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Oh, sorry, it's the end of the year with uh it's almost Christmas, but it's also the end of season five, and I've now sat down across from nine incredible founders, MDs, heads of platforms, and CEOs this season.
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And it's been it's been really fun, but I think it's also been really thought-provoking because although each conversation was unique, for me, three patterns really emerged that reinforce the work that I do with founders.
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And I just wanted to dive into the three of them.
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Pattern one that I've seen in this season is that vulnerability is the unlock, not the weakness.
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Now we saw Mark come on and share his story about how he launched Gather and he started posts on LinkedIn about his mental health and meeting for drinks, and that became a 10,000-member community of VCs, founders, and investors.
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Just shows that vulnerability isn't just authentic, it can be strategic.
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And then I spoke with Asim, who told me about the standing on the balcony for three nights, like contemplating suicide.
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And he's now building Plum, helping companies put mental health at the centre of HR.
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Kate talked about losing passion for her work until she invested in her own development through Kate 1.0, 2.0, and now 3.0.
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And what that's really reinforced for me is this idea of like, I think founders often feel they need to project strength and certainty, especially in front of their team and investors.
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And these conversations really help flip that assumption.
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The founders who are building the most sustainable, valuable businesses aren't the ones who have it all figured out, but instead they're the ones brave enough to say, I'm I'm struggling with this, or I need help here.
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And this really puts this authenticity at the centre.
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It's not oversharing, it's just showing who you are and that you're not perfect.
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And I always talk with fans about it, like it starts with you, it's one of sort of the key part of my framework.
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And that's always meant self-awareness.
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But it's not just knowing your strengths and weaknesses, although that really helps.
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And there's a valuable thing to do to explore them.
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But it's also once you're clear, it's a bit about being willing to share them.
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And that vulnerability creates psychological safety for your team, it creates authentic connections with your peers, and it creates productive relationships with your investors.
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I even see it with myself when I'm talking to clients.
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Like I talk a lot about, and I see it with this idea of being successful but broken.
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And that is definitely something that I experienced when I was a founder.
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And I think just sharing that journey and sharing that I've felt that pain really helps create a connection and go, okay, well, you've experienced it too.
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You can help move me away from this place.
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And the takeaway of this is I think for founders is find one person, whether that's a coach, a peer founder, a trust advisor, and just have a completely honest conversation about where you're actually stuck.
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Not the safe version, the real version.
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Because that's where the breakthrough starts.
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Now, pattern two that has really come out this season is that strategic resource allocation beats grinding.
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And that's there's a real temptation, especially in the startup phase, to just like do more, and that makes total sense.
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But the insight that's come through the season is that every founder who's scaled successfully had one thing in common, and that's they all made hard choices about what not to do.
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Because often it's really hard to make that choice.
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It's confidence to make that choice, and it takes clarity to make that choice.
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But if you think back to the stories of this season, you had George, who's the founder of Soul Supplier, he turned down investment when everyone said take the money.
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And why was that?
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It was because he knew himself, he knew like his ADHD, his need for autonomy, his current stage.
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Investment would have forced 400% growth when 200% was already chaotic.
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And that self-awareness saved his business and probably his sanity, and has left his business now in a much better position, which he feels in control of.
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Gorav, who's the founder of Jiva AI, talked about walking away from millions of dollars in revenue.
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He killed a profitable sort of funded business because it couldn't become what he needed it to be, but he did it smartly.
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He pivoted while Team A kept the lights on and Team B proved his new concept, and nine months later he has 300 enterprise customers.
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Or Steve, MD of C Studios.
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He's had three entrepreneurial experiences in the same company over 20 years, and his insight?
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Stay on offense versus defense.
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So are you dictating terms or reacting?
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Are you seeing a wider view or stuck firefighting?
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And what I've really liked about sort of his offer of a takeaway was his Monday win list connects that weekly task to quarterly goals and to annual goals.
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So staying very intentional about time allocation of what he's doing and what's what he's not doing.
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Matt from the founder of UHubs, who's a professional golf upturn founder, his insight was about frontline managers being the greatest point of failure, which resonates so much with me.
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Like a lot of the work I end up doing with founders around then management teams.
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It's something that we're not, we tend to be very good at something, and we kind of management is a default skill we pick up along the way.
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We promote people into management without training them and then wonder why teams underperform.
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And what he's found in the data is that 78% of sales reps miss their quota, which feels probably less of an effort problem, it's a systemic problem.
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And I think if you bring these sort of stories together, you just get this theme that's like real resilience is George saying no to investment.
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Like real strategic thinking is Gora pivoting a profitable business, and real leadership is Steve's Monday winless keeping him on offense.
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And when I think sort of the frameworks that I use, like I talk to fans about sort of a no excuses approach and a no excuses mentality, but that doesn't mean just sort of grinding on everything, just getting lots of things done.
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It can mean like pattern recognition, Gorov spotting market trends and acting, strategic constraints, like George knew his limits and built around them.
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It can be intentional time allocation, which kind of steeves offense versus defense.
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And really like systemic problem solving, so sort of Matt's approach to sales team performance.
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Being very clear about what you don't want to do is a massive gift.
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But takes courage and takes discipline because there's lots of noise out there going, oh, you should you should be doing this or you should be doing that.
