Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🦩

Turning Impact Leaders into Authority Figures Through Powerful Stories | Ghostwriting LinkedIn & Educational Email Courses ✍️📚

Climate tech founders are building world-changing solutions.But most of them are invisible online.Meanwhile, fossil fuel lobbyists have near-infinite marketing budgets. Greenwashers dominate the conversation. Climate deniers spread misinformation to millions.The people actually solving the problem? They're too busy building to talk about it.That's where I come in.As a climate tech ghostwriter, I build LinkedIn thought leadership for Series A+ climate tech CEOs and founders — helping them take control of the narrative and build visibility that compounds.Here's how it works:→ 6-12 month projects built on weekly or bi-weekly interviews→ I extract your expertise and turn it into content that sounds like you→ Full strategy, content planning, and profile optimization included→ Continuous improvement baked in (that's what Kaizen means)I'm not an agency with 47 writers and a sales team. I'm a solo operator with a limited client roster, which means you work directly with me — every interview, every post, every edit.Results my clients have seen:→ Inbound leads and investor connection requests→ Podcast invitations and speaking opportunities→ Top talent reaching out directly→ Measurable traffic to demos, books, and qualification surveysI've worked with 20+ climate leaders across 4 continents, including 3 LinkedIn Top Voices and a Forbes 30 Under 30 founder. Collectively, my clients have raised $200M+.I've ghostwritten 1,000+ posts and have been running Kaizen for almost 3 years.If you're looking to take control of your narrative and start building your visibility, DM me "climate" and I'm happy to talk more.

Growth Marketer

~ Running company social media marketing operations
~ Running paid ad campaigns on social and Google Ads
~ Inbound and content marketing

Sooo I got featured in SUCCESS Magazine last week 👀

Proper 'pinch me' moment. First-ever feature in a magazine for me.

3 years ago, I was struggling to find a single ghostwriting client.

Now I'm being quoted as a LinkedIn expert alongside career writers who've been featured in Forbes, HubSpot, and the BBC.

The article is about LinkedIn coffee chats — something I've done 100+ of since the pandemic.

A lot of it has helped me gain confidence, build great connections, and meet amazing people. Some ended up as clients.

And it's crazy, it's led me to this.

Link to the full article: https://lnkd.in/dC_MXy2j

And a huge thanks to Kayla Ihrig 🌴 for interviewing me!

Roman Pikalenko 🇺🇦🍉

I turn $10M+ Series A climate tech founders & execs into LinkedIn thought leaders to attract capital & talent | Helped 3x LinkedIn Top Voices & 10+ climate tech founders | Obsessed with solar right now ☀️

Just signed my 7th client. 3 months upfront. 

Solar software founder. First call was with their marketing manager — who became the internal champion (as they usually do). 

The only real challenge? Helping them decide between posting in German or English. I've had clients wrestle with this before, so I put on my consultant hat and broke down the trade-offs. 

The close happened on the 2nd call. 

This is my 3rd solar client now. And what I've noticed is that the more specialized you get, the faster the sales calls go. 

You've already solved their problems for someone else. You already speak their language. 

It's one of those times when I pat my past self on the back and say: "Great job niching down on climate tech, dude." 

February is off to a great start. 
Onwards.

Most solar companies grow by expanding into new territories.

These three grew by going deeper — block by block — in Brooklyn.

Meet T.R. Ludwig, Gaelen McKee, and Mark Cunningham — CEO, President, and CTO of Brooklyn SolarWorks.

Before founding BSW, all three were building careers in solar. T.R. and Gaelen were at Sunrun, driving out to New Jersey and Long Island to install panels on suburban homes.

But they all lived in Brooklyn. And every day, they were driving past a massive untapped opportunity.

The problem? NYC's rooftops aren't like the suburbs.

Flat roofs. Fire code restrictions. Limited space. HVAC equipment everywhere. One of the most complex building codes in the US.

NYC desperately needed solar. But traditional racking systems couldn't work here.

So in 2015, they decided to build solar where they lived — and invented a way to make it possible.

Their idea: the Brooklyn Solar Canopy.

A patented system that elevates panels above rooftop obstacles — creating usable living space underneath.

Mark leads design and engineering, ensuring every system works within NYC's notoriously complex code. 

Gaelen runs operations and product development — turning their hyperlocal insights into a scalable national product. 

T.R. drives business growth and industry advocacy.

Instead of expanding outward like every other solar company, they went hyperlocal.

90% of their 2,500+ projects sit within just 15 zip codes, all reachable from their Gowanus headquarters by car, bike, or even foot.

That local focus gave them deep expertise with NYC's zoning, permitting, and code — and a level of accountability to the communities they serve that's hard to replicate.

→ 2,500+ residential and commercial installations across all five NYC boroughs 
→ Over 40,000 tons of CO2 emissions avoided 
→ Launched Brooklyn Solar Canopy Co to sell their system nationwide 
→ Named a Top Solar Contractor by Solar Power World 
→ T.R. named "Trailblazer in Clean Energy" by City & State New York 
→ T.R. helped pass NYC's City of Yes Carbon Neutrality amendment, unlocking rooftop space for solar across the city

They even donated a full canopy system to CHiPS, a Park Slope nonprofit running a soup kitchen and housing program — right down the street from their office.

I'm convinced every European capital could replicate their success (or partner up with them).

—

Do you think urban solar should be the norm?

—

I share stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be the first notified next week.

Small life update: I'm thinking of going back to study.

It sounds a bit overwhelming.

I'm running a full-time business. Working 6 days a week. And building a new vertical.

But I now have the resources and opportunity to pursue one of my oldest dreams—give it a go at STEM.

Here's the thing:

I sucked at science in middle and high school.

Just completely terrible at it.

But at 27, I'm genuinely curious about it for the first time.

I know how to learn now. And I actually want to understand the science behind the climate work I've been writing about for years.

Helsinki has two great unis for it:

→ University of Helsinki
→ Aalto University

The problem is:

My current degree is a BBA in International Business, so I'd need a new Bachelor's.

And I'm not 100% on the direction yet, but I want it to be climate-focused eventually.

Likely will start with Open University to figure out which path makes sense.

What I'm curious about:

Is there anyone who's done full-time work and full-time studying?

What advice would you give yourself before starting this?

I'd love to hear what worked, what didn't, and what you wish you'd known going in.

—

PS. Working in STEM will also make me a better ghostwriter for climate founders. Understanding the science side of things can only help, right?

He grew up in Oman surrounded by pristine beaches, corals, and desert.

Then he discovered a dead zone the size of Florida sitting right off his country's coast.

Meet Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01.

Talal was born into a family of environmentalists in Oman. But he didn't take the obvious path into climate.

He studied French and Business Management in London. Became a corporate lawyer. Spent 10+ years working on energy transactions in the Gulf.

Then he helped launch IDO Investments, a $130M VC fund for the Omani government, investing globally in technology.

The turning point came while working at the sovereign fund.

He read that Oman's coast had the largest ocean "dead zone" in the world — a lifeless stretch of water caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed by the sea.

As someone raised by environmentalists, he couldn't look away.

When he investigated, he found something remarkable:

The problem and the solution were literally right next to each other.

Oman's Al Hajar mountains contain the world's largest surface deposits of peridotite — a rock that naturally turns CO2 into stone.

