Clint Carlos

Interviewing hundreds of PE CEOs/execs over the last 15 yrs has taught me a lot about effective executive communication. The most effective communicators I've seen: 🔹Use short sentences and small words 🔹Adapt the message to fit the audience 🔹Lead w/ headline & support w/ details 🔹Answer closed-ended Q'swith a Y / N / # 🔹Use story strategically but don't overuse 🔹Recognize the power of metaphor (but don't overuse) 🔹Are comfortable being repetitive to drive home key ideas 🔹Check in with the receiver to see if the message is landing 🔹Understand how you say something is as important as what you say. 🔹Read the room, and know when they're selling past the close I'm working on making better use of a few of these learnings right now.

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Much ink has been spilled from startups to established corporations about the need for businesses to have a purpose (beyond achieving various financial goals). Ideally your company’s purpose can align with “your why,” or the drive behind what you do and how you do it. At Arbo a “patriotic purpose” drove our founding, having seen in the Navy how access to energy or lack of it causes conflict and war and enables peace and prosperity. This patriotic purpose motivates our team’s day-to-day support of the energy infrastructure industry, which helped our country become energy independent and is expanding the fabric of our modern society. As we enter our second decade in business, we’re at the start of another historic energy infrastructure build out and possibly the most exciting time to be in the energy business. The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Chevron highlighted just how critical permitting, litigation and policy will continue to be. In 10 years it’s only gotten harder to build all kinds of energy projects, with headwinds for traditional energy from carbon reduction advocates, and tailwinds from reliability and affordability proponents. As a country, I believe we’ll thread the needle and figure it out, as we always do. (A photo from last year’s July 4th, while cooking out with my family.)

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🎙️ NEW EPISODE ALERT on Zero Limits Podcast! 🚀 EP 2 is live and it's packed with strategies for maximizing your business value. Join Melinda Wittstock and me, as we dissect the anatomy of a successful business pivot and reveal the importance of understanding market dynamics to drive growth and increase company valuation. 🔗 Listen at https://lnkd.in/g_s2dHa7 and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts for more actionable insights to grow your business 🔑Key Takeaways 🚀Optimize Value Growth: Understand what potential buyers value beyond the top line revenue growth and EBITDA. We dissect the perfect pivot to show you how one company's brand tweak from trucking to energy logistics made a world of difference in multiplying its value. ⚡Market Mastery: Learn the art of aligning with market needs and dynamics to stay ahead in the game. Your success depends on more than having a great product or service: Understanding how it’s positioned relative to competitors and how it might accelerate the growth of a potential buyer is critical to value growth. We explore how to position your business for acquisition by focusing on differentiating factors and market potential. 🌱Growth Mindset: To skyrocket your business, focus on key metrics and customer growth dynamics – don't be myopic about broader performance indicators or blindsided either by current success or temporary setbacks. We explore why it’s vital to monitor and adjust to market changes, competition, technological innovations, and economic conditions among them.   📊Beyond Face Value: The importance of evaluating and communicating business value to mitigate perceived risks and amplify opportunities. ⚡ Accelerate Your Growth: Subscribe now so you don't miss out on future episodes that promise to guide you through understanding the market, identifying growth drivers, managing risk, and navigating the waters at different stages of your business life cycle. 🚀 More at zerolimitsradio.com Make your learning actionable: Get the free workbook HERE: https://lnkd.in/gTVi5BPP

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PathFinder Insights, Inc. is revolutionizing executive leadership decision making with AI-enabled advanced data analytics and innovative methodologies. We are empowering executive leadership teams to pivot with confidence, anticipate market changes, and seize opportunities with precision. Learn more at www.pathfinder-in.com ↗ (https://lnkd.in/guJ2EwpF) and book a time with me for a deeper dive into our transformative approach: https://lnkd.in/gKbGUnRP ↗ (https://lnkd.in/gKbGUnRP) #ExecutiveDecisionMaking #LeadershipTransformation #PathFinderInsights"

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"Most of what EtA search is about has to be experienced through trial and error and just practice. You can’t really learn it, you just have to experience it and like any entrepreneurial venture: experiment, practice and pivot." It can be hard to measure/anticipate ROI from any single activity in search... but I've found that action leads to action, and a step in any direction is better than none at all. Jim Stein Sharpe has some other great insights in this blog post: https://lnkd.in/e2WyJJwh #EtA #searchfunds #entrepreneurship #smb

