There are two ways for Insurance Companies, Banks, Private Equity firms, MGAs, and insurtechs to approach complex risk in 2025:

1. Rely on generic solutions, potentially overlooking critical gaps.
2. Partner with specialized expertise that delivers clarity and tailored protection.

Many sit in the first category, often underserved by mega-brokers.

Your institution has unique strengths and ambitions. 

But is your risk management truly aligned? 

Or are you unknowingly exposed due to:

–  Coverage gaps hidden in the fine print?

–  Lack of access to sophisticated global markets?

–  Decisions made without credible peer data or advanced analytics?

–  Impersonal service that doesn’t grasp your specific operational realities?

The bigger problem?

You're leaving strategic advantage on the table and potentially facing significant financial or reputational risk down the line.

The solution?

Transform your risk management from a necessary cost center into a strategic asset through a bespoke, expert-driven partnership.

That’s my focus at LION Specialty.

My approach combines:

– Penetrating technical analysis honed by deep experience (including handling complex Fortune 100 accounts) to uncover what others miss.

– Global market access (London, Bermuda) and perspective, crafting solutions beyond standard domestic offerings.

– Process mastery & advanced analytics delivering clarity and confidence, not complexity.

– Authentic human connection, building partnerships that thrive.

(informed partly by my wellness background as a Pilates instructor… sustainable success requires balance)

–  Are you serious about closing critical coverage gaps?

–  Are you ready for risk management bespoke to your institution's needs?

–  Is it time for a partner who brings both sophisticated expertise and a refreshingly collaborative approach?

Let's connect and explore how we can elevate your strategy together.

Natasha Kiemnec

Today, I turn 38. 

I tell you this not because I want wishes of happy birthday but because each year on my birthday I go through successes,  “experiences”, and reflections of my prior year, so I thought I’d share a few here.

1. My parents being a plane ride away is too far. The older they get the more I realize how precious time is with them. Try to always be as kind and gentle with them as you can. 

2. Often in life we are blinded by our own bias. The thing you want most - fitness, that relationship, that money whatever it is, with some simple observation really isn’t that hard to achieve. Don’t over complicate. 

3. Relationships (with most people) are a balance of understanding. General frustration comes from a lack of feeling seen or understood. Patience, grace and understanding go along way. 

4. Be kind - I often watch people be unkind for no reason. 

5. Tale as old as time but work hard. A lot of struggle can be removed from simply putting your head down, keeping your mouth shut, and getting the work done. 

6. My mom used to always tell me to just start. Whenever I was stressed out and overwhelmed - just start. It’s still applicable now. 

7. To those who help - a partner, a coworker, an employee, a family member - you can’t be appreciative and grateful enough. There truly isn’t an end to being thankful. 

8. Have a passion that isn’t work. 

9. Get outside - take breaks. A 20 minute walk always helps. 

10. Always be learning. 

What reflections have you had on birthdays or during moments of pause?

Natasha I.  Kiemnec, ARM

Managing Partner & Co-founder of LION Specialty | Global Financial Institutions & Private Equity Broker | Classical Certified Pilates Instructor

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If your CEO lies on an insurance application, does your D&O policy still protect you?

If you don't know the answer, you are personally exposed.

Insurance applications require a signature. Usually, the CEO or CFO signs it on behalf of the entire executive team.

But what if they hide a material fact?
What if they know about a pending SEC investigation and don't disclose it?

Under a standard D&O policy, the carrier can rescind (cancel) the entire contract if the application contains a material misrepresentation.

The carrier says: "The CEO lied. The policy is void."

You, the innocent board member or VP, are suddenly facing a lawsuit with zero insurance protection. Your personal assets are on the line because of someone else's fraud.

We manuscript "Full Severability" language into every D&O program.

This clause legally separates every insured person.
It dictates that the knowledge or fraud of one executive cannot be imputed (assigned) to any other executive.

If the CEO lies, the CEO loses their coverage.
But your coverage remains fully intact.

You cannot control the actions of every person in the C-Suite.
You can control the contract that protects you from them.

Check your D&O policy today. Look for the "Severability of the Application" clause.

If it says "Imputed to the CEO and CFO," you have a massive gap.

DM me "SEVERABILITY" and I'll review your language.

The most expensive gap in your insurance program isn't an exclusion.

It is a missing file.

Carriers deny more claims for "lack of substantiation" than for actual coverage disputes.
If you can't prove the loss, you don't get paid.

Most companies scramble to build the file after the crisis hits.
That is too late.
You are trying to find invoices and emails while your building is burning or your network is down.

The LION Process:
We build the documentation protocol before the policy binds.

1. The "Day One" Folder
We establish exactly what the adjuster will ask for.
Payroll records. Vendor contracts. Asset lists.
We keep them staged and ready.

2. The Communication Log
During a claim, every phone call needs a follow-up email.
"As we discussed..."
If it isn't written down, it didn't happen.

3. The Timeline
We map the event minute-by-minute.
"Breach detected at 4:02 PM. Counsel notified at 4:15 PM."
Precision kills ambiguity.