This process happens in nature. But it takes decades.

Talal's question: what if we could speed it up?

In 2020, he founded 44.01 (named after the molecular weight of CO2).

Here's how the technology works:

→ They capture CO2 from the atmosphere or from industrial processes
→ Dissolve it in water (essentially fizzy water — no toxic chemicals)
→ Inject it into peridotite formations underground
→ The rock mineralizes the CO2 in under 12 months
→ It becomes part of the mineral crystal lattice.

If something did leak? It's a puff of CO2 like opening a soda bottle.

The results have been extraordinary:

→ $47M raised ($42M Series A led by Equinor Ventures)
→ Backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures
→ Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Siemens, Air Liquide, and Sumitomo also invested
→ Won Prince William's Earthshot Prize in 2022 ("Fix Our Climate" category)
→ Won $1M XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award against 1,300+ teams from 80 countries
→ Won another $1M XFACTOR Award in April 2025
→ Partnered with ADNOC to scale in the UAE
→ Partnered with Climeworks (world's leading direct air capture company)
→ 50+ employees across Oman, UAE, and London

And peridotite isn't only in Oman. It's found on every continent.

The US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia — all have deposits.

Which means 44.01's technology could scale globally.

Their goal: mineralize 1B tonnes of CO2 by 2040.

For context, the IPCC says we need to remove 1 gigaton per year by 2030. 
That's equivalent to all global air travel emissions.

—

Did you know about Talal and 44.01's work?

PS. I share more stories of exceptional climate leaders every Monday for #ClimateFounderMondays

Follow me by clicking the bell icon on my profile to be notified next week 🔔

I don't often mention this, but I had ZERO climate tech background when I decided to build my entire business around it.

No science degree.
No industry connections.
No portfolio of climate clients.

It all started in 2019. I was an exchange student in Germany. One lecture a day. Bored out of my mind. Doom-scrolling IG.

I stumbled on 4Ocean and learned about plastic pollution in the ocean for the first time.

That sent me down a rabbit hole.

Deforestation. Biodiversity loss. The scale of what we're doing to the planet.

I started resharing everything on my Instagram. Became an activist in my own way.

Even went to a Fridays for Future march — one of the early ones, back when Greta was just getting started.

For a few months, I was all in.

Then life happened.

I went back to Finland. Had to write my thesis. Covid hit right before I graduated. I delayed my graduation because I was an immigrant and couldn't afford to be jobless with no safety net.

After I finally graduated, I spent 1.5 years working service jobs. Survival mode. Climate passion took a back seat.

Eventually, I landed a marketing role at a recruitment SaaS company.

When I quit to start my own ghostwriting business, I had one thing I was sure about:

I didn't want to write for other marketing agencies. That's what most of my peers did, and there's nothing wrong with it.

But I wanted to work with people building something that matters.

So I picked climate.

Except I had no idea what I was doing.

For about 9 months, I was all over the place. Targeting coaches, random CEOs, "sustainability tech" (whatever that means), founders, anyone who'd listen.

My positioning was a mess. My confidence was shaky. And I kept second-guessing whether climate was even viable as a niche.

Then I gave myself a deadline: 3 months. Reach out to 200+ people in climate tech. If I don't land a single client, I move on.

It worked. I landed an angel investor in food tech.

2.5 years later, I have 7 active clients. 6 are in climate tech.

I've ghostwritten for investors, LinkedIn Top Voices, consultants, founders, and execs.

And I like to think I'm becoming one of the go-to climate tech ghostwriters in Europe.

And my ambition has also grown:

I'm on a mission to help people in 1,000 climate tech companies build visibility online.

Right now, I do that 1:1. Mostly with Series A founders and execs who are too busy to open LinkedIn, let alone post on it.

But I don't want to scale into an agency.

So I got only 1 other option:

Building digital products.

Specifically, for marketing teams trying to build their founder's LinkedIn in-house — and earlier-stage founders who have the time but need the system.

For now — if you told me back in Germany, doom-scrolling on Instagram, that I'd build an entire business around climate tech without a single day of experience in the industry...

I would've laughed.

—

How did you end up working in climate?

PS. I miss my IKEA shark :(

In 2025, I got invited to LinkedIn's HQ in Amsterdam.

Cool experience. Met some great people. But one thing stuck with me that I haven't talked about publicly.

The core topic of the event? How to use LinkedIn's advertising tools to boost your personal profile posts.

Not company page ads. Personal posts.

Two years ago, this wasn't even an option. Boosting was only possible through company pages.

Now, there's a little button at the top right corner of every post that says "Boost." You put in 50, 100, 200 and LinkedIn pushes it to more people.

Why does this matter for you as a climate tech founder?

Because the platform is evolving in the same direction as Facebook.

LinkedIn is incentivizing people to pay for reach that used to be free. And the more people boost, the less organic content gets distributed to make room for it.

That's why your reach feels like it's been declining. It's not your content getting worse. It's the platform shifting its model.

So what do you do about it?

I'm not a fan of boosting. I'm very much an organic-first person. But I won't pretend it doesn't exist.

If you want to experiment with it, do it.

But it'll dilute your organic data. If you publish 10 posts without boosting and 1 with, you can't compare them the same way. You'll need to treat boosted content separately when analyzing what actually resonates.

The core idea behind posting hasn't changed.

Your content strategy shouldn't depend on the algorithm being nice to you. It should depend on whether the right 50-100 people see it and whether it starts conversations.

That means:

1/ Stop obsessing over impressions. Start looking at who's viewing your profile after you post. Are they investors? Customers? Partners? If yes, your content is working — even if the numbers look smaller than last year.

2/ Use your posts as conversation starters, not performance metrics. The DMs, the replies, the introductions — that's where LinkedIn actually converts for founders.

3/ Double down on content analytics as a skill. When organic reach shrinks, you can't afford to keep posting stuff that doesn't land. Learn to read your own data — what topics your audience actually engages with, what formats fall flat, and what's worth doubling down on. Now is the time to 5x the effort on quality.

4/ And build your email list. You own that. You don't own your LinkedIn reach. If the algorithm keeps going this direction, having a direct line to your audience is insurance.—

Have you noticed your LinkedIn reach dropping?

Curious how others are experiencing it.

📸: Met the legendary Harald Friedl at the same event.

Last Friday, I spoke at Climate Drift's Thought Leadership for Humans program.

The Q&A after was fire. Here are 6 questions I got from people in climate (and my honest answers):

Q1: Will AI replace ghostwriters?

Think of AI like Photoshop was for graphic designers. It's a tool, not a replacement. My job isn't writing posts — it's building your presence, course-correcting when things go sideways, and extracting stories you didn't know you had. AI can't do that. If anything, AI raised my client cap from 5 to 7.

Q2: LinkedIn reach is dropping. Should I even bother?

The reach is declining because LinkedIn is going the Facebook route — incentivizing people to pay for distribution that used to be free. But you don't need 50,000 impressions per post. You need the right 50 people to see your post and start a conversation. Focus on profile views, # of conversations started, or revenue as the right metrics.

Q3: Should I start with LinkedIn or an email newsletter?

LinkedIn is your distribution channel. Email is your middle channel. If you start a newsletter without an audience, you'll need to drive traffic from somewhere anyway. Start on LinkedIn. Build the list from there. Then email becomes your insurance policy when the algorithm gets worse.

