Lion Specialty

Podcast Co-Host - Conversations in the LIONS' DEN

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

NFP is a leading insurance broker and consultant that provides employee benefits, property & casualty, retirement, and individual insurance and wealth management solutions through our licensed subsidiaries and affiliates.Our expertise is matched only by our personal commitment to each client’s goals.

Senior Vice President

Marsh McLennan

Vice President

JLT Specialty USA

JLT Specialty USA is the U.S. platform of the leading specialty business advisory firm Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group. Our experts are specialty focused and have extensive experience in industries and products serving leading U.S. and global firms. We focus on complex areas of industry or product need, where innovation and optimization are critical. 

Our specialty team has clear alignment around our clients’ best interests and are judged and rewarded based on our clients performance. With decisive insights, our team is fact-based and analytics-driven to create the best insights and value for our clients. 

Our culture enables a rewarding and challenging environment to attract and develop the best talent in the industry. We encourage creativity and are free to challenge conventions. With teamwork and collaboration, we are working together to share knowledge, solve problems and deliver the best solutions for our clients. 

Jardine Lloyd Thompson is one of the world’s leading providers of insurance, reinsurance and employee benefits-related advice, brokerage and associated services. JLT’s client proposition is built upon its deep specialist knowledge, client advocacy, tailored advice and service excellence. JLT is quoted on the London Stock Exchange and owns offices in 40 territories with more than 10,600 employees. Our global foundation is unparalleled and provides experts worldwide in 135 countries. 

For further information about JLT, please visit our website www.jltus.com

Broker Director and Officer's liability insurance for clients around the globe.

Assistant Vice President

The Aspen Institute

Development Intern

American Property Solutions

Developed Business Plan

Bitzer Real Estate Partners

Intern

LION Specialty is one of the only independent broker that positions financial institutions clients to trade effectively in the global insurance markets.

As Co-Founder and Managing Partner at LION Specialty, I offer a distinct combination of skills and a personalized approach to navigate the dynamic landscape of the global insurance market.
Our focus lies in empowering middle-market financial institutions, which are frequently overlooked by larger brokerage firms, by providing them with innovative tools for risk management and decision-making.

With our long-standing global relationships and experience, we elevate these institutions with our innovative solutions and client service platform.
What sets us apart:

• Decades of experience in our niche, with accolades for our team's effectiveness.
• Exclusive access to a Lloyd's of London program, a rarity in our field.
• Recognition from our peers as one of the best teams to work with.
• The ability to keep our clients up to date with dynamic market conditions with the use of AI tools.

I have 50,490 hours of expertise within the insurance industry focusing specifically on banks, (Re)insurance companies, private equity firms, ILS funds, and investment managers.

My passion lies in developing distinctive solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of each client.
Since the start of my career, I’ve always been driven and results-oriented. Always willing to put in the extra hours and time to get the job done.

After starting in real estate, I jumped over to the insurance world where I teamed up with LION’S co-founder, Mark Flippen. 

Within months, the two of us were landing and converting meetings at a rapid clip. Our passion for insurance and our strong work ethic led us down the path of creating LION Specialty. 

Outside of the financial industry, I enjoy teaching Pilates, exploring the world, and spending time with family and friends.

Interested in discovering how our decades of experience contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of insurance companies in the commercial insurance market? Send me a message and let's connect.

Natasha I.  Kiemnec, ARM

This industry runs on relationships.
Today I'm grateful for every single one.

The clients who trusted us before we had a track record. 

The carriers who partnered with us when LION was just an idea and a business plan. 

The team members who bet their careers on what Flip and I were building.

We started LION with a simple belief: financial institutions deserved better.

Better coverage. 
Better advocacy. 
Better understanding of what they were actually buying.

What we didn't anticipate was how many people would show up to help us prove it.

Underwriters who spent extra hours getting manuscripts right. Clients who referred us before we asked. Industry friends who made introductions just because they believed in what we were doing.

Insurance is a relationship business. 
Everyone says it.

But you don't really understand it until you're building something from scratch and watching people choose to support you; not because they have to, but because they want to.

To our clients: Thank you for trusting us with what matters most.

To our carriers: Thank you for partnering with us to build something different.

To our team: Thank you for making LION what it is.

To Mark Flippen for making the leap with me, and trying something that virtually no one in our industry does. 
 
To this industry: Thank you for twenty years of relationships that turned into friendships.

To the new connections: We’re learning how to build in public and on socials because of you!

To my family and friends: I love you for all the support helping me get to this point!

To my love David Gutierrez, your unwavering love and support has made this possible for me. 
 
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who's been part of this journey.

Today I'm not thinking about coverage gaps or policy language.

