All episodes of Spearhead

Spearhead

Episodes

Founders Often Pick Cheerleaders for Their Board

Founders should seek board members who balance their psychology

Published 04/24/20

Nobody Wants to Give a Founder Tough Love

Smart founders ask people what they really think

Published 04/23/20

Founder Psychology Is at the Heart of Most Blitzfails

When ‘good crazy’ turns into ‘bad crazy,’ the company goes off the rails

Published 04/22/20

Company Culture Is a Macrocosm of the Founder’s Psychology

A founder’s strengths and weakness percolate into the company culture

Published 04/21/20

Micro-Bubbles Build and Burst In Between Macro-Shocks

Transcript: http://spearhead.co/micro-bubble

Published 04/20/20

‘High-Burn Startup Meets Macro-Shock’ Is a Recipe for Blitzfail

Coronavirus is this decade’s macro-shock

Published 04/17/20

Founders Have to Move Incredibly Fast to Stay Ahead of the Competition

The pressure to move faster creates pathologies of hyper-growth

Published 04/16/20

Startups Are a Race to Get to Scale

You’re better off blitzfailing than not blitzing at all

Published 04/15/20

Blitzfail: Why Startups Go off the Rails

Companies that derail while they scale have common denominators

Published 04/14/20

Repeat Founders Often Don’t Want to Start Over From Scratch

Test repeat founders for passion

Published 04/13/20

‘First-Time Founders’ Often Have Been Tinkering for Quite a While

Their ‘first’ startup isn’t always their first startup.

Published 04/09/20

Avoid Teams That Would Sell Early

3x returns won’t move the needle on your net worth

Published 04/08/20

Founders Almost Can’t Be Referenced

A founder who’s great for one business may be terrible for another

Published 04/07/20

Your Reputation Is Built by the Companies That Are Doing Poorly

Don’t invest so much that you’ll behave poorly when things get rough

Published 04/06/20

Coachability Is Overrated

Great founders listen to lots of advice and follow little of it

Published 04/02/20

You’re Not Investing in Nice People

Invest in people with high energy, intelligence and integrity

Published 04/01/20

Invest Only in Technical Teams

If there’s no technical team, you’re not investing in technology

Published 03/31/20

Invest in the Smartest Scientists in a New Field

You’re not going to become a great tech investor by reading TechCrunch

Published 03/30/20

Don’t Fantasize About What You Would Do If You Were the Founder

You’re betting on the founder

Published 03/25/20

You’ll Get Less Money in Your Winners

Always try to get your standard bite-size

Published 03/23/20

You Can Give Every Deal One Fatal Flaw

A startup that breaks all the rules won’t get anywhere

Published 03/11/20

The Best Deals Look Weird

If nobody thinks it looks weird, you’re making a consensus investment

Published 03/09/20

Judgment Requires a Willingness to Be Unpopular

Groupthink leads to poor judgment

Published 03/06/20

Are Good Investors Piling in the Round with You?

It’s a sign of good judgment when proven investors pile into the round

Published 03/04/20

Pivots Mean Your People Judgment Really Matters

Bets on seed-stage startups are bets on founders

Published 03/02/20