Lindsay Rosenthal

Founder | Creator | Strategist | Building AI, Leaders, & Ideas That Move Markets

For sponsorships + booking + speaking: hello@cred.marketing
------
I build AI, leaders, products, and ideas that move markets.

As a founder, creator, and strategist, I’ve taken products from concept to market, scaled sales engines, built teams, and created campaigns that drive both revenue and cultural relevance. Deeply integrating AI in every step of the way. 

My experience spans SaaS, AI, B2B, and beyond, working alongside the companies and executives shaping tomorrow’s most important industries. (Would love to work with yours!)

I operate where innovation meets execution. 
Blending the reach of a creator, the precision of a strategist, and the perspective of an AI founder who has built and scaled from the ground up. 

The result: content, campaigns, AI, and go-to-market strategies that cut through the noise and position brands at the forefront of their markets.

Founder

1 month of content in 1 hour

Attended a dinner with top SF founders and VCs.
What top teams are actually betting on for AI in 2026:
(reframed my entire AI roadmap.)

I asked everyone one question:
“One word to describe AI in 2026.”

The answers were telling:
Unpredictable. Essential. Explosive. Pervasive. Vertical agents!

When you zoom out, a few patterns become very clear.

Here’s what actually matters for 2026:

1. AI becomes invisible, but unavoidable
Winning tools aren’t all about the AI AI AI.
AI will just be baked into workflows, decisions, and daily work.

2. Most teams are still using AI wrong
Oh so many teams had shallow AI applications.
And leaned in hard for the branding and buzz words.
Real gains come from deeply integrated systems that compound.

3. Vertical > generic
Vertical agents only win when paired with real domain expertise.
Otherwise, it’s just thin wrappers.
2026 is for AI depth and real applications.

4. Enhancement beats replacement
The strongest founders weren’t chasing “AI replaces X.”
They’re building for human amplification:
better judgment, faster execution, fewer bottlenecks.

5. Humanness becomes a differentiator
As AI gets more powerful, taste, trust, narrative, and leadership are everything!!

If you’re planning for 2026, these are the words I’d build a roadmap around.

Huge thank you to Emma Greenwald, Mahir Kumar Singh, Ricky Marton and the whole HubSpot For Startups team for such an incredibly curated, high-signal room!

everyone is asking how to win on LinkedIn in 2026.
don’t copy the wrong playbook.
copy mine here:

we’re entering the era of AI-generated sameness.
and that’s exactly why founders who sound the most human will stand out.

(thanks Audrey Chia for the great question here!!)

if your content could have been written by a model, it won’t win.
your unfair advantage is your unique, human, point of view.

background. 
lived experience. 
actual opinions from building.

so treat your LinkedIn like a media company.
don’t copy trends, but deliberately do the opposite.

you don’t even need a traditional tech background to do this.
teachers, nurses, operators, founders from any industry all have a lane.

all you have to do is find yours.

be deeply personal. 
unmistakably you.
and build media around that.

that’s how you stand out when everyone else sounds the same.

most founders say they’re “data-driven”.

so why are they still avoiding the hardest decisions?

i teamed up with Alyona Mysko to share with you our top tips for making data work for you, not the other way around. 

ultimately, the problem isn’t lack of data.
it’s lack of decision systems.

data only works when:
1. you know what decision you’re trying to make
2. you’ve set limits before emotions get involved

otherwise it’s just expensive noise.

swipe to see the full breakdown!

Top 2 Tips For Turning Data Into Decisions As a Founder

Come with me for a day in the life!
Building at the center of the B2B creator economy.
(And a sneak peek of what’s next.)

