-
Strategic Ambiguity: Everything Is Clear, Until It Isn’t
Starting a business has never been easier. The risks and uncertainties have never been higher. That’s strategic ambiguity in a nutshell.
-
AI Doesn’t Replace Your Distinct Skills. It Multiplies Them
If you have distinct skills but don’t use AI, someone with the same skills who does will overtake you. Be quick or die.
-
Hesitation Looks Like Thinking. It’s Just Avoiding a Decision
No amount of hesitation removes the cons of a decision. At some point, you have to jump. Even without knowing all the details.
-
Dry Spells Don’t Last. But Entrepreneurs Have to Outlast Them
Wars stall pipelines. Admin loops kill momentum. Chaos hides monsters. Every entrepreneur faces dry spells — here’s how to outlast them.
-
Be Quick or Die: Why the World Needs Godspeed Now
An alcoholic reducing alcohol by 3% annually reaches sobriety by 2100. That’s exactly how slow we’re moving on all the big problems out there.
-
Shared Mental Model, Part II: Why It Takes Multiple Iterations
Puzzled looks, repeated questions, and eye-rolls: the sure signs your team doesn’t have a shared mental model yet.
-
The Shared Mental Model: Harder to Build Than You Think
Everyone thinks they’re on the same page. Almost nobody is. A shared mental model isn’t a meeting or a slide deck; it’s hard mental work.
-
Why Is Leadership So Difficult?
If leadership were simple, we wouldn’t need models, training, or leaders at all. Here’s what makes leadership so hard.
-
Employed, Elected, or Active Reserve: Switzerland’s Secret
Employed professionals, elected officials, and active reserve volunteers: Switzerland needs all three to function. Two stories explain why.
-
Substance Over Form: Stop Wasting Time on the Wrong Things
When people are short of time, why do they do unnecessary things? Three observations from a crisis simulation that apply everywhere.
-
Why Enthusiastic Entrepreneurs Are More Successful
People call me “Mr. Yonder”. This is down to my enthusiasm for my product, my team, and my work, and it’s one of the most powerful sales tools.
-
Stop Whining. Suffering Is Part of Entrepreneurship
Lost deals, silent prospects, churning customers, and outages on your wife’s birthday. Suffering is part of entrepreneurship. Here’s how to keep going.
-
The World Is Changing Faster Than Your Business Plan
Geopolitics disrupts travel. Energy disrupts costs. AI disrupts jobs. Here’s how entrepreneurs turn all three into opportunity.
-
ISO 27001 Certification: Check. Maintenance: Good Luck
The audit is one day. The maintenance is 365. Here’s what startups get wrong after their ISO 27001 certification, and how to fix it.
-
Why Escalation Is Every Entrepreneur’s Worst Move
Q told Bond always to have an escape plan. For entrepreneurs, the best escape plan is avoiding escalation beyond what can be repaired.
-
Out-of-Office Replies Are Making You Obsolete
Out-of-office replies feel harmless. But chain enough of them together and you’ve just killed a deal, a project, or your own career.
-
Stop Budgeting Like a Consumer. Forecast Like an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs run rolling cashflow forecasts to spot trouble years ahead. I applied the same model to private budgeting.
-
Your Business Doesn’t Matter. The Universe Said So
In cosmic terms, your startup is invisible. That’s not depressing — it’s the most liberating thing an entrepreneur can hear.
-
You Took Investor Funding. How Do You Get Out Again?
Two co-founders asked me an important question over a beer: “How do we ever get out of investor funding again?” Here are some of my answers.
-
Tactical Terms: How To Turn Vague Discussions Into Action
“Let’s discuss it” is not a plan. “I need to think about it” is not progress. The military concept of tactical terms changes everything.
-
AI Takes Your Meeting Notes. But Who Reads Them?
AI meeting notes feel productive. But the decisions that matter are taken in bar conversations or spontaneous calls, not in formal meetings.
-
Move Fast and Break Things, Or Think First and Win?
Rushing to build what one customer asks for is a trap. Here’s how taking your time leads to better products and stronger demand.
-
The Best Entrepreneurs Know When to Slow Down
Speed is an entrepreneur’s superpower — until it isn’t. Here are 5 situations where slowing down delivers better results.
-
Only in Switzerland: When Tech Entrepreneurs Meet in a Shooting Range
An anecdotal insight into three entrepreneurs meeting at a compulsory shooting exercise mandated by the Swiss active reserve system
-
Always On-Call: The Reality for Every Entrepreneur
Like parenting, entrepreneurs can’t opt out of crises. Stay calm, always carry your tools, and fix problems wherever you are.
-
The AI Tightrope: Chasing Wonders or Following Pragmatism?
Believe it or not, space exploration is a good analogy for AI developments. And like for space exploration, data separates hype from results.
-
Cut Costs, Boost Sales: The Entrepreneur’s Tightrope
In good times, business is easy: Demand and investor appetite are soaring. But what about bad times? Entrepreneurs need to walk a tightrope.
-
Stop Testing the Safe Parts of Your Code: A Real-Life Story
End-to-end tests miss the fatal errors. You need the annoying testers who ask the dumb questions to find the real risks in your code.
-
24 Hours to Fix a Disaster: A True SaaS Recovery Story
When a data migration went wrong and wiped production data on a Thursday, our team had one goal: Full SaaS recovery before the weekend.
-
The World Is Broken. Entrepreneurs Need to Help Fix It.
Geopolitics, energy shortages, and economic downturns aren’t just news headlines. They’re your business problem, too.
-
Dirty Rivals, Clean Hands: Why We Never Hit Back
When rivals spread lies and poach your customers, hitting back feels tempting. Here’s why we resisted, and why you should too.
-
Entrepreneurship in Troubled Times: Don’t Deny, Don’t Delay
What connects an airline pilot in April 2020, a Serbian taxi driver in January 2020, and today’s Iran war? Two survival rules for leaders.
-
Good Cop, Bad Cop: A Must‑Know Tactic for New Professionals
The good-cop-bad-cop tactic is not obvious to juniors. Teach them the roles, and take on the bad-cop role for them to succeed.
-
Entrepreneurship in Times of Crisis: Be Cautious, Then Strike
What options do entrepreneurs have in times of crisis? If you want to seize the moment in rough times, you have to be cautious first.
-
Automation Tools for Entrepreneurs: Microsoft Power Automate or n8n?
Using a simple case study shows that if an automation tool feels difficult, look for an alternative before spending too much time on it.
-
I Don’t Care, It’s Not My Problem: Never Say This as a Leader
If there weren’t any problems, there would be no need for leadership. And there is definitely no room for leaders who say it’s not their problem.
-
A No-Fluff Guide for Entrepreneurs to Automate Boring Tasks
Want to automate all those boring tasks? Great! But before you start, ask yourself a few questions about use cases, tools, and benefits.
-
Focus Is Key: Is This Still the Case in the Age of AI?
Generations of entrepreneurs were taught that focus is key. While this is still valid for execution and operations, what about strategy?
-
To Cloud, or Not to Cloud, That Is the Question
Before talking about tools and solutions, ask yourself some grey-zone questions about whether to use the cloud or not for a certain use case.
-
If You Are a New Leader: Meet People First, Then Judge
This is an episode about one of the most profound leadership lessons I learned as a new leader almost 15 years ago
