Shegun Otulana
@sotulana
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Founder & CEO Harmony Ventures Labs (HVL), Copysmith AI. Former Founder/CEO @ TheraNest/Therapy Brands.
United States
Joined February 2010
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My early days building TheraNest were full of rejection.
It took me eight months to raise the first angel dollar. The investor handed me a $75,000 check and said: “I really believe in you, I know this could go to zero.”
My response? Absolutely freaking not.
This was the first
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@abarrallen
In a turnaround, you’re more likely to succeed by blitzing through initial actions straight out of the gate than cuddling and being soft. Any manager who gives a whiff of displeasure needs to be part of the wipeout.
It’s a challenge for someone like me who leans towards making
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I grew up in Lagos, Nigeria.
My parents didn’t have a college education and didn’t have political or business connections.
My parents, especially my mother, just hustled as small business owners and gradually built their businesses.
I was born middle class. By the time I left
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To paraphrase Ogilvy: There's no shortage of brains…it's the spine that tends to be missing.
The lesson: Courage is a greater differentiator than intelligence in business and life.
To the courageous and gritty goes the spoil.
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I've been entrepreneurial for as long as I can remember. But 5 things I keep getting reminded of:
1. Do the hard work. No great thing comes easy.
2. Figure out your strengths and lean into them.
3. Great things take time. Let serendipity do its work.
4. Relationships are what
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@Altimor
I remember this day. Such a great privilege and honor.
America may not be perfect but my story is highly unlikely anywhere else.
Very few places where an ordinary, no connection, no pedigree immigrant can arrive as a teenager, and in less than 2 decades, have the life this
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In 2013, I launched my first SaaS business in Birmingham, Alabama.
Around that time, I read an article in the Harvard Business Review titled:
"Don't Build Your Startup Outside of Silicon Valley.”
tldr: The article discouraged building a startup outside the major coastal hubs –
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@paulg
By this logic, isn’t government funding also essential to SpaceX and indirectly Tesla? Sure, one is a non-profit and the other is a for-profit, but government largesse was and may still be pretty important for their continued survival. Just curious where we draw line.
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This week I attended Capital Camp hosted by
@BrentBeshore
and
@patrick_oshag
I don’t typically go to events, summits, etc for various reasons.
But one of the things I’m focused on now is building breadth and depth of relationships beyond my immediate vicinity.
I decided to
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Good deals start with good character. Every acquisition I’ve been in that ends well has one thing in common: They start with good character and shared values.
I’ve made the mistake of assuming our values are aligned and signing a deal, only to find out our values only match
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In 2013, I took a bet on building a tech startup in Birmingham, Alabama instead of Silicon Valley, Boston or New York. It paid off. Here are some insights that increased my odds of success:
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@SpaceCoastCRE
While I agree with her, I think she may be reaching the wrong conclusion re: taking advice from men. Wisdom is found in contextualizing others’ advice and experiences, not in sharing exact experiences, whether that’s gender, race, background, etc.
I definitely wouldn’t be as
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A leadership hack (and also a reminder for the highly opinionated me writing the post):
Ask questions, don't just give answers.
Instead of leading with your opinion, ask: “'What would you do next?' or “How would you get this done?” Do this, and you’ll boost confidence and
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People don't work for this abstract thing called “a company.”
They work with other humans, and those people drive their motivations.
Relationships run the world from the lowest level to the highest.
We always recommend remote teams bring new members into the office (or some in
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Recently, we had a remote but critical hire in one of our companies who lived on the other end of the country. He never had an in-person onboarding experience (not my preference).
He was underperforming and his manager didn’t think he was committed to the company. He was at risk
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One meaning of Founder-Market fit is your ability to suffer through what it will take to solve the problem for the market you’ve committed to.
The suffering is an advantage in that space for you.
As a founder, you will always do things you don’t enjoy in the early stages. The
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I love getting messages like this image. I call them piggy bank stories. It feels great, and nothing is more fulfilling than helping others create their own piggy bank stories.
Let me tell why I call them piggy bank stories:
We used to have one of those large oversized piggy
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Don’t let where you start determine where you end up. Some people start 9/10ths up the mountain, and others start from the valley. We have no control over our starting point.
