I don’t want crappy software. 
I don’t wanna build it and I sure as hell don’t wanna use it.

I saw this post in my feed. 
The OP's argument? 
Human developers and teams always shipped garbage anyway, so AI-generated garbage is fine. 

We have lived with bugginess, and random software issues forever, so why should LLM code be different. 

This logic is insane. 

"We have always been bad at this" isnt a defense. It isnt even true. 
Yes, a lot of software is really bad. A lot of teams are bad at building software. 
But that sure as hell doesnt make it ok. 

As a consumer, I will continue to demand better from the software that I use, and as a builder, I will continue to demand better from myself and my team. 

His last line is a doozy too. 
Builders who care about craft aren’t protecting their egos. They’re protecting their users from garbage software.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Do you still believe standards matter? Let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi I’m Cameo, I help teams use AI without the garbage output.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

There is no moat. 

Cursor just released their 2025 year-end data and what it shows is fascinating. This image is about AI coding tools specifically, but I think we are seeing it happen to SaaS too.

Here is what this image shows. When there is reasonable similarity between quality, everyone treats the tools like a commodity.
Look at the pattern. Claude 3.5 Sonnet dominates for a bit, then Claude 4 Opus launches and usage spikes. Then Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Claud 4.6 Sonnet. 

Each time something new drops, developers jump.
Nobody is loyal. They're chasing "good enough for the task" and switching the moment something newer shows up.

I think this is coming for all of SaaS. Not just the AI wrappers. All of it.
If someone can vibe code a good enough replacement for your product in a weekend, why are they paying you $300/month? The old moats were switching costs, integration complexity, and internal learning curves. 

But AI is flattening all of that. 
- Switching costs drop when an AI can migrate your data. 
- Learning curves disappear when the AI can generate exactly what you need.

So what's the compelling reason for customers to stick with your product?

It's never been more important that your moat is a product people actually love. One that truly meets their needs. Because if it doesn't, they're gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, I am Cameo
I help founders figure out the right thing to build and then actually ship it.

Happy Groundhog Day!

It’s funny how the same predictions get made again and again.

Claude code has improved significantly in the last year. But I’m still not firing my software developers.

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

It’s fun to watch Sam A out hustling to try and justify a $830B valuation.

I feel like we dont really need anything more testing us right now.

graphical user interface, text, application

Essentially the whole LLM discourse on LinkedIn right now. 

Says “agents” three times in a row and suddenly you are a CTO

Most companies are slow for one boring reason. 
Work spends too much time waiting for someone else.

Most organizations vastly underestimate how much time their people spend coordinating and shuffling work through their systems.
In fact a lot of my time in Agile transformation with fortune 500 companies was spent trying to help people spend less time orchestrating work.

Right now, a lot of software companies and development teams are trying to figure out how to make AI effective. But they have insidious data problems or serious, unresolved technical debt. 
If you try to solve all of that first, you are going to fall behind.

Stop aiming AI at the hardest problems first. 

Use AI to show you what is blocking your teams. Use AI to show you where work is getting stuck, where it is waiting on approvals, where it is bouncing between people, and where nobody owns the next step.

Then remove the orchestration tax you are paying every single day.
Organizations who do that can feel the impact before they ever ship a single “AI feature.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi, 👏 I am Cameo I help companies turn AI experiments into actual results.

RIP to VR/XR! 

Not so fast

I have long been bullish on virtual and augmented/extended reality, not the cartoon stuff that was in the horizon workrooms, but the potential.

The headlines want you to believe that Meta is giving up. That their recent laydowns and shutdowns mean they are admitting failure.

But reality labs only cut 10%. That leaves them with at least 13,000 people still working on extended reality.

I know a lot of people believe that in the future, human AI interaction will move entirely to voice, but I don’t buy it.

To be truly effective as a tool, AI needs to be able to see things in real time. As it is, I’m constantly feeding screenshots and photos into LLMsto shorten how much explaining I need to do. 

A picture is worth 1000 words, right?

And I see a ton of value in being able to overlay information into our view, especially if I’m trying to learn something new. That’s the promise of XR.

And yes, I’m sure Meta squandered a lot of that roughly $70B plus, but they also laid the groundwork for a lot of what comes after.

So what do you think is next for VR/XR?