Just gratitude and love ❤️

Managing Partner & Co-founder of LION Specialty | Global Financial Institutions & Private Equity Broker | Classical Certified Pilates Instructor

If your insurance policy is 200 pages long, it's probably hiding something.
Ours is 35:

I've spent the last 10 years reading what most people avoid…
Hundreds of pages of insurance forms. 

I've tracked how they perform at claim time, mapped exclusions that didn't hold up, and watched policy language fail when it mattered most.

So believe me when I tell you this: complexity isn't protection.

LION’s solution is our Lloyd's Manuscript.

We're now on version four.

Not because we keep getting it wrong. 

Because we keep making it better.

Version one: At JLT, we picked the top 20 writers of insurance company professional liability - basically everyone who writes it - and reviewed their contracts section by section.

Insuring agreements. 
Notice provisions. 
Defense and settlement. 
Allocation. 
Exclusions with carve-backs.

We crafted language simple enough to understand but sophisticated enough for London to back it.

Version two: Public company variation. 

Realized the private company version needed tweaks we hadn't caught the first time.

Version three: Left for another firm. 

Couldn't take our IP. Had to write it again from scratch - which forced us to see what had become outdated, where definitions didn't match up.

Version four: Built LION. 

Rewrote it completely. More succinct. Reordered exclusion sections. Pulled general terms into one place. Made notice crystal clear.

Each iteration taught us something:

How "for" lead-in language on conduct exclusions creates full defense cost carve-backs. 

How "true best effort" allocation language performs under pressure. 

How integrated forms beat 50+ endorsements stitched together.

Here's what four versions got us:

Technical precision: Covers full scope of FI services. Flexible claims trigger. Exclusions with carve-backs for how insurers actually operate. 

Optional punitive damages through London, Bermuda, Ireland. Integration with reinsurance that fills gaps where you'd otherwise pay.

Structural elegance: D&O, E&O, EPLI, fiduciary in clear sections. 

Crime and cyber as modular add-ons. 35 pages of core coverage vs industry standard 150+.

Market validation: Primary capacity to $10M. Excess to $100M in UK. Nine Lloyd's syndicates pre-approved. Tested through countless real claim scenarios.

Most brokers place your business into existing structures.

We build structures designed specifically for your business.
Because we don't write to impress.
We write to respond.

If you want to chat about coverage, my DMs are always open.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance.

JSESSIONID

li_at

15 years in insurance taught me what no training manual covers.
Here are the unspoken rules that matter most:

1. Your relationships matter more than your resume

The best placements don't come from knowing products. 

They come from knowing the underwriter who can make exceptions, the claims executive who will fight for your client, the coverage counsel who understands nuance.

Build relationships before you need them.

2. Saying no is a skill

Early in my career, I said yes to everything. 

Every client call. 
Every project. 
Every "quick question."

I learned the hard way: overcommitment leads to mediocre work. Boundaries create space for excellence.

3. Ask questions that make you look junior

I was 24 manuscripting policies with general counsels from top 30 insurance companies. I asked questions that probably annoyed them.

But asking questions when you don't understand builds expertise faster than pretending you do.

4. Own your mistakes immediately

Coverage errors happen. 
Notification delays happen. 
Miscommunications happen.

The brokers who survive own them fast. The ones who spiral try to hide them.

5. Find people ahead of you who will teach

Senior brokers who invested time teaching me line-by-line coverage changed my career. 

Mentorship is earned through showing up prepared and being easy to work with.

6. Physical discipline supports mental performance

I was working until 10 PM and hitting the gym at 4:30 AM. Not despite the long hours - because of them.

You can't sustain high performance on declining physical capacity.
Insurance rewards endurance. 

Build for it.

Nobody told me these rules at 22. 

I learned them through trial, failure, and watching others succeed or burn out.

What unspoken rules have shaped your career?

Building insurance expertise through hard-earned lessons. Follow along.

the unspoken rules of insurance

Most insurance renewals are just photocopies of last year's decisions.
Here's why that's costing financial institutions millions:

An insurance company came to us last year after 12 years with the same broker.

Their coverage had been "renewed" annually.
Premiums negotiated down.
Limits maintained.

Everyone congratulated themselves on another successful cycle.
Then we actually looked at the program.

Their business had completely transformed over those 12 years. 

New product lines. 
Different distribution model. 
Expanded geography. 

Regulatory requirements that didn't exist when the program was designed.

But their coverage?

Still built for who they were in 2012.

We found exclusions that eliminated protection for 40% of their current revenue. Notice provisions that assumed a corporate structure they'd abandoned years ago. Limits that made sense for their old book but left them catastrophically underinsured for their actual exposure.

Twelve years of renewals.
Not one fundamental coverage review.
This wasn't a bad broker.

The standard renewal cycle rewards efficiency over effectiveness. Brokers have 90 days to get signatures. Carriers want minimal changes. Clients want lower premiums. Everyone's incentive is to keep things moving.