An adjuster's job is to ask questions.
Our job is to have the answers ready before they ask.

Is your claim file ready for an audit today?

DM me "DOCUMENT" and I'll send you our claim substantiation checklist.

The insurance industry was built for buildings that burn.

The economy runs on digital infrastructure that just stops working.

There is a trillion-dollar gap in the global insurance market.
It is called Non-Physical Damage Business Interruption (NDBI).

Most property policies require "direct physical loss or damage" to trigger coverage.
A fire. A flood. A hurricane.

But what happens when a cloud provider goes down?

What happens when a payment gateway fails?
What happens when a DNS attack takes your platform offline?

There is no "physical damage."
The servers are fine. The building is standing.
But your revenue has stopped.

Traditional policies say: "No physical damage? No claim."

You are left absorbing millions in lost revenue while paying premiums for a risk that doesn't match your reality.

We don't rely on "Property" forms for digital risks.
We build Parametric triggers and System Failure coverage that responds to the outage, not the damage.

If the network is down, the policy pays.
It doesn't matter if the server room burned down or if a software update just failed.

The loss is the same. The coverage should be too.

Does your Business Interruption policy require "physical damage" to pay?

If you are a digital business, that clause is a trap.
DM me "NDBI" and I'll review your trigger language.

Your insurance policy doesn't protect you the day it binds.

It protects you the day your team knows how to use it.

Most brokers view the "Bind Date" as the finish line.

The invoice is sent. The commission is earned. The file is closed until next year.

That is exactly when the real risk begins.

A $10M D&O policy is useless if your General Counsel doesn't know the exact trigger for notifying a claim.

A Cyber policy is worthless if your Incident Response team calls the wrong vendor during a ransomware attack.

While we bind, we make sure that the team knows how the policy works. 

We don't hand you a 200-page PDF and say "good luck."

We sit down with your CFO, your GC, and your Risk Manager.

1. The Trigger Map
We map out exactly what constitutes a "Claim" under each policy. (Is a subpoena a claim? Is a regulatory inquiry a claim?)

2. The Call Tree
We build a one-page protocol. If X happens, call Y. We establish the pre-approved vendors and legal counsel so you aren't negotiating rates while your servers are locked.

3. The Exclusions Briefing
We highlight exactly what is not covered, so your team can build operational controls around those specific risks.

Insurance is not a document you file away.
It is an asset you have to know how to deploy.

When was the last time your broker trained your team on how to actually use your coverage?

DM me "PROTOCOL" and I'll send you our activation checklist.

A green light in the server room does not mean your business is recovered.

But your insurance carrier might think it does.

We are seeing a dangerous trend in Cyber claims.
Carriers are cutting off Business Interruption payments the moment the "computer network" is technically restored.

They argue: "Your servers are up. The claim is over."

Your servers are up, but your business is still bleeding.
You are reconciling lost data. You are re-indexing files. You are working through a massive backlog of manual entries. You are waiting for vendors to re-certify your connections.

The "outage" is over, but the financial loss is just beginning.

We audit the definition of "Period of Restoration."

If your policy says the period ends when the "Network is Restored"... you are exposed to the post-breach drag.

We clarify the language to reference "Restoration of Business Operations to the condition that existed immediately before the breach”

This ensures the policy pays until your revenue and throughput return to pre-incident levels—not just when the IT ticket is closed.

Do not let a forensic accountant tell you when your business is back to normal.
Let the contract dictate it.

Check your Cyber policy today. Search for "Period of Restoration."

Does it say "Network" or "Operations"?

The difference is your entire Q3 profit margin.
DM me "RESTORE" and I'll review the definition.

You wouldn't hire a CFO based on who has the cheapest laptop.

So why do you hire a broker based on who has the cheapest quote?

Most companies run their insurance RFP like a commodity purchase.

"Here is our data. Go get quotes. We will pick the lowest premium."

This is a trap.
You are incentivizing your broker to strip coverage to hit a price target.

The LION Process:
When you hire a broker, you are hiring a defense team.

You don't ask a heart surgeon for a discount. You ask for their success rate.

The 3 Questions You Should Ask:

1. "Who is on my team?"
Not the sales guy. The technical broker. The claims advocate. I want to see the resumes of the people protecting my balance sheet.

2. "Show me a manuscript."
Don't tell me you can improve coverage. Send me a redacted policy you wrote. Let me see the actual words you changed.

3. "Walk me through a denial."
Tell me about a claim you fought and won. If you haven't had to fight, you haven't been doing this long enough.

Stop buying insurance.
Start hiring expertise.

Are you running an RFP this year?

DM me "RFP" and I'll send you the Broker Evaluation Scorecard we wish every client used.

Bankruptcy doesn't just freeze your assets.
It can freeze your insurance defense.


A portfolio company filed Chapter 11.

The directors were sued immediately for "breach of fiduciary duty."

They called the insurer to pay for their defense.

The Bankruptcy Trustee stepped in.

