Daryl Daley, CD - Recruiter

IT Recruiter

Intelligent Minds Search Consultants

What I Deliver
For Companies
🔍 Smarter Hiring, Better Results
Exclusive partnerships with me mean curated, vetted candidates ready to make an impact. I prioritize quality over speed, ensuring hires align with your goals.

🌐 Deeper Talent Access
I leverage headhunting and networking to uncover top-tier talent, including those not actively job searching.

📈 Simplified Hiring
Eliminate inbox floods of mismatched resumes. My streamlined approach saves time and ensures precision, without disputes over candidate ownership.

🤝 Exceptional Candidate Experience
A seamless recruiting process enhances your brand, engages top talent, and avoids candidate dropouts caused by confusion.

🔒 Confidential Searches
Discretion is key for sensitive roles. I ensure privacy while delivering exceptional results.

For Professionals
🚀 Your Career, Elevated
Your career isn’t just a path—it’s your story. I help you land roles that excite you by refining your strategy and showcasing your unique value.

🌟 What You’ll Achieve:

Increased Visibility: Transform your resume and LinkedIn into recruiter magnets.
Strategic Job Search: Focus on roles that align with your skills and goals.
Interview Confidence: Present compelling stories that make you the obvious choice.
Stronger Offers: Secure compensation that reflects your worth.
🔗 Dual Expertise Advantage
As both a recruiter and career coach, I provide insider knowledge to help you stand out and succeed.

Why Work With Me?
With over 30 years in recruiting and career coaching, I’ve built a reputation for delivering measurable results. Whether you’re building your team or advancing your career, I bring tailored strategies and proven expertise to every partnership.

📩 Looking to hire top talent or advance your career? Message me today.

Let’s build your high-performing team—or your dream career—together.

Tech Recruiter | Builder of High-Performance Teams | Career Coach

Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces Intelligence Officer: held a number of leadership, management and technical positions. Managed teams of up-to 38 Intelligence Operators (IntOps)

Positions included:
• Regimental Intelligence Officer & Troop Leader at 21 Electronic Warfare Regiment:  Managed and lead 34 highly specialized troops (Intelligence Operators)
• ASIC (All-Source Intelligence Center) Senior Analyst:  Managed intelligence requirements, leading 4 specialized intelligence sections performing unique functions
• Responsible for fusing all-source intelligence, including SIGINT, to produce electronic warfare (EW) associated products that were disseminated to various levels. 
• Squadron Operations Officer; an organization comprised of 100 Communication Research Operators, Signalers and Intelligence Operators.  Responsible for the planning and execution of all Squadron Operations including EW Field Exercises, Squadron training, day to day operations in addition to planning and running multiple Canadian Forces courses;
• Course Officer at CFSCE (Canadian Forces School of Communications & Electronics) for the Land Electronic Warfare Analyst Course (Intelligence Course to work within the EW / SIGINT Ecosystem)
•  SIGINT Officer and Information Operations Officer qualified.  PSYOPS Officer.

Principal Duties:

• Collected, analyzed and fused multiple intelligence sources at the operational level and produced oral and written intelligence products to support the multiple Commanders in charge of operations.
• Established and monitored indications and warning regime covering specific threat areas, provided daily updates to senior staff and produced and disseminated associated written threat assessment products.
• Produced and maintained "Targeting packages" and delivered brief's to the Targeting Board for Commanders resolution

Intelligence Officer

Canadian Armed Forces | Forces armées canadiennes

Responsible for a crew of 3 conducting battlefield reconnaissance of enemy movements, terrain, threats, and hazards ahead of the main battle group and relaying that information back to higher command.

MCpl - Queens York Rangers - Armoured Crew Commander & Patrol Commander

Various Recruiting Firms

3rd Party Recruiter / Headhunter for Toronto based firms who rely on technology to enable their success.  I help my clients find their IT Talent teams to ensure they have control of where their technology is taking their business.

★ Senior Tech Recruiter ★ Career Coach ★ | Building Elite Teams | Crafting Tech Careers | Connecting Talent with Opportunity | Mastering the Art of Tech Recruitment and Career Fulfillment |

Building Elite Teams. Transforming Careers. Solving Hiring Challenges (Without the Caffeine Overload).

Great! You’re here! 

Whether you’re hiring top talent or looking for your next big career move, I’m here to help.

Hi, I’m Daryl, a Senior Tech Recruiter, Career Coach, and Executive Search Specialist—your trusted guide for hiring the right talent and unlocking career potential.

With 30+ years of experience, I’ve helped companies across tech, cybersecurity, and consulting industries secure top talent while empowering professionals to land impactful roles. Whether you’re hiring for mission-critical positions or ready to take control of your career, I deliver proven strategies, tailored guidance, and real results.

For Companies
Hiring top talent doesn’t have to feel like a never-ending search.

🔍 My Expertise:

Key Talent Recruitment: Recruiting for high-impact technical, cybersecurity, and consulting roles across mid-level and senior leadership.
Executive Search: Helping organizations secure the leadership they need to innovate and thrive.
Results-Focused Strategies: Delivering candidates who hit the ground running, make an impact, and stay for the long term.

📈 The result? Faster hiring, better candidates, and stronger teams built to succeed.

For Professionals
Your next big career move isn’t hiding—it’s waiting for the right strategy.