Nobody's incentive is to stop and ask: "Does this still fit?"

At LION, we built the opposite approach.

Every renewal starts with a simple question: If we were designing this program from scratch today, what would it look like?

We map current exposures against existing coverage.
We stress-test provisions against actual claim scenarios in your sector.
We compare your program to our manuscript standard built from hundreds of global form reviews.

Only then do we negotiate.

The regional insurer?

We restructured their entire program. 
Eliminated exclusions that would have gutted their next claim. 
Rewrote notice provisions for their actual corporate structure. 

Rebuilt limits around real exposure, not historical habit.

The insurance market rewards brokers who renew fast.

We built LION to reward clients who renew right.

Because coverage that doesn't fit isn't coverage at all.

It's expensive false confidence.

~

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

We've reviewed every major D&O form in the global market.
Here's why that matters more than any carrier relationship:

Early in my career, I spent six months reading insurance policies line by line with the general counsels who write them.

Not summaries. 
Not broker guides. 
The actual manuscript language that determines whether claims get paid.

That education changed everything about how I evaluate coverage.

Most brokers review forms comparatively. "This carrier's form is better than that carrier's form." Relative judgments based on limited samples.

We review forms against an absolute standard.

Over the past decade, we've built a manuscript benchmark from hundreds of policy reviews across London, Bermuda, and domestic markets. 

Every provision. 
Every exclusion. 
Every definition that matters when claims hit.

When we tell a client "this language is non-standard," we're not guessing. We've seen what standard actually looks like across the entire market.

Last quarter, a specialty insurer brought us their renewal. Their current broker called it "market-leading coverage."

We found eleven provisions that deviated from our manuscript standard. Three of them would have materially impacted their next claim.

One exclusion effectively eliminated coverage for their fastest-growing business line. The broker who placed it had never seen a form without that exclusion, so they assumed it was standard.

It wasn't. We'd seen dozens of forms without it.

The difference between "standard" and "best available" often comes down to how many forms you've actually reviewed.

We've reviewed more than anyone.

That's not a boast. It's a methodology.

Because when you're negotiating coverage, the broker who's seen the most forms knows what's actually possible.

Everyone else is guessing.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG
LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

People ask how I catch details others miss in insurance policies.
The answer goes back to my mom's design firm:

My mom was the head designer at my parents' company for 35 years. Every project that left their office went through her review.

Line by line. 
Layout by layout. 
Color by color.

She'd check once. Then check again. Then check a third time.

Because if something went out wrong - wrong installation, wrong art, wrong color specification - they paid for it.

Out of pocket. 
Their own company. 
Their own money.

That kind of financial exposure creates a particular kind of obsession with getting it right.

I didn't realize I was learning anything. 

I just saw my mom reviewing projects at the kitchen table, marking up drawings, catching errors before they became expensive mistakes.

But that checking discipline sank in deeper than I knew.

In school, I'd review my work the same way. Once for completion. Again for accuracy. A third time before submission. I became valedictorian not because I was smarter - because I caught what I'd missed.

Now in insurance, that same pattern shows up everywhere.

I check quotes line by line.
Read binders multiple times. 
Review policies until I've seen every provision, every definition, every exclusion.

Not once. 
Multiple times.

Because the details that matter most hide in plain sight. 

You only find them through systematic repetition.

The best disciplines get formed before you know you'll need them.

I learned to check for costly errors in design projects. 

Now I check for coverage gaps in insurance programs.

Different industry. 
Same foundation. 
Same obsession.

Building insurance expertise through systematic discipline. Follow along

Natasha Kiemnec

Most brokers start your renewal 60 days before expiration.
We start 150 days out. Here's why that gap determines everything:

The standard renewal timeline is built for broker efficiency, not client outcomes.

60 days gives you enough time to get quotes, compare pricing, and secure signatures. It's enough time to transact.

It's not enough time to transform.

At 60 days, you're reacting. 

Carriers set the pace. 
Market conditions dictate terms. 
You negotiate around the edges of whatever they offer.

At 150 days, you're shaping the market.

Here's what those extra 90 days actually buy:

Days 150-120: We run a complete exposure audit. 

Not "what did you buy last year" but "what do you actually need today." 

Business changes. 
Risk profiles shift. 
Coverage should evolve with you.

Days 120-90: We stress-test your current program against real scenarios. Regulatory investigations. 
Cyber incidents. 
Coverage disputes we've seen in your sector. 
We identify gaps while there's time to fix them.

Days 90-60: We go to market with a clear mandate. 
Not "renew this program" but "here's exactly what we need and why." Carriers respond differently when brokers demonstrate systematic preparation.

Days 60-30: We negotiate from strength. 

Because we've done the work, we know exactly which provisions matter and which are noise. 

