Over the past decade, I've built three multimillion-dollar businesses while growing a family and raising four children.

I started with no resources, no connections, and didn’t have access to the playbooks that would have made the journey 10X easier. 

As a kid, I made money garden landscaping for families at church, manufacturing merchandise for private clubs, and then developing websites and running ad campaigns for local companies.

By 21, I was founding companies. In the decade since, I've:

➤ Generated $300M+ in revenue
➤ Built operations in 1,000+ U.S. cities
➤ Served over 3 million customers globally
➤ Helped grow hundreds of small businesses
➤ Raised $30M+ in capital from Angels, VCs, Private Equity, and Family Offices
➤ Successfully navigated both successful and failed multimillion-dollar acquisitions
➤ Been featured in leading publications like Forbes, Bloomberg, Entrepreneur, USA Today and more
➤ Worked with and advised the world's most iconic brands, including Diageo, Mars, Tesco, 7-Eleven, AB-InBev, Molson Coors, and Constellation

BUT, the journey was hard (harder than it needed to be).

I’ve faced many of the things you don't think about when starting a company:

→ Fought off (and won) predatory lawsuits
→ Closed a Seed round days after my wedding
→ Negotiated with demanding government agencies
→ Worked with lobbyists to introduce or change legislation
→ Raised a Series A while in the hospital for my first son's birth
→ Navigated a failed multi-million dollar merger while my daughter was born
→ Survived near-extinction events where we had single-digit weeks or days to save the company

Personal interests: Boxing, strength training, being in the ocean, spending quality time with my wife Danielle and our four little ones.

———

👋 Follow me for daily tips on mindset, systems, lifestyle design, and high-growth habits.

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Chris Vaughn

I’ve spent most of my career doing one thing really well - taking messy, complex businesses (and honestly, messy life moments too) and turning them into something clear, stable, and ready to grow.

Long before “operator-led investing” became a trend, we were on the ground, building and scaling companies across tech-enabled services, real estate, and regulated retail. 

Those years taught me what actually creates value, the small, everyday disciplines. The margins you protect. The people you invest in. The systems you build and never compromise on.

Today, as a Private Equity Principal and investor-operator at Kapital Krest Holdings (KKH), that same mindset guides every acquisition we make. 

We focus on middle-market companies where disciplined execution, cultural alignment, and AI-powered acceleration can genuinely change the trajectory.

If my journey has taught me anything, it’s this, operational clarity is a superpower. 

And when you pair it with ethics, innovation, and a little stubborn optimism, you don’t just scale businesses, you scale people, impact, and legacy.

Anou Khot

Most growth doesn’t feel like progress.

It feels heavy.

Today is my 44th birthday.

That makes this easier to say honestly.

For a long time, I thought success meant being busy.

Full calendars.
Fast decisions.
Always saying yes.

It looked like progress.
Until it wasn’t.

The delays weren’t about timing or luck.
They were internal.

Ego dressed up as ownership.
Hard conversations avoided.
Learning delayed because slowing down felt uncomfortable.
Holding on too long to people and systems.

I later wrote about 14 leadership blind spots I missed early, things that quietly cost me years.

If building feels heavier than it should:

You’re probably not lazy.
You’re likely not behind.
You’re growing into a version no one trained you for.

That phase is normal.

This week-
which blind spot will you face, and what’s the first 15 minutes you’ll give it?

Anou N Khot 

Private Equity Principal | Middle-Market Investor–Operator

I used to believe success was a straight line: work hard, stay busy, move fast, and the universe rewards you. Looking back, I could have succeeded yea

Open article: I Could’ve Won Years Sooner. Here’s Why I Didn’t. by Anou N Khot • 3 min read

I Could’ve Won Years Sooner. Here’s Why I Didn’t.

The modern cannabis industry exists because of Black communities and grew by criminalizing them.

◾️ Black Americans were disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for cannabis offenses.

◾️ Those same records later became barriers to licensing, capital, leases, and banking.

◾️ Meanwhile, legalization created wealth largely without repairing that harm.

That contradiction doesn’t disappear because a business is legal now.

Black History Month isn’t about a post and as a dispensary owner, that means:

🤎 Hiring intentionally and promoting with real pathways. 
🤎 Partnering with Black-owned brands and giving them shelf space and visibility.
🤎Supporting expungement and re-entry efforts, not just “community vibes.”
🤎Advocating for equity policies even when they complicate operations or margins.
🤎 Acknowledging the debt, openly, without defensiveness.

What we at Socíale Dispensary  won’t do:

🚫 We won’t treat this month as marketing.
🚫 Me and my team won’t pretend legalization erased injustice.
🚫 We won’t benefit quietly from a system that punished others loudly.

Cannabis didn’t become “respectable” on its own. It was made safe after being used as a weapon.

If you profit from this industry, neutrality is not an option.

You’re either helping close the gap or widening it.

No alternative text description for this image

Everyone’s talking about quiet quitting.

But can we talk about quiet ownership for a second?

People who just… show up.

Fix things without being asked. 

Care about the work when literally no one is watching.

Just solid, consistent ownership because that’s who they are. 

It’s honestly rare.

And if you’re on my team doing this- I see you.

I respect the hell out of it.

And it matters way more than you probably think 🤍

Most leadership advice isn’t wrong.

It’s incomplete.

“Move fast. Speed wins.”

That only works after the basics are solid.

Before that, speed hides problems.

Revenue goes up.
The business still can’t be sold.

Leaders push fast decisions.
Their best people quietly pull back.

What looks like progress
is often just chaos.

Good leaders know the difference.

The goal isn’t to slow down.

It’s to earn the right to move fast.

Speed is a tool.
Not a plan.

This isn’t an AI gap.
It’s a safety gap.