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Mike Maples, Jr is one of the most successful startup investors in history. He's worked with more early-stage startups than almost anyone alive, and with his fund, Floodgate, helped pioneer seed-stage investing as a category. He's been on the Forbes Midas List eight times and has made early bets on transformative companies like Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, and Okta. In his new book (coming out this Tuesday!), Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future, he shares the three common elements he's uncovered that separate startups (and founders) that break through and change the world from those that don’t. This research is rooted in his decades of notes, decks, and founder relationships, and is unlike anything I've seen elsewhere. In our conversation, Mike shares: 🔸 The three elements of breakthrough startup ideas 🔸 The importance of founder disagreeableness 🔸 Why you need to both *think* and *act* differently 🔸 How to avoid the “comparison trap” and “conformity trap” 🔸 How to apply pattern-breaking principles within large companies 🔸 Mike’s one piece of advice for founders 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gPjw8RXk - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gAUbgGxz - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g6t367uY Some key takeaways: 1. Get out of the present: Instead of just thinking about solving current problems, you need to immerse yourself in the future. Look for emerging trends, technologies, or shifts in behavior that suggest where the world is heading. Great innovations often stem from individuals who immerse themselves deeply in a niche or cutting-edge area. 2. Great startup ideas share three elements: a. Inflections: External shifts that create potential for radical change in how people think, feel, and behave. b. Insights: A unique understanding of how to harness these inflections and enable a future that the company believes in. c. Founder-future fit: An alignment between the founders and the future they envision, including their skills, motivations, and network. 3. Three things that successful founders do differently: a. Movements: A movement aligns early believers around a higher purpose, leveraging their emotional commitment rather than just pragmatic benefits. b. Storytelling: Frame your startup’s story as a hero’s journey. Position yourself not as the hero but as the guide (like Obi-Wan Kenobi) who invites customers (the heroes) to embark on a transformative journey toward a better future. Tailor your narrative to resonate with different stakeholders—investors, customers, employees—by emphasizing how they can achieve their aspirations through your vision. c. Disagreeableness: Founders who challenge the status quo often appear disagreeable because they defy conventional norms. They drive change by questioning existing patterns and persuading others to embrace new ways of thinking and acting.

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Part of the fun of going to tradeshows and meeting our customers and potential customers in person is having conversations at the booth about all sorts of things. Credit card fees are usually high up on the list of topics. Which usually leads to a conversation about interchange fees. Unsurprisingly, interchange fees are one of the more complex and confusing topics for most business owners. But I find in these conversations that the three most surprising facts about interchange fees are: 1. Every card brand has its own fee structure 2. Business cards generally have higher fees than consumer cards 3. Accepting cards online is generally more expensive than in-person

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I read and summarized a 100-page book from Harvard Business Review so you won’t have to. #OmarExplains "The year in Tech - 2024. HBR’s latest thinking on the Future of Business." Business is changing - will you adapt, or be left behind? Integrative Tech is the new business reality. Businesses that don’t embrace emerging digital tech are slow-walking to obsolescence. This year, tech is not so much driven by new technology, but by new integrations that are more advanced/efficient in using existing technologies. “With integrative technologies, we have reached a level of technological sophistication that can effectively augment the abilities of employees in ways that make them MORE instead of LESS human.” David De Cremer 1. #Neurotech at work 2. Building in #Web3 3. #ChatGPT is an AI tipping point  4. Leveraging tech to improve #SupplyChains  5. Your company’s data is for sale on the #DarkWeb - should you buy it back? 6. Using #AR to improve operations 7. The #Metaverse will enhance - not replace - companies’ physical locations 8. Dehumanization is a feature of #GigWork, not a bug 9. A platform approach to #SpaceExploration 10. Does Elon Musk have a strategy or is he just winging it? 11. #AI with a human face HBR's prediction is that Integrative Tech is the future. Look forward to your thoughts! Joshua Taylor Russell Taylor Kane Bennett A.R. Nasir Qureshi Yawar Abbas Mushtaq Ansari Syed Tariq James Kwan Khalid Boulhala

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When Grit becomes Growth: The Path from Pain to Transformation. Bart Foster visits the Sky Lounge to talk about how an unceremonious ouster from the thriving startup he founded led him on a transformative journey to living a life of intention and purpose. He discusses founding BusinessOutside as a result, a venture that leverages nature to cultivate deeper connections and personal growth among leaders and teams, and the techniques he uses to get out of the mundane and into the “real” talk that makes real connections. #nature #intentionalliving #businessculture #businessoutside #FutureOfWork #MakeItHappen We all need real connections in our businesses. Go See Bart in Colorado and take a hike with him. https://lnkd.in/eQDVuFrg