We don't waste leverage on immaterial changes.

Days 30-0: We execute cleanly. 

No surprises. 
No last-minute scrambles. 
Coverage bound with full documentation and implementation protocols.

A regional MGA came to us mid-cycle last year. Their expiration was 45 days out.

We told them the truth: we couldn't do our full process in that window. We could transact their renewal, but we couldn't transform their program.

They waited. Renewed with their current broker for one more year. Came back to us at 150 days.

The program we built was fundamentally different. 
Better limits. 
Fewer exclusions. 
Coverage that actually matched their current business model.

The 60-day timeline would have given them another year of the same.
The 150-day timeline gave them protection that actually works.
Time is the difference between transaction and transformation.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

At 22, I was learning from everyone around me.

At 35, I'm teaching what took me 15 years to learn:

At my first Insurance job, I was the youngest person on the team. Everyone else had law degrees or finance masters.

I showed up early. Stayed late. Asked questions that probably annoyed people.

But the senior brokers who took time to teach me? They changed everything.

They'd sit with me line by line through policies. Walk me through carrier 
negotiations. Explain why certain language mattered more than others.

They didn't have to. I wasn't generating revenue yet. I was slowing them down.

But they invested anyway.

By 27, I was building FI teams at JLT. Taking what I'd learned and applying it to bigger accounts, more complex coverage, higher stakes.

The pattern became clear: growth happens through community.

Not just taking knowledge in, but passing it forward.

Now, I'm co-founding LION and mentoring the next generation of insurance pros.

The junior broker who asks questions that slow me down? I remember being her.

The person who needs someone to sit with them through a complicated form? I remember needing that.

The best expertise doesn't stay locked in one person's experience.
It multiplies when you share it.

That's what mentorship actually is - not networking events and coffee chats, but sitting in the details with someone until they understand it the way you do.

Real impact multiplies through others.

Who are you helping grow?

P.S. Ready to accelerate your insurance expertise? DM me - I save spots for committed learners ready to grow.

Your policy has exclusions written in 1987 responding to risks that no longer exist. And new risks with no exclusions at all. Here's why that matters:

I was reviewing a D&O policy for a specialty insurer last month. 

Standard form. 
Top-rated carrier. 
Nothing unusual.

Then I found it.

An exclusion for "computer virus transmission" written in language that clearly predated modern cyber threats. It referenced "magnetic tape" and "diskette transfer."

Nobody uses diskettes anymore. But the exclusion was still there.

Meanwhile, the policy had no clear treatment of AI-related liability. 

Algorithmic decision-making. Automated underwriting errors. The risks keeping their GC up at night.

This is what I call Exclusion Archaeology.

Policy forms accumulate provisions over decades. Carriers add exclusions after bad claims. They rarely remove obsolete ones. The result is coverage shaped by 1990s losses responding to 2025 exposures.

When we review policies, we date every exclusion. Not literally - but we identify which risks each provision was designed to address and whether those risks still exist in that form.

Then we map current exposures against exclusionary language.

The gaps are always surprising.

That specialty insurer had robust protection against risks from the floppy disk era. They had almost nothing addressing how their AI pricing model might create liability.

Their broker had negotiated hard on premium. Nobody had questioned whether the exclusions matched modern reality.

We rewrote their program. Removed three obsolete exclusions. Added specific coverage grants for their actual technology stack. Negotiated AI liability treatment that their old form didn't contemplate.

The insurance market builds policies through accumulation, not design.
Elite coverage requires excavating what's actually in there - and rebuilding for current reality.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

In 2023 I got my Pilates instructor certification. 

Here are 3 lessons from 450 hours of training:

1. Physical practice improves mental performance

Morning movement clears decision fog. Body awareness enhances presence. 

Breath work calms market stress. Energy management beats time management.

2. Teaching others deepens personal mastery

Breaking down complex moves mirrors explaining coverage. Student progress reveals leadership insights. 

Different learning styles need different approaches. Small adjustments create major improvements.

3. Consistent practice compounds results

Daily habits matter more than occasional effort. Precision beats intensity. 

Balance prevents burnout. Sustainable progress outperforms sprints.

The insurance executive who became a Pilates instructor?

She didn't leave her career. 

Balance drives sustained growth. Discipline creates freedom. Movement enhances clarity. Integration beats separation.

At LION, we do more than talk about work-life balance.

We build it into our culture. Midday workouts. Diverse interests. Clear standards with room to grow past them.

Because people who only do insurance will eventually do insurance poorly.

Your competitive edge isn't sacrificing everything for one goal.

It's building a life where different pursuits strengthen each other.

How do you integrate your passions with your profession?

♻️ Repost to inspire holistic leadership.

Underwriters stopped asking if your vault is locked.
Now, they're asking if your robot employees have a human babysitter...