As a career coach, I’ve guided over 10,000 job seekers to stand out, land interviews, and negotiate offers with confidence.

🚀 What My Clients Achieve:

An immediate increase in inbound interest from recruiters and hiring managers.
More traction with resumes, leading to interviews and offers.
A targeted, strategic job search that eliminates “rage applying” and focuses on roles that align with their goals.
Confidence in interviews, with compelling stories that showcase their unique value.
Stronger negotiating power, resulting in offers they’re excited to accept.

Why Work With Me?
Proven Expertise: 30+ years in tech recruiting and career coaching means I’ve seen it all—and solved it all.
Personalized Approach: No cookie-cutter templates—everything is tailored to your unique needs.
Real Results: Whether it’s building a high-performing team or landing a dream role, my strategies deliver measurable success.

Let’s Connect
Your next hire—or career breakthrough—is just a conversation away.

📩 Message me on LinkedIn
📅 Schedule a Call:
🌐 Explore Resources: 

Whether you’re building your team or your future, let’s make it happen—and maybe even enjoy the process along the way.

Tech Recruiter - Acquirer of High Performance Talent

RESULTS I DELIVER
• Better quality search results. If you are pitting one firm against another, they will race against each other (for a brief while) to get resumes to you as quickly as possible. Because of the imposed urgency, you are likely to see a number of unqualified resumes. Non-exclusive recruiters often hope to get lucky and hit a match, rather than putting in the effort to screen properly.

•  Deeper and broader search. Committing to one recruiter will allow that recruiter to spend the time to network and headhunt to uncover the very best candidate for your requirements, rather than just pulling resumes out of a database.

•  Less work for the hiring manager. If you are working with multiple search firms, you will get a lot more resumes than you would working with just one recruiter. However, many of those resumes will not match your hiring needs, which just makes more work for the hiring manager. Not to mention time spent sorting out candidate ownership disputes between multiple firms.

•  Better candidate experience. Have you ever received the same resume from more than one recruiter? It can make your company look unprofessional if more than one recruiter interviews a candidate about the same job. And you may see some great candidates back out of the process entirely when multiple firms are involved.

•  Confidentiality. For a confidential search, working with more than one recruiting firm makes no sense. It will be impossible for a recruiter to keep the company name confidential if there are multiple search firms involved.

Daryl Daley

Getting laid off once hurts.
Getting laid off three times in five years rewires how you see yourself.
Most people won't say this out loud.

So I will.
The modern job market is a washing machine.
It spins you, snaps a few buttons off, and pretends you should come out "grateful" for the experience.

But the truth is simple.
It's not your skills.
It's not your effort.
It's not your value.

It's volatility.
It's overhiring.
It's leadership panic.

And it's systems built on quarterly fear.
And the people who get chewed up the most?
The quiet high-performers.
The ones who assume good work protects them from chaos.

But this era doesn't reward quiet.
It rewards clarity.
Direction.
Positioning.
A career built like a portfolio instead of a ladder someone else controls.

If you've been hit more than once, stop asking "What's wrong with me?"
Start asking "What do I want to build next?"

Your next move shouldn't be reactive.
It should be intentional.

Built around who you're becoming, not what the market just did to you.

If you want help designing that, message me.
You don't have to rebuild alone.

★ Senior Tech & Cybersecurity Recruiter ★ Career Coach ★ 30+ Years Driving Elite Technical & Executive Hires ★ Helping Companies Solve Hard-to-Fill Roles ★ We’re Always Hiring Top Talent! ★

You're not being ignored.
You're being gaslit by a job posting.

Ghost jobs aren't just frustrating. They're career trauma in disguise.

If you've ever applied to a role that never existed, you know the cycle.
You apply. You wait. You get ghosted by a job that never existed.

And then the part nobody talks about…
You start blaming yourself for a job that was never real.

There's a deeper damage here.
It damages your confidence. Makes you question your worth. Convinces you the problem is you.

Thousands of job seekers think they're being "ignored."
But what's actually happening is worse.

They're participating in a hiring pipeline that was never connected to a real outcome.
Budget freezes.
Evergreen reqs.
"Building a bench."
Roles posted to prove someone is "working on it."

Broken systems create broken self-belief.
That's the real danger.

If this is you, let me say this clearly:
You can't build momentum chasing jobs that don't exist.
Your worth isn't measured by silence from a fake job posting.
If you need a real strategy, message me.

And to the recruiters doing this? You're not "building a bench." You're breaking people.  Do better.

Every Monday, someone gives career advice they have no business giving.

“Just network more.”
“Just show passion.”
“Just stay positive.”

It’s amazing how confident people get when they’re not the ones applying.

My Thoughts:
Bad advice isn’t harmless.
It wastes time.
It kills confidence.
It sends good people in the wrong direction.
Hiring managers feel it.
Candidates feel it.
 
Everyone’s exhausted by the noise.
Cut the nonsense.

Listen to people who’ve actually done the work.  People in the industry.  Recruiters who review resumes, select candidates to interview, interviews them, gets feedback, gives feedback, extends offers and hire people.  Career Coaches who are in the hiring game, not just a side hustle.

If you want real guidance, not recycled clichés, follow me.

A clear mind makes better moves than a loud crowd ever will.

Experience inflation is killing careers. 
And it’s complete bullshit.

