Dev Team Best Practices: Leveling Up Your Codebase Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! This week, I went through the codebase with the development team in our meeting. I want to share tips to help your teams build better, more manageable software. As we all know, building great software isn't just about writing code. It’s about putting in place a system that helps your team work well and lets your software grow. Good practices help, whether you lead a small team or work alone. They can...
1 day ago • 4 min read
The Psychological Price of Bootstrapping: Being careful and and extra conservative with cash Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to talk about bootstrapping and why we must be careful with cash. Happy 4th of July for those in the US As many of you know, bootstrapping a business doesn’t come with the luxury of a big cash buffer. Every dollar counts, and there’s no room for careless spending. It’s more than financial discipline. It’s a shift in mindset. This change helps you thrive. It...
6 days ago • 4 min read
Episode 14 - 15-Minute Workout with Lou Perrotta In this episode of Founder Mode, Jason and I chat with Coach Lou, a famous fitness trainer. Coach Lou helps founders remain sharp, in body and mind. He has coached athletes and business leaders for more than 50 years. His training equips founders with the focus and grit they need to succeed. Kevin explained how important Coach Lou has been for his own mindset: “It’s incredible what you can do in such a short time with focus. During those 15...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Competitive Paranoia vs. Customer Obsession: Why Watching Your Rivals Too Closely Kills Innovation The Trap That Almost Killed My Startup I used to check my competitors' websites every morning. Before coffee. Before checking our own metrics. Podcast! - Watch the Founder of x.ai (before it was Elon's) It was 2013. I was building Acompli, an email app competing against at least 50 other email apps. Each day, there was news about a competitor. They may raise funds. They could launch new...
8 days ago • 5 min read
Slow Entrepreneurship: The Case for Building a 20-Year Company in an Age of Quick Flips Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to talk about an idea that’s been on my mind lately—slow entrepreneurship. We’ve all heard the phrase “grow fast, exit quick.” It’s the prevailing mentality in the startup world. Investors seek fast growth, quick exits, and big profits. But what if there’s another way? What if we shift our focus? Let’s create a business that lasts 20 years instead of...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Episode 13 - Building AI Before It Was Cool with Dennis Mortensen In this episode of Founder Mode, Jason and I talked to Dennis Mortensen. He’s an entrepreneur who built AI solutions long before they were in the spotlight. Dennis shared his journey of creating AI companies, such as x.ai. He made an AI scheduling assistant at x.ai long before today’s language models showed up. Dennis talked about how hard it was to build an AI dataset from nothing. His team manually labeled millions of emails....
14 days ago • 1 min read
Survive and Thrive: How to Overcome the Midlife Squeeze Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I want to explore a concept that changed my life: The Leverage Principle. It can help you handle the busy demands of life and business. You’ve probably heard the term "midlife squeeze" before. Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor, calls it a pattern we can expect in life. You’ve worked hard, but as you hit your 40s, things only seem to get more intense. You focus on your career. You also...
15 days ago • 4 min read
Build Scalable Systems: Set Your Business Up for Growth Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! Today, I’m exploring a key part of scaling a business: creating operational systems that can grow with you. Based on my experience, the best systems help growth and keep chaos away. I learned a lot by streamlining operations. This helps avoid bottlenecks and boosts efficiency. As founders, we can get lost in developing products and marketing them. But one area that I believe gets overlooked is the...
20 days ago • 4 min read
Take Control of Your Mail: Simplify, Secure, Save Time Hey there! Welcome back to Founder Mode! This week, I’m here to introduce a simple and handy solution: remote mailboxes. They have made my life easier. Managing physical mail used to be a big hassle for me. I often felt buried in letters, bills, business mail, and packages. As a founder managing many companies, I knew I needed a simpler solution. That’s when I found remote mailboxes. Using services like Earth Class Mail, we can now manage...
22 days ago • 3 min read