The Baseline

A founder once told me: “We need to start measuring how fast our developers are coding.” I asked, “Why?” He said, “Well… how else do I...

I believe in servant leadership. But here’s what most leadership books miss: It works differently across cultures. In low power-distance...

A manager once asked me, “Aren’t you being too soft with the team?” I had just rolled out: - Weekly 1:1s with engineers - Roadmap...

Founders ask me: “Can’t one person just do both?” Maybe early on. But if you’re scaling, the difference matters. Here’s the simplest way...

A founder once asked me if they should let an engineer go. “He’s completely burned out,” the founder said. “He’s not producing. I think...

I get this question from time to time: "How much Agile do we really need?" My answer: Enough to serve the team  and the product  — not...

One of the most common things I see in early-stage startups is a title mismatch. A great engineer joins early. They build the MVP. They...

Early in my career, I thought being a leader meant having all the answers. Driving the roadmap. Setting the pace. But the real turning...

A startup had a familiar problem: Great vision, solid engineers, and zero momentum. They had three developers. But they were running...

Every startup takes it on. The question isn’t if—it’s how you manage it. There’s good tech debt and bad tech debt. Good tech debt is a...

I get this question a lot from early-stage founders: “Should I bring on a full-time CTO?” My answer? Probably not yet. If you're...