Q4: I have multiple goals — speaking, advising, growing my business. How do I choose?

You can't pursue them all at once. Something always has to give. For example, if you want to speak and advise? Podcasts are a stepping stone — you build credibility for advising while getting reps as a speaker, without traveling.

Q5: Should I expand to Twitter or Bluesky?

Only if you've maxed out your current platform. Take your 20-50 best-performing posts from LinkedIn and use them as your starter library on the new platform. If you don't have that library yet, you haven't finished building your foundation.

Q6: How do I build an audience in a niche I'm new to?

Borrowed credibility. Highlight people already in the space. I do this every Monday — I pick a lesser-known climate tech founder and tell their story. Tag them. Connect beforehand. 2 out of 3 times, their network engages and a chunk of them follow you. You're borrowing their audience by giving them recognition.

—

These questions came from a variety of people:

Small business owners
Heads of startup incubator programs
Jobseekers
Climate scientists

If you're in climate and want to start building your LinkedIn presence but don't know where to begin, follow me. I share stuff like this regularly.

What question would you add to this list?

PS. Huge thanks to Katie Gilbert and Marco Morawec, for inviting me as a speaker once again 🙏

≈30% of climate tech prospects tell me the same thing:

"We want to try ghostwriting in-house before outsourcing."

Easier said than done.

Their exec or founder needs to be on LinkedIn.

But has zero time to write.

Hiring a ghostwriter feels expensive ($5-10k/month) or culturally off.

So marketing gets told: "figure it out."

The problem?

Marketing teams at Series A climate startups (usually 1-3 people) don't have ghostwriting training.

They can write blog posts. Press releases. Website copy.

But exec LinkedIn? That's a completely different skill.

You need to:

→ Sound like the founder (not like marketing)

→ Extract ideas without making it a homework for the CEO/exec

→ Write posts that drive business outcomes, not likes

Most marketing teams are left guessing.

So I'm thinking of running a workshop to teach climate marketing teams how to do this in-house.

One high-quality post per week so your exec/CEO/founder has a consistent presence.

Something you can execute with the existing internal resources.

Before I build this, I want to understand if it's actually useful.

Two questions for climate marketing teams:

1 - Have you ever considered building in-house ghostwriting expertise?

2 - If yes—what's your BIGGEST blocker right now?

Drop a comment or DM me.

I want to know what would make this a no-brainer vs. just another workshop nobody rewatches.

I've ghostwritten for the same climate tech CEO for 20+ months. Last week, he told me my questions had become useless.

He was right.

For the first 12-14 months, every weekly call produced gold. I'd ask about customer stories, product updates, market reactions — and he'd give me frameworks, contrarian takes, and insights I couldn't find anywhere else.

350+ posts later, I noticed a change.

His answers started getting shorter. Fewer details. I'd ask about a new customer and he'd say "it's the same story, you can make it up.”

I kept pushing. Better questions. Different angles.

It didn't help.

Then last week, he said it directly: "Your questions don't uncover more depth. They feel repetitive."

And he was right. I’ve hit the ceiling with my question bank and was going out of my way to be ‘creative’ and uncover ‘novel’ angles.

That wasn’t working.

So now we're rebuilding the system:

→ I double down on research. Industry data, policy shifts, market examples.

→ I draft the angles and bring them as finished concepts instead of questions.

→ His role shifts from answering questions to correcting my framing.

→ The calls go from weekly to bi-weekly. Shorter. More focused.

I'm betting his corrections and disagreements will produce better content than my questions in the last 1-2 months did.

We're testing it now. I don't know if it'll work yet.

But it got me thinking:

The best ghostwriting relationships aren't static. The system that works at month 3 might break at month 15.

If it does, it’s a signal that your content partner has absorbed enough context to operate differently.

And that’s ok.

—

PS. If you're talking to a ghostwriter, ask them for examples of how their process has evolved when working with clients for over a year. This will give you a good idea whether they are someone who can adapt to you or if they are too rigid.

AI can write a LinkedIn post in 10 seconds. It still can't do my job.

If all you need is a post written, AI is good enough. Seriously. Paste a prompt, get a draft, publish it. Done.

But that's not what my clients pay me for.

I'm confident AI will never take my job because:

1/ I course-correct in real time.

A client goes viral and attracts a wave of negative comments from people outside their industry. What do you do? Engage? Ignore? Delete? Post a follow-up? AI doesn't know. I do, because I know their brand, their audience, and what's at stake.

2/ I extract stories founders don't know they have.

Every week I get on calls with founders and ask questions they've never been asked. Half the time they say "I've never thought about it that way." That's the content. AI can't interview you. It can only remix what already exists online.

3/ I read the room.

A client's fundraise just fell through. Do we still publish the optimistic industry take we had scheduled? Or do we pivot to something more grounded? AI doesn't know what happened on your board call yesterday. I do.

4/ I protect the voice.

Your LinkedIn should sound like you, not like a marketing intern with ChatGPT. Building a Tone of Voice Guide, catching when a draft sounds "off," knowing the difference between how you talk to investors vs. customers — that takes months of working together.

5/ I connect content to outcomes.

AI doesn't ask "why are we posting this?" I do. Every post ties back to a goal — investor visibility, talent attraction, partnership opportunities. If it doesn't serve one of those, we don't publish it.

—

AI made me better at my job.

I won't argue with that.

Without AI, my client cap would probably be 5. I have 7 right now because AI helps with research, transcripts, and first-pass editing. It handles the grunt work so I can focus on the strategy, creative direction, and quality control.

Think of it like Photoshop for graphic designers. When Photoshop came out, nobody said "we don't need designers anymore." But it did make good designers faster.

Same thing is happening with ghostwriting.

—

The founders who try to replace ghostwriting with AI usually come back 3-6 months later.

They crave a human approach. And let's be honest — they don't have time to tweak AI prompts every week.

Do you use AI for your content?

PS. I don't think I'll ever stop getting this question lol

Had a wild conversation with a client this week.

He used to run a solar company. Built the team. Set up the processes. Hired good people.

And one day he's sitting in his office thinking: "I have nothing to do."

Not in a good way. He felt useless.

What messed with his head the most:

Someone on the warehouse floor asked him a simple question. Something like "hey, we forgot to do this on a job — should we go back?"

His gut said: "Yeah, go back."

But that one answer? That was him making a decision his manager should've made. Without context. Without the full picture. Without anyone else knowing.

And every time he did that, he was quietly undermining the people he hired to run things.

So he had to unlearn the one thing every founder is wired to do — solve problems on the spot.

Instead, his answer became: "Talk to your manager. Follow the process. They'll figure it out."

Brutal for a problem-solver. But necessary.

Once he stopped being the answer machine, he had all this mental bandwidth. 

So he started tinkering with a recurring problem he kept seeing across the industry.

That problem became a product. That product became its own company. He eventually exited the first business entirely.

The "useless" phase wasn't a dead end. It was a signal that he'd outgrown the role — and was ready to grow as a CEO. Or, in his case, to also build the next thing.

This is the kind of stuff that comes up in my weekly calls with founders. I frequently get feedback like:

"I didn't expect this to come up today."
"Idk how you pulled these out of me."
"Came completely unprepared. Yet we covered so much."

