JK Molina

Run the JK Molina brand on Twitter (@OneJKMolina)

Founder

Tweet Hunter

Marketing

7-Figure Exit. 3,000+ Customers. 150+ Clients Served.

Grew Tweet Hunter to over $1 Million ARR.

200k+ Followers on Twitter.

Get a daily email on signing more clients: https://likesaintcash.com/

David Molina

I buy women's razors.

They're great. They give you a much better shave than the ones for men.

They're like the Apple of razors. They come in a nice box that's easy to carry. 

They're smoother. They last longer. Fantastic product.

The pink box and butterfly stickers remind me that this is not a product for men.

But I don't care about that.

I care that it's good.

Your audience and I have that in common:

We don't care who the stuff is for.

As long as the stuff is good.

You can say you help group A but if your stuff is really good you will always attract groups B, C and D.

This is why I believe niching down doesn't serve you or your prospects.

It's not that it's ineffective.

If you've got some clients now it clearly worked.

But if you stopped justifying who your stuff is for,

And only focused entirely in your art and making better razors,

You would get a lot more clients:

From your current niche.

And from dozens more.

Who cares which niche they're from.

As long as it's helpful to them and they pay you then you're doing something right.

I stopped caring about my niche and just started caring about making razors that work.

My razors got better.

Client acquisition took half the time.

And I got a lot of my energy back.

It's wild how much energy is wasted in choosing a niche.

There's too many options. You'll never get it right.

So don't try.

Don't market the niche.

Market the razor.

Likes Ain't Cash. 4,800+ Customers. 250+ Clients Served. How I Turned My 1 Big Idea (Likes Ain't Cash) Into $3 Million:

All entrepreneurs need to cope somehow.

I’ve observed entrepreneurs who cope with action and entrepreneurs that cope with thinking.

And the ones who cope with action make a lot more.

Picking a niche makes a lot of sense for cold audiences (like ads).

I could never make it work with warm audiences.

Gun to my head - if I had to answer what's my niche then I'd probably say "coaches".

Yet that would be inaccurate.

Maybe 60% of people I work with are coaches.

A lot of them aren't.

One prefers the private life without an audience and runs ads. Another one likes to be flown out for in-person packages but doesn't like to coach.

One guy I couldn't even find online. He partners with people in secret and launches stuff for them.

They've all spent a non-trivial amount here and made multiples of that in return.

It's been a positive for both sides.

But we would've missed this opportunity if my messaging was "I help coaches."

They may have had some interest.

But niching down would've made them go "not for me".

They were a "maybe".

But if I niched down I would have turned that "maybe" into a "no".

In my experience with audiences, that's what niching down does:

It turns maybe's into no's.

Niching down is like going to a bar with a shirt that says "I'm only into blondes."

It limits you to a great amount of great people.

Maybe a brunette liked you. But the shirt made her go from "maybe" to "no".

Niching down backfired.

A better use of your energy is to opt out of the niching game entirely.

And spend it creating tools and assets that make people from all niches interested in it.

Make great products.

Let the niche choose itself.

Very happy with the UltraHuman ring.

I don’t notice it unlike smartwatches. Tracks heart health (important on reta). And insights actually improve sleep.

Great product.

It's a normal thing in the Likes Ain't Cash world to not allow some people to give you money if you don't like what happens when they do.

We don't run a show business. You don't have to be nice to everyone.

Why your audience doesn't see your posts

(Insight after gaining 250,000 followers):

https://lnkd.in/gFigx3tX

"If you give the sauce away for free people will pay you too cook it for them."

I've had a few cringe takes.

This is one of them.

I used to swear by this.

It made sense: Give people value and they'll reciprocate with their money.

Some do.

Most don't because gratitude isn't a strong a motivator as self-interest.

Between free sauce and paid sauce - most people (myself included) will choose free sauce.

A frame that proved much more profitable for me is demonstrating why the sauce matters.

I demo this in this podcast with Ian Garlic at minute 4:15:

https://lnkd.in/ebETcVEq

Hamilton had about $11,500 in MRR and had made $150k last year.

But he wasn't satisfied with 2 things:

1. He wanted more money.
2. He wanted to get out of one-time purchases and more into monthly recurring revenue.

In August he made $42k (that's 3 months of last year's progress condensed into 1)...

... And more than doubled his MRR to $25,000.

8 lessons from Hamilton's journey (@howtoswingtrade):

Hamilton

Doubling Testosterone

(This post is not medical advice. Consult with your health professional.)

Unless we work together - nothing I post is business advice.

Consult with your business professional.

My posts are solely anecdotes of what's working for the Cash Creators and me right now.

I love business.

And I love health too.

I don't talk about it much but I nerd out on it.

Health protocol:

Weights: 3 times a week

Cardio: 3 times a week (alternating between LISS and HIIT)

Peptides: BPC-157, TB-500 and Retatrutide.

BPC-157 for Injury healing.
TB-500 for Blood flow, which complements it.
Retatrutide (Reta) for Appetite suppression and Metabolism.

A few months ago I completed the hardest thing I've ever done health-wise:

Getting a six pack.

I'm 5'10 (177cms tall).

And I ended up weighing 139.8 pounds (~63 kilos).

I was happy that I got my weight that low for my goal.

But I was NOT happy to see what that did to my testosterone.