1. Morning at the SF LinkedIn offices.
Unpacking what’s actually coming in 2026!

2. Back-to-back convos with teams building next gen B2B tools.
So fun to hear top insights driving 2026 roadmaps.

3. Burmese lunch between meetings 
(highly underrated, btw)

4. Filming new content, stay tuned!

5. Waymo rides across the city.
Filmed before this week’s Waymo shutdown, lol

6. Closed the day at an invite-only HubSpot for Startups dinner.
Packed with awesome SF founders and operators.

7. And of course, getting to hang w/ the one and only @Katie Wrathall

A few signals I keep hearing from leaders across LinkedIn, HubSpot, and top B2B builders:

- B2B creator economy is shifting from “influencer” to infrastructure
 Content isn’t the output anymore.
Distribution, trust, and repeatable systems are.

- Founder-led media is becoming a core GTM channel.
 Especially on LinkedIn, where credibility compounds.

- 2026 is about depth over volume
Winners go all in on what’s working.

- Lines between product, marketing, and media are collapsing
 The best teams (and creators) are building all 3 together.

Days like this remind me why I’m bullish on where B2B creators are heading next.
And why I’m investing more into behind-the-scenes access, IRL convo, and building in public.

More to come soon in 2026!!
Happy Holidays to you all!

the upgrade you need to your 2026 cold email plans:

(how to basically print meetings!!)

most cold email campaigns fail because emails never land in the inbox.

so i really had to rethink my process here for sending emails.

i switched to Maildoso and my reply rates jumped almost immediately.

here’s why it works:
1. mailboxes are built for deliverability, not just sending. 
2. 98%+ of emails land in the primary inbox (even to outlook)
3. self-healing mailboxes rotate + replace burned addresses automatically, so campaigns never stop.

they also just rolled out Google Workspace accounts. 
so you can get high-deliverability SMTP mailboxes + fully legit workspace inboxes directly inside Maildoso!
(+ they’re priced lower than anything else out there)

plus setup is effortless (no dread!!) 
hundreds of mailboxes ready in mins, domains included, no manual config needed.

and somehow the cost is 50% cheaper than gmail/outlook mailboxes??

if your outbound campaigns feel stuck, this is the playbook you need to hack reply rates at scale.

STOP and do this one thing right now:

(before you adopt any more AI tools)

everyone wants to jump straight to AI.
they buy the latest tools and start running experiments.

but the truth is, AI can only be as good as the data it sees.
without a 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵, you get conflicting outputs, misaligned decisions, and wasted time.

a single source of truth is:

 • one place where all data is accurate and up-to-date
 • standardized definitions across teams
 • clear ownership of information

why it matters:

 • AI trained on messy or duplicated data produces unreliable answers
 • teams spend more time cleaning output than using it
 • decisions made from inconsistent data hurt credibility and speed

think of it as the less exciting, but critical, bottleneck to plan for.
(before you start automating or scaling with AI)

the companies who do this first, build reliable workflows and get lasting leverage from AI.

why “AI will replace jobs” is the wrong frame

(+ the reframe that will completely transform your workflows)

everyone keeps asking which jobs AI will replace.
but that’s the wrong question.
AI doesn’t replace 𝘫𝘰𝘣𝘴, it replaces 𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴.

every role is a bundle of tasks.
(some routine, some creative, some relational) and AI picks off the routine ones first.

example:
a marketer might spend time writing briefs, analyzing campaigns, pitching ideas.
AI can handle the briefs and analysis.
but the pitching? still so human!!

the better question is:
which tasks in my job are predictable enough for AI to do consistently well?
because that’s where the shift starts.

the future isn’t “AI vs humans”
it’s “humans who redesign their job around AI” vs those who don’t.

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

Scaling Founders Beyond $10M with Strategy, Financial Clarity, and Leadership Expansion

Most companies stall not because of lack of effort—
but because the founder has outgrown the systems, strategies, and financial models that once worked.

At Ascend Growth Ventures, we partner with CEOs of $3M–$10M companies to implement Scaling Up, strengthen financial infrastructure, and elevate leadership teams—building businesses that scale profitably and predictably, without burning out the founder.

By integrating Scaling Up, Exponential Organizations, and CFO-level financial insights, we deliver a complete, battle-tested system for sustainable, high-performance growth.

