From start-up to stay-up.
Most ventures die before year five. The ones that don’t share a small set of frameworks. I write about them — and run a consulting practice for founders who want to apply them.
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What I write about.
The Stay-Up Philosophy
Long-form thinking on what it takes to grow a venture past year five.
02Founder Execution
Practical frameworks on goals, productivity, and the gap between intention and action.
03African Capital
Capital structures, term sheets, and the operator-investor lens, written from inside African markets.
04Teams & Governance
Building, hiring, and governing under the constraints of an early-stage African venture.
Recent essays
The Conversation No Founder Wants to Have With Their Cap Table
When dilution becomes a moral question, not just a math problem.
Why Most Quarterly Goals Are Theatre
The honest test: can your team predict next quarter’s goals before you announce them?
Survivorship Bias Has a Brand Problem
Why the founder stories you read are statistically the wrong ones to learn from.
I’ve been on both sides of the table.
Founder of four ventures across Southern Africa. Author of Beyond Inception. Operator-investor on small African deals. I’ve watched companies survive year five and watched companies die in year three, and the difference was never what the founder books said it would be.
This site is the longer answer. I write the frameworks I wish I’d had earlier, and I work with founders who want to apply them through TBGA Consulting Group.
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