It went down.

By a lot.

348 ng/dl. Which is the 20th percentile of men.

And I may not know much about tesosterone but I know that if 80% of men are better than you at some thing then something is seriously wrong.

I checked it yesterday (2 months after) and it more than doubled.

777 ng/dl.

Happy with the progress.

On to the next milestone.

I'm part of a few circles with people making $1 million to $5 million a year.

It's wild the things they talk about.

What stood out to me are the things that they don't.

Almost everybody in those circles just kind of stopped talking about hiring or employees altogether.

The consensus is that there's no point in hiring someone that can be replaced by a GPT or a Tool.

These people use Ai to hoard the most valuable resource they've got:

Mental bandwidth.

This is worth more to you than money or time is.

Without mental bandwidth you can't enjoy your money or enjoy free time because your mind would be somewhere else.

It is THE resource to be coveted.

This is why paying for solutions instead of figuring things out yourself is a rich person trait:

You give away a less valuable resource (money) for a more valuable one (mental bandwidth).

I'm a bit more rustic than them in that I believe some things shouldn't be replaced. Like creative writing for example.

I believe outsourcing creative writing to Ai is like hard drugs in that it gives you a great high but long term it messes with your head. I'll avoid that.

But for stuff like business writing it makes a lot of sense. Like offers, landing pages, upsells and even chat interactions.

I love making offers.

I hate making the backend. It's all so tedious. So I had Cashie build a large chunk of it for me and I could launch a Black Friday Offer 3 weeks early.

I'm waiting on the podcast I did with Kamal to come out and to post snippets of it I no longer have to hire someone. There's a tool that does that.

My main takeaway from the conversations in those circles is how unfair things will get very soon.

They'll be too fast. The copy will be too accurate. The funnels will be too optimized.

Like giants playing basketball against kids - some people will have so many great Ai tools that you will hardly be able to call it a fair fight.

I'm grateful that I got ahead of the curve and I can develop Cashie this early for myself and clients.

We never really intended to play fair.

When I stray away from these 3, things get hard.

When I stick to it, MRR is built for clients and myself:

1/3) Create Customers

I've worked with about 50 people in a 1-on-1 basis. The amount of them that have bought a one-time offer before:

49.

Some people will jump straight from a lead that has paid you $0 to your 1-on-1 offer.

A customer that has paid you for a small product is 56 times more likely to take that jump.

The reason for this is the same reason why sometimes it's easier to close people on a sales call than to get them on the sales call in the first place:

People want in when people see you do your thing.

And asking them to pay for a small product that creates a small result is a very low-friction way for them to see you do your thing.



2/3) Turn Customers Into Clients

Products should leave people with potential energy: An Idea to be installed or an Asset to be used.

Let's say you help people with their offers. If your product helped someone create an offer, you just created potential energy in their business.

There's now something that could be turned into more.

About 15% of your customers will ascend into the next thing to turn that potential energy into kinetic energy.

The "pitch" is simple:

"You have this. Wanna get something out of it?"



3/3) Create Tools For Clients

Most people who join coaching programs watch 2 videos, attend 1 call and then stop using the tools.

Which means that they don't renew.

That's just how it goes.

You can mitigate this by reframing the way you think of yourself:

I believe that thinking of yourself as a coach, a consultant or a mentor is limiting.

You may do all 3. But you don't all 3 all the time.

A more helpful frame is looking at yourself as someone with tools.

Your job is not so much "coaching" people as it is creating useful tools for them to install.

This drops the time it takes to pass on your teachings.

Which makes your tools better.

Better tools are faster to use and easier to install.

Which incentivizes consumption.

Which then increases client results (and thus - retention).

And so the trinity is complete:

1. Create customers because a customer is much more likely to turn into a client.

2. Turn customers into clients by offering to turn potential energy into kinetic energy.

3. Create useful tools for clients that you can use to create customers.

Many steps in between but these are the Likes Ain't Cash fundamentals.

You can get the steps in between completely wrong (and I often do).

But as long as you get the fundamentals right you will always be okay.

Someone asked me if there's a place they can read all my emails and I realized this is a good idea.

I don't have it now but I do send a daily email on how to get more clients.

People like reading them.

If you want more clients you might like them too:

likesaintcash.com

My focus this November was Valencia:

Moving.

The Ukrainian and I like this city a lot. We're just waiting on the paperwork so that we can move.

In the meantime we went house-hunting.

We found 2 good candidates. One that's more urban and one that's more rural. I like the rural one.

I'm feeling alive in a way that's hard to articulate.

Might be something to do with the fact that I finally finished my cutting phase.

I got the six pack I wanted and now I can finally eat something else than egg whites and rice cakes.

I can enjoy the Ukrainian's (excellent) cooking now. And because I have more nutrients in me - my testosterone more than doubled.

It went from the 20th percentile to the 80th percentile:

And my gym lifts are up.

Those where my first 13 days of November.

During that time - the Likes Ain't Cash Model was cranking in my business.

It created:

132 one-time customers.

155 client payments.

6 new clients.

142 challenge members.

253 new email subscribers.

$39,712 ($32,984.83 of that is profit).

The Likes Ain't Cash Way.

Last 24 hours to get Offer Cashie: The Ai that prints your offers in 8 minutes.