This is my bread and butter.

The tiny details.

The stuff that no AI will ever be able to replicate.

—

Have you ever felt useless in your own company?

Curious if other founders can relate.

I haven't talked to one of my clients in over a year. And she's one of the best-performing accounts I manage.

Her exec syncs with me monthly. She reviews content in 10-15min per batch. 
And her posts consistently attract investors, partners, and customers in her space.

How?

We spent months building the foundation — her voice, her positioning, her themes. Once that was locked in, the system runs without her needing to be in every conversation.

But that's not how most of my client relationships work.

Here's the full breakdown across my 7 clients right now:

- 4 clients are on a weekly cadence. 45-50min calls where we go deep on what's happening in their business, industry, and head. I ask questions. They talk. I turn it into content.

I like weekly because it keeps the context fresh. New deals, new conversations, new opinions — that stuff has a short shelf life. If I wait too long, the moment's gone. These are also founders that are involved in the daily business activities so they have rich context to share.

- 2 clients are on a bi-weekly cadence. Heavier travel schedules, board-heavy months, more visionary people. We batch more per call, and I lean harder on async — voice notes, Slack messages, articles they've shared.

- And then the monthly setup I mentioned above.

There's no single "right" cadence. The best setup is the one that matches:

How a founder actually works
Their communication style
And their schedule

Some founders think best out loud on calls. Others drop fire voice notes at 11pm. One client sends me regular articles he reads with his thoughts on it.

I even had a CEO who'd jump on random WhatsApp calls for 10-15min in the moment of inspiration.

My job is to meet them where they are.

—

If you've been putting off LinkedIn because you think it means another weekly meeting on your calendar — it doesn't have to.

What's your best format for sharing your thoughts? On calls? Via text? Voice notes?

Would love to know.

Earlier on Monday, I woke up tired. Again.

After some self-reflection, I realised I'm a workaholic. And it's kicking my ass.

It's cut into my personal life, my health, and my future goals.

→ I've become more irritable (because I'm always working)
→ I've become obsessed with sleep optimization (because I wake up tired)
→ I've become afraid of actually committing to big goals like studying (because I'm overworked)

Not exactly peak decision-making state.

My coaches, Loz & Baz, helped me figure it out.

So I'm doing something that might sound trivial to most, yet kinda crazy to me:

→ I want to start working only 5d/week. At least for a couple of months.

I'm fast approaching a 3-year anniversary of my business, and for as long as I can remember, I've worked 6-7 days per week.

It's caught up with me.

No bueno.

My plan:

→ Keep all calls to Mon & Fri only
→ Have strict lunch & dinner breaks
→ Work on writing efficiency for clients

And learn how to do nothing for 1 day a week 🫠

Anyone else working 6-7 days a week and pretending it's fine?

PS. A friend of mine once told me I need to get out and touch grass more. Guess it's time lol

PPS. Photo of me in Japan when I wasn't a workaholic (felt good).

Aaron Nichols has generated 1.5M+ LinkedIn impressions in the solar industry using 4 storytelling rules. 

I took his framework and made it 10x easier to apply (with AI's help): 

Quick context: 

Aaron is a marketer at Exact Solar who built his entire audience by doing what most companies refuse to do... 

Leading with story instead of stats. 

His 4 rules are designed to help you: 

- Open posts with stories people actually feel (not data dumps) 
- Speak to what your audience already cares about 
- Simplify your message so a 14-year-old could get it 
- Sound like a real human, not a corporate press release 

His framework was great. 

But there was one problem: 

Aaron shared the "what" but not a system to apply it consistently. 

So I took his rules and built: 

- A pre-publish checklist to audit any post against all 4 rules 
- And a copy-paste AI prompt that scores your draft and tells you exactly what to fix 

Want to give it a try? 

Like this post 
Comment "story" 

I'll send it to your DMs. 

PS - The AI prompt alone is worth grabbing. Paste any draft in and it returns a scored audit with specific rewrite suggestions. Takes 30 seconds.

Aaron Nichols' 4 Rules of Storytelling Framework

I spent 3 years building a 4-level batching system so I could take a 2.5 week vacation with 6 clients.

Here's how each level forced the next (and why I'm now scaling to 7 without adding hours):

The forcing function was Japan.

I planned a 2.5 week trip and realized my system would collapse if I stepped away. So I spent 2 months building a month's worth of content buffer for all 6 clients.

Just to buy myself a real vacation.

That constraint became the catalyst for Level 4.

At first, I was batching one week at a time.

Ideation → hooks → outlines → drafts → edits → visuals → submission.

All in one go.

Worked fine for 2-3 clients. Broke immediately at 4.

So I increased batching to 2-3 weeks per client.

Longer calendar blocks. Smoother process.

Better. Still felt like racing the clock.

Then I split the process.

Day 1: Ideation, hooks, outlines, v1 drafts.
Day 2: Finishing drafts, visuals, editing, submitting.

Got me to 6 clients. Where most people stop.

But here's where it gets interesting.

I noticed every client has daily themes. My sustainable materials founder:

→ 2 posts/week on denim insulation
→ 1 post/week repurposing from 300+ archive
→ 1 post/week on Australian manufacturing
→ 1 post/week on company updates

Instead of batching by "weeks," I started batching by topics.

Pick "denim insulation." Create 4-6 weeks of content on that single theme.

Then "Australian manufacturing." Same thing.

But here's the key—and this is what most people miss:

I combined this with a buffer.

Weeks 1-2: Create the standard 2-week batch.
Weeks 3-4: With everything ahead, I have breathing room to focus on topic-based batching.

By week 3, I have almost a month's worth prepared. 80-90% done.

By weeks 4-6: The compounding is so efficient I can plan and draft content for the next 1-2 months.

This is the system that lets me manage 6 clients without working weekends.

And it's the same system I'm now using to scale to 7 — without adding hours.

—

Most climate tech founders I work with have the opposite problem.

They're not batching 6 clients' content. They're struggling to post consistently for themselves.

They know LinkedIn matters for fundraising, hiring, and partnerships.

But they don't have time to figure out the system.

So every Monday, I send out the exact strategies I've built ghostwriting for climate tech leaders who've raised $10M+ — broken down so you can use them yourself in 10 minutes per week.

430+ climate founders already get it.

Join them here (free): https://lnkd.in/ezCxpYcH

"Our proprietary bio-based polymer formulation provides a functionally equivalent alternative to petroleum-based packaging substrates." 
Vs. 
"We make packaging from farm waste instead of oil. It's just as strong." 

Same company. Same technology. Same facts. 

But only one version gets read on LinkedIn. 

If you're a climate tech founder posting technical content that gets 12 likes from your team and zero engagement from investors, customers, or talent... 

The problem isn't your ideas. It's your language. 

I built a free guide that teaches you how to simplify any LinkedIn draft using 5 Hemingway rules specifically adapted for climate tech writing. 

It includes:

→ 5 rules with climate-specific examples (kill adverbs, active voice, short sentences, plain language, one idea per sentence). 

→ 5 full before & after rewrites across solar, water tech, sustainable packaging, energy efficiency, and alt proteins. 

→ A jargon-to-plain-language swap table you can reference anytime. 