🔹 We Work With CEOs Who Want To:
✔️ Scale revenue and profits without chaos
✔️ Build self-managing leadership teams
✔️ Unlock hidden cash flow and improve financial decision-making
✔️ Sharpen their strategy for exponential growth
✔️ Prepare for capital raises, acquisitions, or exits

🔹 Our Core Focus Areas:
  * Strategic Scaling Up Implementation

  * Financial Strategy & Cash Optimization

  * Leadership Team Development

  * Systems for Predictable Growth

  * Valuation Prep and Exit Strategy

✅ Why Work With Me?
25+ years of experience scaling businesses from the inside out:
➡️ Regional CFO, GE Gas Power (LATAM, +1.5GW record year)
➡️ Strategic finance and underwriting leadership at GE Capital
➡️ Business/project development for 8-figure ventures
➡️ Trusted advisor to founders scaling past $10M and beyond

✅ Industries We Specialize In:
✔️ Clean Energy & Decarbonization
✔️ Industrial Goods & B2B Services
✔️ Impact-Driven Companies
✔️ Scaling Coaching & Consulting Firms

🧠 If You're Ready to Scale Intelligently and Sustainably

Let's have a strategic conversation about where you are—and where you can go.

Easiest way to work with me?

Book a 30 min call and let's see if we are a fit.
https://calendly.com/cruzagamboa/call-with-cruz-ascend-30min

Cruz Gamboa

Empires don’t collapse overnight. They die one decision at a time.

Blockbuster laughed. Kodak hesitated. BlackBerry mocked. Nokia grew arrogant. Yahoo said no. MySpace lost control. Toys “R” Us handed away power. Xerox watched. Sears refused to evolve.

None of them were stupid. They were comfortable. Comfortable with the way things were. Comfortable with yesterday’s wins. Comfortable thinking tomorrow would take care of itself.

Here’s the hard truth:
✅ Ego delays change.
✅ Comfort kills urgency.
✅ Arrogance blinds vision.
✅ Fear freezes action.

The future doesn’t wait. It doesn’t negotiate. It doesn’t care about excuses.

2026 is here. This year, make bold decisions. Execute fast. Learn relentlessly. Build systems that last. Stop waiting for perfect. Stop letting fear or ego decide.

💡 Save this if it opened your eyes.
💡 Share it if it humbled you.
💡 Apply it if you’re building something that matters.

History doesn’t repeat. It replaces. Make 2026 your year. Happy New Year
#ceo #founder #scalingup

LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn

JSESSIONID

li_at

Expensive Mistakes

At 35, Dave Thomas walked away from KFC.

Not just a few stores.
Millions in guaranteed money.

Most people would’ve retired.
Dave didn’t.

He started a burger chain.
Named it after his daughter.
Wendy.

Square patties.
Fresh beef. Never frozen.
“Quality is our recipe.”

He didn’t copy McDonald’s.
He did it better.

Then he changed the game.
Built the first modern drive-through.
Called it the “Pick-Up Window.”
Customers didn’t know what to do at first.
He taught them.
They came back. Fast.

By 1972, he was franchising.
Not individual stores. Entire cities.
Growth exploded.
1,000 restaurants in under 9 years.

Then came the fall.
Bad decisions.
Failed menus.
Brand fading.

Most founders would’ve quit.
Dave didn’t.
He became the ads.
Not an actor.
Not a celebrity.
Himself.

The commercials were awkward.
Critics laughed.
Viewers noticed.
He leaned into it.
Made fun of himself.
Spoke like a human.

Result?
800+ commercials.
90% brand recognition.
Third-largest burger chain in America.

As of December 2025, Wendy’s has a market cap of $1.61 Billion USD.

Here’s the lesson:

👉 Growth doesn’t come from comfort. It comes from bold moves.
👉 Your flaws aren’t weaknesses. They’re leverage.
👉 The founder isn’t behind the brand. The founder is the brand.

Walk away from millions.
Take the awkward path.
Show up as yourself.

That’s how empires are built.

#scalingup #founder #CEO #businessstories #branding #authenticity

Stephen Schwarzman built Blackstone into a global giant…
without using calculus.