Companies are quietly turning normal jobs into Olympic trials.
 
Roles that needed 3–5 years now demand 8–10.
Junior jobs suddenly need “senior-level ownership.”
Tools that didn’t exist 18 months ago now require “mastery.”

This isn’t raising the bar.
It’s raising the drawbridge.
And it’s destroying confidence in an already brutal market.

Most leaders won’t admit this, but experience inflation is fear in disguise.
They’re terrified of hiring the “wrong person,” so they build job descriptions that only a unicorn with insomnia could satisfy.

And then they wonder why roles stay open for six months.

If a job needs 10 years for work that realistically takes 5, it’s not a talent shortage.  It’s a leadership shortage.

Here’s how to fix it:
 • Cut requirements not tied to revenue or risk
 • Hire for trajectory, not tenure
 • Build a 60–90 day learning runway
 • Hold hiring managers accountable for every inflated requirement

And if you’re job searching right now:
Ignore the years. Apply for capability.
Years are the laziest proxy for skill ever invented.

If companies want high-performing teams in 2026, they need to stop chasing mythical unicorns and start hiring actual humans who can learn fast, think clearly, and deliver real value.

Question for you:
What’s the most ridiculous “experience requirement” you’ve seen this year?

We just passed 2008 layoff levels. 
It's not even December.
Nobody wants to talk about what that really means

People are scared sh*tless and pretending they're not.

Nobody wants to say out loud:
Employment has become a form of stability most people can’t count on anymore.

Every week I talk to brilliant professionals who are terrified to check their inbox.

They’re doing everything right.
They’re still getting blindsided.
Not because they’re unskilled.
Because the market is unstable and the rules keep shifting.

Being grateful to have a job isn’t desperation.
It’s realism.

And realism is how you stay grounded when the ground keeps moving.

If you’re in transition, you’re not broken.

You’re navigating a system that’s forgotten the human cost of constant disruption.

If you’re leading teams, this is your reminder:
Your people aren’t “lucky” to be employed.
They’re trusting you with the one form of stability they have left.

We can’t pretend this is normal.
But we can choose how we respond to it.

What’s keeping YOU steady right now?

From Calais, France - wishing all my American friends the Happiest of Thanksgivings.

Your Biggest Hiring Problem Has a Name, 
a Title, and a Seat on Your Interview Panel

Companies aren’t losing talent to competitors.
They’re losing talent to their own interviewers.

A single person on a panel can tank your entire pipeline.

And it happens far more often than leaders realize.
It’s not the market.
It’s not the comp.
It’s not a talent shortage.

It’s Steve from engineering who treats every interview like an interrogation.
It’s Sarah from operations who shows up late and unprepared.
It’s the manager who spends half the interview complaining about burnout and overtime.

These people are not “demanding high standards.”
They are quietly destroying your ability to hire.

I’ve watched it for three decades.
A great candidate moves through the process confident and excited.
Then they meet that one person.
The one who rolls their eyes.
The one who didn’t read the resume.
The one who makes them feel unwelcome, inadequate, or like an inconvenience.

And suddenly the candidate withdraws.

They’ll give you a polite line about timing or fit.
But I know what really happened.
Someone on your team scared them off.

Here’s the truth most companies avoid.
Every person in an interview is selling your culture.
Not just the recruiter.
Not just the hiring manager.
Everyone.

That engineer who dismisses questions signals that collaboration is pretend.
That manager venting about stress signals a burnout culture.
That interviewer who clearly doesn’t care signals that the company doesn’t either.

You can offer top dollar.
You can have a mission that changes lives.
 
None of it matters if the people representing you are miserable or hostile.

If someone on your team cannot show candidates respect, clarity, and basic professionalism, they should not be in interviews.

Because if this keeps happening, your hiring problem isn’t the talent pool. 
It’s who you’re letting represent you.

Sometimes the hardest seasons still move you forward.

Careers don’t break in one moment.
They break slowly.
One setback.
One rejection.
One bad manager at a time.

But the same is true for rebuilding.
One decision.
One opportunity.
One honest conversation.

Progress doesn’t need to be dramatic to be real.

If you’re in a tough chapter right now, keep going.
Hard isn’t the enemy.
Staying stuck is.

Keep going.
This is the way.

Helping Founders Break the $10M Ceiling | Strategy, Cash Flow & Leadership Systems | Scaling CFO

Scaling Founders Beyond $10M with Strategy, Financial Clarity, and Leadership Expansion

Most companies stall not because of lack of effort—
but because the founder has outgrown the systems, strategies, and financial models that once worked.

At Ascend Growth Ventures, we partner with CEOs of $3M–$10M companies to implement Scaling Up, strengthen financial infrastructure, and elevate leadership teams—building businesses that scale profitably and predictably, without burning out the founder.

By integrating Scaling Up, Exponential Organizations, and CFO-level financial insights, we deliver a complete, battle-tested system for sustainable, high-performance growth.