"That policy is an asset of the estate. You cannot deplete it to pay for legal fees."

The directors were left paying $800/hour lawyers out of their own pockets while a $5M policy sat frozen in court.

We structure "Priority of Payments" clauses into every D&O program.

This language dictates that in the event of bankruptcy, the insurer must pay the individual directors first.

The estate only gets what is left over.

We also add "Side A" DIC (Difference in Conditions) coverage that sits completely separate from the corporate balance sheet.

You don't need insurance when things are going well.

You need it when the walls are closing in.

If your policy isn't bankruptcy-proof, it’s not finished.

Does your policy have a "Priority of Payments" clause?

DM me "PRIORITY" and I'll show you where to look.

The thing about being a woman 


Is that for every moment someone called you

Emotional 
Indecisive 
Quiet 
Irrational 
Bitchy 

May have actually been moments where you were reacting to something not quite right. 

As times have shifted in the past ~10 years, since reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, and hearing Codie A. Sanchez  talk about your haters actually being your fans, I’ve realized it’s less about us reacting in any of those emotions, it’s being told that we’re wrong to have them. 

When actually those emotions might actually be our super powers. 

When used to accurately judge a situation, treat people with kindness, grace, more humanness - that isn’t emotional - it’s power. 

So to all the women out there
leaning in
guiding with grace
remember those names are actually your power. 

Happy International Women’s Day 💕

PS. Two of my absolute favorite women (my aunt and mom)

Five events since 2017. Combined losses from billions to trillions. Physical damage across all five: zero.

NotPetya. 
The 737 MAX grounding. 
COVID-19 shutdowns. 
The Ever Given. 
CrowdStrike.

We went line by line through the coverage implications this week. The exposure class is Non-Damage Business Interruption, and for financial institutions running digital-first operations on legacy programs, the gap between what can shut you down and what your policy actually covers is measured in trillions.

But the article that stopped me was a Law360 piece on cyber policy restoration periods.
The distinction between “operations-focused” and “network-focused” language in your period of restoration definition is outcome-determinative. 

One version covers you through the full resumption of normal business activity. The other stops the clock the moment someone reboots a server — even partially.

That’s the kind of clause that determines whether your next cyber claim pays for twelve weeks of operational drag or cuts off at week two. 

Silence in insurance is dangerous. Especially in the definitions section.

We covered all of it in this week’s Friday Five, plus a forward look at parametric capacity that could compress payout timelines from months to days.

P.S. link in comments. 

P.S.S. Part 1 of our Wednesday Intelligence miniseries on deepfakes is live. What happens when bad guys deepfake your CEO — and six questions for your next renewal. Link in comments.

Your employee didn't get hacked.
They got tricked.

And your insurance policy treats those two things very differently.

A controller gets an email from the "CEO."
"Please wire $500,000 to this vendor immediately for the acquisition."
The email looks real. The tone is urgent.
The controller wires the money.

You file it under your Crime policy.
The carrier points to the "Voluntary Parting" exclusion.

"Your employee voluntarily sent the money. This wasn't theft. It was a mistake."

Or they point to the "Social Engineering" sub-limit.

"We cover this, but only up to $100,000."
You just lost $400,000.

We don't accept $100k sub-limits for the biggest risk you face.
We manuscript the definition of "Computer Fraud" to include "Social Engineering" and "Impersonation Fraud."

We stack the Crime policy limits with the Cyber policy limits to ensure you have full tower protection, not just a sliver.

If your policy penalizes you for being human, it’s the wrong policy.

Check your Crime policy today. Look for the 

"Social Engineering" endorsement.
Is it $5M or $100k?

DM me "FRAUD" and I'll review your limits.

There is a question plaintiff attorneys will ask after every data breach in 2027.
Most boards haven't even heard the premise yet.

"Did you use AI-powered security scanning tools to check your code?"

If the answer is "No," you might be negligent.

Last week, Anthropic released an AI tool that scanned production codebases and found 500+ vulnerabilities that human experts missed for 20 years.

These weren't minor glitches. They were exploitable flaws hiding in plain sight.

Traditional scanners check for "locked doors" (passwords, encryption).
AI checks for "structural weakness" (broken business logic).

We saw this with MFA.

Three years ago, Multi-Factor Authentication was "nice to have."

Today, if you don't have it, you are uninsurable.

AI code scanning is next.

When a defensive tool becomes widely available and highly effective, failing to use it stops being a "resource decision."

It becomes a "breach of fiduciary duty."

The window between discovery and exploitation is compressing from weeks to hours.
Your defense needs to move at the same speed.

Is your board asking about AI security, or are they waiting for the lawsuit?

We put together a one-page AI Security Standard-of-Care Checklist — 10 questions your board should be asking before your next renewal. 

The carrier application changes already in motion. The specific coverage intersections across cyber, tech E&O, and D&O. 

What the standard of care looks like now, not 12 months from now.

Comment CHECKLIST and I'll send it over.

Two federal courts ruled on AI and privilege the same week.