Trained on what sold $3.1 million of my own and multiples of that for clients.

If you're on the list - you just got an email with the link.

3 years ago I did the 23&Me thing where they tell you where you’re from.

You spit in a tube. Mail it. You get your ancestry map a few days later.

It was really cool.

(If you’re curious - I'm 50% Korean, 50% all over Hispanic countries and 0% little bitch).

23&Me kept sending me emails to get more out of their services.

(Advanced Ancestry they call it.)

And a few other products.

But I genuinely don’t see a reason to buy more.

Their first offer was fantastic.

But after that I didn’t see a reason to keep paying them.

I'm not the only one. As they filed for bankruptcy.

There's parallels to the coaching and consulting industry here.

People leave.

They leave often.

And they leave quick.

It's rare that people stay with someone for more than 2-3 months.

So the coach has got to hunt more clients.

Which are going to leave in 2-3 months too.

And the spiral continues.

One in.

One out.

Two in.

Two out.

It doesn’t matter how big the bucket is when there’s a hole at the bottom.

For those in that situation, improvements in offers, leadflow and content won't do as much...

... As retention.

Just losing 10% less clients can make you go from regression to growth in weeks.

It creates stability.

And removes the anxiety at the beginning of every month because the coach doesn't know if they'll be able to have as good of a month as the last one.

There's no need for that anxiety anymore.

Because they can trust that they've given their clients reasons to stay with them.

They can trust that they've got solid retention.

The way towards retention starts with commitment towards yourself:

When people see you jumping from one thing to another, you communicate uncertainty.

People don't buy from uncertain coaches.

The coach must find ONE Big Idea they can commit to.

This commitment is felt by the audience.

Which results in commitment back.

I came up with Likes Ain't Cash 3 years ago and I’m still evolving it daily.

Every problem I solve with it leads to another.

First it was how to get clients.

Then how to get Whales. Then how to upsell them. Then how to recycle the assets you created along the way so that they do it for you.

Now it’s Cashie and how to have Ai operate the whole thing.

I've been at it for years.

And I’ll keep developing Likes Ain’t Cash until I become one of those “ancestors” 23&Me talks about.

A seller needs an irresistible offer.

But they also need their one Big Idea that they can commit to, so that other people can commit to it too.

Or they’ll end up with the 23&Me Problem.

And keep listening to the bittersweet sentence of “Thanks for your help! Truly appreciate it! I’ll go on my own now.”

How People Are Using The Cash Creator Tools:

During Black Friday only - they're available and one saves $4,401. 

Check your email for the details.

First in-person podcast in 2 years coming soon.

Busy week.

We're on the last stretch to move to Spain with The Ukrainian.

The plan is to settle here. Have kids. Live the family life.

Disney movie style.

From Alicante to Javea to Valencia. We're visiting many cities.

They're beautiful.

Next week we're choosing a house.

If our Visa is approved then the next step is making the deposit.

And finding a way to move our stuff from Poland to Spain.

Electric.

It feels like this stuff will actually make a difference in the next decades for us.

The feeling that reminds one that social media can warp one's perception of money.

In social media, $30k/month can be considered not impressive.

I disagree.

I think it's quite impressive.

It buys you real things things you can touch, smell and live.

And thinking that you need a lot more to live a great life is, in my opinion, nonsense.

When I hit $5k/month the first thing I did was buy good food. I did the carnivore diet for a month. Not because I like meat that much but because I wanted to try "rich people stuff".

That was great.

Then I bought an apartment. Flew my parents to Europe multiple times.

Paid for my brother's expenses in the U.S. so he can dedicate himself to med school. And started sending Abuelita some money every week.

I even gave my friends peptides to last for a month.

That is also great.

All available way before $100k/month.

I'm there now and I don't live any different from when I was at $30k/month.

It's not a small number.

But 100% attainable depending on your Model and your Big Idea.

Lock those in and a lot of the good things in life become bargains.

The Cash Creator understands this - and that's why not all of them want $100k/month.

Some get everything they want and need at $10k/month.

Some at $20k/month.

Some have bigger requirements and going from $300k/month to $400k/month makes a big difference to them.

I respect them all the same.

And I'm excited for them because I know that whatever number they shoot for,

The electric things in life are available to them way before they reach it.

Evergreen offers are real.

… to a select few that have a massive audience.

They get millions of impressions a week so it makes sense.

Post a lot --> Get traffic to link in bio -> $$$

Which makes sense in theory but when was the last time you bought through a link in bio?

Most people who click on your link in bio repeat the same 4 steps:

    They see it
    Think “I’ll buy that sometime when I need it”
    Then leave
    Then click again some other day.
    Then repeat.

You’ve done.

I’ve done it.

We’ve all done it.

We’ve done all the “due diligence” and “consumed” enough to know it’s probably a good idea to buy but we never really get to it.

Yet we’ve all seen an offer with a fraction of the context of that link in bio…

And we’ve bought it.

We buy because we know that there is a chance that we won’t be able to in the future.

Evergreen offers never go away.

And that's the problem.

They signal to your audience

“I’ll be here for you ❤️ Whenever you need me ❤️ Take your time ❤️ ”

You allow slowness.

And so you get slowness.

I had an evergreen offer in my link in bio for years.

Had friends with 100k+ followers who did too.

And we’d both be surprised if a single sale came through every month.