CFOs, CISOs, and risk managers at financial institutions:

Last Thursday's Anthropic disclosure fundamentally changed how we think about cyber risk.

And more importantly, what you need to do about it before renewal.

Chinese state actors convinced Claude it was a security professional conducting authorized testing.

Then gave it the capability to touch real systems autonomously.

The result: 30 simultaneous attacks across tech giants, banks, and federal agencies.

80-90% automated. 
Machine speed. 
Thousands of operations per second.

We've spent the week digesting Anthropic's forensic report, talking with our carrier counterparties, and fielding calls from clients who thought their AI governance covered this.

Most governance policies address employees using ChatGPT inappropriately.

They never contemplated ChatGPT becoming the criminal.

Most policies are silent on AI. And silence means potential denial when your AI hallucinates and destroys critical data.

The market split into three camps: broad AI exclusions, $1-5M sublimits, or premium surcharges.

Your renewal timeline just accelerated by six months.

If you want the breakdown of what sophisticated institutions are implementing right now (hardware keys, explicit AI coverage language, human-in-the-loop documentation)…

Read about it in this week's LION Specialty Friday Five Boardroom Briefing.

Comment "BRIEF" below if you're not on our distribution…

"You're not spending summers at home."
That one parenting decision shaped how I see risk:

Starting at age 5, my parents had a rule: summers were for experiencing the world.

Eight to ten weeks at camp. French language immersion. Study abroad programs before most kids left the state.

At 14, I was hiking Machu Picchu. At 15, I was living on a boat in the Caribbean.

By college, I'd done three study abroads. Not because I was running from home - because I was learning to see the world through different lenses.

My parents understood something most don't:
Your perspective determines how you assess risk.

If you only see the world from one vantage point, you miss threats others see clearly. You misread opportunities that are obvious to people with different experience.

A white American girl from the middle of the country has blind spots. The only way to address them is exposure.

That early travel completely changed how I approach insurance.

Risk isn't just domestic. Financial institutions operate globally. Markets shift based on international dynamics. Coverage needs change based on regulatory environments across jurisdictions.

If I'd only understood risk from a US perspective, I'd miss half of what matters.

Now at LION, we're building with that same philosophy - global perspective, international footprint, understanding risk across markets and jurisdictions.
The best risk assessment comes from people who've seen problems from multiple angles.

Early exposure shapes how you see everything that follows.

What experiences shaped how you assess risk?

Building insurance expertise through global perspective. Follow along.

Insurance language shouldn't require a law degree to understand.

So we broke down stuffy 50-page industry forms into a simple ~30 page manuscript:

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
Most FI policies run 50+ pages of dense technical jargon.

Contradictory endorsements. Nested definitions that reference other definitions. Exclusions buried in subsection C of clause 7.

We created a manuscript that's only 35 pages.

Clear language. 
Logical structure. 
Comprehensive coverage.

Here's why this matters for financial institutions:

Complex language creates coverage gaps in D&O and E&O policies.

Technical jargon breeds misunderstanding of critical exclusions. Confusion leads to claim disputes when you need coverage most.

The institutions that succeed? They demand clarity in their coverage documents.

What Actually Works:

Plain language explanations eliminate ambiguity. Logical coverage organization shows how provisions connect. Consistent terminology prevents contradictory interpretations.

Visual policy mapping reveals gaps before claims hit.

Common Mistakes:

Accepting industry standard forms without question. Ignoring contradictory endorsements layered over years. Missing coverage connections between related policies.

Skipping documentation review until claims arrive.

Your Coverage Blueprint:

Set the foundation by demanding clear policy language and requesting visual coverage maps. Eliminate redundant provisions that create confusion.
Consolidate related coverages into coherent structure.

Create the strategy by building comprehensive glossaries everyone can reference.

Document coverage intentions during placement, not after denials. 

Establish review protocols that catch gaps early. Test programs with claim scenarios before real losses hit.

Clarity creates confidence. 

Simplicity serves everyone. 

Understanding prevents disputes. 

Documentation determines outcomes.

What's your coverage clarity strategy?

~

P.S. Want to see what elite policy documentation looks like?

Book a live policy review: https://lnkd.in/g9rJT-ka

LION Specialty. The leader in institutional insurance.

We've recovered $250M+ in claims because our strategy starts before losses happen.
Here's the exact 10-step process:

1. Choose carriers who act like partners

The right carrier views claims as promises to keep. 

The wrong one views them as problems to minimize. That choice gets made at placement, not during crisis.

2. Get crystal-clear policy wording upfront

Ambiguous language doesn't protect you better - it creates disputes you'll fight later. 

We negotiate precise definitions and explicit coverage grants before you ever need them.

3. Run mock claim scenarios before you need them

If your coverage doesn't work in simulation, it won't work in crisis. 