One said consumer AI destroys confidentiality. The other said AI is a tool, not a person, and work product survives.

Both issued February 10, 2026.

Here's why this matters for carriers and the institutions we serve:

In Heppner (SDNY), a defendant used the free version of Claude to draft 31 defense strategy documents without his lawyer's involvement. Judge Rakoff held that Anthropic's privacy policy, which permits data training and disclosure to regulators, destroyed any expectation of confidentiality. No privilege. No work product protection.

In Warner (E.D. Michigan), a pro se plaintiff used ChatGPT to prepare litigation materials. The court denied the defendant's request to compel those materials, holding that compelling production "would nullify work-product protection in nearly every modern drafting environment."

Same technology. Opposite conclusions. The difference came down to two things: attorney direction and platform terms.

We also dug into a 108-page bad faith report from Freeman Mathis & Gary covering 26 states. We stripped the auto cases and pulled the P&C patterns:

Safe harbors are crystallizing in Indiana and Florida 

Communication failures carry compounding penalties in Pennsylvania 

Coverage drafting precision is being rewarded across multiple jurisdictions

And a federal court allowed bad faith claims to proceed against an insurer using undisclosed AI in claims handling. If your adjusters are confirming algorithmic output rather than conducting independent investigations, the file tells that story.

Silence in insurance is dangerous. 

That applies to AI governance too.

This week's Friday Five Boardroom Brief breaks down all three developments with Monday morning action items.

Comment BRIEF if you're not on our list.

P.S. The Heppner opinion is 12 pages. The Warner order is 14. Both are worth the read if you're advising clients on AI use policies.

The Mega-Broker staffing gap is structural, not accidental.


If your premium falls below their threshold, the specialist team doesn't show up.

We recently took over a D&O account for a mid-market financial institution.

They had been operating under an extended reporting period. The directors didn't even have current limits.

When a claim hit, every weakness in their broker's process was exposed: no communication runway, and no renewal strategy worth the name.

We didn't do anything complicated.
We just ran the process that should be standard.

We put a senior specialist team on the account.
We started the renewal 150 days early.

We got the client directly in front of the carriers.

We ran a disciplined marketing process with enough time to maneuver.

Reduced premium. Refreshed limits. Current coverage for the board of directors.

The mega-broker they fired had the capability to do everything we did.

They have specialist teams. They have carrier relationships.

They just didn't deploy any of it on this account because the economics didn't justify it.

Below a certain revenue threshold, you get the regional office. You get the generalist. You get the 60-day compressed timeline.

When everything runs smoothly, you might never notice the difference.

But claims don't ask if the A-team is assigned to your account.

Regulatory inquiries don't care if your renewal started 150 days out or 60.

How do we know?
We lived it for two decades. We worked inside those machines.

The moment complexity arrives, the gap between "process" and "improvisation" becomes very expensive.

Who is actually doing the work on your account?
Not the name on the proposal. The team doing the daily work.

If the answer gives you pause, that's the conversation worth having before the next claim forces it.

If you’re interested in the story, check out our Wednesday intelligence which went out today. Comment “WEDNESDAY” and I’ll add you to our distribution.

Check our the podcast version of our Wednesday intelligence!

There are 48 approved Lloyd's war exclusion wordings for cyber.

Forty-eight.

And attribution of a state-sponsored cyber attack takes years. Sometimes longer than the policy period.

I spent the week going line by line through the Trellix threat intelligence assessment that dropped March 5. 

Ten active Iranian cyber groups. 

MuddyWater targeting a financial institution in Egypt. 

CyberAv3ngers building custom malware for operational technology in the US. Rust-based payloads. AI-assisted development. 

The technical evolution is real.

But what matters to our clients isn't the malware taxonomy. It's the coverage question.

If a regional bank or community hospital on your book gets hit with ransomware traced to an IRGC-linked group, you're looking at a war exclusion dispute before the forensic report is final. 

The wording matters. 

The classification matters. 

The difference between "hostile cyber activity" and "cyber war" in your manuscript language could determine whether a claim pays or fights.

That's before you connect it to the reinsurance repricing. Seven of twelve P&I clubs cancelled war-risk cover. 

Maritime premiums surged over 1,000%. 

And Morningstar DBRS warned they'll raise attachment points on treaties that have nothing to do with the Gulf.

Your producers should be walking into client meetings this week with three questions:

What does your cyber war exclusion actually say? 

When was the last time anyone reviewed it against the LMA classifications? 

Does your incident response plan contemplate a state-sponsored attack during active military conflict?

We break down all three channels in this week's Friday Five Boardroom Briefing. 

Comment NEWSLETTER for the link.

The worst time to discover your insurance carrier's claims philosophy is during a claim.


A $10M limit from Carrier A looks exactly the same as a $10M limit from Carrier B on a spreadsheet.

The premium might even be 5% cheaper.

But that spreadsheet hides the reality of the transaction.

It doesn't show you their litigation history. It doesn't show you their default response to a complex loss.

