AI
There's a question I've been mulling for a while now, and I think it's time to write it down: when is it okay to use generative AI in a given business context, and when does it cross a line? I'll focus on
Boards
I did this analysis last year and it became a popular post, so I figured I'd do the same retrospective today. Following are the ten most-read Kellblog posts in 2025, regardless of the year in which they were written -- and it includes some golden oldies. 1. What
Boards
The Hippocratic Oath is a well known oath of ethics taken by physicians. It requires them to swear, among other things, to do no harm in dealing with patients. While chatting with a VC the other day, it occurred to me that we should have a similar concept for startup
Boards
While I could write the equivalent of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover when it comes to variations on how to get fired as CEO, the purpose of this post is simply to discuss three things CEOs can say to their boards that will perk their ears and get them
Boards
Let's say you're a CEO leading your startup's migration from mid-market to enterprise. To do that, you've hopefully already done the following: * Analyzed existing success in enterprise accounts. (Most people don't start purely from scratch, but instead have picked up
Boards
I remember how silly the board looked that day. Reviewing the slide with performance by salesrep, an alpha board member impatiently shouted the seemingly obvious conclusion: "Look, only one rep -- Joe Schmedley -- is performing. Everyone else is struggling. The solution to our problem is quite simple: we
Boards
So, you're on the executive staff of a startup and you've been asked to present at an upcoming board meeting. That's great news. Board exposure is a key benefit of working on the e-staff. You’re getting the chance to build relationships with the
Boards
A critical part of the CEO's job is realizing when it's time to sell the company. I'm not talking about the easy cases, like when you're in year five of running a PE-backed company, and the numbers suggest an exit that produces
Boards
Since many of you are in the midst of presenting your annual marketing budgets to your CEO, CFO, and board, I thought I'd write a quick post to remind people what board members actually care about when it comes to the marketing budget. I understand that, in the
AI
I’m pleased to announce that I’ve joined the board of Techwolf, a Belgian HR tech company backed by a slew of top venture capital investors including Harry Stebbings' 20VC, Future of Work boutique Acadian Ventures, vertically-focused SemperVirens, and European-focused Felix Capital, Notion, and Stride.vc. They also
AI
You can't run a financial planning company for six years and not develop a certain affection for working with the office of the CFO. It doesn't hurt when, despite your exterior marketing shell, there's an inner finance person down there underneath. Since selling Host
Boards
I love writing and speaking about board meetings. Why? Because: * They're critically important. Board meetings can make or break careers. * You get little to no instruction on how to do them. Most training for CEOs and execs is of the "throw them in the deep end of