→ A copy-paste AI prompt that takes your draft and returns a simplified version with a change log for every edit. 

The AI prompt is the real gem. It scores your draft on complexity, flags the exact sentences dragging it down, rewrites the whole thing, and explains every change. 

Want it? 
Like this post 
Comment "hemingway" 

Send me a connection request so I can DM you

I'll send the link ASAP. 

PS - Unlike the free Hemingway app, the AI prompt inside actually suggests edits and ranks your drafts in a more iterative way so you don't have to pay for Hemingway AI Pro.

My solar client said something the other day that stuck with me.

We were talking about solar installation and maintenance.

He said: "Anyone can install a panel. But are you gonna be there when something breaks?"

He made a point about offering ongoing O&M services as a source of revenue.

And you know what?

It's the exact same thing I have to explain with AI and content.

Anyone can open ChatGPT and write a LinkedIn post.

Cool. You got a post. Maybe it's even good.

But what happens when:

→ Your engagement drops for 3 weeks straight?
→ A post accidentally misrepresents your tech?
→ Your messaging needs to pivot mid-fundraise?
→ Your content attracts the wrong audience?
→ You run out of things to say by week 4?

ChatGPT won't diagnose that. It won't jump on a call with you. It won't adjust your strategy based on what the data is telling us.

That's what a premium ghostwriter is for.

The true value of a ghostwriter isn't the writing.

It's the maintenance and ongoing consulting.

The weekly calls. The pattern recognition. The "hey, this angle isn't landing — let's try this instead."

It's someone who knows your voice, your audience, and your goals well enough to course-correct before things go sideways.

AI will only amplify the mistakes you make along the way.

—

If your LinkedIn content feels like it's collecting dust, send me a DM.

I offer free 45-min LinkedIn funnel audits for anyone in the climate space.

Your competitors' founders are posting 3x a week.
Yours hasn't posted in 3 months.

I've watched this play out with dozens of Series A marketing teams.

The CEO says "I don't see the ROI."

And you're trying to convince them otherwise.

When talking to the CEO, remind them of these 3 risks:

Risk 1: Your sales cycles stay at 12-18 months when they could be 6-12.

Founder visibility builds trust before the first call. When prospects already follow your CEO, they walk in saying "we've been watching you for months."

Risk 2: Competitors own the narrative while you stay invisible.

When buyers search for solutions in your space, they'll find your competitor's CEO. They'll see their takes, their frameworks, their POV.

Risk 3: You waste 90% of your organic reach by relying on the company page.

Personal profiles get 10x the visibility of company pages. Every post your CEO doesn't write is reach you're leaving on the table.

So what do you actually say to a CEO who "doesn't see the ROI"?

Stop positioning LinkedIn as social media. Reframe it as:

→ Series B prep (you need 12-18 months to build momentum)
→ Talent magnet (top candidates look at founders before applying)
→ PR strategy (journalists scan LinkedIn to decide who to cover)
→ Sales enablement (gives buyers the proof they need to convince their boss)
→ AI search optimization (the better your content is, the more likely it shows on AI searches)

And it's especially true if you're in climate tech.

—

What are some other risks you see from NOT building your visibility online?

"The country that's first to fusion powers the global economy for generations."

— Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

As I explore STEM opportunities, I couldn't stop researching fusion energy and Bob's work.

Here's why this matters (and how it's connected to the climate crisis):

Bob Mumgaard wasn't always a fusion CEO.

He was a Nebraska kid who met his future COO on day one of Math 106 at University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

They became roommates.

Years later, Bob went to MIT for his PhD in plasma physics. His buddy Steve Renter got an MBA at Harvard and worked as a drilling engineer at BP.

For years, they had a standing meeting:

Every Thursday night at the Muddy Charles pub in Boston.

Bob talked fusion. Steve talked startups.

By 2018, those beer meetings became Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).

By 2026, they've raised almost $3 billion.

Their core idea:

Traditional fusion reactors are massive and take decades to build.

Bob's team at MIT figured out how to make them dramatically smaller using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnets.

In 2021, they built and tested the most powerful fusion magnet ever created on Earth.

10 tons. 8 feet tall. 165 miles of superconducting tape.

That magnet proved the physics works.

Now they're building SPARC — a compact tokamak in Massachusetts designed to produce net fusion energy by 2027.

If SPARC works, it’ll change the entire industry.

—

Why this matters for climate:

Solar and wind are great. But they're intermittent.

The world needs clean, 24/7 baseload power that doesn't depend on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

Fusion is that solution:

→ Unlimited fuel (hydrogen from seawater)
→ Zero carbon emissions
→ No radioactive waste
→ 24/7 power, rain or shine

Google signed a 200 MW power purchase agreement with CFS. The largest corporate fusion energy deal in history.

Eni signed a $1B+ deal.

And if SPARC hits its target in 2027, Virginia gets the world's first commercial fusion power plant (ARC) in the early 2030s.

400 MW. Enough for 150,000 homes.

And they’re not the only ones.

China has invested $6.5B+ in fusion since 2023.

The race is on. And it's closer than most people think.

What makes Bob's story stand out to me:

He didn't wait for governments or universities to move slowly.

He took decades of MIT fusion research, commercialized it, and convinced Google, Bill Gates, and NVIDIA to bet billions on his vision.

From Thursday night pub meetings to building the sun on Earth.

That's the kind of audacious climate tech thinking we need more of.

—

What "impossible" climate ideas are you following?

And whose work shall I feature next Monday?

#ClimateFounderMondays

Lester Chng

Cyber CEOs Brand Strategist. I build your brand as you build your business. | Senior Cybersecurity Advisor | Author | Naval Officer | CISSP | 🇨🇦🇸🇬 |

You head a leading cybersecurity firm.
But your online presence doesn't reflect it.

In fact, being invisible is damaging. 

You understand the power of thought leadership.
You know LinkedIn shapes deal flow and adds credibility in the industry.
You just don’t have the cycles (or the copy) to share your expertise and experience.

You have stories worth telling.

The insights from being in the trenches.
The deep conversations with your ace teams.
The hard discussions with your clients. 

Don’t let this wisdom go to waste.

That’s where I come in.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How we work together.

Profile & Positioning
=> Rebuild your LinkedIn profile so visitors see industry authority, not “another vendor.”

Content engine
=> Ghostwritten posts that leverage your insights and expertise into engaging LinkedIn posts. 

Outreach campaign
=> Targeted DM campaigns and audience-building strategies that build your authority and land you on podcasts and conference stages.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You focus on growing your firm and protecting your clients.
And we will ensure the industry, clients, prospects, and investors can’t ignore it.

Let’s build the personal brand that commands the cybersecurity conversation and drives business.