Across multiple studies, one pattern keeps showing up:
women are far less likely than men to use AI at work.

Research from Harvard Business School shows women adopt generative AI at materially lower rates, even when outcomes improve.

The Financial Times reports the same pattern across roles and industries.

And the World Economic Forum shows this gap playing out globally.

One reason matters more than we admit:
the cost of using AI isn’t evenly distributed.

For many women, experimentation comes with risk-
to credibility, perception, and trust.

Concerns about bias.
Data safety.
Being seen as “assisted” instead of capable.

Add unequal encouragement and limited time to experiment,
and hesitation starts to look a lot like wisdom.

AI adoption isn’t just about access.

It’s about who feels safe enough to use the tools
without paying a professional price.

The BPO industry isn’t a cost play anymore.

It’s a judgment play.

For years, the promise was simple:
cheaper labor, more volume.

AI is quietly breaking that model.

‼️Routine work is getting automated.
‼️Volume no longer protects you.
‼️Selling time is becoming a liability.

What’s shifting now, especially in mature service businesses,
is where value actually lives.

It’s moving from headcount
to decision quality.

Anyone who has worked with AI knows this:

AI doesn’t fix broken operations.
It exposes them.

Messy workflows fail faster.
Unclear decisions get amplified.

The BPOs that stay relevant and buyable aren’t racing to replace people.

They’re doing the slower work first:
• Cleaning processes
• Defining where judgment matters
• Deciding where humans must stay in the loop

Only then does AI create real leverage.

The biggest mistake we see?

Treating AI like a cost-cutting sprint
instead of a capability rebuild.

Short-term efficiency looks good on paper.

But weak judgment makes a business fragile and uninvestable.

Strong businesses aren’t built by removing people or chasing shiny tech.

They’re built by designing better decisions and scaling them responsibly.

Judgement 101

The Two Words Costing You Credibility

11:47 AM. Your boss texts: Can you have this ready by Friday?

You type: I can try.

Three dots appear.

Okay… so is that a yes?

Your stomach drops.

Here’s what just happened:

You thought you sounded cooperative. 

Your boss heard uncertainty.

Now they’re managing your maybe. 

Following up. Checking in. Lining up a backup.

Managers hate backup plans for simple asks.

Here’s what your boss actually hears:

“I can try” = Will this even get done?

“Friday. Done.” = I can stop thinking about this.

Before you hit send, ask yourself one question:

Am I actually uncertain, or just being polite?

If you’re uncertain, say what you need:

 ◾️”Yes, if I can push [task] to next week”

◾️”I’ll need [resource]—can confirm by EOD”

◾️”Can do, but I’ll need help with [specific thing]”

If you’re not uncertain, commit:

◾️”Friday 3 PM. You’ll have it.”

◾️”Done. I’ll send an update Wednesday.”

◾️”On it.”

Stop saying “I can try.”

It sounds humble.

It reads like you’re already planning to fail.

The promotion doesn’t go to the person who tries hardest.

It goes to the person leadership stops worrying about.

What’s one phrase you’re retiring in 2026?

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

We’re having the wrong AI conversation.

Everyone’s trading prompts and chasing shortcuts.

Meanwhile, the real story is going untold.

You’re good at what you do.

You spent years earning it.

And now you’re asking if any of it still matters.

You’re being told to do more, faster.

You’re smiling in meetings and unraveling after.

You’re watching the thing you were known for get automated and wondering who you are without it.

What I’m seeing:

◾️ A copywriter with 15 years watches a model spit three concepts in 90 seconds. “What am I for anymore?”

◾️ A designer gets, “Use the template and ship 10.” The part that made it theirs disappears.

◾️ A manager talks “transformation” at 2 p.m., then rewrites job descriptions at 1 a.m., chest tight, asking if they’re next.

This isn’t about tools. It’s about footing.

Progress isn’t the enemy. Pretending there’s no cost is.

If we want to do this right, we need to:
- Say it when it’s hard.
- Give people time to adapt, more than a webinar.
- Let them grieve what’s changing.
- Stop measuring humans only by speed.

If we chase faster at any cost, we won’t just burn out talent.

We’ll break people.

So tell me, where is AI pressing on you right now - your relevance, your craft, the pace, or where you belong?

AI Scales Fast

A star player who makes the team worse isn’t a star.

They’re a problem with good stats.

The real issue isn’t what you see.

It’s what you miss.

Your good people start checking out.

Standards drop bit by bit.

Your managers spend all their time cleaning up messes instead of actually leading.

And everyone’s just putting up with it instead of trusting each other.

You’ve got three options:

◾️Set clear boundaries - but this only works if they actually want to change and you stick to your rules.

◾️Move them to a different job - but only if that job keeps them away from doing the same damage.

◾️Put up with it because they get results - this is the worst choice, even though it feels easiest.

Because when you tolerate bad behavior, you’re teaching everyone a lesson.

You’re showing them what really matters to you and what you’ll ignore to hit your goals.

Your culture isn’t what you say in meetings.

It’s who you let stick around.

Yes, results matter.

But the real question is: can you keep getting them without breaking everything else?

What would you do? 

Vote in the poll below.

A consistently high performer who damages team morale should be:

Most people aren’t underpaid because they lack skills or competence. 

They are often underpaid because they do not ask for more or take steps to change their circumstances.

Key reasons include:
- A lack of negotiation.
- Insufficient leverage.
- Remaining in roles that no longer promote growth.
- A greater fear of leaving than of staying in a stagnant position.

Compensation is not solely a result of hard work; it also involves having options. 

Vote in the poll.

Most people aren't underpaid because they’re incompetent. They’re underpaid because they:​

When you’re making a high-stakes decision at work, what actually guides you most?​

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The Battle

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The Battle

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