Why?
Because the game he played didn’t reward equations.

It rewarded judgment, negotiation, and understanding people.

Those were the leverage points.

Charlie Munger said the same thing:

Simple thinking beats complicated math in most investing.

But here’s what most people miss:

It’s not about whether calculus matters.
It’s about whether it matters in the arena you choose.

Private equity = people, decisions, patterns.

Quant trading, derivatives, risk modelling = math, models, precision.

Different games.
Different skills.
Different leverage.

People fail because they try to be good at everything…
and end up great at nothing.

The real move?

👉 Pick the game you want to win.
👉 Identify the skills that game rewards.
👉 Get insanely good at those, and ignore everything else.

That’s how you scale.
Not by doing more.
But by mastering the few things that actually move the needle.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

Santa didn’t turn red by accident.

It was a deliberate capital allocation decision.

Coca-Cola didn’t run a holiday campaign.
They invested in a brand asset.

One color.
One story.
Repeated relentlessly for decades.

The payoff?

Red now signals Christmas—globally.

Here’s what most people miss 👇
Campaigns depreciate.
Brand assets compound.

Short-term attention fades.
Long-term memory accrues.

The lesson:
Stop buying impressions.
Start building assets.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from our crew at Ascend Growth Ventures!!

#growth #ceo #scalingup #christmas
Diego Bravo

Red Santa

She built a $7.8 BILLION empire
…from a basement
…with $70,000
…and zero investors

Judy Faulkner.
Founder & CEO of Epic Systems.

No VC hype.
No IPO roadshows.
No “exit strategy.”

Just one woman, one computer, and a decision most founders are too scared to make:
“I will not give up control.”

Judy wrote Epic’s first code herself.
When hospitals still ran on paper.
When people said tech had no place in healthcare.

GE tried to buy Epic Systems.
Oracle tried.
Private equity tried.
She ended every meeting the same way: No.

46 years later:
➡ Epic Systems powers 50%+ of U.S. hospital beds
➡ 305M+ patient records
➡ Still private. Still founder-led.

No ads.
No apps.
No noise.

Just software that helps doctors save lives
—and quietly prints billions.

Lesson most founders miss:
Fast money buys speed.
Control buys decades.

Boring businesses.
Long vision.
Unbreakable conviction.

#scalingup #ceo #founders

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 went to Texas to buy a bank.
He walked out owning a hotel.

Most people would’ve gone home.

Conrad Hilton didn’t.

1919. Cisco, Texas.
Oil boom town. 
Money everywhere.

Hilton arrived with $40,000 and one clear plan.

Buy the local bank.
That was the dream.

He studied the deal for months.
Location checked out.
Customers were guaranteed.

Then the last meeting happened.
The owner doubled the price.
Take it or leave it.

Hilton left. Furious.
Plan A was dead.

That night, he needed a bed.
The only option was the Mobley Hotel.
40 rooms. Run down. Forgettable.

But something didn’t add up.

Every room was full.
Not just full.
Overfull.

Beds were rented in 8-hour shifts.
Same room. Three guests a day.

It wasn’t pretty.
But it worked.

The owner wanted out.
“I’m chasing oil,” he said.

Hilton didn’t see a bad hotel.
He saw demand screaming for supply.

So he did the unthinkable.
He spent his banking money on beds.

$40,000.
Deal closed.

A banker became a hotelier by accident.

He rebuilt everything with one rule.
Minimum cost. Maximum comfort.
Every square foot had to earn.

Profits bought the next hotel.
Then another.
Then another.

Banking faded away.
Hospitality took over.

Years later, he bought the Waldorf Astoria.
From a 40-room flophouse
to the most iconic hotel in the world.

Today?
7,000+ Hilton hotels globally.

Here’s the real lesson:

👉 The rejection wasn’t a setback. It was a redirect.
👉 The failure wasn’t the end. It was the entry point.
👉 He didn’t find his calling by planning harder. He found it by paying attention.

Most people quit when the plan breaks.
Builders look around and ask,
''What’s working?''