🔹 We Work With CEOs Who Want To:
✔️ Scale revenue and profits without chaos
✔️ Build self-managing leadership teams
✔️ Unlock hidden cash flow and improve financial decision-making
✔️ Sharpen their strategy for exponential growth
✔️ Prepare for capital raises, acquisitions, or exits

🔹 Our Core Focus Areas:
  * Strategic Scaling Up Implementation

  * Financial Strategy & Cash Optimization

  * Leadership Team Development

  * Systems for Predictable Growth

  * Valuation Prep and Exit Strategy

✅ Why Work With Me?
25+ years of experience scaling businesses from the inside out:
➡️ Regional CFO, GE Gas Power (LATAM, +1.5GW record year)
➡️ Strategic finance and underwriting leadership at GE Capital
➡️ Business/project development for 8-figure ventures
➡️ Trusted advisor to founders scaling past $10M and beyond

✅ Industries We Specialize In:
✔️ Clean Energy & Decarbonization
✔️ Industrial Goods & B2B Services
✔️ Impact-Driven Companies
✔️ Scaling Coaching & Consulting Firms

🧠 If You're Ready to Scale Intelligently and Sustainably

Let's have a strategic conversation about where you are—and where you can go.

Easiest way to work with me?

Book a 30 min call and let's see if we are a fit.
https://calendly.com/cruzagamboa/call-with-cruz-ascend-30min

Cruz Gamboa

The market tells stories. Your financials & metrics tell truth.

In 2001, Amazon's stock cratered from $113 to $6.

Wall Street declared it dead.

Let's be clear: that had to be terrifying. Even for Bezos.

Watching 95% of your valuation evaporate. Hearing the whispers. Feeling the pressure from every direction.

But here's what separated him from founders who fold in those moments, he kept coming back to his dashboard:

Customer acquisition costs...improving. 

Fulfillment efficiency...improving. 

Contribution margin per unit...improving. 

Defect rates...declining.

The stock price reflected fear. 

The operating metrics reflected reality.

Confidence isn't the absence of fear. It's choosing to trust what you can measure over what you can't control.

This is Financial Intelligence: knowing which numbers actually predict your future, especially when everything around you is screaming that you're losing.

Watch the video. Bezos is calm. 

Not because he wasn't scared, but because he had clarity.

He knew exactly what was true inside his business.

That's how you survive what looks like a reversal, and come out the other side stronger.

That's how $6 becomes $1.7 trillion.

So here's my question for you:

What would it be worth to have that kind of clarity the next time everything feels like it's falling apart?

To know—not hope, not guess—that you're on the right track?

That's the game worth playing.

Check out comments for details

#founder #growth #ceo #scalingup

At 40, he’d lost everything.
His company. His savings. His confidence.
Most people would’ve walked away.

But Aaron Krause wasn’t “most people.”

He went back to the garage.
Back to tiny problems no one cared about.
And from that… came a smiling sponge the world didn’t see coming.

Stores rejected him.
Investors laughed.
The idea sat on a shelf for years.

But he didn’t quit.
He took one uncomfortable shot: Shark Tank.

He walked in with a box of sponges.
He walked out with Lori Greiner.
$200,000 for 20%.
Momentum activated.

Then the episode aired…

Overnight demand.
Shelves cleared out.
Factories overloaded.
Scrub Daddy everywhere, from Walmart to Bed Bath & Beyond.

A simple sponge became a billion-dollar brand.
Not because it was cute.
Because he executed when life said “stop.”

Here’s the truth:

👉 He didn’t need a perfect plan: he needed one more attempt.
👉 He wasn’t chasing validation: he was chasing resilience.
👉 He proved the principle every founder forgets:
A small idea + relentless execution can beat a big idea that never ships.

Critics mocked the smile.
Then watched it become one of Shark Tank’s biggest wins ever.

The ones who win?
They push past rejection.
They build through uncertainty.
They keep going when almost everyone quits.

Because billion-dollar outcomes don’t happen in comfort, 
they happen right after the moment you think it’s over.

#resilience#scalingup#founderstory#entrepreneurship

li_at

JSESSIONID

Security Verification | LinkedIn

Stephen Schwarzman built Blackstone into a global giant…
without using calculus.

Why?
Because the game he played didn’t reward equations.

It rewarded judgment, negotiation, and understanding people.

Those were the leverage points.

Charlie Munger said the same thing:

Simple thinking beats complicated math in most investing.

But here’s what most people miss:

It’s not about whether calculus matters.
It’s about whether it matters in the arena you choose.

Private equity = people, decisions, patterns.

Quant trading, derivatives, risk modelling = math, models, precision.

Different games.
Different skills.
Different leverage.

People fail because they try to be good at everything…
and end up great at nothing.

The real move?

👉 Pick the game you want to win.
👉 Identify the skills that game rewards.
👉 Get insanely good at those, and ignore everything else.

That’s how you scale.
Not by doing more.
But by mastering the few things that actually move the needle.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

At 22, he was rejected by Toyota.
At 38, his factory was bombed. Twice.
Most people would’ve accepted defeat.

But Soichiro Honda wasn’t “most people.”

He went back to the workshop.
Back to broken engines and scraps no one wanted.
And from that… came a machine the world didn’t see coming.

Japan had no money.
Fuel was scarce.
Factories were rubble.

But he didn’t quit.
He bolted a tiny motor onto a bicycle 
not pretty, not perfect, but powerful enough to move people again.

Stores ignored it.
Critics dismissed it.
He kept building anyway.

Because he wasn’t chasing applause.
He was chasing motion.

Then came the breakthrough…

The Super Cub.
Light. Reliable. Unbreakable.
The bike that took Japan and then the world by storm.