We vet the claims department before we look at the premium.

1. The Philosophy Audit
We track how carriers behave under pressure. We know which markets actively look for ways to pay, and which ones immediately draft "Reservation of Rights" letters to protect themselves.

2. The Authority Check
We identify who actually holds the pen. If your underwriter has to ask a committee in another time zone for permission to settle, your recovery will stall. We place business with direct decision-makers.

3. The Syndicate Alignment
When we build a tower in London, we don't stack random capacity. We align markets that have a proven history of following the lead carrier without friction.

Cheap capacity is easy to find.
Reliable capital requires a rigorous selection process.

Do you know the claims’ reputation of the carriers on your current tower?

DM me "CAPITAL" and I'll tell you how they actually perform under pressure.

Former GE Capital Executive | I help founders and executives see what their financials aren’t telling them.

I spent 25 years inside the machine.

GE Capital. GE Vernova. NBCUniversal. Unilever. Structured finance, capital markets, project finance across Latin America. I was the CFO who sat across from banks, governments, and Fortune 500 boards and made the numbers make sense. I closed an $800 million power plant deal. I managed capital market teams and hundred-million-dollar sales budgets. I built financial models that moved real money in real markets.

I was good at it. For a long time, that was enough.

Then it wasn't.

I stayed almost eight years past the moment I knew I was done. Eight years of golden handcuffs, institutional momentum, and not having a single person in my corner who could help me think through what leaving actually looked like -- financially, strategically, personally.

When I finally left, I made mistakes. I jumped into a startup that looked great on paper and had no financial foundation underneath it. I learned the hard way that passion without financial intelligence is just expensive optimism. Then I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars learning the things corporate never taught me -- how to sell, how to communicate with conviction, how to walk into a room and make people feel what I knew to be true about their business.

That education nearly broke me. And it turned me into something rare: a former Fortune 500 CFO who can read your financials like a surgeon reads an MRI and sit across from you like a partner who actually gives a damn.

That's what I do now.

I work with a small number of founders and executives -- people who've already built something substantial and want a strategic partner with real financial depth. Not a coach. Not a consultant recycling frameworks. Not a bookkeeper calling themselves a fractional CFO. Someone who's been in the rooms, closed the deals, read the balance sheets, and came out the other side with a clear point of view about what actually matters.

If you're a founder past $1M who can feel that the way you got here won't get you to the next level, I can show you exactly where the growth is hiding and where the model breaks.

If you're an executive who knows you're meant for something bigger than the title on your business card, I've been where you are. I made the leap. I can help you think through yours.

I don't work with everyone. I'm selective about who I take on because the work only works when both sides are all in.

One conversation is all it takes to know if we're the right fit.

Cruz Gamboa

Most founders don’t go bankrupt overnight.

They bleed slowly.
From numbers they refused to look at.

Revenue looks good.
Growth feels exciting.
Ego feels validated.

But:

➡️ Cash flow is tight
➡️ Margins are thin
➡️ One client controls everything
➡️ Burn rate is “we’ll figure it out”

That’s how businesses die.

Not from lack of ambition.
From lack of financial discipline.

Here’s the cheat sheet I wish every founder read earlier.

Ignore red flags early → pay the price later.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities,
check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.

If this helped, save it.

Your P&L Is Hiding the Real Problem.

Most founders check 3 things:

Revenue.
Profit.
Growth rate.

Then they relax.

That’s the mistake.

Because your P&L is a scoreboard.

Not a diagnosis.

And scoreboards don’t tell you why you’re winning,
or why you’re about to lose.

Here’s what it’s not showing you 👇

If revenue is growing but cash is tight…

You don’t have a profit problem.
You have a cash flow problem.

If sales are strong but margins are shrinking…

You don’t have a demand problem.
You have a pricing or delivery problem.

If profit exists but stress keeps increasing…

You don’t have a money problem.
You have an operational problem.

Most businesses don’t collapse overnight.

They erode slowly:

➡️ Slightly rising CAC
➡️ Slightly lower margins
➡️ Slightly higher payroll
➡️ Slightly longer collections

Small leaks.

Compounded monthly.

And because the P&L still “looks fine,”
no one panics.

Until they should have.

Here’s what real operators track:

✓ Gross margin trends
✓ Cash runway (in months) 
✓ Revenue per employee
✓ CAC payback period
✓ Churn rate

Those numbers tell you where the fire is starting.

Revenue is vanity.
Profit is sanity.
Cash flow is survival.

Read your P&L.

But interrogate it harder.

Because the businesses that scale aren’t the ones with the best revenue.

They’re the ones who catch problems before they show up on the bottom line.

Your financial reports are perfect.

Clean P&L.
Accurate balance sheet.
Cash flow that ties out.

Yet decisions still feel slow, reactive, or unclear.

That’s because reports don’t create leverage.
Interpretation does.

Most founders read numbers like history.
High-performing operators read them like instructions.

Every metric should force a decision:
→ double down
→ fix fast
→ kill it

If nothing changes after reviewing your numbers,
you didn’t review them, you admired them.