Evergreen offers stall because they lack a reason to buy them now.

But mainly because they cultivate an image of “always here and always helpful”

Which is great for being famous but if being famous is your goal then you’re reading the wrong guy.

The Cash Creator has no interest in getting famous.

He wants to get rich.

And being always available doesn’t make you rich.

Evolving does.

I don’t do evergreen offers.

I do ever-evolving offers.

I evolve and my offers evolve with me.

I used to do only info products. Then I did sales calls and then Google docs.

As I evolved, the offers did.

And people started buying again.

Every offer had a limit:

How long I was going to be interested in doing it.

Have you considered that the reason your offer isn't selling so well isn't because it's bad,

But because you’re just kind of bored of it?

(No shame in it. It’s hard to stay interested in something you’ve been doing for that long.)

But maybe it's a sign to evolve.

To lean towards what’s calling you and wrap an offer around it...

... Instead of selling the same evergreen offer that the audience (and probably you) are kinda tired of.

The audience deserves more.

You deserve more.

Lean into that.

Into the voice that doesn't go away.

The challenge is in adding those ever-evolving offers without complexity.

Strategy & Finance Executive | Scaling Impact-Driven Companies Beyond $10M | Strategic CFO | Certified Scaling Up Advisor

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 private power hour call and let's create your vision.
https://calendly.com/cruzagamboa/90-min-power-hour

Cruz Gamboa

The market tells stories. Your financials & metrics tell truth.

In 2001, Amazon's stock cratered from $113 to $6.

Wall Street declared it dead.

Let's be clear: that had to be terrifying. Even for Bezos.

Watching 95% of your valuation evaporate. Hearing the whispers. Feeling the pressure from every direction.

But here's what separated him from founders who fold in those moments, he kept coming back to his dashboard:

Customer acquisition costs...improving. 

Fulfillment efficiency...improving. 

Contribution margin per unit...improving. 

Defect rates...declining.

The stock price reflected fear. 

The operating metrics reflected reality.

Confidence isn't the absence of fear. It's choosing to trust what you can measure over what you can't control.

This is Financial Intelligence: knowing which numbers actually predict your future, especially when everything around you is screaming that you're losing.

Watch the video. Bezos is calm. 

Not because he wasn't scared, but because he had clarity.

He knew exactly what was true inside his business.

That's how you survive what looks like a reversal, and come out the other side stronger.

That's how $6 becomes $1.7 trillion.

So here's my question for you:

What would it be worth to have that kind of clarity the next time everything feels like it's falling apart?

To know—not hope, not guess—that you're on the right track?

That's the game worth playing.

Check out comments for details

#founder #growth #ceo #scalingup

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

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

Hamdi Ulukaya didn’t just build a yogurt brand, he redefined an industry.

No investors. No marketing budget. Just purpose, grit, and belief.

In 2005, he saw an ad.
An abandoned Kraft yogurt factory.

Everyone saw a money pit.
He saw possibility.

He didn’t have the money.
So he took a loan.

Bought the factory.
Kept 5 employees who believed when no one else did.

No income.
No sales.
No marketing.
Just faith, and a recipe from home.

Two years later, in 2007, Chobani was born.

No ads. Just bold packaging and pure taste.

Retailers hesitated.
But the people loved it.

Within 5 years, #1 yogurt in America.

Over $1B in sales.
The giants, Dannon, Yoplait, couldn’t catch up.

He stayed private.
Gave 10% of the company to his employees.

Hired refugees.
Put people before profit.

When asked why, he said:

👉 “Business is the strongest force for good, if it puts people first.”

From a shepherd in Turkey…
To a billionaire who still walks the factory floors.

Lesson?
You don’t need investors.
You need integrity.
You don’t need luck.
You need courage.

Because the dream still works, if you do.

Loved this story. Let me know your comments. 

What problem in your business keeps calling for your most creative energy?

#CEO  #FOUNDER #GROWTH #SCALINGUP

At 40, he’d lost everything.
His company. His savings. His confidence.
Most people would’ve walked away.

But Aaron Krause wasn’t “most people.”

He went back to the garage.
Back to tiny problems no one cared about.
And from that… came a smiling sponge the world didn’t see coming.

Stores rejected him.
Investors laughed.
The idea sat on a shelf for years.

But he didn’t quit.
He took one uncomfortable shot: Shark Tank.

He walked in with a box of sponges.
He walked out with Lori Greiner.
$200,000 for 20%.
Momentum activated.

Then the episode aired…

Overnight demand.
Shelves cleared out.
Factories overloaded.
Scrub Daddy everywhere, from Walmart to Bed Bath & Beyond.

A simple sponge became a billion-dollar brand.
Not because it was cute.
Because he executed when life said “stop.”

Here’s the truth:

👉 He didn’t need a perfect plan: he needed one more attempt.
👉 He wasn’t chasing validation: he was chasing resilience.
👉 He proved the principle every founder forgets:
A small idea + relentless execution can beat a big idea that never ships.

Critics mocked the smile.
Then watched it become one of Shark Tank’s biggest wins ever.

The ones who win?
They push past rejection.
They build through uncertainty.
They keep going when almost everyone quits.

Because billion-dollar outcomes don’t happen in comfort, 
they happen right after the moment you think it’s over.

