Writing
Two streams. Mike & Ned's Links goes out every week — the most interesting things we read, watched, or argued about. Blog posts are longer notes from inside founder conversations.
Weekly · Substack
A weekly link letter from two former operators. Tools, essays, founder lessons, things we're chewing on.
startupthoughts.substack.com
This week → Tools, articles, and founder lessons. New issue every week on Substack. (Issue titles & previews will pull from the feed once wired up.)
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Frameworks and observations from inside founder conversations. Published when there's something worth saying. Read in full on mikelewis.me.
The pitch: stop asking "what's wrong with me?" and start asking "what system would actually produce what I want?" Psychology has its place — but the systems you run are usually where the leverage hides.
Read the post ↗A common cause of slow, frustrating startups is sloppy agreements — people not showing up on time, quotas missed without consequence, money spent that shouldn't be. The fix isn't more rules; it's tighter agreements.
A resurfaced Coach K practice plan that's really a clinic on organization, delegation, adaptability, and standards. The lessons translate cleanly to running a company.
Technical founders instrument their product to the millimeter and then manage their team on vibes. A short essay on closing that gap.
Most of the work I do with clients comes down to three steps: figure out what you actually want, decide on a strategy to get it, and then go do that. The trap is in step one.
An idea from Annie Duke and Google X: if your moonshot needs both a trained monkey and a pedestal, train the monkey first. Pedestals are easy. Knowing whether the whole bet is real is what matters.
Notes I kept from working with Travis pre-Uber — his rules for negotiating, raising, and getting seed-stage companies off the ground. A re-up of his old Swooshing.com posts.
The ceiling on a startup is usually the founder. Growing the business and growing yourself aren't separate projects.
Real change doesn't come from grit or from a good explanation. It comes from an insight — a new thought that lands. A short video and a short post on what actually moves people.
Notes from Claire Hughes Johnson's book. Both are necessary; they're not the same thing. Three parts that stuck with me.
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