A founder I work with came in last year sure of his plan: digital outreach. He'd run it at a previous company and it had worked, so he ran it again. Three months in: 2,000 emails sent. Two or three meetings booked. One customer a month — while the whole team burned hours on outreach and risked getting their accounts flagged, just to keep that one customer coming. He had a strategy. It was internally consistent, drawn from real experience, and quietly wrong. The fix didn't come from a better...
24 days ago • 2 min read
I watched a founder demo their "AI-native" workflow last week. It was ChatGPT in a tab. He'd ask it to draft emails. He'd ask it to summarize calls. He'd paste in a customer note and ask, "what should I do?" Every output was reasonable. Nothing in his business would break if he closed the tab tomorrow. He told me he was "fully AI-pilled." He wasn't. He was Level 1. There's a useful frame circulating right now, borrowed from how the auto industry classified self-driving. Level 1 cruise control...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Last week I wrote about three founders with real moats. The replies that came back asked a simpler question: "How do I know if I have one?" Most founders confuse a feature for a moat. A faster onboarding flow isn't a moat. A clever AI workflow isn't a moat. A favorite logo on your homepage isn't a moat. Those things are real. They're just not what defends you when a well-funded competitor shows up next quarter with the same tools you used to build yours. A real moat shows up in five places....
2 months ago • 1 min read
A few days ago at the Virtual VC Conference — 7,000+ registered, co-hosted by Techstars — I ran five investor panels inside the SPIKE Series room. Panel 3 was different. No fund metrics. No portfolio composition. Two former professional athletes — one who played in the NBA's European equivalent, one who played six years in the NFL — talking about what elite performance actually looks like from the inside. What they said maps directly to where most founders in the $100K–$3M range are getting...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Last week we ran five investor panels at the Virtual Early Stage VC Conference — 7,000+ registered, co-hosted by Techstars. Twelve investors. One room. SPIKE Series. SPIKE Series is the ecosystem I've been building around sports, media, and innovation. But the sharpest insight from Panel 1 had nothing to do with sports. It had everything to do with what most founders are sitting on without knowing it. Panel #1 - The New Sport Economy: three signals worth extracting Garnet Heraman (Aperture...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Ask most founders: "What's your sales process?" They describe 3 steps: Find prospects Have a call Send proposal and close Watch them actually sell and you'll count 23 distinct steps—research methods, outreach timing, email sequences, call frameworks, follow-up triggers, objection responses, proposal customization, negotiation tactics. The process exists. It's just invisible. Living in your head, not in a system someone else could execute. Last week you identified WHAT to systematize first...
6 months ago • 4 min read
2025 was the year everyone talked about AI. We chose to build instead. Fifteen newsletter issues on systematic AI implementation. But more importantly: actual tools for founders, AI agents for enterprise partners, ecosystem programs for institutions. Here's what M Studio shipped in 2025. What We Built for Institutions Italian Trade Agency - US Clean Tech Ecosystem Strategy Designed and executed comprehensive US clean tech ecosystem mapping. Engaged 227 experts across the ecosystem. Consulted...
7 months ago • 3 min read
The AI Acceleration Advantage #14 Two founders, same revenue, same open req for Sales Development. Founder A hired three SDRs at $60K each. Total investment: $180K annually plus onboarding time, management overhead, and tool licenses. Founder B hired one senior SDR at $120K and spent $40K on AI amplification—custom lead research automation, personalized outreach at scale, and intelligent pipeline management. Six months later: Founder A's team generated 450 qualified leads. Founder B's...
7 months ago • 3 min read
MA Newsletter Series: The AI Acceleration Advantage #10 Two companies, same growth trajectory, completely different customer success stories. Company A grew from 50 to 500 customers over 18 months. They hired 8 new customer success managers to maintain their high-touch approach. Payroll increased by $640K annually. Company B hit the same growth milestone. They added 1 CSM and built systematic AI amplification around their team. Both companies maintained 95%+ retention rates. The difference...
8 months ago • 4 min read