#resilience#scalingup#founderstory#entrepreneurship

li_at

JSESSIONID

LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn

They emailed eBay 200 times.
eBay ignored every single one.
Most people would’ve given up.

But Marc, Oliver, and Alexander Samwer weren’t “most people.”

They cloned eBay.
Launched it in Germany.
Executed with speed and perfection.
Within months… eBay bought it back for $43 MILLION.

Then the brothers doubled down.
They built Rocket Internet, the company that turned cloning into a billion-dollar machine.

They copied.
They improved.
They scaled.
And they sold again, and again, and again.

Here’s the truth:

👉 They weren’t chasing approval, they were chasing execution at scale.
👉 They didn’t wait to be discovered, they created their own leverage.
👉 They mastered the one principle most founders overlook:
Doing it better beats doing it first.

Critics called them “copycats.”
But behind the noise, the Samwer brothers built an empire worth billions.

Most people stop when they hear “no.”
The one who succeed?
They push when it’s uncomfortable.
They build when others hesitate.
They turn rejection into momentum.

If you want outsized results, do what most won’t:
Step past comfort.
Step past doubt.
Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live right beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #bostonfounders

Two friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

One dropped out.
One got rejected from med school.
But both wanted to build something.

First idea: bagels.
Too expensive.
So they pivot to ice cream.

No experience. No investors.
Just a $5 correspondence course from Penn State.
$2.50 each.

They find an abandoned gas station in Vermont.
Borrow $12,000.
Do the renovation themselves.

Ben can’t even taste properly, a condition called anosmia.
So he focuses on texture.
Big chunks. Wild swirls. Bold flavours.

What others saw as a weakness became their edge.

Within months, lines formed outside the door.
Free Cone Day became a tradition.
Word spread fast.

Few years later, they launched Cherry Garcia.
The brand took off across the country.
Soon, Ben & Jerry’s was making over $500M a year.

All from $12,000 and a $5 course.

Lesson?
You don’t need the perfect start.
You need creativity, courage, and the guts to turn constraints into leverage.

#scalingup #ceo #founder #growth

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁.

Steve Jobs said it best, the greatest people are self-managing.

They don’t need direction. They are the direction.

When you’re scaling, this is the difference between speed and stagnation.

You can’t build a $10M company micromanaging every move.
You build it by surrounding yourself with people who:

➡️ See the problem before you do.
➡️ Fix it without asking.
➡️ Then tell you how they made it better.

That’s who scales companies.
Not followers.
Not “yes” people.
Builders.

If you have to keep pushing your team to move, 
you don’t have a scaling problem,
you have a people problem.

The truth?
The best teams don’t need managing.
They need mission.

Hire those who act like owners.
Give them the target.
Then get the hell out of their way.

That’s how you scale.
That’s how you win.

#scalingup #ceo #founder #growth

He built a dating site that generated exactly zero activity.
No users. No traction. No revenue.

Most leaders call that a failed model.
I call it an early audit.

Three ex-PayPal employees launched “Tune In Hook Up,” expecting market fit.
What they got was silence.
Operational cost? Rising.
User acquisition? Non-existent.
ROI? Negative from day one.

But here’s what mattered:
They reviewed the data instead of reacting to the emotion.

They noticed users trying to upload videos
Not for dating, but for everyday moments.
Unintended behaviour, but real demand.

So they executed the smartest financial move any early-stage team can make:
A low-cost pivot.

Same infrastructure.
Same upload system.
Zero additional burn.
Just a shift in positioning:
Share any video.

And that decision changed their entire valuation trajectory.

Users scaled exponentially.
Cost per acquisition plummeted.
Engagement skyrocketed.
Suddenly, they weren’t running a dating site…
They were running the internet’s first true video platform.

By 2006, their risk profile had flipped
High growth. High virality.
And high legal exposure.

Enter Google.
They offered $1.65B in stock for a business that still had no established monetisation engine.
From a financial lens?
That’s called derisking the future.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim accepted.
Smart move.
They transferred operational liability…
And secured generational wealth.

Today, YouTube contributes over $40B in yearly ad revenue
and sits at a valuation north of $500B.

All from a product that started as a complete miss 
until the data told a different story.

Lesson:
You don’t scale perfection.
You scale what the market proves it wants.
Listen to the numbers, not the narratives.
And never underestimate the ROI of a well-timed pivot.

#CFOInsights #Leadership #Strategy #Scalingup

She sold her engagement ring for $10,000.
Ten years later, Vicky Tsai built a $500M skincare empire.

Most people call that crazy.
I call it commitment.

She walked away from a six-figure job…
Moved back into her childhood bedroom at 30…
Got rejected for 18 months straight…
And kept going anyway.

1,000 units.
Her last $5,000.
No safety net. No backup plan.

Month one? $2,000 in sales.
Most people quit here.
Vicky didn’t.

She packed every order by hand.
Wrote thank-you notes to strangers.
Built trust one customer at a time.

Then the internet found her.
Demand exploded.
Sephora called.
And the bedroom startup became one of the fastest-growing skincare brands in America.

In 2019, Unilever bought Tatcha for $500 million.
The $10,000 ring she sold?
It turned into 50,000x.

Lesson?
You don’t need permission.
You need conviction.
And the courage to burn Plan B. 