A simple motorbike became a $100B legacy.
Not because it was glamorous.
Because he refused to stop when everything told him to.

Here’s the truth:

👉 He didn’t need perfect conditions: he needed one more rebuild.
👉 He wasn’t chasing status: he was chasing solutions.
👉 He proved what most innovators forget:
Small beginnings + relentless persistence beat rejection every time.

Toyota turned him down.
Life knocked him down.
But he got back up again and again until the world couldn’t ignore him.

The ones who win?
They rise after failure.
They create after chaos.
They build when everyone else quits.

Because billion-dollar stories don’t start with luck
they start with someone who refuses to give up.
#scalingup #founder #CEO #boston

They emailed eBay 200 times.
eBay ignored every single one.
Most people would’ve given up.

But Marc, Oliver, and Alexander Samwer weren’t “most people.”

They cloned eBay.
Launched it in Germany.
Executed with speed and perfection.
Within months… eBay bought it back for $43 MILLION.

Then the brothers doubled down.
They built Rocket Internet, the company that turned cloning into a billion-dollar machine.

They copied.
They improved.
They scaled.
And they sold again, and again, and again.

Here’s the truth:

👉 They weren’t chasing approval, they were chasing execution at scale.
👉 They didn’t wait to be discovered, they created their own leverage.
👉 They mastered the one principle most founders overlook:
Doing it better beats doing it first.

Critics called them “copycats.”
But behind the noise, the Samwer brothers built an empire worth billions.

Most people stop when they hear “no.”
The one who succeed?
They push when it’s uncomfortable.
They build when others hesitate.
They turn rejection into momentum.

If you want outsized results, do what most won’t:
Step past comfort.
Step past doubt.
Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live right beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #bostonfounders

He built a dating site that generated exactly zero activity.
No users. No traction. No revenue.

Most leaders call that a failed model.
I call it an early audit.

Three ex-PayPal employees launched “Tune In Hook Up,” expecting market fit.
What they got was silence.
Operational cost? Rising.
User acquisition? Non-existent.
ROI? Negative from day one.

But here’s what mattered:
They reviewed the data instead of reacting to the emotion.

They noticed users trying to upload videos
Not for dating, but for everyday moments.
Unintended behaviour, but real demand.

So they executed the smartest financial move any early-stage team can make:
A low-cost pivot.

Same infrastructure.
Same upload system.
Zero additional burn.
Just a shift in positioning:
Share any video.

And that decision changed their entire valuation trajectory.

Users scaled exponentially.
Cost per acquisition plummeted.
Engagement skyrocketed.
Suddenly, they weren’t running a dating site…
They were running the internet’s first true video platform.

By 2006, their risk profile had flipped
High growth. High virality.
And high legal exposure.

Enter Google.
They offered $1.65B in stock for a business that still had no established monetisation engine.
From a financial lens?
That’s called derisking the future.

Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim accepted.
Smart move.
They transferred operational liability…
And secured generational wealth.

Today, YouTube contributes over $40B in yearly ad revenue
and sits at a valuation north of $500B.

All from a product that started as a complete miss 
until the data told a different story.

Lesson:
You don’t scale perfection.
You scale what the market proves it wants.
Listen to the numbers, not the narratives.
And never underestimate the ROI of a well-timed pivot.

#CFOInsights #Leadership #Strategy #Scalingup

She sold her engagement ring for $10,000.
Ten years later, Vicky Tsai built a $500M skincare empire.

Most people call that crazy.
I call it commitment.

She walked away from a six-figure job…
Moved back into her childhood bedroom at 30…
Got rejected for 18 months straight…
And kept going anyway.

1,000 units.
Her last $5,000.
No safety net. No backup plan.

Month one? $2,000 in sales.
Most people quit here.
Vicky didn’t.

She packed every order by hand.
Wrote thank-you notes to strangers.
Built trust one customer at a time.

Then the internet found her.
Demand exploded.
Sephora called.
And the bedroom startup became one of the fastest-growing skincare brands in America.

In 2019, Unilever bought Tatcha for $500 million.
The $10,000 ring she sold?
It turned into 50,000x.

Lesson?
You don’t need permission.
You need conviction.
And the courage to burn Plan B. 

#ceo #founder #growth #scalingup

Strategy & Finance Executive | Scaling Impact-Driven Companies Beyond $10M | Strategic CFO | Certified Scaling Up Advisor

He got fired.
The company he built said, “We don’t need you anymore.”
Everyone forgot him.

But Steve Jobs didn’t stop.

He poured tens of millions into a failing company called Pixar.
Everyone thought he was crazy.
Most would have quit.

12 years later… that gamble sold for $7.4 BILLION.

Here’s the thing:

👉 He wasn’t chasing money. He was chasing vision.
👉 He embraced risk when others ran from it.
👉 He bet on what he believed in, even when the world said no.

Most people quit right before the payoff.
The real winners? They push through when it’s hardest.
They see opportunity where others see failure.

If you want massive results, you need to do what most won’t.
Step past comfort. Step past doubt. Step past fear.

Because the biggest payoffs live just beyond the point where almost everyone quits.

#scalingup  #growth #ceo

Steve Jobs

He built pole barns to pay for college.

Decades later, John Menard Jr. built Menards, an $18B home improvement empire.