This cheat sheet breaks down:

➡️ The questions that actually matter
➡️ The metrics that lie
➡️ And how to spot 1% changes that unlock outsized results

Save this before your next finance review.

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cruzgamboadrive

patagonia-solar-llc

This guy bought one random car dealership.
Turned it into a $5B empire.

No fancy startup.
No venture capital.

Just one smart business move.

Terry Taylor started like most people in the auto industry:

Working inside dealerships.

Climbing the ladder.

But he realized something important:

No matter how hard you work…
You’re still building someone else’s business.

So in 1982, he bought his first dealership in Daytona Beach.

Most people would stop there.

He didn’t.

But the real genius wasn’t buying more dealerships.

It was how he structured them.

Instead of hiring managers, he:

• Gave them 20–25% equity
• Helped finance their buy-in
• Let them run the store

Now managers weren’t employees.

They were owners.

And owners think differently.

They protect profits.
They grow the business.
They care about reputation.

So scaling became easy.

1 dealership → 10 → 50 → 120+ dealerships

Today the network does $5B+ in revenue.

Simple lesson:

People work harder for ownership than salaries.

Build partners.
Not employees

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities,
check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.

If this helped, save it.

Terry Taylor

He spent 31 years running Trader Joe’s.
Mastered pricing. Supply chains. Consumer psychology.
But one thing bothered him more than anything else: food waste.

Every year, the U.S. throws away 120 billion pounds of perfectly good food.
Not unsafe. Just didn’t fit profit models.

Millions of families struggle to afford groceries.
Most CEOs see this as “business as usual.”
Doug saw it as broken design.

After retiring, he didn’t join a board. He didn’t consult.
He asked a different question:

💡 What if food waste became the foundation, not a byproduct?
What if access mattered more than margin?

✅ Daily Table is born.
✅ Grocery store built on surplus food.
✅ Affordable meals. Nutritious produce. Dignity first.
✅ No charity branding. No eligibility checks.
✅ Nonprofit by design. Every surplus reinvested in lowering prices.

Critics say it can’t scale. Doug agrees.
It wasn’t meant to dominate. It was meant to fix a failure everyone ignored.

From grocery CEO → noticing waste everywhere → building a store that feeds people, not profits.

If you want to rethink how systems work, look at incentives, not supply.
This is the anti-profit grocery model.

Daily Table

He was a waiter at Red Lobster.

He had $40.

Most people would complain. He built a $6B brand.

Here’s how:

✅ Saw a problem: kids in his neighborhood paying too much for hats.

✅ Took action: taught himself to sew, made hats at home.

✅ Scaled smart: sold locally → hip-hop stars wore FUBU → national attention.

✅ Got creative: turned his living room into a factory, raised money when banks said NO.

✅ Played the long game: built FUBU → became Shark Tank investor → mentors hundreds of startups.

Most people chase attention.
He chased problems that matter.

Critics said it wouldn’t work. He did it anyway.

You don’t need permission. You don’t need hype.
You need clarity, hustle, and persistence.

From $40 → living room hustle → global empire → Shark Tank.
That’s how legends are built

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.
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Daymond John

Most people think billion-dollar companies start with experts.

Crumbl Cookies started with two tech guys who had never baked a cookie.

In 2017, they noticed something simple:
Cookies were America’s favorite dessert, but the category hadn’t evolved.
So they focused on a few key moves:

▶ Perfected one cookie first
▶ Kept the menu simple (1 classic + 4 rotating flavors)
▶ Turned weekly flavor drops into social media events

That simple strategy turned a 900 sq ft store and $10K into

✅ 800+ locations
✅ 1M cookies sold daily
✅ $1B+ valuation

They didn’t win by doing more.
They won by focusing on the few decisions that drive everything.

That’s true in finance too.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, go to scalingcfo.io
Take the free assessments and see exactly where to focus first.

Crumbl Cookies

Some people launch snacks.
Some create global empires from leftovers.

Arch West did the second.

➡️ 1960s. Disneyland.

Casa de Fritos. Tons of stale tortillas. Wasted daily.
A small vendor saw opportunity.
“Cut them into triangles. Fry them. Add some seasoning.”

No PR. No hype. No flashy launch.

Just execution.
Just obsession.
Just seeing value where others saw trash.

1966 → Plain Doritos, national launch.
1972 → Nacho Cheese.
From leftover tortillas → multibillion-dollar snack empire.

Scaling lesson:

Opportunities are everywhere. Most ignore them.
Those who see the leverage, execute relentlessly, and scale turn accidents into legends.

Some people chase attention.
Some quietly turn scraps into billions.

#scalingup #ceo #founder #businesslessons

Doritos

$30,000 → $7 BILLION.
No hype. No fluff. Just strategy.

Dennis Washington was 30, broke, and borrowing $30k from a Caterpillar dealer.

He bought one bulldozer and started doing construction in Montana.

Within 5 years? He was the largest contractor in the state.