Sometimes the wrong deal saves your life.
Sometimes Plan B builds the empire.

Because the stories we admire don’t start with perfect plans
they start with someone who refuses to walk away empty-handed.

#entrepreneurship #founder #businessstories #resilience #scalingup

Most people think scaling a business is about speed.

Jeff Bezos once reflected on Warren Buffett’s approach and said the real reason it isn’t copied more often is simple: it’s slow.

Not because it’s complicated, but because most people aren’t willing to wait.

Scaling, growing profits, and building something lasting work the same way.

It’s about thinking 7 years ahead instead of 3.

It’s about delaying gratification when everyone else is chasing quick wins.

It’s about obsessing over operational excellence and the tiny details nobody else notices.

It’s about doing the hard things quietly, consistently, and with pride.

That discipline?
That patience?
That’s the real unfair advantage.

Fast growth might make headlines, but slow, intentional scaling builds businesses that last and profit sustainably.

I help founders and leaders harness that mindset, turn operational excellence into financial clarity, and scale profits with impact.

🔗 Start scaling with impact: https://lnkd.in/epcnGuXE

#ceo #founders #scalingup #growth

Jamie Dimon was done.

At least, that’s what Wall Street believed.

Fired by his own mentor.
Pushed out at the peak.
Labeled too ambitious. Too difficult. Too much.

1998: Career over.

Most people would’ve faded away.

He didn’t.

He took the job no one wanted.
A broken bank. 
Low morale. 
Bleeding cash.

Bank One.

No big speeches.
No flashy moves.
Just discipline, cost control, and culture.

Four years later, it worked.

JPMorgan noticed.
Bought Bank One.
Dimon became CEO in 2006.

Then the world collapsed.

2008: Banks failed. Panic everywhere.

Dimon stayed boring.
Protected downside. 
Avoided stupid risk.

Bought strong assets while others burned.

JPMorgan didn’t just survive.
It dominated.

The lesson:

👉 Setbacks don’t end careers. Ego does.
👉 Boring fundamentals win in chaos.
👉 Power is built by outlasting the noise.

Jamie Dimon didn’t beat Wall Street.
He stayed standing when everyone else fell.

What is one career or business move that seemed like a terrible ordeal and resulted in the greatest gift for you?

I invite you to think about it for 5 minutes, and find the evidence for yourself that things are always working out for you if you choose to believe that. 

Stay humble but hungry
Committed but unattached to quick results
Always add value, lead with integrity

What you put in, comes back. 

This is what cause and effect it's all about. 

You may have had a rough season this year.
But guess what, a new year is almost already here. 

For some, it already began.

Happy 2026. Thanks for your support, your engagement and your trust!

Cruz Gamboa
CEO Ascend Growth Ventures

Diego Bravo
COO Ascend Growth Ventures

#gratitude  #scalingup #ceo #growth

Scaling up doesn’t break businesses.
Losing focus does.

When things are small, empathy is easy.
You know the people.
You hear the problems.
You feel the impact.

As you scale, noise increases.
More numbers.
More pressure.
More opinions telling you to “detach.”

That’s where most leaders get it wrong.

They think empathy doesn’t scale.
So they replace it with the process only.
Speed only.
Efficiency only.

Bad trade.

Empathy isn’t soft.
It’s a force multiplier.

It tells you:

➡️ What customers will actually pay for
➡️ What teams will execute without friction
➡️ What systems will break before they do

Tim Cook didn’t build Apple by caring less as it grew.
He built systems so care could scale.

Real scaling is this:
Clarity over chaos.
Preparation over panic.
Empathy baked into the process.

Because when you remove empathy, growth stalls.
When you systemize it, growth compounds.

Scale the business.
Don’t shrink the human.
#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

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

Most founders grind hard for years… and never hit $10M.

Here’s the brutal truth: it’s not about working harder. It’s about thinking differently.

The founders who scale don’t chase approval. They hunt reality.
They don’t run the machine they build the machine.

