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 I run a consulting practice for founders who want to apply them.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
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 Partnership Conversation You Have Before You Need It
Founders postpone the conversation about who owns what, who decides, and who leaves, because there is nothing yet…
The Invoice Is Not the Sale: A Collections Discipline for Markets Where Terms Are Fiction
In most of Africa an invoice is not the end of a sale. It is the opening of…
Who Runs It When You Are in the Other City
Go away for two weeks and look at what stopped. What continues without you is your company; what…
I’ve been on both sides of the table.
Founder of five 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.
Read the full story