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Last week, we talked with an enterprise that invested $2M in implementing MEDDPICC. They brought a consulting company to advise them, build the program, develop a strategy around deploying it, train employees, and launch. A day later, no one used the new framework. 2 Million Dollars. Down the drain. This has become so common lately. Large projects that are meant to revolutionize sales for an organization - fail miserably. It doesn’t fail because the methodology itself is wrong. It fails because salespeople don’t follow through. No one puts it in practice. It’s NOT the sales team’s fault by any means. It’s the company’s responsibility to make this new practice a no-brainer - something that’s not only efficient and productive, but also easy and seamless to adapt. Showing people a new framework isn’t enough. What you need is to create new work habits. Training alone won’t cut it. #sales

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Understanding your team is crucial to long term success. Check out our blog for some of the tools we love to use to help people understand their team.

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🤔 What do Operating Model Design & Rob Lowe have in common? 🕯 Tech entrepreneur and VC founder Marc Andreessen 💡 Need a little more...., on a recent episode of Literally! Marc tells a story about his time at IBM. 1980s IBM isn't what you see now, it was the tech company, inventor of the PC and 80% of the market, with 440k employees. 2 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒏𝒕 1980𝒔 𝑰𝑩𝑴 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒆 "̲𝚃̲𝚑̲𝚎̲ ̲𝙱̲𝚒̲𝚐̲ ̲R𝚎̲𝚍̲ ̲C𝚕̲𝚘̲𝚞̲𝚍̲"̲ - the 50 guys in grey suits following the CEO around to stop them from getting any real information "̲𝙵̲𝚘̲𝚒̲𝚜̲𝚝̲𝚒̲𝚗̲𝚐̲"̲ - moving low performers to another team rather than dealing with the issue 𝑺𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅? As Marc tells it IBM had become too big, too successful, it didn't deal with waste & inefficiency, there were structural flaws and it couldn't react to market changes. "𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 (𝑜𝑓 6𝑘 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒)" "𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡'𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑤𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑔𝑜" ❓ I am amazed they had layers data and a full org chart back then! Marc was layer 12 from the CEO - do you know your number? ❓ Marc goes on to talk OpenAI v Google and the classic incumbent v upstart story, which I will expand on in another post. What I love about about this anecdote is the way operating model & internal strategy are the underpinning for virtually any corporate story, especially cautionary tales, such as this one. ⚡ What do you think, how do companies stay on top? ⚡ #InternalStrategy #OperatingModel #Strategy

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The FTC's Bold Move to Unshackle American Workers Could Unleash a New Era of Innovation Imagine a world where the best and brightest are free to chase their ambitions without being chained to their current employer. Where startups blossom like wildflowers as talent flows to wherever the innovation is happening. Silicon Valley was built on this kind of fearless job-hopping - and it's high time the rest of the country got in on the action. I think this big: in the coming years, we'll see a massive wave of new inventions, new businesses, and new economic growth - all thanks to the FTC's courage in standing up to the billionaire class. The naysayers can clutch their pearls all they want, but the future belongs to a flexible and unfettered workforce. Get ready, America. A new era of innovation is about to be unleashed! What are your thoughts on this development? Do you think that this will lead to a more dynamic and competitive labor market? Share your opinions in the comments below. Read more: https://lnkd.in/ejdSZUyV

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A frustrating but avoidable issue on PE boards: Confusion about who makes the final call on which decisions. PE board? CEO? Consensus? Sure, being "aligned" on key decisions is important. But a surefire way to create confusion, frustration, and (at worst) resentment is: • failing to create clarity on who makes which calls, and • stepping in when decision rights reside with others. Establish this upfront... and avoid frustration down the road. #PrivateEquity #Boards

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Innovative Leaders are different. It makes sense, but until I heard Linda Hill on the podcast Think Smart Talk Fast, I had no idea the differentiators. This month, I summarize her interview, and her discussion of the topic of Innovative Leadership. Including the key aspects of: - Creative Abrasion (trust me, this word is sticky, but it works!) - Creative Agility - Creative Resolution I also tie this in with the importance of staying true to your core organizational values. It's no wonder why the innovative arm of Biotech/Pharma is the more nimble, agile, innovative start-up companies! Let me know what you think 💡 🌿 https://lnkd.in/gcFdtk3X

