The biggest outcomes rarely come from the biggest swings. They come from a small, repeatable action you were willing to take a thousand times.
Saturday, June 20, 2026Vol. III · No. 412
Thoughts
One operator’s note before nine. A daily column on startups, business, and the life around them.
Founders Office
Why the second founder matters more than the first
The person who joins when there is nothing to join is the one that turns a notion into a company.
Jun 19, 2026 · 4 min read
Operating
The calendar is the strategy
Show me a founder's last two weeks of calendar and I will tell you the real strategy, whatever the deck says.
Jun 18, 2026 · 5 min read
Operating
Saying no is an operating system
The fastest teams are not the ones doing the most. They are the ones who decided, early and clearly, what they would not do.
Jun 17, 2026 · 5 min read
Chief of Staff
What chiefs of staff actually do all day
It is not calendar management and it is not strategy. It is the unglamorous work of making decisions actually happen.
Jun 16, 2026 · 7 min read
Hiring
Hire for the question, not the answer
The résumé measures the intercept. The trajectory — how quickly a person gets better — is what compounds inside a company.
Jun 15, 2026 · 4 min read
Operating
Cash is a feeling before it's a number
The best operators read the mood of the cash before the model does. The number just confirms what the room already knew.
Jun 14, 2026 · 3 min read
Startup
The case for writing before you build
If you cannot explain it clearly in a page, the confusion is not in the writing — it is in the idea.
Jun 13, 2026 · 6 min read