#ceo #founder #growth #scalingup

He got fired.
The company he built said, “We don’t need you anymore.”
Everyone forgot him.

But Steve Jobs didn’t stop.

He poured tens of millions into a failing company called Pixar.
Everyone thought he was crazy.
Most would have quit.

12 years later… that gamble sold for $7.4 BILLION.

Here’s the thing:

👉 He wasn’t chasing money. He was chasing vision.
👉 He embraced risk when others ran from it.
👉 He bet on what he believed in, even when the world said no.

Most people quit right before the payoff.
The real winners? They push through when it’s hardest.
They see opportunity where others see failure.

If you want massive results, you need to do what most won’t.
Step past comfort. Step past doubt. Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live just beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup  #growth #ceo

Steve Jobs

At 22, he was rejected by Toyota.
At 38, his factory was bombed. Twice.
Most people would’ve accepted defeat.

But Soichiro Honda wasn’t “most people.”

He went back to the workshop.
Back to broken engines and scraps no one wanted.
And from that… came a machine the world didn’t see coming.

Japan had no money.
Fuel was scarce.
Factories were rubble.

But he didn’t quit.
He bolted a tiny motor onto a bicycle 
not pretty, not perfect, but powerful enough to move people again.

Stores ignored it.
Critics dismissed it.
He kept building anyway.

Because he wasn’t chasing applause.
He was chasing motion.

Then came the breakthrough…

The Super Cub.
Light. Reliable. Unbreakable.
The bike that took Japan and then the world by storm.

A simple motorbike became a $100B legacy.
Not because it was glamorous.
Because he refused to stop when everything told him to.

Here’s the truth:

👉 He didn’t need perfect conditions: he needed one more rebuild.
👉 He wasn’t chasing status: he was chasing solutions.
👉 He proved what most innovators forget:
Small beginnings + relentless persistence beat rejection every time.

Toyota turned him down.
Life knocked him down.
But he got back up again and again until the world couldn’t ignore him.

The ones who win?
They rise after failure.
They create after chaos.
They build when everyone else quits.

Because billion-dollar stories don’t start with luck
they start with someone who refuses to give up.
#scalingup #founder #CEO #boston

Alax Kaur

He built pole barns to pay for college.

Decades later, John Menard Jr. built Menards, an $18B home improvement empire.

Most people call that luck.

I call it financial discipline.

He opened a small lumber yard in 1964…

Kept prices rock-bottom by building his own factories…

And built every store with cash, not debt.

No investors. No loans. No noise.

While others chased speed and Wall Street, John chose control.

He knew his margins by product line. He tracked cash flow like a pilot tracks altitude. He made the numbers his single source of truth.

Store by store. State by state. Slow, steady, unstoppable.

When 2008 hit, he didn't scramble; he expanded.

Today?

340+ Menards stores. $13B+ revenue. 3rd third-largest home-improvement chain in America. Still 100% private.

The lesson?

You don't need to grow fast. You need to grow right.

That means: 
→ Knowing your profit margins by service line 
→ Tracking cash flow weekly, not just at tax time 
→ Building systems so the business works, not just you

Financial clarity isn't about being a "numbers person."
It's about building simple, repeatable habits that let you scale with confidence.

Have the courage to own every decision, starting with your numbers.
#founder #growth #businessmindset #financialclarity #scalingup

Most people think success comes from working harder, dreaming bigger, or thinking smarter.

Here's the truth: none of that matters if you don't act.

In one simple test, a $50 bill was up for grabs. 

Everyone wanted it. 
Everyone talked about it. 
Everyone wished they had it…

Except Debbie.

She stood up. She walked forward. She took it.

That's it. 

That's the difference between winners and everyone else.

While everyone else burns time and money chasing online strategies that become less effective every day…

The smartest entrepreneurs thriving in 2025 are walking away from their screens and adding an extra 7-figures through live events.

Real humans. In-person communities. High-profit partnerships.

The ultimate advantage in the age of AI isn't replacing humanity with efficiency; it's experiences that are deep, connective, transformative, and profitable.

Getting face-to-face with your ideal clients AND peers is the most consistent solution to the Trust Recession.

I'll be at Event Profit Engine in Austin (December 10-12)...and I still have 4 discounted tickets.

If you're ready to get clarity on the financial blind spots keeping you from scaling, this is your moment.

Don't sit in the room wishing. 

Be Debbie.

P.S. Stop waiting for perfect timing. The money, the deal, the break… it's waiting for the first person who moves. Will it be you? DM me AUSTIN for ticket details.
#scalingup #CEO #founder #growth

He was dropped at an orphanage at seven.
No food. No money. No choice.

By 14, he was on a factory floor, making metal frames.
One wrong move crushed part of his finger. Permanent injury.

Most people would quit. Most people would settle.
He didn’t.

He watched. He learned.
Every machine. Every process. Every decision.
Night classes. Every penny saved. Knowledge accumulation.

At 26, he opened a tiny eyewear shop in the Italian Alps.
Nothing fancy. No connections. Just him, a few employees, and an obsession with understanding the craft end-to-end.

Most competitors sold parts. He had a different idea: make complete frames. Control the product. Own the market.

By the 1980s, he was making designer frames for fashion houses.
By 1995, he bought LensCrafters—suddenly he controlled both the product and the retail.

