The current debate about whether “SaaS is dead” has two camps. Camp one: SaaS is in serious trouble at the hands of AI. Camp two: SaaS is just fine, nothing to see here, folks. Both camps are wrong. The truth is more interesting — and more concerning for incumbent SaaS companies — than either side admits. The Stock Market Is Sending a Signal Start with what the public markets are telling us. Salesforce is down over 40% from its highs, and the slide has been relentless — dropping 20% in 2025 and another 10%+ to start 2026 as AI monetization concerns shake the software sector. Adobe is in even worse shape —down 34% in the past year, hitting a seven-year…
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Current Affairs
Curated Reading on AI
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,…
New Podcast – Something Old, Something New, Something Red, White, and Blue
I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet since April (I still hate non-competes and while I respect the right of the Chamber of Commerce to sue the FTC, I hope common sense prevails). Between then and now, we switched things up at Bolster, and my co-founder Cathy Hawley is now the CEO. Things are great there, and if you need any executive search help (Director to C-level or Board/Advisory/Fractional), let me know. I’ve been hard at work on a passion project while I’ve been between things professionally, and I’m excited this week to announce the launch of my new podcast mini-series, Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History. That link is to the web site where you can see the whole plan…
Patience vs. Impatience
Patience and Impatience are both critical tools in the founder toolbelt. That sounds kind of funny since they’re at odds with each other. Let me explain. Patience is hard, but there are some things that require it. As they say metaphorically about Product, nine women can’t make a baby in a month. Products needs to be built, tested in the wild, marinate with clients. GTM motions take time to figure out. Brands take time to build unless you have billions to throw at the problem. Bread takes time to rise. Patience is a really useful tool when people on your team or board get itchy for success and you need to calm them down and keep them focused. Impatience, on the…
Should CEOs wade into Politics?
This question has been on my mind for years. In the wake of Georgia passing its new voting regulations, a many of America’s large company CEOs are taking some kind of vocal stance (Coca Cola) or even action (Major League Baseball) on the matter. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CEOs to “stay the hell out of politics” and proceeded to walk that comment back a little bit the following day. The debate isn’t new, but it’s getting uglier, like so much of public discourse in America. Former American Express CEO Harvey Golub wrote an op-ed earlier this week in The Wall Street Journal entitled Politics is Risky Business for CEOs (behind a paywall), the subhead of which sums up…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part VII – Retrospective
(This is the seventh and final post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. Other posts in order are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) I’ll start the final post in this series by sharing the overview and retrospective deck that we created my last day and the two days after. Governor Polis is going to share this with the National Governors Association in case other states are interested in our model or learnings. This pdf, which you’re welcome to download or just view in SlideShare, is a good overview of what we did and where things stood as of Saturday, March 28, noting that by the…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part VI – How This Compared to Running a Company
(This is the sixth post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. Other posts in order are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.) As these posts have been running, a few people have asked me to quickly compare this experience to the experience of being a Startup CEO. And that’s an interesting way to think about it. In a lot of ways, the couple of weeks of getting the IRT up and running felt like starting up a new business, only a lot more intense. Following the outline of sections in Startup CEO: a field guide to scaling up your business… Part One: Storytelling. The whole timeframe was…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part V – Wrapping Up, Days 10-12
(This is the fifth post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. Other posts in order are 1, 2, 3, and 4.) Thursday, March 26, Day 10 Sarah continuing to take over and stronger by the day Sarah cleared me to go home, only one more person to ask Deep deep dive on Mass Testing – so good to spend that time Pretty much got the strategy right – shocking we could get that close with so little public health experience – Kyle awesome – EOC leadership briefing That was most of the day Some downloads to Sarah and Kacey Feeling that two of our project teams are…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part IV – Replacing Myself, Days 7-9
(This is the fourth post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. Other posts in order are 1, 2, and 3.) Monday, March 23, Day 7 Wellness screening – put hot cup of coffee against my temples – now finally the thermometer works (although I can’t say that it gives me a high degree of comfort that I have figured out a workaround!) Furious execution and still backlog is growing no matter how much I do – thank goodness team is growing. Never seen this before – work coming in faster than I can process it, and I am a fast processer. Inbox clean when I go to…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part III – Hitting Our Stride, Days 4-6
(This is the third post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. First two posts are here and here.) Friday, March 20, Day 4 Morning pilates going pretty well, a good daily routine here Wellness Screening on the way in for the first time. Uniformed National Guard guys taking temperature on surface of face/temples. Can’t get it to work – takes 6x Leadership and prioritization of important over urgent – staff the team Strategic National Stockpile failure – they send us 60,000 masks and Colorado is using 68,000/day. They send us ZERO ventilators. Seems like it’s neither strategic nor a stockpile. Guess it really is every state for…
State of Colorado COVID-19 Innovation Response Team, Part II – Getting Started, Days 1-3
(This is the second post in a series documenting the work I did in Colorado on the Governor’s COVID-19 Innovation Response Team – IRT. Introductory post is here.) Tuesday, March 17, Day 1 Extended stay hotel does not have a gym. Hopefully there is one at work Walking into office for the first time. We are in a government building in a random town just south of Denver that houses the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) and the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. These are the teams who are on point for emergency response in Colorado when there is any kind of fire, flood, cyberattack, or other emergency MAJOR Imposter Syndrome – I don’t know anything about anything…