But he didn’t stop there.

He asked a simple question:
"Where is everyone running from?"

Then he built a formula:

✅ Buy failing businesses that everyone else ignores.
✅ Fix the basics cut costs, improve management, unlock cash flow.
✅ Use the profits to buy the next one.
✅ Repeat.

First test: a worthless copper mine.
Bought for $15M → $100M profits in 3 years.

Next: a struggling global construction firm, merged it → Washington Group International → sold for $2.6B.

Now? Real estate, aviation, railroads, marine services… a $7B empire all from turning broken things into cash.

Most people run from broken businesses. Dennis Washington built a $7B empire fixing them.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.
If this helped, save it.

Dennis Washington

He had nothing.
No friends. Barely spoke English. ADHD made school unbearable.

At 16, he dropped out. Taught himself to code. Became obsessed with modifying video games.

At 22, he moved to Canada. New country. No network. Just a laptop and a love for snowboarding.

Started an online snowboard store → it failed.

But the software he built to run it? People wanted it.

💡 Lightbulb moment: Forget snowboards. Sell the software.

✅ Shopify is born.
✅ Made e-commerce simple.
✅ Millions of stores. 175 countries. Even Amazon switched.

From high school dropout → coding every week → building the internet’s mall worth $147B.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, check out scalingcfo.io
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If this helped, save it.

TOBIAS LÜTKE

Most “profitable” companies are one bad month away from dying.

Here’s why.

Profit is an opinion.
Cash is oxygen.

You can look profitable on paper and still miss payroll.
I’ve seen businesses doing 7 figures collapse because one client paid late.

Revenue doesn’t matter if:

• It’s delayed
• It’s unpredictable
• It’s already spent in your head

Growth makes this worse.

You hire early.
Lock in fixed costs.
Sign long-term tools.
Upgrade lifestyle.

Now your burn is permanent…
…but your income isn’t.

That’s the trap.

Another hard truth:
If the founder steps away and sales stop, you don’t have a business.
You have a high-stress job with employees.

Margins won’t save you.
Busy won’t save you.
Brand won’t save you.

Only cash flow will.

Simple rules that keep companies alive:

• Collect faster than you spend
• Keep fixed costs boring
• Build 3–6 months of runway
• Systems before scaling
• Liquidity before vanity growth

The strongest businesses aren’t the loudest.

They’re the ones that can survive a bad month without panicking.

That’s real leverage.

Peter Steinberger could have built “cool” software.

He didn’t.

He built useful software.

PDFs were everywhere. Developers were stuck with messy workflows. Peter asked:

What if developers had tools that just worked? That solved real problems, not just looked good on a portfolio?

✅ PSPDFKit → powers PDF apps across mobile & web.
✅ Open-source projects → simplify workflows, save engineers hours.
✅ OpenClaw → personal AI agent that actually helps you code.

Most people chase attention. Peter chases problems.

Critics say niche tools won’t scale. Peter doesn’t care.
He’s not in it for hype. He’s in it for impact.

From engineer → spotting friction everywhere → building tools that make developers’ lives better.

If you want to build something meaningful, solve real problems.
The market rewards results, not ideas.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.
If this helped, save it.

Peter Steinberger

LVMH is worth $292.9 billion.

You're worth $10M and stressed about payroll.

Same industry. Completely different money game. Here's why.

I've sat inside dozens of $5M–$50M businesses as a fractional CFO.

The pattern never changes.

Founders confuse 3 separate problems:

❌ "We have a cash flow problem."

No. You have a timing problem. Revenue is fine. Your money is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's fixable in 90 days.

❌ "We have a scaling problem."

No. You tried to grow before your operations could hold the weight. Every single time. Growth didn't break you, the lack of systems did.

❌ "We have a fundraising problem."

No. Investors don't fund vision. They fund numbers that prove the vision is real. You don't have a pitch problem. You have a financial story problem.

Now look at the billion-dollar brands:

Inditex built Zara to $193B by selling inventory before the bill came due.

Hermès built $235B by turning scarcity into a balance sheet strategy.

Fast Retailing scaled Uniqlo globally because they built finance infrastructure first.

None of that is luck.
All of it is decisions, financial decisions dressed up as brand decisions.

The difference between them and you isn't capital.

It's that they stopped running on gut feel and built a machine that tells them exactly where every dollar is going, and why.

You don't need a $500K CFO on payroll.

You need 10 hours a month of the right financial brain in the room.

That's the actual arbitrage most $5M–$50M founders are sleeping on.

If your finances are running you instead of the other way around,

Comment "CFO" below and I'll show you exactly where to start.

Most founders don’t fail overnight.

They bleed slowly.
From decisions they ignored.
From processes they never set.
From metrics they refused to measure.

Revenue looks fine. Growth feels exciting. Ego feels validated.

But underneath:

➡️ Decisions get delayed → chaos spreads
➡️ Processes depend on you → hero culture burns out
➡️ Metrics are “nice to have” → guesswork rules
➡️ Accountability is optional → everyone points fingers

That’s how scaling dies.