Then came Ray-Ban.
Everyone said he overpaid $640 million for a dying brand.
He didn’t see risk. He saw opportunity.

Ray-Ban wasn’t just glasses anymore.
Movies. Celebrities. Fashion statements.
Value multiplied. Brand exploded.

He kept buying. Oakley. Sunglass Hut. Prada. Versace. Chanel. Pearle Vision.
Vertical integration? Check. Market dominance? Check. Monopoly? Almost.

When he died in 2022, Leonardo Del Vecchio had $25.8 billion.
One orphan. One factory worker. One relentless learner.

Lesson:
You don’t need luck. You need mastery, observation, and relentless execution.
Start small. Learn everything. Then own the ecosystem.

#ceo #scalingup #growth #founder

Passion isn’t happiness.
It’s pain.
It’s grinding when no one is watching.
It’s suffering through every mistake, every rejection, every late night, just to build something nobody thought was possible.

Jensen Huang didn’t follow the market.
He didn’t wait for AI to be big.
He invested 10,000 engineer-years ahead of demand.
He pivoted Nvidia from graphics chips to AI dominance.
That’s vision. That’s first-principles thinking. That’s suffering smarter than everyone else.

Breakthroughs aren’t born in comfort zones.
They’re born when you refuse to quit, when you embrace the grind, and when you’re willing to suffer today for what the world will celebrate tomorrow.

Extraordinary isn’t given.
It’s earned.
Through struggle.
Through relentless work.
Through being willing to do what everyone else won’t.

If you want to be great, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

Most founders don't fail because of competition.
 They fail because of the blind spots they never see coming.

Cash looks fine… until it doesn't. Revenue grows… but profit disappears. You hire fast… and spend months fixing mistakes. You work harder… but scale refuses to unlock.

I spent 20+ years at GE Capital navigating these exact challenges at a corporate level.

Closing an $800M+ power plant deal? That taught me cash flow precision. Managing international transactions? That revealed the profit leaks most miss. Building high-performance teams? That showed me the cost of hiring fast vs. hiring right.

Those frameworks didn't just help me lead deals—they gave me the blueprint for scalable growth.

Now I help founders apply these same battle-tested systems to their businesses.

The 7 blind spots in this carousel? They're the ones holding 90% of founders back from predictable, profitable scale.

If you want to go deeper… Download my free ebook in the comments. 

Fix the blind spots. Scale with clarity. Build a business that runs like a pro—because you learned from one.
#scalingup #founder #ceo #growth

7 Blind Spots

𝗛𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮.
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿.

Most founders know Pinterest.

Almost no one knows Paul Sciarra, the guy who paid early salaries out of his own pocket, skipped taking income, and carried the company when no one else believed.

He wasn’t a “supporter.”
He was the architecture.

And then the quiet part of startup life happened.
Not a blow-up.
Not a fight.
Just… inches.

One meeting he wasn’t invited to.
One decision he didn’t have visibility into.
One board conversation that happened without him.

By the time Pinterest crossed millions of users and raised over $100M…
Paul was out.

He walked away with ~$15M.
Not nothing.
But painful when your original idea becomes a $25B enterprise.

This isn’t a story about betrayal.
It’s a story about leadership, governance, and identity.

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆.
They lose it when:
 • they stop owning the financial strategy
 • they delegate governance without understanding it
 • they avoid hard conversations
 • they let investors define the path
 • they disconnect from the role of architect

You can build something extraordinary…
and still get written out of your own success if you don’t stay in the seat you were meant to own.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟯𝗠–$𝟭𝟬𝗠 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻.
The product works.
The company has traction.
Teams are growing.

 But governance, capital strategy, and leadership identity aren’t keeping pace.
That’s the real risk.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻:
Your idea can change the world,  but only if you stay in the role of architect as it scales.

Own your equity.
Protect your seat.
Upgrade your thinking.
Build with intention.
The threat isn’t being pushed out.
The threat is drifting out of your power.

𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
 Are you building like the founder…
 or leading like the architect?

#ceo #founder #scalingup #growth

Mastermind Scaling Dinner 

This past Wednesday night in Boston, twelve leaders got uncomfortably honest about their real constraints.

No pitch decks. No surface-level networking. 

Just the Hero's Journey framework and one question: 

"What's actually stopping you from scaling?"

Three principles guided the conversation:

🪞 Your Business is a Mirror 

The bottleneck in your business is a reflection of a constraint in your leadership. 

Stop fixing symptoms. Fix the leader, and the business scales.

🐉 Constraints are Your Greatest Leverage

 Your biggest constraint is not a problem—it's the dragon guarding your next treasure. 

The right constraint, once identified and solved, unlocks massive, non-linear growth.

⚖️ Not All Success Has the Same Price

 You can build a company that breaks you, or one that fulfills you. 

Alignment + Clarity = Sustainable Success.

🎯 What showed up:

Estate planning. Cybersecurity. Medical devices. Food distribution. Banking. Fractional sales leadership. IT services. M&A law. Green infrastructure. Urban revitalization. Job search acceleration.

Different industries. Same truth: Every business grows until it hits a constraint, then grows no further.

The magic wasn't in solving everything in one night. 

It was in naming the real constraint out loud - not the sanitized version we tell at networking events, but the 2am version that keeps us up.

