One of the hardest things about being a CEO in the AI era isn’t the technology itself — it’s the firehose of information about the technology. There’s so much being written about AI right now that it’s almost impossible to separate the signal from the noise. Hot takes, doomsday predictions, breathless hype, vendor pitches dressed up as thought leadership — it’s exhausting. So I thought I’d do something useful and share periodically a curated basket of the most interesting reading I’ve done. Think of it as the reading list I’d hand to a fellow CEO who said, “I know I need to get smarter about AI — where do I start?” This first batch is a bit of a catch-up,…
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Business
AI won’t necessarily take your job, but someone who uses it will
AI is going to destroy a lot of jobs. Let’s just start there. White collar jobs. Desk jobs. The kind of jobs where your primary output is information, analysis, or words on a screen. This isn’t speculation — it’s already happening. But here’s the thing: the world has survived every major technological disruption in history. When the power loom arrived in the early 1800s, hand weavers rioted — literally smashed the machines — because they were certain it was the end of work. It wasn’t the end of work. It was the end of that work. New work emerged that no one could have predicted, like, oh say, the commercial mass-produced clothing industry, which had even more jobs on the…
Why I am Writing About AI (and Why It’s Not Just About My Company)
My marketing team has been asking me to write more about Markup AI — what we do, why it matters, where we’re headed. And I will. I’m the CEO of a company that builds Content Guardian Agents to help enterprises scale AI-generated content smartly and safely. I love what we’re building. I believe in it deeply. And I’ll reference it when it’s relevant. I also love how we’re building things, since we are hardcore practitioners using AI to build our business at decent scale. But if you’ve read this blog over the years — through my two decades at Return Path, my time building Bolster, and three books on startup leadership — you know that’s never been what this space…
Why AI Content Needs a Guardian: Introducing Markup AI
(I realize I’ve been relatively quiet since I started my new job in January…this is what I’ve been up to. It may be the most interesting job I’ve ever had…but more to come on that over time.) I was at a recent Gartner CEO conference on AI in New York City, and one phrase keeps rattling around in my brain: “There is such a rapid pace of development that we are regularly seeing ‘obsolescence before maturity.’” In other words, by the time AI products reach early adoption in the market, they’re already obsolete. But here’s the thing – while everyone’s racing to build the next AI breakthrough, they’re missing a massive problem hiding in plain sight. AI has fundamentally changed…
Announcing the launch of the Startup CXO mini-books for CFOs, CROs, CMOs, CTOs, and CPOs
I’m thrilled to announce that we created mini-books (about 80 pages long and only $9-10 on Amazon) out of five of the major functional areas covered in Startup CXO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company’s Critical Functions and Teams, part of our series along with Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business and Startup Boards: A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors. I’ve always said that while I love all three books, in some ways Startup CXO is the best because it’s a “book of books.” While I’d still encourage all CEOs and senior executives (CXOs) to read the full manuscript, my friends and co-authors and I are happy to…
Good riddance to non-competes
I love that the FTC just banned non-competes, as everyone expected they would. Normally, I’m in favor of small government and fewer regulations, but this is one where I think the government has a legitimate interest in setting up guardrails to a free market. We started off at Return Path years ago with a standard and fairly benign non-compete because they were standard. But once California banned them and then we started doing business internationally in countries where they were illegal or not customary, we realized it was unfair to treat some employees different than others, so we got rid of them entirely and reverted to the common denominator. We don’t have them at Bolster. Restricting employees in terms of…
Decisions
Happy Leap Day! One of the better books I’ve read in the last 6 months is James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, which provides a great framework around habits. It’s worth a read, whether you’re talking about business habits/routines or personal ones. This isn’t a book review, but quickly while I have you – here’s a summary of his “laws”: HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABITThe 1st Law: Make It ObviousThe 2nd Law:Make It AttractiveThe 3rd Law: Make It EasyThe 4th Law: Make It Satisfying HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABITInversion of the 1st Law: Make It InvisibleInversion of the 2nd Law: Make It UnattractiveInversion of the 3rd Law:…
How I Engage with the CBDO
(Post 4 of 4 in the series on Scaling CBDO’s- other posts are, When to hire your first Chief Business Development Officer, What does Great look like in a Chief Business Development Officer and Signs your Chief Business Development Officer isn’t Scaling) Other than the weekly executive meeting, your day as a CEO rarely has an entry of “meet the CBDO.” Because of the infrequency of deals it’s critical to engage with the CBDO with a regular cadence so that when something does come up you’re not getting to know each other again. Anyway, a few ways I’ve typically spent the most time or gotten the most value out of CBDOs over the years are: One way to engage with…
Signs your CBDO isn’t scaling
(This is the third post in the series… The first one When to Hire your first CBDO is here, and What does Great Look Like in a CBDO is here). The metrics for understanding whether or not your CBDO is scaling differs from other functions like Sales, People Ops, Customer Service, and Finance because throughout the scaling process the CBDO team is likely to be small. So how do you know if your CBDO is scaling if they’re essentially the same size regardless of what the rest of your company is doing? I have found that CBDOs who aren’t scaling well past the startup stage are the ones who typically operate in the following ways. First, a CBDO who isn’t scaling is…
When it’s Time to Hire Your First Chief Business Development Officer
(Post 1 of 4 in the series of Scaling CPDO’s). For most startups the idea of hiring a CBDO is a pipedream, it’s a role that only global corporations have, right? After all, strategic partnerships and M&A are rare events for a startup and can be handled by the founder/CEO, or potentially by someone in Sales. If a startup is partner or channel heavy, those areas may be the focus of the Sales team in general. Or, if there is sporadic M&A activity that can be handled by external advisors or bankers. So how do you know when it’s time to hire your first CBDO? You know it’s time to hire a CBDO when you are spending too much of…
Camera On, Mic On
At my last company, we used to occasionally attend a giant meeting at one of the large ISPs — Microsoft, Yahoo, and the like — and it always annoyed me to be presenting to or engaging in a discussion with a room full of a dozen people and having all of them there with their laptops open, clearly distracted and doing other work. I’m increasingly finding annoyance with the Zoom equivalent, which is being in a meeting or attending a presentation, but turning off your mic and camera. It’s impossible to know as the person leading the meeting or speaking if you’re actually there. And if you’re there, if you’re paying attention. And how many times in a meeting can…