Worked with global client portfolio 
- MSPs
- MSSPs
- Agentic AI SOC
- AI-powered GRC 
- Operational Resilience 

Senior Advisor, Financial Crimes Unit Exercises. BMO Fusion Centre

Execution of Financial Crimes Unit Exercise and Drill Program
• Design and execution of exercises and drills to operationalize the Financial Crimes Unit Fusion Centre
• Scenario creation and exercise execution for Information Security, Enterprise Fraud Management, Physical Security, and Global Crisis and Continuity Management teams 
• Providing effective challenge of incident response readiness through exercise observation
• Execution of enterprise-wide Purple Team Exercise


Cybersecurity Exercises: Purple Team, Ransomware, DDoS, Malware, Data Corruption, Data Breach, 3rd Party Incidents
Fraud Exercises: ATOs, Attack on Payment systems, Business Email Compromise, PII Breach
Physical Security Exercise: Active Assailant, Civil Unrest, Bomb Threats
Crisis Exercises: Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Operational Resilience, Fire Incidents, Natural Disasters, Utilities Disruption

15 Feb 1942 - The day Singapore surrendered to Japan.
This day was chosen as a solemn commemoration.
"Never Again".

It wasn't until 1984, that the Total Defence concept was launched. The government saw the necessity for a whole-of-society approach that went beyond just the military.

• Civil Defence
• Social Defence
• Military Defence
• Economic Defence
• Psychological Defence

Digital Defence was added as the 6th Pillar, 35 years later in 2019. 

• fake news
• cyberattacks
• disinformation campaigns

There was a need to tackle these new challenges.

Additionally, a fourth Service of the SAF, the Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS), was stood up to underline the importance of this domain.

Would I have crossed over if I were still in active service...

Dear LinkedIn,
Here is what it is like using the app. 

Suggested

Suggested

Suggested

Sponsored

Suggested

Sponsored 

Suggested

Sponsored


What’s up with this feed?

Did you even consider the experience?

Pls bring my connections’ posts. 

Sincerely,
Everyone.

Here are things I avoid on LinkedIn. 

But some of you dive head in. 

- rants
- politics
- religion
- complaints 
- sensitive info
- overly personal info
- every trending or news event 

What else do you see others posting about that should be avoided?

undefined undefined

bootcamp

Sign up here:
https://catalystcorporatetraining.classe365.com/form/view/AutoBootCamp?_gl=1*9rfqtg*_ga*MTQ4NTczNDM0MC4xNjk4MjQxODM1*_ga_YYXBQS6S5Q*MTcwNzgzMzEyNi4xODEuMS4xNzA3ODMzMTYwLjI2LjAuMA

LinkedIn

When I first moved to Canada, I remember reading about their Navy and Air Force capabilities (don’t ask me why I didn’t bother abt the Army). 

12 Halifax frigates. Ageing, 1990s
4 Victoria subs. Second hand. 
6 OPVs. Still coming online. 
12 Patrol crafts. 

F18s - started from 1982….


And to defend coast to coast….
to the True North

Was an impossible task. 

This Defence budget and Strategy is long overdue and may be the silver lining in this rocky new world. 

We are all pulling in the same direction. 

Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University will offer every company in every Catalyst program strategic insights to help them explore and pursue opportunities in Canada’s growing defence sector.

Stay connected and pull together.

No alternative text description for this image

You know Canada is on the up when Dad sends you a TikTok (no i dont have an account) about the upcoming increase in defence spending.

What about Canada do you appreciate?

I like the cold...... what about you?

Building a cyber company is not for everyone.

Do you even have the commitment to do so?

I interviewed Eldon Sprickerhoff to get his insights for the next generation of founders. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a mentor at Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University. 


𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿. 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 “𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗱”

𝘘: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴?


I kept seeing the same patterns: some passionate and brilliant technical founders hitting predictable walls - raising capital without understanding dilution consequences, scaling teams without proper foundations, pursuing growth without sustainable unit economics, or worse: flailing in the market with a product/offering that didn’t have an obvious value or importance.

What frustrated me was that these weren't unsolvable problems. They were challenges we had faced and eventually figured out, often painfully. I realized this knowledge could help others avoid the same expensive mistakes.

The recurring theme was the gap between technical excellence and business fundamentals. Founders could build incredible technology but struggled with identifying their true “ideal client profile”, minimally viable offering, go-to-market strategy, fundraising dynamics, or organizational design. "Committed" became my way of sharing survival strategies that weren't readily available elsewhere.


𝘘: 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴?

Right now, I'm focused on helping the next generation of cybersecurity founders build enduring companies. Through my consulting and advisory roles, I'm seeing exceptional technical talent that needs guidance on the business side.

The masterclass is a way to scale that impact. I can only mentor a handful of founders directly, but the principles I learned building eSentire are broadly applicable. I want to help founders avoid the mistakes that nearly killed our company early on and accelerate their path to product-market fit and sustainable growth.

What excites me most is seeing founders take these lessons and apply them in ways I never imagined - solving problems that didn't exist when we started eSentire. The cybersecurity landscape keeps evolving, and I want to help the best founders navigate it successfully.


If you enjoyed this interview series, please follow Eldon and get his book at https://lnkd.in/gS2HNAnY


P.S. Have you read Committed? 
Get it already.

Having a brilliant idea is exciting.

But how you overcome uncertainty with conviction is key.

I interviewed Eldon Sprickerhoff to get his insights for the next generation of founders. Eldon is an active entrepreneur, investor, mentor, author, advisory and board member at the intersections of information security, computer science, machine learning, SaaS, and finance. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a mentor at Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University. 

He is best known for founding eSentire, a leading global cybersecurity Managed Detection and Response company.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 ‘𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢’ 𝘵𝘰 ‘𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺’?

I suppose that the most uncertain part was whether organizations would actually pay for continuous security monitoring as a service. In 2001, companies were used to buying products or hiring consultants for projects - not ongoing security operations.

What gave me conviction was simple: I knew from my time in New York that security threats didn't take breaks, but most companies couldn't afford 24/7 security teams, even if they knew that the threats existed. The gap between the threat reality and what organizations could resource internally was massive and growing. That disconnect was the opportunity.


If you enjoyed this interview series, please follow Eldon and get his book at https://lnkd.in/gS2HNAnY

He aims to be the Rick Rubin of Canadian cybersecurity startups: helping the right teams sharpen their edge, amplify their strengths, and scale faster.

P.S. What is the current opportunity in Cyber?

Scaling Cybersecurity Companies: Strategic Advisor & Growth Architect

Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University

eSentire

Canada is in the top ten healthcare spenders in the world.
Leaders are drooling over potential AI efficiencies.
McKinsey & Company estimates CAD$14 - 26B net savings.

But it's not a straight golden ticket.

Here are 3 problems for small-med health organizations.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝟭:
Unmanaged health data breach risk undermines trust, compliance, and growth.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝟮:
Limited ability to adopt AI and advanced technologies securely and ethically.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝟯:
Resource-constrained resilience posture: small teams are under-prepared for cyber incidents and resulting in operational disruption.


This is a problem for the entire ecosystem.
It is not going to be solved overnight.
But we can take steps in the right direction.

Join us for an expert panel discussion on 𝗙𝗲𝗯 𝟭𝟭, 𝟭𝟬𝟯𝟬𝗮𝗺.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜: 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿-𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗠𝗘𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗢𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼

Patricia Thaine - Co-founder, Private AI
Gila Pyke - VP Enterprise Risk, WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL) 
Loreen Wales - Founder & CEO, My Viva Inc.
Anne Genge - CEO, Myla Training | AI Privacy for Healthcare 

This webinar will explore the intersection of cybersecurity, privacy, and AI. The expert panel will cover topics such as specific challenges for health-data custodians, privacy and regulatory context and AI adoption risks and opportunities.



𝟲 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀

This will be followed by a hands-on and interactive bootcamp co-developed and co-led by health privacy expert Patrick Lo, CISSP, CIPP/C and myself.