Most people call that luck.

I call it financial discipline.

He opened a small lumber yard in 1964…

Kept prices rock-bottom by building his own factories…

And built every store with cash, not debt.

No investors. No loans. No noise.

While others chased speed and Wall Street, John chose control.

He knew his margins by product line. He tracked cash flow like a pilot tracks altitude. He made the numbers his single source of truth.

Store by store. State by state. Slow, steady, unstoppable.

When 2008 hit, he didn't scramble; he expanded.

Today?

340+ Menards stores. $13B+ revenue. 3rd third-largest home-improvement chain in America. Still 100% private.

The lesson?

You don't need to grow fast. You need to grow right.

That means: 
→ Knowing your profit margins by service line 
→ Tracking cash flow weekly, not just at tax time 
→ Building systems so the business works, not just you

Financial clarity isn't about being a "numbers person."
It's about building simple, repeatable habits that let you scale with confidence.

Have the courage to own every decision, starting with your numbers.
#founder #growth #businessmindset #financialclarity #scalingup

Most people think success comes from working harder, dreaming bigger, or thinking smarter.

Here's the truth: none of that matters if you don't act.

In one simple test, a $50 bill was up for grabs. 

Everyone wanted it. 
Everyone talked about it. 
Everyone wished they had it…

Except Debbie.

She stood up. She walked forward. She took it.

That's it. 

That's the difference between winners and everyone else.

While everyone else burns time and money chasing online strategies that become less effective every day…

The smartest entrepreneurs thriving in 2025 are walking away from their screens and adding an extra 7-figures through live events.

Real humans. In-person communities. High-profit partnerships.

The ultimate advantage in the age of AI isn't replacing humanity with efficiency; it's experiences that are deep, connective, transformative, and profitable.

Getting face-to-face with your ideal clients AND peers is the most consistent solution to the Trust Recession.

I'll be at Event Profit Engine in Austin (December 10-12)...and I still have 4 discounted tickets.

If you're ready to get clarity on the financial blind spots keeping you from scaling, this is your moment.

Don't sit in the room wishing. 

Be Debbie.

P.S. Stop waiting for perfect timing. The money, the deal, the break… it's waiting for the first person who moves. Will it be you? DM me AUSTIN for ticket details.
#scalingup #CEO #founder #growth

Passion isn’t happiness.
It’s pain.
It’s grinding when no one is watching.
It’s suffering through every mistake, every rejection, every late night, just to build something nobody thought was possible.

Jensen Huang didn’t follow the market.
He didn’t wait for AI to be big.
He invested 10,000 engineer-years ahead of demand.
He pivoted Nvidia from graphics chips to AI dominance.
That’s vision. That’s first-principles thinking. That’s suffering smarter than everyone else.

Breakthroughs aren’t born in comfort zones.
They’re born when you refuse to quit, when you embrace the grind, and when you’re willing to suffer today for what the world will celebrate tomorrow.

Extraordinary isn’t given.
It’s earned.
Through struggle.
Through relentless work.
Through being willing to do what everyone else won’t.

If you want to be great, get comfortable being uncomfortable.

#scalingup #growth #ceo #founder

He was dropped at an orphanage at seven.
No food. No money. No choice.

By 14, he was on a factory floor, making metal frames.
One wrong move crushed part of his finger. Permanent injury.

Most people would quit. Most people would settle.
He didn’t.

He watched. He learned.
Every machine. Every process. Every decision.
Night classes. Every penny saved. Knowledge accumulation.

At 26, he opened a tiny eyewear shop in the Italian Alps.
Nothing fancy. No connections. Just him, a few employees, and an obsession with understanding the craft end-to-end.

Most competitors sold parts. He had a different idea: make complete frames. Control the product. Own the market.

By the 1980s, he was making designer frames for fashion houses.
By 1995, he bought LensCrafters—suddenly he controlled both the product and the retail.

Then came Ray-Ban.
Everyone said he overpaid $640 million for a dying brand.
He didn’t see risk. He saw opportunity.

Ray-Ban wasn’t just glasses anymore.
Movies. Celebrities. Fashion statements.
Value multiplied. Brand exploded.

He kept buying. Oakley. Sunglass Hut. Prada. Versace. Chanel. Pearle Vision.
Vertical integration? Check. Market dominance? Check. Monopoly? Almost.

When he died in 2022, Leonardo Del Vecchio had $25.8 billion.
One orphan. One factory worker. One relentless learner.

Lesson:
You don’t need luck. You need mastery, observation, and relentless execution.
Start small. Learn everything. Then own the ecosystem.

#ceo #scalingup #growth #founder

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Most founders don't fail because of competition.
 They fail because of the blind spots they never see coming.

Cash looks fine… until it doesn't. Revenue grows… but profit disappears. You hire fast… and spend months fixing mistakes. You work harder… but scale refuses to unlock.

I spent 20+ years at GE Capital navigating these exact challenges at a corporate level.

Closing an $800M+ power plant deal? That taught me cash flow precision. Managing international transactions? That revealed the profit leaks most miss. Building high-performance teams? That showed me the cost of hiring fast vs. hiring right.

Those frameworks didn't just help me lead deals—they gave me the blueprint for scalable growth.

Now I help founders apply these same battle-tested systems to their businesses.