Some constraints were about capital. Others about people, partnerships, or positioning. A few were about letting go of what got them here to embrace what gets them there.

🤝 The vulnerability created immediate value: Real partnerships forming. 

Actual introductions being made. Problems being reframed. Resources being shared.

Thank you to Adrian Mendoza and the Mendoza Ventures team for hosting us.

And to everyone who showed up: Marco A. Schiavo , Geoffry Gilton, Joshua Sigsworth, PT, DPT, Dominic Endicott, Jacques Cohen, Maud Dentico, Vasant Narayan, Raffi Yardemian, CSL, Paul Smith, Alex Khalarian, and Sam "Butch" Nigro.

This is what happens when you build community around truth instead of transactions.

The Mastermind dinner happens monthly ( but we are taking a break in December). If you're a founder or executive in Boston or Greater Boston working on something real and willing to get honest about your constraints, let's talk.

We are going to start hosting Metro West dinners as well. More to come.

P.S. - Curious about finding the constraint for your business? Drop a comment or DM.

Most founders don’t fail because they’re lazy.
They fail because their goals are small.

Small goals keep you grinding.
Big goals force you to rebuild the system.

When you raise the target to 10x, everything changes:
your strategy, your thinking, your standards, your circle.

You stop playing in the crowded middle
and start operating where very few people dare to go.

10x isn’t harder.

It’s cleaner. 
It’s clearer. 
It’s smarter.

Stop playing safe. Start playing big.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

I wanted to grow my LinkedIn presence to 100K in a year.
I had 2k followers. 

A few people said that it would take years and that I was unrealistic.

Maybe they would have been right - if I'd believed them

I tried anyway. 
I took a course to learn from others who were ahead of me.
I showed up here every day.
Continuously improved my content (and my mindset)
Hired people to help me.

Did I accomplish my goal?
NO. 

I am still at 72k followers today, a year into that challenge.
But I am still grateful for the results. 

Can you imagine what would have happened if I had played small?
I may be at 15K followers at best. 

And that's the whole point. 

Even if you miss the 10X mark, it beats linear thinking. 

This same principle is why I help founders identify the 7 financial blind spots killing their scale - because small thinking about money keeps you grinding, while 10x financial clarity forces you to rebuild the system.

Want to apply 10x thinking to your finances? 

I've identified the 7 blind spots most founders miss. 

Download the guide; link is in the comments. 

#founder #ceo #growth #scalingup

10X Thinking = 10 X Results

He bought a bankrupt textile factory for $15 million.
Forty years later, Bernard Arnault built a $500B luxury empire.

Most people call that impossible.
I call it vision.

He didn’t invent anything.
He didn’t design a product.
He didn’t chase trends.
He just saw what others couldn’t.

Buried inside that dying company was a forgotten gem: Christian Dior.
Everyone overlooked it.
Arnault didn’t.

He sold everything except Dior.
Bet the house on one iconic brand.
And rebuilt from zero.

Then he made an even crazier move
He went after LVMH.
Louis Vuitton. Moët. Hennessy.
The crown jewels of French luxury.

The elite hated it.
The media mocked it.
It was the most hostile takeover France had ever seen.
Arnault didn’t blink.

He bought the shares quietly.
Took control boldly.
And turned LVMH into a global machine.

One acquisition at a time.
Fendi. Tiffany. Givenchy. Sephora.
Dozens of brands reborn under one ruthless strategy:

Let creators dream.
But keep the business razor sharp.

While tech giants chased disruption…
Arnault chased timelessness.

While others discounted…
He raised value.

In 2023, he became the richest man on Earth.
Quiet. Precise. Unshakeable.
He outplayed every tech titan without writing a single line of code.

Lesson?
You don’t need to invent.
You need to see the hidden gem
And have the courage to bet everything on it.

#entrepreneur #growth #businessstrategy #founder #scalingup

He started with $5,000 and a pizza shop paycheck.
Nobody cared. Nobody believed.

Most people would’ve stayed broke.

Dan Gilbert didn’t.

He looked at a broken mortgage industry slow, complex, full of middlemen and said: “There’s a better way.”

He worked 18 hours a day. Seven days a week.
He studied every inefficiency.
He simplified the impossible.
He moved online when the internet was “just a fad.”
He ignored the naysayers.

It all started with Rock Financial. 
And eventually
Rock Financial became Quicken Loans.
Applications went from weeks to minutes.
Rates went from hidden to transparent.
Customers went from frustrated to obsessed.

Then he didn’t stop.
He bought the Cleveland Cavaliers, poured money into the city, and turned it upside down.
Downtown boomed. 
The team won a championship. 
The city transformed.

Here’s the lesson most people miss:

👉 You don’t need a perfect idea.
👉 You don’t need permission.
👉 You need to see broken systems, fix them better, and move faster than everyone else.
👉 And then, reinvest the wins into something that actually matters.

From pizza shifts to $28.5B, Gilbert’s story isn’t luck.
It’s obsession, timing, and execution.

Most people quit at “too hard.”
The few who succeed? 
They see the gap, go first, and keep building while others sleep.

If you want outsized results, do what most won’t:
Step past the “impossible.”
Step past the doubters.
Step past comfort.

Because fortune isn’t at the starting line, it’s at the point where everyone else stops.

#growth #scalingup #entrepreneurship #CEO #execution

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