Essays
Direct answers to the questions founders actually ask — each one opens with the answer, then goes deep.
I hired someone. Why is the problem still on my desk?
The five reasons the job you hired out still lands back on your desk at 10–20 people, and the one-sentence test for whether it's the hire or the problem you handed them along with it.
September 26, 2026
How do I know you won't just tell me I'm the bottleneck?
Two paid cases where the obvious answer was the founder, I went looking, and it wasn't there. Plus three questions to ask anyone selling you a diagnosis.
September 3, 2026
Is shiny object syndrome why your startup keeps changing strategy?
Why the label does not tell a founder what to do, how to distinguish healthy iteration from a reset loop, and the business decision that interrupts it.
September 2, 2026
Founder coach vs. consultant vs. diagnostician: which one do you actually need?
Three different purchases, three different problems. A decision rule for founders who know something is stuck but not what to buy about it.
August 31, 2026
Why is nothing moving in my startup?
The ten-second test that tells you if it's an execution problem or a direction problem, what each looks like from the outside, and which one costs more to get wrong.
August 7, 2026
Why is everyone still waiting on me for everything?
The mechanic-versus-driver test, what the handoff that never happened looks like day to day, and a one-week move to find out if it's fixable on your own.
August 7, 2026
What happens during a Founder Bottleneck Diagnostic?
The 90-minute session, step by step: what gets asked, what gets named, what you leave with — and who shouldn't book one.
August 3, 2026
How do I know if I'm the bottleneck in my company?
The two-week test, the five everyday signs, and why you can't see founder-dependency from the inside — with a decision rule at the end.
August 3, 2026