The 7 blind spots in this carousel? They're the ones holding 90% of founders back from predictable, profitable scale.

If you want to go deeper… Download my free ebook in the comments. 

Fix the blind spots. Scale with clarity. Build a business that runs like a pro—because you learned from one.
#scalingup #founder #ceo #growth

7 Blind Spots

𝗛𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮.
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿.

Most founders know Pinterest.

Almost no one knows Paul Sciarra, the guy who paid early salaries out of his own pocket, skipped taking income, and carried the company when no one else believed.

He wasn’t a “supporter.”
He was the architecture.

And then the quiet part of startup life happened.
Not a blow-up.
Not a fight.
Just… inches.

One meeting he wasn’t invited to.
One decision he didn’t have visibility into.
One board conversation that happened without him.

By the time Pinterest crossed millions of users and raised over $100M…
Paul was out.

He walked away with ~$15M.
Not nothing.
But painful when your original idea becomes a $25B enterprise.

This isn’t a story about betrayal.
It’s a story about leadership, governance, and identity.

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗱𝗮𝘆.
They lose it when:
 • they stop owning the financial strategy
 • they delegate governance without understanding it
 • they avoid hard conversations
 • they let investors define the path
 • they disconnect from the role of architect

You can build something extraordinary…
and still get written out of your own success if you don’t stay in the seat you were meant to own.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 $𝟯𝗠–$𝟭𝟬𝗠 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻.
The product works.
The company has traction.
Teams are growing.

 But governance, capital strategy, and leadership identity aren’t keeping pace.
That’s the real risk.

𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻:
Your idea can change the world,  but only if you stay in the role of architect as it scales.

Own your equity.
Protect your seat.
Upgrade your thinking.
Build with intention.
The threat isn’t being pushed out.
The threat is drifting out of your power.

𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
 Are you building like the founder…
 or leading like the architect?

#ceo #founder #scalingup #growth

He went to Texas to buy a bank.
He walked out owning a hotel.

Most people would’ve gone home.

Conrad Hilton didn’t.

1919. Cisco, Texas.
Oil boom town. 
Money everywhere.

Hilton arrived with $40,000 and one clear plan.

Buy the local bank.
That was the dream.

He studied the deal for months.
Location checked out.
Customers were guaranteed.

Then the last meeting happened.
The owner doubled the price.
Take it or leave it.

Hilton left. Furious.
Plan A was dead.

That night, he needed a bed.
The only option was the Mobley Hotel.
40 rooms. Run down. Forgettable.

But something didn’t add up.

Every room was full.
Not just full.
Overfull.

Beds were rented in 8-hour shifts.
Same room. Three guests a day.

It wasn’t pretty.
But it worked.

The owner wanted out.
“I’m chasing oil,” he said.

Hilton didn’t see a bad hotel.
He saw demand screaming for supply.

So he did the unthinkable.
He spent his banking money on beds.

$40,000.
Deal closed.

A banker became a hotelier by accident.

He rebuilt everything with one rule.
Minimum cost. Maximum comfort.
Every square foot had to earn.

Profits bought the next hotel.
Then another.
Then another.

Banking faded away.
Hospitality took over.

Years later, he bought the Waldorf Astoria.
From a 40-room flophouse
to the most iconic hotel in the world.

Today?
7,000+ Hilton hotels globally.

Here’s the real lesson:

👉 The rejection wasn’t a setback. It was a redirect.
👉 The failure wasn’t the end. It was the entry point.
👉 He didn’t find his calling by planning harder. He found it by paying attention.

Most people quit when the plan breaks.
Builders look around and ask,
''What’s working?''

Sometimes the wrong deal saves your life.
Sometimes Plan B builds the empire.

Because the stories we admire don’t start with perfect plans
they start with someone who refuses to walk away empty-handed.

#entrepreneurship #founder #businessstories #resilience #scalingup

Most founders don’t fail because they’re lazy.
They fail because their goals are small.

Small goals keep you grinding.
Big goals force you to rebuild the system.

When you raise the target to 10x, everything changes:
your strategy, your thinking, your standards, your circle.

You stop playing in the crowded middle
and start operating where very few people dare to go.

10x isn’t harder.

It’s cleaner. 
It’s clearer. 
It’s smarter.

Stop playing safe. Start playing big.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

I wanted to grow my LinkedIn presence to 100K in a year.
I had 2k followers. 

A few people said that it would take years and that I was unrealistic.

Maybe they would have been right - if I'd believed them

I tried anyway. 
I took a course to learn from others who were ahead of me.
I showed up here every day.
Continuously improved my content (and my mindset)
Hired people to help me.

Did I accomplish my goal?
NO. 

I am still at 72k followers today, a year into that challenge.
But I am still grateful for the results. 

Can you imagine what would have happened if I had played small?
I may be at 15K followers at best. 

And that's the whole point. 

Even if you miss the 10X mark, it beats linear thinking. 

This same principle is why I help founders identify the 7 financial blind spots killing their scale - because small thinking about money keeps you grinding, while 10x financial clarity forces you to rebuild the system.

Want to apply 10x thinking to your finances? 

I've identified the 7 blind spots most founders miss. 

Download the guide; link is in the comments. 

#founder #ceo #growth #scalingup

10X Thinking = 10 X Results

He started with $5,000 and a pizza shop paycheck.
Nobody cared. Nobody believed.