Parents, zip code, skin color, the language we speak, and so many things we have no control over may
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Bayo Ogunlesi is selling his company, Global Infrastructure Partners to BlackRock for $12 billion.
He’s one of those people you hardly hear about, hardworking, persistent, under the radar.
Stable life, stable relationships, no flashy drama.
An inspiration and symbol of
"This is going to be the golden age of infrastructure investing," says Adebayo Ogunlesi, Global Infrastructure Partners Chairman & CEO.
He and Larry Fink, BlackRock Chairman & CEO, speak to David Westin on "Wall Street Week"
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@timkellernyc
Because for many, it’s not really about their faith, it’s about their politics and both are same to them. Hence, they contextualize when someone in their political tribe speaks, but not the other. They pretend everyone in their political tribe shares their flavor of their faith.
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People think startups fail because they run out of money.
But running out of money is a lagging indicator.
The real reasons startups fail:
1. The market is wrong (or there really is no market) and they don't pivot.
2. The market is right, but they don't find a winning,
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Every success in my life comes from strong relationships with great people.
These are 5 ingredients for building high-quality relationships:
1. Show them you care.
Make them feel seen, heard, and understood through difficult times.
I’ve had team members lose spouses, battle
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3 leadership lessons from Napoleon:
1. Perfect is the enemy of progress. Not every decision needs to be perfect or brilliant.
2. Clear direction > conflicting viewpoints
3. Speed often trumps perfection in business
In his words: “Better one bad general than two good ones.”
The
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Company exits and investment transactions tend to obey Newton’s First Law: A deal in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
It’s called the deal momentum. Acquirers and private equity folks know this and they know that as a CEO, most if not all your
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What was my big lesson after multiple idea failures? A realization that successful entrepreneurs are a lot like surfers riding waves.
Surfers need two things to catch the right wave:
• The right skills
• The right ocean conditions
Opportunities come with waves and waves come
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There’s a lot of talk about “Founder Mode” vs. “Manager Mode.” Here’s the real question:
What’s the number one job of a leader? (Hint: it’s not doing all the work yourself!)
Answer: Equipping others to do the work while you stay in the details.
If you interpret Founder Mode as
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True in business as in sports. Paraphrasing:
Average players want to be left alone.
Good players want to be coached.
Great players want the coach to tell them the truth.
Why? They want to be perfect.
- Nick Saban
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It's the
#AI
industrial revolution! I'm honored to be part of inventing the future of marketing through my role
@copysmith_ai
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Life after an exit is optimized for caretaker CEOs who will keep the engines running efficiently post transaction. That’s not what a lot of high-growth founders are looking for.
Hence, they struggle to transition from a role of risk-taking, creativity, and problem-solving to an
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For founders and entrepreneurs:
A deal structure can be good for your company, your investors, and yet be bad for you. In some cases, when a company is not in the best place, that’s all you can do. The problem is when you don’t even know what's happening, and your eagerness to
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Incentives are powerful for shaping behavior. Like Charlie Munger said:
“..the most important rule in management is: Get the incentives right”
Pair that with consistency, and great things happen.
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For any business to create significant value and be healthy, the business systems must be the hero, not the founder or CEO. Build, then keep refining and improving the system. That’s the key and the meaning of working on the business vs in the business.
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@sweatystartup
This is great and a fantastic story.
I will however caution against publicly disclosing names & amounts in an exit, especially to folks in other countries where these are huge numbers. Can be dangerous or even unnecessarily complicate lives for many in these places. If you have
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@DisneyAnimation
@Kugalimedia
That is Lagos. The inspiration is clearly Carter Bridge, Eko Bridge, and Third Mainland bridge area portrayed futuristically, not Wakanda. Nice work. Looking forward to it.
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There are no self made people. If you’re self made you’ll be self destroyed.
So much fulfillment in life comes from seeing the best in others.
So much growth comes from humbly realizing how many people were part of our own success journeys.
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Leaning more towards Twitter turning out fine. Tough time for those running it, but the chance of success may be higher now.
Why?
Because so many are betting against it. That makes the true believers double down even harder, increasing the chances of success. We'll see.
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@NkemNwan
@nathanbarry
I get your point. But..1920 not 1720…just maybe you may have changed the path of history depending on what you do with the wealth. The compounding effects may still exist for large swaths of black people till today just like Western wealth did/still does for the West.