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Here is the single most valuable aspect of bootstrapping a company. Change my mind: I was talking to my co-founder @ ossa.ai, Brennan Duncan recently, and something dawned on me that was really interesting. We have entertained the idea of raising VC, but there are a couple of reasons why we haven't yet - this being the largest one. Being bootstrapped forces us to be incredibly disciplined and methodical in our decision-making. With objectively fewer resources, you are forced to learn more and be ruthless with your time and energy. Little $10 subscriptions that are not canceled by the team are caught. We give second thoughts before starting a project on why it actually matters. We find creative ways to market with limited funds. While these things ideally would not slip away with VC funding, the discipline required to bootstrap is something that forces me to grow. It forces us to be incredibly resourceful, despite having a lack of resources to do so. It elicits extreme accountability. The habits that are being reinforced across the business will only multiply the effects of a capital injection into the business - when and if we decide to take that route. We have already started getting some attention from some VCs, but we don't believe it's the right time - yet. I say this all the time, but we truly have something huge coming that is completely unexpected. It's gonna ruffle some feathers and totally change what it means to be a content creator. We're playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers. I promise that. Back to work.

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🫴 Sharing a post from my friend and movie producer buddy (https://lnkd.in/gRr55ntm), Helen Fanucci! 🪙🪙 My 2 cents... 🌐 It's an interesting thought with pros and cons for sure. In a future where AI replaces the role of a CEO, corporations would be led by highly advanced AI that excels in data analysis, strategic planning, and operational management. These AI CEOs would likely leverage real-time data and predictive analytics to make swift, informed decisions, and manage risks. The AI CEO would optimize operational efficiency by overseeing interconnected systems and automating routine tasks, including HR functions. 🤖 HOWEVER, there is a dystopian side to this as well.... This concept definitely has elements of The Matrix and Travelers (available on Netflix) where a super computer, The Director, is calling the shots and humankind's loyalty is to The Director. And, in a situation where if The Director is upset, it could overwrite a subservient human's consciousness, most will comply. ⚙️ Today, AI lacks tons of unique human thought processes. That word, "today," is important, because AI is new and it is amazing how capable it has become, multidimensionally, in a very short period of time. 🧠 For now, intuitive reasoning, emotional empathy, and creative spontaneity certainly don't exist in AI. Intuitive reasoning allows humans to make decisions based on what we call gut feelings, which AI cannot replicate as it relies purely on data and predefined algorithms. Emotional empathy enables humans to understand and share the feelings of others, fostering deep interpersonal connections and nuanced social interactions that AI struggles to genuinely emulate. Creative spontaneity is what generates novel and original ideas, often in an unpredictable manner, which contrasts with AI's dependency on existing data patterns and programmed logic. These human thought processes are deeply intertwined with subjective experiences and consciousness, elements currently beyond AI's capabilities. 🧑‍💻 I am, however, a HUGE supporter of augmenting our work-world with AI. And, for a CEO, it can be very useful. At Portola Valley Partners, when we speak with early-stage companies, we look to see how they are using AI in two aspects: To reduce OPEX by offloading AI-doable tasks and also to use strategically to help logically iterate on and enhance a company's product(s). #innovation #technology #future #futurism #creativity

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Friends’ Ross Geller screamed PIVOT on the 113th episode in Feb 1999. Leaders pivot the business strategically and tactically to… 🁡 Deliver against customers’ changing expectations 🁚 Differentiate competitively 🁘 Operate efficiently 🁈 Accelerate profitable growth, and 🀷 Create value for shareholders Successfully pivoting requires… 🁞 Imagination, bravery and commitment to continuous improvement 🀽 Shared vision, clearly articulated and understood 🁍 Aligned interests 🀸 Focused resources 🁞 Sufficient liquidity and investments PIVOT! But...first make sure you have all the right dominoes in place! ShermanSamuels Jay Samuels, Kara Murtha, Brent Alvord, Patrick Baisley and Bryan Ross

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New Episode: Let's take a look into the nuts and bolts of VC and what it takes to be an effective manager... I chat with Marlon C. Nichols (Managing General Partner, MaC Venture Capital), a Kauffman Fellows BoD member, and one of the Pitchbook's "25 VCs to Watch". (link below) We discuss topics such as: - Marlon's journey from early operator in enterprise software to VC founder - Venture capital as a path to diversity and strategic engagement - Mac Ventures investment thesis and strategies - Advice for new GPs - Strategies for First-Time fund managers targeting LPs - Strategies for startups targeting successful exits - Evaluating seed stage investments - Venture capital’s shift to sustainable investment strategies - The impact of AI on business Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g-JVnxFQ Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gWeqVkqX

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