We stress-test programs against real loss patterns. 
Ransomware during peak operations. 
SEC investigations. 
Nuclear verdicts.

4. Deploy specialist expertise, not generalists

Complex claims don't need good brokers. They need specialists who've seen your exact scenario before. 

Forensics experts. 
Coverage counsel. 
Crisis consultants who understand FI exposures.

5. Balance assertive advocacy with strategic compromise

Push too hard, damage carrier relationships. Accept too quickly, leave millions on the table. 

Elite advocacy requires knowing when to escalate and when to negotiate.

6. Prevent disputes before they start

Most denials trace back to notification errors, not coverage gaps. 

Establish protocols during placement that eliminate procedural mistakes before they cost you.

7. Use data to drive every decision

Claim outcomes follow patterns. 

We analyze settlement histories, trigger data, and industry benchmarks to build positions carriers can't dismiss.

8. Keep pace with regulatory evolution

Regulatory changes shift coverage implications constantly. 
Track developments that affect your exposures. 
Adjust programs before gaps emerge.

9. Document everything - gaps in paperwork create gaps in recovery

Carriers deny more claims for missing documentation than actual coverage disputes. 

Build documentation protocols that withstand scrutiny from day one.

10. Be the steady hand through the storm

Claims create chaos. Leadership needs structure, process, and calm execution - not brokers who panic alongside them.

Many financial institutions leave millions on the table when claims hit.

You don't have to be one of them.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. 

The Leader in Institutional Insurance.

Legally, drones are aircraft.
That one fact nearly created millions in uninsured exposure:

I was reviewing a policy with an insurance company that uses drones for claims adjusting.

Standard manuscript session. Walking through exclusions. Making sure everything aligned with their operations.

We hit the aircraft and operational machinery exclusion.

The CFO stopped me.

"Wait. A drone is technically an aircraft. If this exclusion stays as written, we have a problem."

He was right.

They were using drones daily to assess property damage, inspect hard-to-reach areas, expedite claims settlements. Core business operations. Revenue-generating activity.

And their policy would have denied every claim related to it.

Most brokers would have kept moving. "It's a standard exclusion. Every policy has it. No one's going to challenge drone use."

But standard exclusions don't care about your intentions. They care about their language.

If the exclusion says "aircraft" and drones legally qualify as aircraft, you're denied. 

The carrier won't make exceptions during a claim just because you didn't think it applied.

We added a carve-back.

One sentence: "This exclusion does not apply to the use of unmanned aircraft for claims handling, adjusting, and loss assessment."

That carve-back protected millions in potential exposure.

The exclusion still served its purpose - no coverage for operating commercial airlines or traditional aircraft. But their actual business operations? Fully covered.

This is why custom manuscripts matter.

Standard forms get written for hypothetical companies. 

Broad language. 
One-size-fits-all exclusions. 
No consideration for how you actually operate.

Custom forms get written for your business. Your operations. Your risk profile.

One client conversation caught what could have been years of uninsured exposure.

How many gaps exist in your policy because no one asked the right questions?

~

Ready to stress-test your coverage?

Book a live policy review: https://lnkd.in/g9rJT-ka

We typically find gaps standard reviews miss.

LION Specialty. 

The Leader in Institutional Insurance.

Most brokers build carrier relationships through entertainment budgets. We built ours by making underwriters better at their jobs. Here's what that actually looks like:

Early in my career at JLT, we made a strategic decision. Instead of competing through access and happy hours, we'd compete through education.

We started writing technical papers. 50-100 pages on D&O coverage evolution. 

Policy language analysis. 
Case law trends. 
The history of financial institution professional liability.

Deep work. The kind that takes weeks to research and write.

Then we gave it away.

Carriers used our papers to train junior underwriters. They included our analysis in their own publications. They cited our work in coverage position papers.

We created "Day in the Life" sessions - immersive programs showing underwriters how elite brokers actually review policies. 

What we look for. 
Why we ask the coverage questions we ask. 
How we stress-test programs before placement.

Half-day versions with presentations. 
Full-day versions in New York with multiple speakers. 
Premium programs running multiple days with networking built in.

We co-authored quarterly publications with carrier partners. Not promotional material. Actual technical content that served the broader market.

The result was deeper than access.

Carriers preferred working with us because we understood their products at a technical level most brokers never reach.

When we negotiated coverage, both sides operated from shared expertise instead of adversarial positioning. Conversations became collaborative instead of confrontational.

That foundation transferred directly to LION.

We don't build relationships through golf outings. We build them through systematic expertise that elevates everyone we work with.

When you make your partners better at what they do, they choose to work with you. When you invest in shared understanding, negotiations shift from conflict to collaboration.

The insurance market rewards brokers who entertain.
But it remembers brokers who educate.

~

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. 