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@balajis
Every military officer thinks the glory days was their time. Temper the bias. It’s not matching reality.
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Simple is fast. If you’re not moving fast enough, narrow your scope, simplify and up the intensity.
Love it
@FoundersPodcast
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Learning through the experience and knowledge of others is cheap, learning through your own experience can be expensive. Here are 6 company killing mistakes my own experience can help you avoid 🧵
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Bye to a wonderful 2017. Welcome 2018. Happy New Year to all.
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When I launched my first SaaS startup, I had no clue how to deal with pricing. What’s too high or too low? So I did what most people do and just priced lower than competition.
I mentioned affordable, low cost and similar phrases a lot.
Still many prospects were complaining
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Just released the first edition of Let’s Build Tuesday Roundup, a collection of content from around the web. This week includes some content about my work, vision and conversations with
@ronholt1
,
@n8sch
, and
@billsmitha
. You can read it here:
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Bracken Darrell is regarded as a great turnaround CEO. He’s credited with turning Old Spice around, then Logitech and now hoping to do same with Vans shoes.
Here’s what he had to say about success
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If you don’t give your team a clear mission and vision of where you’re taking them, why, how, and for whom, everyone will insert their own version. Life abhors vacuum.
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@jasonfried
People are going to read this, interpret it the wrong way, and hurt themselves and their chances of success.
Validation is important. You just need to understand what real validation means. It doesn’t mean navel-gazing, and engaging in analysis paralysis.
Some people succeed
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No changed lives without changed behaviors. No changed circumstances without significant behavior altering decisions.
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It’s very tempting for leaders to always jump in and be the hero. But the ultimate job of the leader is to make heroes out of your team.
If you have to be the hero of the story every time for great things to happen, the problem is either you or talent deficiency issues you must
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Difference between where you are and where you want to be = amount of time + effort
Time determined by doing right things at right moment with the right skills. In short, knowledge applied properly
Stop paying huge time tax because of what you don’t know. Be a well learned doer
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Don’t give up on a market because investors said it’s too niche. It’s bad advice. Great advice for VCs who need big bets with every dollar, not good advice for you. Many big cos start as profitable niches. Figure out if it’s profitable and you can get customers at scale first.
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It’s so much fun building startups. A ton of work, but also a lot of fun when doing it with the right people.
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@fasc1nate
Is this just a culturally acceptable way to dispose off bikes in Asterdam? That’s what I’m curious about.
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Founders spend too much time chasing their own tail and doing twenty things at a time, hoping for magic. They are flailing and get frustrated.
Focus focus focus, which means…
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The tendency, especially for leaders, is to focus on problems rather than opportunities though that’s not where growth happens. Problems are easy to focus on but they are par for the course. The magic is in figuring out how problems can become opportunities.
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Can’t overstate the importance of the influences you surround yourself with. Past couple newsletters are about cultivating influences. I also shared book recommendations and my favorite follows including
@davempayne
,
@katebour
, & more:
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@realEstateTrent
The Walgreens issue was overblown and became political last year. It was 3.5% and now down to 2.5%.
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Really enjoyed this episode
@BenWilsonTweets
.
So many lessons and reminders:
- speed as paramount.
- Handling stuff you can’t control.
- Managing risk.
- Empowering others
“It’s better for an army to have one bad general than two good ones”
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@carlosalcaraz
for the win. Great match from both. Fan of both guys.
@CasperRuud98
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If you are starting a new business relationship, whether that’s a new hire, business partner, someone you’re selling something to, etc, and it kicks off with friction due to personality mismatch, communication mismatch, or deception even if mild, END IT asap. 9 out of 10 times,
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@JoePompliano
@SquawkCNBC
Goes to prove again that the real long term moat in business is continuous innovation for the good of the customer.
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If the grass looks greener on the other side, water your own grass instead of coveting the other side. The grass is greener where it’s watered.
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Here’s a story that truly demonstrates the power of incentives.
We have four kids ranging from 11 to 3 years old.
They’ve all decided our master bathroom is the only usable bathroom in the entire house.
Every morning and bath time, they walk straight past their (perfectly
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@david_perell
Apple build a great device, then looks for every way they can collect access rent from everybody: phone companies, software developers, hardware developers.