Offered virtually for 2 hours/week for 6 weeks, this bootcamp launches on Feb 17 and Mar 31 - but don't wait, we've already had to close the first cohort and added new dates.

Learn more and register: https://lnkd.in/ghdVa4XE

Offered in partnership by Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University and Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) , with funding from the Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario.

McKinsey & Company

Co-Founder and Chairwoman @ Private AI | Building the Privacy Layer for Data | Host of The Data Frontier Podcast | World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2023 | Maclean’s magazine Power List 2024 🇨🇦

Private AI

Passionate about risk management, privacy, cybersecurity and healthcare interoperability compliance. Harmonized technology is how we let clinicians and technologists focus on their dayjob of improving patient outcomes.

WELL Health Technologies Corp. (TSX: WELL)

Founder & CEO at My Viva Inc.

My Viva Inc.

Use AI Without Blowing up Privacy, Compliance, or Common Sense. — Practical Training for Scams, Hackers & AI Risks* Professional Speaker* Risk Management Professional• AI Privacy & Security Training Healthcare + SME

Myla Training | AI Privacy for Healthcare

CEO, Privacy Horizon Inc.

Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX)

Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario

Every company begins by solving a problem.

Do you have clarity of exactly what that is?

I interviewed Eldon Sprickerhoff to get his insights for the next generation of founders. Eldon is an active entrepreneur, investor, mentor, author, advisory and board member at the intersections of information security, computer science, machine learning, SaaS, and finance. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a mentor at Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University. 

He is best known for founding eSentire, a leading global cybersecurity Managed Detection and Response company.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥?

Before starting eSentire, I was providing information security consulting at a prime broker in New York, supporting both the brokerage itself and the hedge funds they hosted. I was building out defensive processes and systems to protect their Internet-connected infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated threats.

What I kept noticing was the gap between what organizations needed and what they could actually sustain. Security didn't operate on business hours - threats were 24/7 - but very few organizations could afford dedicated security operations teams. Even well-funded financial institutions struggled to staff and maintain continuous monitoring. Smaller firms had no chance.

I also saw that traditional consulting wasn't solving the core problem. Companies would hire us for projects, we'd implement solutions, then leave. But security isn't a project - it's an ongoing operational challenge. The defensive systems I built needed constant attention, tuning, and response capabilities.

This experience became the foundation for eSentire. I realized that if sophisticated financial firms couldn't solve this problem internally, there had to be a better model - one where security expertise and continuous operations could be delivered as a service rather than a one-time project or expensive internal build-out. That insight, combined with the operational knowledge I gained in New York, gave me the platform to build something fundamentally different.


If you enjoyed this interview series, please follow Eldon and get his book at https://lnkd.in/gS2HNAnY

He aims to be the Rick Rubin of Canadian cybersecurity startups: helping the right teams sharpen their edge, amplify their strengths, and scale faster.

P.S. What other qns would you ask him?

4 types of people in tabletop exercises.

And how to deal with them.

It is every facilitator's nightmare. You spend hours designing and scheduling a tabletop exercise and you practice and envision every conversation, pushback, scenario.

Yet you still feel unprepared because you don't fully know who the audience is, what they are like, and whether they will chew you up and spit you out.

Here are the 4 archetypes and how to manage these characters.

1. The Know-it-all

If we all conduct a blind survey in the room and ask everyone to close their eyes and point to the person who "Knows-it-all", they will all point to the same person.

How to tell who this person is?

Don't worry. When the exercise reaches the first discussion point, this person will start talking about Step A to Z on what he or his team will do. He knows his plans, critical processes, who to call, what to ask, what to investigate, how long it takes, priorities etc

How do you handle the "Know-it-all"?

This is a good thing.
Don't discourage the sharing. Instead leverage what the person is sharing and post some of the things he raised to other teams.

Example:
Know-it-all: For this particular incident, we will triage and send out the initial report within 30 mins

You: That is excellent. Operations team (or any other team that should receive the report), is the information within the initial report sufficient or what other types of info will help your team's processes?

Know-it-alls are good for keeping the flow of the exercise. Leverage them well.

2. The Forever-Skeptic (FS for short)

Signs of the FS.
- This will never happen
- We have implemented tools for this
- This inject is not applicable for our env

I know. 
You may find yourself sweating at this point. But don't worry, leverage your exercise design partner to help expand on the inject to make it relevant.

OR if all else fails. 
This is one trick that works.

Ask the FS straight up. 
"Is there a similar inject or scenario where in your experience and expertise, you know will triggers an event/incident that needs your team's response?"

1. This strokes FS's ego.
2. You have trapped FS. He can't say there is no such scenario.
3. Smile and pivot from FS's suggestion.
4. Rem to tie it back to the overall scenario.

3. The Conversation Hogger

Signs of the Hogger
- This is a no brainer. If you record the whole, the hogger probably took up 70% of the air time.

It is likely that the hogger has gone too far down a rabbit hole. 

Acknowledge the hogger's contribution and bring others in the convo.

4. The silent ones

No sound. No inputs. No involvement.
Ask them directly what they think or they would do. 
Do it with every inject.

What other characters are there and how do you deal w them?

Basic TTX design: Start w scenario. 
Advanced TTX: Start w objectives. 
Expert TTX: Start w decision points. 

Simple trick. 
Work in this order. 

Start with decision points. 
Build up the objectives. 
Fit the scenario in. 

This makes the exercise effective. 

Sounds simple. 
Until you try it out. 

What have you seen teams start with when designing exercises?

It’s 2026 and it’s still a VUCA world. 

Volatilite
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous 

No wonder there is a continued demand for crisis mgmt professionals. 

VUCA was introduced in 90s to describe the post Cold War period. 
Still as relevant today. 


In fact, things may escalate. 

BANI is added to the frame with pandemics, AI, and whatever’s next. 

Brittle
Anxious
Nonlinear 
Incomprehensible


Stay safe out there. 

P.S Just saw the missile attack on the base in Bahrain where I was stationed back in the day.

Imagine exercising the exact scenario a couple of weeks before an incident. 

This is how some teams would have managed the lead up to this weekend. 

The sharpest teams would have tracked the escalation and highlighted the threat scenarios weeks ago. This can only happen if your threat intel teams covers beyond just cyber. 

The risk teams would be pulled in and have a quick reassessment. This can only happen if your intel and risk teams know how to work together. 

The exercise and security teams collaborate to rapidly design and develop exercise scenarios. This can only happen if leaders carve out time. 

The leadership team prepare briefs to the executive leadership and board. This can only happen if there is trust. 

Can you predict when something kicks off? Nope but you can certainly prep for it in advance. 

And when you run the exact scenario weeks before it actually happens. 

Imagine the credibility your team gains. This doesn’t happen by chance but by an intricate and established machinery. 

P.S 
how are you actively managing risks?

If the message is still unclear, do this. 
- review last few major incidents 
- identify the most relevant scenarios
- refresh or recirculate response plans
- stand up a quick incident drill 
- plan for a near term exercise 
- run the exercise and note lessons
- update leadership on readiness


Write a quick doc on this process. 
That is your response playbook. 
Don’t fumble the next crisis.

Running the Naval Wargaming & Simulation Centre provided a strong foundation for running cyber exercises.