They don’t wait for perfect conditions, they turn constraints into leverage.

Scaling isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the few things that actually move the needle.
It’s about creating systems that work without your mood, decisions that multiply impact, and alignment that accelerates everything.

You can keep grinding, or you can flip the mindset switches that separate founders who stall from founders who explode past $10M.

Which one are you?

#scalingup #founder #ceo

No alternative text description for this image

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

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

John D. Rockefeller won everything.

Except the one thing money couldn’t buy.

📍 Cleveland, 1870.

Oil refining was chaos.
Rockefeller saw order where others saw opportunity.

He built Standard Oil.
Not around product.
Around leverage.

Railroads. Data. Pricing.

By 1880, he controlled 90% of American refining.

And yes—he got rich.

Richer than anyone in American history.

When the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil in 1911, he held stock in all 34 successor companies.

His wealth actually increased.
He died at 97.

The richest man in the country.

So why do we still talk about him as a cautionary tale?

Because wealth isn’t legacy.
Ida Tarbell’s exposés made him a national villain.
“Rockefeller” became shorthand for greed.

He spent his final three decades giving away money—desperate to reshape how history would remember him.

Universities. Foundations. Churches.

It worked. Partially.

But here’s what he couldn’t undo:
The fear he built his empire on didn’t disappear when he signed donation checks.
The relationships he burned didn’t rebuild themselves.
The reputation he earned in his climb followed him to his grave.

The real lesson isn’t that domination fails.
It’s that domination costs—even when it wins.
👉 You can build wealth through control
👉 You can’t build legacy through fear
👉 The money you make means less than the reputation you leave

Rockefeller proved you can squeeze your way to the top.
He also proved you can’t buy your way back to respect.

The strongest businesses aren’t just profitable.
They’re wanted.

Build something people choose to be part of—not something they’re forced to tolerate.

That’s the difference between getting rich and building something that lasts.


#scalingup #ceo #growth #founder

Most people obsess over predicting the next 10 years.
Wrong game.

Real builders, real investors, real wealth-creators?
They ask a different question:
“What’s NOT going to change?”

Because the things that never change…
are the things you can compound for decades.

In business AND in finance.

Think about it:
People will ALWAYS want

➡ Lower prices
➡ Faster delivery
➡ Higher value
➡ Better convenience

And most importantly…experiences.

And in finance, the same truths hold:

✅ People will always chase returns
✅ Risk will always exist
✅ Cashflow will always matter
✅ Compounding will always win
✅ Discipline will always outperform prediction

No one in 2035 is saying:
“Please increase my fees.”
“Give me slower growth.”
“Charge me higher interest.”
“Help me stay at home so I don’t connect with others”

Not happening.

You don’t get rich predicting trends.
You get rich betting on constants…
and repeating the same right actions for years.

Business rewards consistency.
Finance rewards patience.
Both reward those who stop guessing and start executing.

Find the truths that never change
and go all-in until the rest of the market wakes up.

#scalingup #ceo #growth #founder

Scaling doesn’t fail because of lack of effort.
It fails because effort doesn’t scale.

More clients won’t fix broken delivery.
More hires won’t fix unclear systems.
More revenue won’t fix weak structure.

Growth without systems = expensive chaos.

Build once.
Repeat forever.
Scale without breaking.

Save this if you’re serious about scaling.
Follow for frameworks that actually work.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founders

Scalable Systems

Knowledge²

I was reflecting today about where technology is taking us as humans. 

Everyone thinks AI is expanding their knowledge and wisdom.

It's not.

AI is set to magnify your own thinking = Knowledge2

Here's what that actually means:

Bad ideas become exponentially bad ideas.

Biased problems magnify to the square.

Blind spots don't get corrected—they become incorrect beliefs masked by root cause projection.

You ask AI a flawed question, you get a flawed answer delivered with perfect confidence.

You feed it your assumptions, it feeds them back to you gift-wrapped in data and frameworks.

This isn't intelligence amplification.
It's confirmation bias at scale.

And if you're a founder scaling past $1M?
The stakes just got existential.

