Insights
Occasional writing on the things that actually stop businesses growing, from people who have got them wrong before.
20 August 2026 · 3 min read
What the business looks like without you in it
Most founders can describe their product in detail and their absence not at all. That gap is worth closing before it gets tested for you.
15 August 2026 · 3 min read
The leadership team matters more than the leader
A strong founder can carry a business further than the team around them deserves, right up until the point that stops being true.
10 August 2026 · 3 min read
The hire that changes what you can take on
Most hires make the business slightly better. A small number make it a different business. Knowing which one you are making changes how you should make it.
6 August 2026 · 3 min read
How to hedge a business bet
Hedging in a business sense has nothing to do with markets. It is about which commitments you can undo, and it is mostly decided before you commit.
3 August 2026 · 3 min read
Planning when the economy will not sit still
Every plan assumes conditions. Most plans never write the assumptions down, which is why they fail in ways that feel like bad luck rather than bad planning.
31 July 2026 · 3 min read
Where AI earns its place
The useful question is not whether AI works. It is which jobs it is actually good at, and which ones it only appears to be good at until someone checks.
28 July 2026 · 3 min read
Growing slowly on purpose
Patience is treated as a consolation prize for businesses that cannot grow fast. Usually it is the more difficult choice, and occasionally it is the only survivable one.
25 July 2026 · 3 min read
Building software when you are not a software company
Most founders who build an app build the wrong one first. Not the wrong idea, the wrong version of it, and the difference is recoverable if you catch it early.
14 July 2026 · 3 min read
What actually stops a business growing
It is almost never demand. After a few years of looking at this from different angles, the same three bottlenecks come up again and again.
23 June 2026 · 3 min read
What a holding company is actually for
Most people hear "holding company" and think tax structure or private equity. Neither is what we were going for, and the difference matters.
19 May 2026 · 4 min read
Build the prototype, not the business case
What killed most good ideas was never that they were bad. It was that finding out cost too much. That has changed, and it means far more ideas now get the chance to become something.
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