Core Methods

How I build organizations.

Seven principles. They hold whether I'm starting a company or saving one.

1. 01

   Diagnose first.

   The answers are almost always already in the building. I interview everyone, top to bottom, before making a single move, and I separate symptoms from causes across revenue, capital, culture, and product. The fix is rarely where the noise is loudest.

2. 02

   Map the field.

   Before I decide anything, I find out what everyone else has decided. Where the market is saturated, where it's empty, and where a competitor's commitment becomes our leverage. Most strategies are written without looking. Mine start there.

3. 03

   Protect the runway.

   A company that can't make payroll in ninety days doesn't have a strategy. It has a countdown. So I move first on survival: cut deals, freeze new spend, sell the dead weight, restructure obligations. Then I own every mess until the company stops losing ground.

4. 04

   Simplify the problem set.

   Dying companies are almost always fighting on too many fronts. One North Star. One clear priority per team. One primary way to communicate. We don't fight multi-front wars — we win the one that matters and let the rest go quiet.

5. 05

   Speed over perfection.

   A half-right strategy today that we tune on the fly beats a perfect strategy in six months, when we're already dead. I'd rather move now, learn from contact, and adjust than study a company into the grave.

6. 06

   Build the org the strategy needs.

   I draw the chart the strategy requires, ignoring who currently sits where. Then I fit the team to it and see who lands where, if anywhere. Anyone we can't place, we find a soft landing for.

7. 07

   Decide the destination on day one.

   Every strategy needs a defined end state: an exit, a milestone, a market position. I set the criteria at the start and build the relationships that get us there. The work is finished when the company runs without me and hits the number.