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Happy New Year everyone.
Praying for a great 2024 for everyone.
Sure it’s going to have its own flavor of twists and turns, but excited for it all, the wins, the lessons, the building, and the learning.
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Always think of incentives in every decision and design for desired outcome.
Sometimes I let niceness interfere with proper incentive design, hoping someone would simply do the right thing. I usually regret it.
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@inittowinit210
@abarrallen
Yes if bloat and/or team quality is an issue. Sometimes the team is good but the leaders and strategy are wrong. However, because it’s their creation, they succumb to various psychological traps, are stubborn or blinded by hubris and you don’t have the time.
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@girdley
This hit close 😂
Started a studio after major success for multiple reasons: building great cos and building the ecosystem.
It’s hard. Finding and validating ideas. Building multiple great teams. Running 1 co as well.
Love & enjoying it. Should share my learnings more openly.
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If you’re lucky in life, make sure much of other people are lucky too.
- Buffett to final question of 2024 annual meeting.
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The irony is that by taking time to compound knowledge, you shorten the path to good success without disaster inducing shortcuts.
Sage advice from Li Lu
(Charlie Munger’s favorite investor)
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@tferriss
@jockowillink
Hard to pick but I’ll go with the Jamie Foxx episode.
@iamjamiefoxx
is just a great story teller
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One of my favorite entrepreneurship stories is about Andy Grove and Gordon Moore, the founders of Intel when they realized the memory chip space that made them so successful was getting commoditized…
While they were struggling with what to do, Grove asked, "If the board fired
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I don’t know the full Invision story and businesses fail for many reasons, some beyond a CEO’s control.
But it’s another reminder that full exit valuation, not fundraising valuation is what matters.
Whether you exit or not, what matters is what’s your company worth if you
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Another edition of the Tuesday Roundup went live yesterday. I recapped my conversation with
@roysj
at the
@prosperbham
&
@gener8tor
OnRamp Conference, shared a
@HarmonyVentures
blog, & more. Check it out here & let me know what you think:
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The best road ahead to human happiness is expect less
- Munger
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The key to successful growth is to build a system with an overarching strategy rather than random tactics. If your marketing consists of randomly trying to see what will work rather than building out a system of experimentation and optimization over time, you’re doing it wrong.
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Don’t let Twitter take your joy and fun away. Remember most of Twitter talk is not real life.
Most people including supporters of opposing teams do not hate Caitlin Clark. Most black/white/whatever people do not hate her. Everyone is simply watching a great sports story unfold
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People chase being best or better. That’s all good. However, what wins is unique and differentiated. May be judged better or best later, but winners win because they are unique and differentiated.
In 2016, Pharrell Williams visited an N.Y.U. music production class to critique student songs.
After he listened to a song called “Alaska” by a student named Maggie Rogers, he explained why “I have zero, zero, zero notes for that:”
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@FoundersPodcast
You have been a huge inspiration my friend. Glad we met for sure and excited about the future.
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My personal experience: No matter how successful you are as an entrepreneur, you can still have mental block and self doubt when doing that new thing that requires putting yourself out there or doing things differently.
So you keep looking for excuses.
I guess the motto is
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Today's newsletter is about mindset as it pertains to minority founders. It can be a delicate topic, and my experience can't speak for everyone. Take a look here and let me know what you think:
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The concept of growth hacking has been misunderstood by many to mean their product can become an overnight success by finding some magic formula that gives them a huge home run.
But success in business is very similar to building great sports teams. You are more likely to win
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I’ve always struggled with procrastination, but I know as a leader, my pace for decision and action ultimately becomes the teams’ pace.
Along with delegation, here are some ways I handle:
- Be vulnerable: I let team know tendency. So we focus on the important thing getting
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@SecretCFO
Unpopular opinion on this platform: demonstrates wrong judgement posting this.
This seems like periodic sales team pruning for low performers gone wrong. It’s possible manager was also let go. Head of Sales and company needs a better process dealing with it.
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When negotiating:
- Focus on win/win.
- Be clear about what you want.
- Have multiple options that get you there. Expect one of them to be a win/win for both sides.
- One option must be you can walk away and be perfectly ok.
If not, you’re not negotiating. You’re a hostage.
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