The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

"Should we notify our insurance carrier?"
Simple question. Complicated answer. Here's what I mean:

A specialty insurer called us for a second opinion during a regulatory examination. 

The State department of insurance was asking questions.

Nothing adversarial yet.

Their policy had a "claims-made" trigger. Coverage applied to claims first made during the policy period. But "claim" was defined to include "any written demand for monetary or non-monetary relief."

Was a regulatory information request a "demand"? 

Did examination questions constitute "relief" being sought?

Their previous broker said to wait. "It's not a claim yet. Don't notify until there's an actual allegation."

In this case, we disagreed.

We'd seen this exact scenario three times before. 

Twice, carriers argued late notice when examinations escalated to enforcement. 

The clients who notified early preserved coverage. The client who waited lost it.

"Claims-made" sounds simple. But "claim" definitions vary wildly. 

Some include investigations. Some don't. 

Some require formal allegations. Some trigger on informal inquiries.

At LION, we run trigger scenarios during placement.

We ask: "If this happens, does it trigger coverage?" 
Then we test the language against our answer.

Regulatory inquiry. 
Internal investigation. 
Informal complaint. 
Demand letter. 
Formal lawsuit.

Each scenario. Each policy. Every time.

The specialty insurer notified immediately. 
Six months later, the examination became an enforcement action. 
Coverage was preserved because they'd triggered it early.

Their former broker's advice would have cost them the claim.

~

Ready to stress-test your program?

Book a live policy review: https://lnkd.in/g9rJT-ka

27 new reciprocals launched to fill capacity gaps in catastrophe zones... 

NY DFS just collected $19M from 8 insurers for basic cyber failures... 

And Financial Lines underwriters evaluate reciprocals through a completely different lens than you'd expect.

In this week's Friday Five, we're tracking how reciprocals are solving the homeowners coverage crisis in hurricane-exposed markets.

We break down how 18 reciprocals launched in just the past year - bringing $51 billion in premium capacity to markets traditional carriers exited.

Plus, DFS collected penalties for hackers stealing driver's license numbers through online quote tools. 

Hartford paid $3M, Liberty Mutual $2.7M, Farmers $2.775M. 

The crazy part? DFS warned about these exact vulnerabilities back in February 2021.

And how Financial Lines underwriters actually evaluate reciprocals: they see two distinct entities with separate exposures. 

The Exchange holds risk. The Attorney-in-Fact manages operations. Each requires different coverage.

New here? 

Every Friday we distill 200+ insurance, legal, and market-risk articles into three signals your board may need for its Monday briefing...

Want the full analysis this week? 

Comment 'brief' below and we'll get you on the distribution. 

Stay covered everybody.

Financial institutions are the most complex risks in the insurance market.
So why do most brokers assign them to generalists?

I've spent my entire career in financial institution coverage. D&O. E&O. Cyber. Fiduciary. 

The specialized lines that protect organizations when sophisticated risks materialize.

Here's what I've learned: 

Generalist brokers can place these policies. They cannot optimize them.

The difference shows up in details that only matter during claims.

Last year, we reviewed a program placed by a top-10 global broker for a regional insurer. 

Solid carrier. 
Reasonable pricing. 
Professional execution.

But the broker who placed it had never handled a bank regulatory claim.

The notice provisions required immediate notification to the carrier upon "receipt of any regulatory inquiry."

Sounds reasonable. 

Except banks receive routine regulatory inquiries constantly. 

Compliance examinations. 
Information requests. 
Supervisory letters.

If they'd notified on every one, the carrier would have non-renewed them for claims frequency. If they'd filtered and missed one that escalated, the carrier could deny for late notice.

The provision created a trap with no good option.

A specialist would have caught it. We've negotiated that exact language hundreds of times. We know which formulations work and which create impossible compliance burdens.

A generalist saw "notification requirement" and moved on.
That's the specialist paradox.

Generalists can execute the transaction. But the details that determine claim outcomes require pattern recognition that only comes from deep specialization.

At LION, we only serve financial institutions. Not because we couldn't do other things. 

Because focus creates expertise that breadth never matches.

Every provision we negotiate reflects hundreds of similar negotiations. 

Every scenario we stress-test draws from claims we've actually handled. 

Every recommendation builds on patterns we've seen across the sector.

When you're buying complex coverage, the question isn't whether your broker can place it.

It's whether they've seen enough to know what actually matters.

Want boardroom intelligence with zero noise?

Every week we share curated insights that cut through the chaos and help you make the best policy decisions.

Join here: https://lnkd.in/garzxSxG

LION Specialty. The Leader in Institutional Insurance. 🦁

Pilates trains you to sense what's wrong before it becomes obvious.
I use that exact skill every time I review coverage:

Every Tuesday at 6 AM, I'm in Pilates learning to feel imbalances before they become injuries.