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But just acknowledging that you can't do everything and making a real choice.
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So maybe the takeaway is like this week, do Steve's Monday win list exercise.
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What does winning this week actually look like?
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Map those wins to your quarterly goals and make sure they're aligned.
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If they don't connect, you're probably in defense mode.
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Too reactive, too scattered.
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Let's get back on offense.
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And then pattern three, ironically enough, given what business is called peer effect, is that peer learning is the accelerant.
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And so the big realization here is like the fastest scaling founders aren't necessarily the smartest people in the room.
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They might just be the best activating ecosystems and getting themselves into rooms where they're not the smartest.
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And so they're always learning.
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And if you look back through the season, you can see Mark going, but again at Gather, he's built an entire business around the idea that genuine peer connections beat transactional networking.
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Like one quality introduction can beat five mediocre ones.
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What he's aiming for here is this sort of reciprocity and giving that creates the currency that builds valuable networks.
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And then Libby, who's the founder of Actionhead, who she spent 25 years running the same business.
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And she's really learnt this valuable lesson from observing second-generation business owners in India.
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They're not freaking out because they absorbed all this wisdom and calmness growing up.
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Then you have Darcy, who's the head of platform at Outward VC, and her story was about how VC is just way more than capital.
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Like every fund has a speciality, a network, a hook.
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But founders had to be smart by how they squeeze the juice out of their VC.
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She helped one portfolio company get their first US Enterprise client through a portfolio introduction.
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And that one intro unlocked their entire US expansion.
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So maybe that one's a bit less about peer learning, but certainly about peer activation, the benefits you can get from being really smart about using your network.
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Kate, Asin, and like pretty much everyone that came on the podcast, every single founder who successfully mentioned coaches, mentors, peer groups, advisors.
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No one did it alone.
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And that very much goes against this lone wolf entrepreneur trope that we hear about.
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I suppose what changed for me on this is that I did build peer effect on the belief that peer learning matters.
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But having these conversations showed me, if anything, I'd underestimated how much it matters.
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It's not a nice to have.
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It's the difference between strugging alone for years versus breakthrough moments happening in months.
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It's just it's easier and it's just more fun.
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And so when we're thinking about the frameworks again, like going back to community, it's not just about sort of networking events and collecting LinkedIn connections.
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It's about vulnerability-based trust.
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So I look at sort of Mart's community working because people show up authentically.
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This one I really, really like.
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So the proactive asks, Darcy's feeling, if you don't ask, you don't get.
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Going to your VCs and peers with a very clear sort of wish list.
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Hey, it's Christmas.
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It's not just for Santa.
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Then you've got sort of reciprocity, like Libby learned calm from others, and now very happily shares that wisdom and insight.
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And then that sort of strategic connection.
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So it's not just random networking, but intentional relationship building around specific needs.
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So perhaps when we're thinking about this, and certainly sending it peer effect, I think this is why we're building the peer-ifect community the way we are, focusing on genuine peer connections, not transactional networking, enabling founders to support and have conversations with each other and address like real challenges.
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So, as a founder, what might you take away from this?
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What would be good action?
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Well, I think that's let's steal Darcy's idea.
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Like make your Christmas list.
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What do you need help with in the next six to 12 months?
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Customer intros, hiring advice, go-to-market strategy.
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Be very clear what can really move the needle for you.
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And then take that list to your investors, your peer groups, your advisors.
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See what happens.
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Make three specific asks this week.
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Let's see the impact.
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Let's see if your sort of next massive enterprise client or investor or key hire is just like one conversation away.
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So those three patterns again.
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One, vulnerability is the unlock, not the weakness.
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Two, strategic resource allocation beats grinding.
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And three, peer learning is the accelerant.
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Season five has I've loved it.
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It's been so good.
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It's been nice to meet people in person.
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It's been nice to hear these stories.
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And even though I've been doing this for sort of four or five years now, I'm still like, there's still so much to learn.
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Sometimes it's reinforcing what I already knew, sometimes it's taking me down a completely different path.
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Often there's so much of practical, actionable insight that can change.
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And it blows me away how willing people are to show.
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And the great thing about these three patterns that we've sort of identified today is that they really work together.
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You can't access peer learning without vulnerability.
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You can't allocate resources strategically without that outside perspective peers provide.
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And you can't be vulnerable without the psychological safety that a community creates.
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And so my challenge to you listening is just pick one pattern that resonated most and do one thing this week.
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If it was vulnerability, have one honest conversation about where you're stuck.
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If it's strategic, then create your Monday win list to map it to your goals.
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And if it's peer learning, then make three specific R's or people in your network.
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I think you'll be very surprised with the results.
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Oh, before we finish up for the year, say like I'm so excited about season six.
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2025 has been a great year, and these conversations convince me more than ever that peer learning is the unlock.
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That's why we're growing the peer effect community because founders scaling together scale faster than founders scaling alone.
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And not just faster, but more happily.
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Let's not forget this is something that we're going to be at for a while.
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Let's try and join it at the same time.
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So, my invitation to you is join us, subscribe, keep an eye on what we're doing.
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Let's make season six even better.
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And I look forward to seeing you all in 2026.