ABOUT THE BOOK 

 
Everyone talks about growth. But most people speak in abstract 
terms. Or discuss tactics without explaining the strategy or the 
“why” behind those tactics. 
 
Growth isn’t a single marketing channel. It’s not a single hire. And it’s 
definitely not the same for every company. Raising money from 
investors also doesn’t guarantee growth. 
 
So what is growth? 
 
Growth is an “always improving” founder mindset, combined with a 
plan that’s executed to create minimal downside and unlimited 
upside potential for the founding team, employees and customers. 
 
If you’re looking for help to grow your business rapidly with less 
stress, more fun and a lot more certainty, I wrote this book for you. 

 
 
   
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
 
By all definitions, Mitchell Harper is a serial entrepreneur. Since 
2001 he’s built 8 companies. Today he is the founder, CEO and 
chairman of ​Insane Growth​, where his mission is to directly impact 
the growth of 1,000,000 businesses by 2027. 
 
He has built companies in a variety of industries, including software 
(BigCommerce, Interspire, Capital H Labs), online learning 
(DevArticles, Insane Growth) and real estate (Harpdev). 
 
Combined, his companies have generated over $250,000,000 in 
total sales and have helped over 250,000 customers. He is also a 
top writer on Medium and LinkedIn where over 4,000,000 people 
have read his essays. 
 
Mitch advises over a dozen companies on how to grow faster. He 
lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two kids, is an NBA 
addict, gym junkie, a voracious reader and avid traveller. 

 
   
 DEDICATION 
 
I dedicate this book to my two amazing daughters. If they read this 
book when they’re older, I’d like them to take away 3 important 
lessons that have helped me throughout my life. 
 
First, always share what you learn with others. Help them achieve 
their hopes and dreams while you’re busy achieving yours. Success 
is a team sport that everyone can (and should) be a part of. 
 
Second, you can do anything you dream of if you’re willing to put in 
the work, find the right mentors and enjoy the journey. 
 
Third, always optimize your life for happiness and not financial gain. 
If you truly love what you do every day, that’s a life well lived and 
everything else will take care of itself.   
 WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT ​REALLY​ TAKES 
TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 
If so, make sure you subscribe to the Insane Growth podcast. Via 
new weekly episodes, you'll learn strategies to: 

● Sharpen your marketing, so you can generate ​more leads, 

customers and sales 
● Develop your mindset, so you start to think like ​a 9-figure 
leader​ and business owner 
● Integrate work and life, so you really can have ​the best of both 
worlds 

 
 
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 

FOCUS 
AMBITION 
PATIENCE 
STRESS 
CULTURE 
PREDICTABILITY 
HIRING 
DELEGATION 
DEFENSE 
MOTIVATION 
 
 
   
 CHAPTER 1: FOCUS 
Fred Wilson’s now classic post ​What a CEO Does​, argues that a CEO 
really only needs to do three things: 

1. Set the overall vision and strategy of the company and 

communicate it to all stakeholders 

2. Recruit, hire and retain the very best talent for the company 

3. Make sure there’s always enough cash in the bank 

At first glance, you might think this is an overly simplistic way to 
look at the role of a CEO in a fast growing company, but when you 
think about what you spend most of your time on, your activities 
probably boil down to one of these three things — or at least, they 
should. 

From my experience building companies over the last 16 or so years, 

I want to share a few tips to get better at each of Fred’s three 
things. It’s important to keep in mind that like anything, the more 
you practice, the better you’ll get — especially if you’re a first-time 
CEO. 
Setting the vision and strategy 

— Don’t assume everyone in your company knows what’s going on 

inside your head — they don’t, so you have to communicate your 
vision and strategy until your employees (not just your leadership 
team) are literally sick of hearing it and can recite it back to you 

— When communicating your vision and strategy, don’t just talk 

about numbers and products. Tell people ​why​ your vision and 
strategy are important to you, them, your customers and investors 
and show them how their role fits in 

— You understand the market, the competition and the rate of 
change better than anyone in your business — that’s why you’re the 
CEO, so you need to keep that in mind and realize that while you live 
and breathe your business, not every single one of your employees 
will 