A hip that's slightly off becomes back pain six months later. 

A weak stabilizer muscle becomes a torn rotator cuff. 
Your body compensates until it can't.
Pilates teaches you to notice the compensation before the failure.

That awareness translates directly to insurance.

Most brokers review policies like checking boxes. 

Does it have D&O? Check. 
E&O? Check. 
Reasonable limits? Check.

But coverage gaps don't announce themselves.

They hide in the space between sections. 

In allocation language that looks standard but shifts millions during claims. 

In exclusions with carve-backs that don't quite cover what they should.

Pilates trained me to sense tension before I can articulate why it's there.

I'll read a definition that's almost right but subtly wrong. An exclusion that sits awkwardly next to a coverage grant. Provisions that technically work but create friction under stress.

Things I would have missed at normal speed become obvious when I've trained myself to feel imbalances.

It's not magic.

The same way I slow down in Pilates to notice which muscles are compensating, I slow down in policy review to notice which provisions are creating unintended gaps.

Most people think faster is better.

But the best work happens when you slow down enough to sense what's off.
Physical practice sharpens mental awareness. 

The focus required to hold proper form trains the focus required to catch subtle language.

Different disciplines cross-train your brain.

Building insurance expertise through deliberate practice. Follow along.

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

Some companies don’t stall because of strategy.
They stall because of perception.

You can have the right model, metrics, and playbook—
and still struggle to scale
because trust isn’t in the culture.

We think scaling is about systems, KPIs, and offers.
But it’s really about energy, alignment, and belief.

Teams don’t reject initiatives.
They reject inconsistency.
They sense when the leader says one thing
and embodies another.

Every interaction in a growing company is a mirror—
it reflects the culture that’s actually being built.

Before you refine your next OKR,
refine your presence.

Because the best strategy in the world can’t fix a trust gap.

➡️ People follow clarity before they follow goals.
➡️ Integrity scales faster than intensity.


#leadership #scalingup #growth #trust #mindset

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

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

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

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

She was 20. A housewife. No experience. No degree.

Just a dream, and a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone said it would fail.
“Cookies? That’s not a business.”

Banks said no.Experts laughed.

The market was ruled by Oreos and Chips Ahoy.

But Debbi Fields didn’t care.
She took a $50,000 loan with her husband.

Rented a small store in Palo Alto.

Rent: $800/month.
Failure wasn’t an option.

Opening day:
By noon, not a single sale.
She panicked. Grabbed a tray.
Walked outside.
“Try one. They’re free.”

That one line changed everything.
Crowds formed.

They sold out by evening.

She baked fresh every 2 hours.
Never sold day-old cookies.
If they sat too long, she gave them away.

Advisors hated it.
Customers LOVED it.

Year one: $200,000 in sales.
Then store #2.
Then San Francisco.
Then malls.
Then the world.

By the 1990s:

➡ 600+ stores
➡ $500M in annual sales
➡ And a new category: premium cookies

All from one woman who ignored logic and trusted her gut.

The takeaway:
If everyone says your idea is crazy,
you might just be onto something.

#scalingup #founder #growth #ceo

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

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

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

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

No alternative text description for this image

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

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 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘀.
𝗛𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Back in the early 2000s, Jon Oringer wasn’t building empires, he was just trying to find affordable stock photos for his tiny online business.

But what he found instead… was an opportunity.

Stock images back then cost $300+ per photo, a luxury small creators couldn’t afford.

So Jon did something different:

▶ Bought a camera
▶ Took 100 photos a day
▶ Built his own website
▶ Uploaded 30,000 photos
▶ Charged $49/month for unlimited downloads

That’s how Shutterstock was born.

No fancy investors. No marketing team.

Just a subscription model, executed brilliantly.

He wasn’t selling images,
he was selling convenience, freedom, and access.

And the best part?

Every sale cost him nothing to reproduce.Pure passive income.

By the time Shutterstock went public in 2012,
Jon still owned 55% of it.

His net worth crossed $1 billion,
built from a camera, a simple website, and consistency.

That’s not luck.
That’s vision meeting execution.

Because the smartest entrepreneurs don’t wait for an opportunity,
they create it by solving a problem once
and selling the solution over and over again.

𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧:

Stop chasing “new.”
Find one problem.

Solve it better than anyone else.
Then systemize, scale, and sleep while your solution works for you.

#Entrepreneurship #ceo #BusinessModel #founder #scalingup

taplio

The Battle

Natasha I. Kiemnec, ARM

Cruz Gamboa

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreNatasha I. Kiemnec, ARM's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreCruz Gamboa's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Natasha I. Kiemnec, ARM

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);}Natasha I. Kiemnec, ARM's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreCruz Gamboa's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNatasha I. Kiemnec, ARM's LinkedIn Performance