The contrast between two images:

On the left…
I am sure you have seen people’s posts about their Lovable or Replit year in review.... Bragging about how many lines of code they generated. 

And of course, my first question is, when did we decide that lines of code is a useful metric at all? And who decided it? 
People don’t buy code. They buy products and functionally that solve problems. (To be fair, the US government often pays based on lines of code, but they’re infamous for making really crappy software)
But the implication is that those millions of lines of code are being generated to build software products that people want and need... Right? 

And then the image on the right is from a substack article that’s been making the rounds by Mike Judge. (Link in comments) 

His premise is that if vibe coding and AI enable development is actually having the enormous impact that everyone claims, we should see a huge explosion of shovelware, and even as we enter 2026, that has not happened. 

Personally, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. 

Over the last year I’ve built multiple applications in Replit and Lovable that I am using every day in my business and in my life. 

But I’m not trying to spin them up as businesses. I’m using these tools to solve inconveniences in my life with apps that I don’t need to be secure, scalable or any of the rest of the nonfunctional attributes that AI development fails at. 

I'm curious, have you read Mike's shovelware post? 
What do you think is happening?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi I am Cameo
If your team is generating millions of lines of code but you're not seeing business impact, let's talk about what's actually possible versus what just makes for impressive demos.

The most important skill you need for 2026 is vibecoding.

This is especially true if you work in technology but aren’t a software developer. If you’re in leadership, marketing, sales, or HR, you need to understand what’s possible with these tools. 

More importantly, you should be experimenting with them and using them to build small things day to day.

Vibecoding was a game changer for me and my business in 2025. Don’t get left behind in 2026.

As part of Utah Tech Week, Krystee Miller and I are hosting a workshop on how to vibecode with Lovable. 
In 90 minutes, we’ll show you how to shape and refine an idea, determine what it needs and how it should work, and then prompt it into existence using only your voice.

The event is free. Lunch provided. Link to register below.

Guys, 
I have discovered OpenAIs secret plans to make ChatGPT profitable. 







*

"Stop being critical of our AI"

Over the last few days, a couple of billionaires came online to beg us to stop saying mean things about their LLMs.

First Satya asked us to stop calling it slop.
Then Jensen said being critical of AI isn't helpful.

Seriously, what kind of joke is this?

Over the last three years, we've watched these companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into this technology. We've watched them use it to justify some of the largest layoffs in recent history. We've watched them scrape the entirety of human knowledge and completely reject concepts like IP and copyright that are supposedly the bedrock of capitalism.

And we're not supposed to be critical?

I use AI heavily. At Cameo Labs we use it effectively with our clients for developing software faster. I've vibed coded multiple applications for both my business and personal life. I've used to to create interesting and creative things that I think are pretty cool.

AND I'll still say a lot of current AI output is mid at best. The fact that they don't want us to criticize it tells you everything.
As members of society, we get to criticize things that seem detrimental to our collective success. 

You can be pro-AI and still demand quality and accountability. Using these tools every day doesn't mean accepting garbage or accepting evil described as progress. (looking at you Grok) 
That's not being a hater. That's having standards.

The difference between slop and substance isn't the tool. It's knowing what you're building and refusing to ship or accept crap.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you curious what vibe coding is and want to get your feet wet and still build something cool? I'm hosting a vibe coding workshop at Utah Tech Week 
Link in the comments.

Listen, I know it’s an awkward conversation, but we need to talk about pirates booty

This is a super popular snack in Utah, and is often served in corporate environments but I cannot see this package without instantly thinking about the Beastie Boys song, Professor Booty, from their seminal 1992 album Check Your Head. 

I quote: 
"Professor, what's another word for 'pirate treasure'?"
"Well, I think it's 'booty-booty-booty, that's what it is"

Now the song lyrics are NSFW, so having this song running through my head in a professional environment it’s sometimes problematic.
Plus I am trying to work, not sing Beastie Boys songs. 


Surely I am not the only one who has this problem?

Vibe coding works until it doesn't

Turns out the edge cases matter. They always do.

Your users find the problems you didn't think to look for. And they're not happy about it.
Test the weird inputs. Try to break your own code. Think about what happens when two things occur simultaneously, when files are too big, when numbers are negative. When security actually matters. 

Do it before your customers do.

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

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

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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

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

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

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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