Here was what a typical week looked like.

• detailing injects
• designing exercise scenarios
• preparing exercise with instructors
• running exercises for warfare teams
• keeping up to date with naval tactics
• tracking and assessing performances
• planning out future exercise schedules
• conducting pre and post-exercise briefs
• discussing the ship's exercise objectives
• ensuring teams are up to date on Red Team tactics

Now you can understand the transferable skills in Cybersecurity exercises.

If you’re a cybersecurity CEO going to RSAC 2026, this will either save you… or cost you.

Most teams treat RSAC like a 4-day sprint.

But the CEOs who win RSAC treat it like a 6-week runway:

• build familiarity in the feed
• earn trust with proof and POV
• then make the meeting ask easy
  
If you skip the runway, you’ll feel it:

• you’ll be “just another booth”
• you’ll get lots of “send me info”
• your SDRs will grind cold outreach at peak noise

So I built a free package for cyber CEOs:

RSAC 2026: 6-Week LinkedIn Content Package

Mon: Authority
Wed: Trust
Fri: Leads (value-driven CTA to meet at RSAC)

Inside:

• 18 complete posts (ready to copy/paste)
• multiple post formats (checklists, lessons, mistakes)
• CTAs tied to real buyer pain and outcomes

Designed for a mid-size cybersecurity company CEO.

Want it?

Comment PACKAGE and I’ll DM it to you.

(Tag someone who you know will benefit from this.)

Most cyber CEOs ask:

What shld I write about on LinkedIn?

Here’s a simple filter I give clients 

Write about this:
- Reason for product pivots
- Questions boards asks
- Insights from clients 
- Investor concerns 
- Tough decisions

Avoid writing this:

- Repost cyber news
- Random infographics 
- Vague “AI is risky” takes
- Generic breach commentary

If another cyber CEO could copy-paste your post and it still works, it’s probably not helping your positioning.

The best way to avoid mistakes is to learn from others who have trodden a similar path. 

I interviewed Eldon Sprickerhoff to get his insights for the next generation of founders. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a mentor at Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University. 

He is best known for founding eSentire, a leading global cybersecurity Managed Detection and Response company.

𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲

𝘘: 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮?

Three lessons stand out:

First, product-market fit isn't a one-time achievement - it's continuous. What worked for early customers often needed to evolve as we scaled. This came from painful experience watching our initial approach struggle as we tried to expand.

Second, in security, trust is everything but takes years to build. This lesson came from losing deals early on simply because we were unknown, regardless of our technical capabilities. We had to earn credibility one customer at a time.

Third, technical founders need to learn business fundamentals or find partners who have them. We learned this through trial and error - understanding unit economics, founder-led sales processes, and operational scaling didn't come naturally but became critical to our survival.


𝘘: 𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺’𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴?

A few moments were definitive:

The decision to focus on MDR as its own category rather than trying to be a general security consultancy. This came from recognizing we needed to own a specific problem rather than compete in a commoditized services market.

Choosing to build certain technology components rather than resell others' tools - and this changed throughout the life of the company. This was risky and capital-intensive, but it became our moat. We decided based on the belief that you can't deliver differentiated outcomes with commoditized tools; we made the choice to build on well-established frameworks (enterprise-level plumbing) and then build our own solutions on top.


The choice to pursue enterprise clients over SMB at a certain stage. This shift required completely rethinking our go-to-market, but the economics and retention made it necessary. We made this call when customer acquisition costs versus lifetime value forced us to evolve.


P.S. Are you capturing these moments in your journey?

I have been writing here for 3.5 years. 

These 3 events forced me to start. 

Perhaps you are on the fence and thinking about whether you should start making your thoughts public. 

Over-analysing the risk v reward. 

I know. I was once in your shoes. 

Perhaps you have been through these events that changed my mind and got me started writing on LinkedIn. 

1. “Wasted” work

I remember preparing a presentation. Missed dinners and worked over weekends. In the end, I sent it to my boss who took a 5 min look, deleted 50% and sent it upwards. 

His boss takes a 3 min look and says “cut it down to 2 slides”.

Those hours of work, thought process, analysis, critical thinking 

All gone to “waste”. 

I wanted to articulate my efforts. 

2. Muted Network

I asked myself, within my org,
how many people knew me. 

And how many fewer knew about the quality of work that I produce. 

I was in a role that needed to interact with many other departments. 

Yet. I counted. 
Maybe 40 ppl knew me. 
And maybe 7 knew my work. 

That needed to change. 
So I took matters into my own hands and started writing and sharing. 

3. Watched others flourish

I started reading what others wrote. 
No the mindless scrolling that u do. 

But reading and diving into posts. 

Soon I realized that I do have valuable things and experiences to share. 


If you are reading this, you probably have similar experiences. 

Start writing. 

P.S what encouraged you to start writing here on LinkedIn ?

P.S.S whose ready for summer?

CEOs are holding back their team if they have no presence on LinkedIn. 

You need to take the lead. 

When your team sees you being active, it gives them the encouragement to grow their own presence and inevitably draw attention to your organization. 

But if you barely bother, they will hesitate and may even be worried. 

What does being active bring?

- more warm leads, less cold spam 
- awareness for the company
- increased partnership opps
- better organic marketing 
- advocacy for yr team

What’s holding CEOs back?

A Mag 7 acquires your Cyber company for Billions.

No wonder everyone is now a cyber founder... BUT

I interviewed Eldon Sprickerhoff to get his insights for the next generation of founders. He is best known for founding eSentire, a leading global cybersecurity Managed Detection and Response company.

𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆’𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀

𝘘: 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘴?


The biggest difference is that the market now better understands the category. When we started, we had to explain why continuous monitoring mattered, let alone explaining what we meant by “Embedded Incident Response” or “Collaborative Threat Management” (two early terms we used to describe what benefit we were bringing to the market).

Today, MDR is established - founders don't need to educate the market on the concept, but they face different challenges.

The bar for differentiation is much higher. Buyers are more sophisticated and have many options. You can't win just by being "better" - you need to solve a problem fundamentally differently or serve an underserved segment.

Capital availability has changed dramatically. In the early 2000s, cybersecurity funding was extremely scarce. Today, capital is somewhat more abundant (especially when addressing the market from the perspective of AI), which means you can scale faster but also face better-funded competition earlier. The pressure to grow quickly can actually hurt companies that haven't found true product-market fit.


𝘘: 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘺𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦-𝘶𝘱𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩?

I look for a few signals:

Do they have deep conviction about a specific problem, or are they chasing a market opportunity? The best founders I meet can articulate exactly why their solution needs to exist based on real experience, not market sizing slides.

Are their customers renewing and expanding? Revenue growth matters, but retention and expansion tell you if you're actually solving the problem. Churn hides in early-stage metrics.

Can the founder articulate their unit economics clearly? If they can't explain their CAC, LTV, and path to profitability, they're likely building on quicksand regardless of how impressive the top-line growth looks.

Finally, are they learning and adapting? The founders who succeed aren't the ones who execute their original plan perfectly - they're the ones who recognize when something isn't working and adjust intelligently. This has been coined as a new flavour of MVP: Minimally eVolveable Product.



If you enjoyed this interview series, please follow Eldon and get his book at https://lnkd.in/gS2HNAnY

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