How top founders navigate the invisible pressure between today’s metrics and tomorrow’s ambition — and keep investors aligned without losing control of the long game.
Thanks, Chris, for another excellent post. From your experience, what do you think is the best way of fostering a culture of innovation? Often, this is something that most founders have developed over a number of years, but how can they ensure that they support this throughout their employees as well?
I believe in a 3 horizons model that I've adapted to startups. 70% resourced on executing the strategy, 20% resourcing adaptions to adjacent opportunities & 10% reverse engineering back from the grand vision for the market that you'll dominate. The resources for horizon 1 and 3 are typically very different (H3 being creative, risk takers, less grounded by rules and procedures) and therefore not that compatible in working together. On an entirely different note - most companies procedurally kill all the creativity and entrepreneurs out of the companyas they scale so I have some books and tricks to help stop this happening ie celebrate failure which is a by product of risk taking. I hope this helps
Fundraising conversations usually fall apart not because someone is wrong, but because short-term pressure starts driving long-term decisions. What I like here is the reminder that alignment is a system. When founders deliberately manage incentives, metrics, and communication across time horizons, investor relationships stop feeling adversarial.
The pressure to deliver quarterly traction while building something durable and meaningful over 10 years can feel like walking a tightrope in a wind tunnel.
What you’ve nailed here is the need for intentional communication -without it, even great partnerships unravel. A Harvard Business Review study found that 65% of VC-backed startups fail due to founder–investor misalignment, not poor products or markets.
Investors do not buy busy founders.
Investors buy transferable value and the ability to react when plans need reassessment.
Wise words of advice as always 🌟 thanks for sharing
The founders who really break away treat short-term wins as the required proof points for the longer, more complex vision.
That's the real skill here.
💯 - I could not have said it clearer. Thanks for sharing Sharyph 🌟
Thanks, Chris, for another excellent post. From your experience, what do you think is the best way of fostering a culture of innovation? Often, this is something that most founders have developed over a number of years, but how can they ensure that they support this throughout their employees as well?
I believe in a 3 horizons model that I've adapted to startups. 70% resourced on executing the strategy, 20% resourcing adaptions to adjacent opportunities & 10% reverse engineering back from the grand vision for the market that you'll dominate. The resources for horizon 1 and 3 are typically very different (H3 being creative, risk takers, less grounded by rules and procedures) and therefore not that compatible in working together. On an entirely different note - most companies procedurally kill all the creativity and entrepreneurs out of the companyas they scale so I have some books and tricks to help stop this happening ie celebrate failure which is a by product of risk taking. I hope this helps
Fundraising conversations usually fall apart not because someone is wrong, but because short-term pressure starts driving long-term decisions. What I like here is the reminder that alignment is a system. When founders deliberately manage incentives, metrics, and communication across time horizons, investor relationships stop feeling adversarial.
The pressure to deliver quarterly traction while building something durable and meaningful over 10 years can feel like walking a tightrope in a wind tunnel.
What you’ve nailed here is the need for intentional communication -without it, even great partnerships unravel. A Harvard Business Review study found that 65% of VC-backed startups fail due to founder–investor misalignment, not poor products or markets.
Yep. Founder fall out is huge 😬
I think that's right “milestones” that prove something.That proof changes the dialogue, the risk, the valuation, the fomo