Most people would’ve stayed broke.

Dan Gilbert didn’t.

He looked at a broken mortgage industry slow, complex, full of middlemen and said: “There’s a better way.”

He worked 18 hours a day. Seven days a week.
He studied every inefficiency.
He simplified the impossible.
He moved online when the internet was “just a fad.”
He ignored the naysayers.

It all started with Rock Financial. 
And eventually
Rock Financial became Quicken Loans.
Applications went from weeks to minutes.
Rates went from hidden to transparent.
Customers went from frustrated to obsessed.

Then he didn’t stop.
He bought the Cleveland Cavaliers, poured money into the city, and turned it upside down.
Downtown boomed. 
The team won a championship. 
The city transformed.

Here’s the lesson most people miss:

👉 You don’t need a perfect idea.
👉 You don’t need permission.
👉 You need to see broken systems, fix them better, and move faster than everyone else.
👉 And then, reinvest the wins into something that actually matters.

From pizza shifts to $28.5B, Gilbert’s story isn’t luck.
It’s obsession, timing, and execution.

Most people quit at “too hard.”
The few who succeed? 
They see the gap, go first, and keep building while others sleep.

If you want outsized results, do what most won’t:
Step past the “impossible.”
Step past the doubters.
Step past comfort.

Because fortune isn’t at the starting line, it’s at the point where everyone else stops.

#growth #scalingup #entrepreneurship #CEO #execution

He bought a bankrupt textile factory for $15 million.
Forty years later, Bernard Arnault built a $500B luxury empire.

Most people call that impossible.
I call it vision.

He didn’t invent anything.
He didn’t design a product.
He didn’t chase trends.
He just saw what others couldn’t.

Buried inside that dying company was a forgotten gem: Christian Dior.
Everyone overlooked it.
Arnault didn’t.

He sold everything except Dior.
Bet the house on one iconic brand.
And rebuilt from zero.

Then he made an even crazier move
He went after LVMH.
Louis Vuitton. Moët. Hennessy.
The crown jewels of French luxury.

The elite hated it.
The media mocked it.
It was the most hostile takeover France had ever seen.
Arnault didn’t blink.

He bought the shares quietly.
Took control boldly.
And turned LVMH into a global machine.

One acquisition at a time.
Fendi. Tiffany. Givenchy. Sephora.
Dozens of brands reborn under one ruthless strategy:

Let creators dream.
But keep the business razor sharp.

While tech giants chased disruption…
Arnault chased timelessness.

While others discounted…
He raised value.

In 2023, he became the richest man on Earth.
Quiet. Precise. Unshakeable.
He outplayed every tech titan without writing a single line of code.

Lesson?
You don’t need to invent.
You need to see the hidden gem
And have the courage to bet everything on it.

#entrepreneur #growth #businessstrategy #founder #scalingup

Most founders grind hard for years… and never hit $10M.

Here’s the brutal truth: it’s not about working harder. It’s about thinking differently.

The founders who scale don’t chase approval. They hunt reality.
They don’t run the machine they build the machine.

They don’t wait for perfect conditions, they turn constraints into leverage.

Scaling isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the few things that actually move the needle.
It’s about creating systems that work without your mood, decisions that multiply impact, and alignment that accelerates everything.

You can keep grinding, or you can flip the mindset switches that separate founders who stall from founders who explode past $10M.

Which one are you?

#scalingup #founder #ceo

While everyone's fighting over TVs today, I'm fighting for your 2026.

One stage does what 6 months of content can't.

That's why I'm speaking in Austin December 10-12.

Here's what I've learned:

You can spend hundreds of hours posting content, cold DMing event hosts, vetting podcast opportunities, and hoping something sticks...

Or you can walk into one room where the work is already done.

That's Event Profit Engine.

Hosted by Alex Moscow ($130M in client results) and Eben Pagan (built 10 seven-figure companies, 3 over eight figures).

200 founders doing $500K-$2M+ in one room.

The kind of people you'd normally pay $25K to join a mastermind just to meet.

But this isn't networking. It's deal flow.

On Day 3, they run facilitated sessions where they literally pair you with:

→ High-caliber stages for 2026 
→ Aligned promotional partners 
→ Sponsors for your events (I am one of the sponsors for this event)

Not "hope you meet someone cool at the cocktail hour."

Strategic. Intentional. Partnerships that lead to revenue.

The stages you actually want to be on in 2026? They're in this room. The relationships that would take 6 months to build? Done in 3 days.

I'll be speaking on why most founders are operationally excellent but financially blind—and how to fix it.

This is for you if:
→ You're a founder doing $1M-$10M 
→ You want stages and partnerships locked in for 2026 
→ You're tired of cold outreach that goes nowhere 
→ You'd rather be in the right room than grind online for 6 more months

This is NOT for you if:
→ You're just getting started (under $500K) 
→ You're not ready to invest in growth 
→ You think "networking" means collecting business cards

Here's my Black Friday deal for you:

$1K tickets (normally $4K, goes to $5K on Monday).

I only have a few left. First come, first served.

You can fish with a pole for the next 6 months.

Or you can grab a net and walk into this room.

Comment "AUSTIN" or DM me and I'll send you the code before they're gone.
This is the only deal worth buying today.

See you in Texas.
#scalingup #CEO #founder #growth

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