SaaStr AI London is Dec 1-2!! See You There!!

Helping, founding, funding, and growing B2B start-ups.  Making it a positive-sum game for everyone involved.  VC checks $500k-$4m @ SaaStrFund.com.  2x founder with nine figures of founder exits.

"Do or do not. There is no try."

Specialties: helping people grow and become their best.  Doing not the impossible, but the unlikely.  Never giving up.

Join 10,000 of us IRL at SaastrAnnual.com May 12-14 in SF Bay!!

FREE Weekly Workshops and Live AMAs, Sign up here -> https://www.saastr.com/workshop-wednesday/

SaaStrFund.com investments include:

- Co-led Series A in Salesloft ($2.3B exit)
- Co-led Seed in Pipedrive ($1.5B exit)
- Led Seed in Algolia ($2.3B)
- First VC in Talkdesk ($10B)
- Led Seed in Gorgias ($800m)
- Led Seed in Owner.com ($1B)
- First Investor in RevenueCat ($500m)
- First VC in Logikcull ($280m exit)
- Proud smaller investor in Greenhouse ($800m exit), Sqreen ($400m exit), Automile ($1B SEK exit), Opus Pro, Higgsfield.ai, and many others!
- and much more

Jason M. Lemkin

The one hire I don't need, and none of my portfolio cos need, is a "Strategist"

I know at certain stage in many folks' career, that's what they want to do

Advise on strategy more than do work themselves

No criticism

But most startups only need a few hours of this at a time

SaaStr AI 2026 is May 12-14 in SF Bay!! See You There!!

My #1 piece of advice for GTM leaders in January 2026: Deploy an AI agent yourself.  Now.  This month.  Don't hire an agency. Don't tell someone on your team to do it.  Do it yourself.  Roll up those sleeves again. 

Deploy an AI agent into production, for real, yourself. with Lenny Rachitsky

And for junior sales & GTM folks? Embrace it. Be the one that embraces every bit of output from AI Agents.

I’ve always loved two things: solving puzzles and helping people win.

That obsession turned into Elumynt — where we’ve helped ecommerce brands not just grow, but exit, IPO, and shatter ceilings they thought were permanent. 13 exits (including an $800M sale and a public offering) later, we still believe the best growth is simple, strategic, and surprisingly human.

I host the Up Arrow Podcast to pull back the curtain on growth secrets most agencies won’t tell you with BRILLIANT guests like Harley Finkelstein (President of Shopify) and Brieane Olson (CEO of PacSun).

Growth isn’t magic. It’s math. And it should always be profitable.

When I’m not scaling brands, you’ll find me playing volleyball with my daughters, dating my wife, making music, or pretending I’m better at golf than I actually am.

William Harris

“Private equity doesn’t lose money because the math was wrong. They lose money because leadership breaks under pressure.” — Felicia Shakiba

Felicia Shakiba is the founder and CEO of CPO PLAYBOOK (soon to be called, Leaderbook.ai), former Global Head of Performance Management at WPP and she’s built what many people now call “Moneyball for leadership teams.”

Her work helps private equity firms predict sales growth, retention, turnover—and even which companies are most likely to exit successfully— not based on vibes or opinions, but on leadership and culture data.

In this episode of the Up Arrow Podcast by Elumynt, Felicia and I dig into:

✅ Why founders underestimate leadership alignment and board relationships when preparing for a private equity deal
✅ What private equity firms fear most after a deal closes
✅ How communication breakdowns across organizational levels create business risks
✅ Fostering psychological safety to uncover workplace issues
✅ How leaders cultivate ownership through trust, incentives, and manager relationships
✅ Decision agility and accountability as essential leadership capabilities in changing markets
✅ Adapting leadership and talent strategies during rapid AI-driven transformation
✅ Why AI initiatives fail when leaders ignore employee concerns and change readiness

Plus, as always, we get into a little of the personal stuff as we talk about growing up with entrepreneur parents and how that shaped so much of what she does now. 

You can watch the video here:

Helping brands grow profitably (yes, that’s rare) | CEO @ Elumynt | Host @ Up Arrow Podcast

Open article: If You Want To Be Acquired by Private Equity, Fix This First With Felicia Shakiba | Elumynt by elumynt.com

If You Want To Be Acquired by Private Equity, Fix This First With Felicia Shakiba | Elumynt

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Jason M. Lemkin

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taplio

The Battle

Jason M. Lemkin

William Harris

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jason M. Lemkin's LinkedIn Performance

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