You're making decisions about hiring, cash flow, pricing, and growth strategy, asking AI to validate the very assumptions you should be questioning.

That "financial model" you built with AI? It's only as good as the constraints you knew to include.

That "growth plan"? It might be scaling the exact problem that's quietly bleeding you dry.

AI can't see your blind spots. It inherits them.

So what's the answer?

An outside perspective. A human one.

Someone who's sat across the table from thousands of financial decisions. 
Who knows what scaling problems actually look like—not what you assume they look like.

Someone who will tell you what AI never will:
"You're solving the wrong problem."

That's why I created the Scaling CFO Audit.

It's not a report. It's a mirror.

Two hours. Your financials. Your assumptions. Your blind spots—exposed.
Most founders walk away saying: "Why didn't I see that?"

Because you couldn't. You were too close.

If you're scaling and making decisions with AI as your only sounding board...

You might be building faster toward the wrong destination.

DM me "AUDIT" if you want an outside perspective before your next big move.

#Leadership #AI #Entrepreneurship #ScalingUp #CFO

Knownledge2

A psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps taught a lesson every scaling founder needs to hear:

Two people face the same setback.
One breaks. One grows.

The difference isn’t strength.
It’s meaning.

Viktor Frankl noticed survivors weren’t the toughest—they were the ones who found a reason to keep going. A purpose. A “why.”

We don’t suffer from what happens to us.
We suffer from the meaning we attach to it.

For founders, this changes everything:

➡ That failed product launch?
➡ That key employee who left?
➡ That deal that fell through?
➡ That quarter you missed projections?

The event doesn’t determine your outcome. Your interpretation does.

Here’s a framework I use with clients:

1️⃣ Notice the meaning your mind created.
What story are you telling yourself?

2️⃣ Question it.
Is it true? Helpful? Or just automatic?

3️⃣ Choose a meaning that builds you.
Reframe. Assign purpose. Decide what it will give you—not what it took.

When you master this:
→ Pain becomes direction
→ Fear becomes information
→ Failure becomes strategy
→ Setbacks become strength

Life stops happening to you and starts happening through you.

The numbers matter. The strategy matters.
But the meaning you make from every challenge?
That’s the code that unlocks everything else.

What setback turned into your greatest lesson once you changed the meaning?

#ceo #scalingup #founder #growth

Peloton was dead.

Or at least that’s what everyone said.

$2,500 bikes dumped on Facebook Marketplace for $500.
$187 million lost in a single quarter.
Employees were laid off. Stock in freefall.

2022. The company was bleeding.

Most people would’ve shut it down.

Barry McCarthy didn’t.

He looked at the numbers. Really looked.
Subscriber patterns. Churn rates. Usage. Behavior.

And he saw something no one else did:

Most people weren’t using the bike.
They were using the classes. The community. The experience.

The product wasn’t the bike.
The bike was just the delivery mechanism.

So he did the unthinkable.

He unbundled the hardware.
Dropped the subscription from $44 to $12.99.
Made the classes accessible on any bike, any equipment, any device.
Made it cheap. Made it easy. Made it irresistible.

The subscription exploded.
Millions of new users.
Hardware sales became a funnel to software.
Peloton went from near-death to thriving.

Here’s the real lesson:

👉 People don’t buy your product. They buy the outcome.
👉 Stop obsessing over your widget. Start obsessing over what it delivers.
👉 Sometimes, Plan A dies. Plan B builds the empire.

Most companies panic when the plan fails.
Winners ask:
“What’s really working?”

Peloton’s bike didn’t fail.
Peloton’s mindset did.
Shift that, and everything changes.

#entrepreneurship #founder #businessstories #resilience #scalingup

taplio

The Battle

Lindsay Rosenthal

Cruz Gamboa

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreLindsay Rosenthal's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreCruz Gamboa's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Lindsay Rosenthal

Cruz Gamboa

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

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

Performance ScoreCruz Gamboa's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreLindsay Rosenthal's LinkedIn Performance