Archive: Entrepreneurship

“Resisting pain only increases its intensity.” — Chogyam Trungpa I am 47 years old and I have made a lot of mistakes in my life — both professional and personal ones. I hope I make many more. It’s true. I have hired the wrong people on my management team. I have taken too long to fire people after I realized

As a CEO, one of your jobs — it’s maybe the most important — is to give your fellow sapiens what they need most, something to believe in.

Never fall in love with your product, keep your ego in check, and love your customers.

I have been the CEO of Soluna for the past year (2018) and what a great year it was! If you read one of my earlier articles on Soluna’s blog, “My Next Adventure”, you may recall that I knew very little about Blockchain when I first started this journey. However, like many of you, I

My strategic accounts sales team met me in our NY office for a final briefing before our big meeting. After my usual grilling questions, I packed up my laptop and some choice tools for the job. I loaded a pair of red Vic Firth Drumsticks in my briefcase and taped up a box of a

I was fortunate enough to attend the first HYPERGROWTH conference hosted by Drift at the beginning of October 2017. 24 hours later, I was still resonating with the energy from the event. I thought I’d share my experience and learnings. Enjoy! The Scene The sold-out event took place at the top of 60 State Street,

Companies are a unique combination of people that make them legendary; or not.

The role of a CEO is fraught with tough decisions. Firing people is not easy, but it is part of the job.

Coney Island Subway Train — istockphoto.com A few years ago, I wrote the following (internal) blog entitled, “See something? Do something!” It was meant to empower my employees to take charge of some of our company’s challenges. I wanted them to help me and my executive team solve them. To my surprise, it set the stage for

One time, early in the life of my company, I sat down with the CEO of one of my customers and asked her to help me connect with other senior leaders in the insurance industry. During my visit, I brought a list of folks I would like to meet. She reviewed the list for a

I recently attended the Future of FinTech Conference in New York. Among the plethora of panels and presentations delivered, the insurance technology content was most enlightening. According to CBInsights, the conference host, more than $7 Billion (620+ deals) has been invested in insurance technology (aka insurtech) since 2012. Let that sink in for a moment…

Last summer (August 2016) I sold my second software company. It ended a decade of growth, working with the best co-founders, building a great team, and transforming an industry. The company was in the #insurtech space, a recently formed tech category that is on fire. The most common question I immediately get after people congratulate

“So here we are together, fellow members of the glorious Class of 1995: all of us wistful and expectant — wistful for the time that we have spent together, expectant as we stand at the threshold of new and uncharted territory. [ …] we pause together to compare notes on the journey that we have completed and the