Not from lack of ambition.
From lack of rules.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.
If this helped, save it.
#scalingup #founders #ceo

Most people saw a ping pong table.

Max Koehler saw a business.

In 2019, he noticed something strange:

Table tennis is one of the most played sports in the world,
but in U.S. cities there were very few places to play regularly.

Most founders would open a traditional club.

Max built PingPod instead.

Small glass studios.
Open 24/7.
Booked entirely through an app.
No staff. No front desk.

But the real genius?

A camera above every table.

Every rally gets recorded.
One tap → instant replay → share on social.

Players created the content.
The content created the marketing.

Clips went viral.
Bookings exploded.

Today PingPod is valued around $40–60M.

All from one simple observation.

The best founders don’t just build products.
They build systems that grow themselves. 🚀

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities, go to
scalingcfo.io

Take the free assessments and see exactly where to focus first.

#scalingup #founders #CEO

Max Koehler

The trillion-dollar scoreboard isn’t just impressive.

It’s a warning. ⚠️

AI is no longer a feature.
It’s infrastructure.

Distribution beats product.
Platforms compress margins.
Specialisation scales faster than breadth.

And the giants NVIDIA, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Apple aren’t just companies anymore.

They’re rails.

If you’re a $1M–$10M founder, here’s the real play:

➡️ Build on top of giants, don’t compete with them.
➡️ Own your audience, don’t rent it.
➡️ Go narrow, dominate a micro-niche.
➡️ Push recurring revenue.
➡️ Move faster than anyone with a board meeting.

The economy is consolidating at the top.

But execution speed is still decentralised.

That’s your edge.

If you're building between $1–$10M and want to scale intelligently, not just aggressively

Come to the workshop → https://lnkd.in/efBiFQRg

I keep having the same conversation.

Founder calls me. Revenue is up -- sometimes way up. 

But they're taking home less than when the business was half the size. 

They hired the consultants. They wrote the plan. They pushed harder on sales. And somehow the business keeps snapping back to the same number like a rubber band.

After sitting across from enough of these founders, I started seeing the pattern. It comes down to three things nobody wants to talk about -- and none of them have anything to do with selling more.

I broke it all down in this week's newsletter.
#scalingup #founders #growth #CEO

I talk to a lot of founders. Like, a LOT. And something keeps coming up that I can't ignore anymore. Almost every conversation -- doesn't matter what 

Open article: The 3 things nobody tells you about getting stuck by Cruz Gamboa • 5 min read

The 3 things nobody tells you about getting stuck

Samsung wasn’t always a tech giant.

It was a tiny grocery store in 1938.

Lee Byung-Chull had $0. Just noodles, dried fish, and ambition.

Most people would stay small. He built a $720B empire.

Here’s how:

✅ Saw a need. Korea needed industry after the war.

✅ Took action. Trading → textiles → heavy industry.

✅ Bet on the future. Electronics in 1969. First black-and-white TV. Then semiconductors. Then global domination.

✅ Built a culture. Quality over quantity. Meritocracy. Vision.

✅ Played the long game. Critics doubted. Scandals happened. Growth didn’t stop.

From noodles → TVs → semiconductors → Galaxy phones → global tech leader.

Most people chase attention. Samsung chased leverage.

Legends aren’t born. They’re built.

SAMSUNG

99% of founders do this backwards.

They try to scale a business
that no one has proven they want.

Then they try to sell a business
that only works because they exist.

Here’s the real order:

1. Start
Don’t build the product.
Sell it first.

If no one pays, it’s not a business.
It’s a fantasy.

2. Scale
Do less. Better.
One offer. One audience. One channel.

Systemize everything.
If it needs you to survive, it’s not scalable.

3. Sell
Buyers don’t pay for hype.
They pay for predictable cash flow.

Clean books.
Recurring revenue.
Low founder dependency.

Start with proof.
Scale with systems.
Exit with leverage.

That’s how you build something that prints money, not something that prints stress.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities,
check out scalingcfo.io

Free assessment.

If this helped, save it.

Most founders don’t have a growth problem.
They have a focus problem.

Their dashboards are full.
Their results are not.

Tracking more KPIs doesn’t make you smarter.

It just gives you more ways to avoid the hard decision.

Here’s how serious founders think about metrics:

If a number doesn’t change what you do this week,
it doesn’t belong on your dashboard.

That’s why the only startup metrics that actually matter answer 4 questions:

1. Is demand growing?
2. Are customers staying?
3. Are they paying more over time?
4. Are we running out of cash before we figure it out?

Everything else is noise.

The best operators I’ve seen track 5–7 metrics max.
They review them weekly.
And they tie each metric to a clear action.

Everyone tracks KPIs.
Very few track the right ones.

If you want to find your biggest 1% opportunities,
check out scalingcfo.io.

Free assessment.

If this helped, save it.

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Natasha Kiemnec

Cruz Gamboa

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The Battle

Natasha Kiemnec

Cruz Gamboa

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