— It’s best to have a regular cadence of all-hands meetings where 

you constantly discuss your vision, strategy and progress. This is 
especially important if you’re growing fast and/or hiring new people 
regularly — you want everyone in the company to be aligned and 
nothing does that better than hearing from you, their CEO 

— Try your best not to flip-flop between strategies too often. It’s 
inevitable that the market will change and you’ll want to zig instead 
of zagging, but try to limit a complete change in strategy to no more 
than once a year.The bigger your company is, the harder it becomes 
to ​turn the ship​ to go in the direction of a new strategy, meaning 
additional cost, complexity and confusion for your employees 

Recruiting the best talent 

— It’s best to be actively involved in the recruiting process for roles 

you determine as critical. Whether that’s making the initial contact, 
jumping on a plane to meet a candidate or conducting the final 
interview to sell her on your vision, don’t delegate everything to your 
team. The best candidates are in high demand and getting face 
time with you can be the deciding factor in where they go to work 

— Plan your new hires at least two quarters out if possible. There’s 
lead time to find amazing people, regardless of whether you have a 
strong network or not 
— The best people don’t take a new job because you have a great 
kitchen or a chef — they want to work in industry-defining 
companies with a big vision and huge potential upside where they 
can make an impact. Sell that possibility aggressively. 

— As Ben Horowitz mentions in his excellent book, ​The Hard Thing 

About Hard Things​, try to find someone who will be good for the 
next 18 months of your company’s growth. In 18 months you’ll be a 
completely different company, so there’s no point thinking too far 
beyond that. 

— Focus on the person you’re hiring more than their resume. What 
makes them tick? What are they passionate about? Are they humble 
despite success in the past? What do they value and how do they 
handle tough situations? Skills can be taught, personalities cannot 
be changed 

Having enough cash 

— If you raise money, it should last at for at least 18 months of ​bad 

times​. In other words, if everything went to hell in a handbasket, 
have enough cash for ​that​ scenario, not the perfect scenario where 
your sales grow 500% in the next year 

— There’s a fine line between fast growth and spending too much 
money. You can grow fast while keeping your cash burn in check 
and it’s better to grow slightly less than having to fire half of your 
people because you’ve overspent and can’t raise another round of 
funding 

— Most fast-growing companies spend a lot of money on sales and 

marketing without first proving ROI. Instead, test multiple channels 
with small budgets and when you’ve found a strong ROI (ideally 3x or 
more), scale that channel aggressively 

— If your goal is to build a big business that can be acquired or taken 

public down the track, focus your remuneration more on equity than 
cash, especially for executives — you want them to be aligned 
around creating future value which they can share in 

— The earlier you can understand where you’re cash efficient and 
where you’re not, the sooner you can fix those leaky funnels and 
spend your cash more wisely 
Of course, there’s a lot more to building a fast growing company 
than just Fred’s three points and my tips for each, but hopefully you 
find them useful. 

   
 CHAPTER 2: AMBITION 

If you’re building a startup or have a keen interest in them, you can’t 

go a few days without reading about the “unicorns” that are 
transforming industries. “Uber valued at more than $100 billion” 
reads one article. “Airbnb valued at $50 billion” reads the next. 

As the founder of a company, is building a “unicorn” (a company 

worth $1B or more) the right goal for you? And if you don’t want to 
build the next Uber or Airbnb, are you building a “lifestyle” business? 

The media would have you believe it’s all or nothing. Black or white. 
You’re either aiming to knock it out of the park and make a billion 
dollars, or you want to build a small lifestyle business. 

But success in business exists on a spectrum and is all relative. 

For every Uber there are 1,000 businesses you’ve never heard of 
making insane amounts of money. They don’t have PR firms. You 
won’t see their founders on magazine covers. And that’s just the 
way they like it. 
The media would have you believe that “go big or go home” is the 
only way to build a successful company, especially if you’re in 
software or technology — we’re bombarded with stories of billion 
dollar companies every day. 

But the clarifying question is this: 

What does success mean for you? 

If you start with the end in mind (or at least a rough idea of it), you 
can chart a course for your company that brings success on your 
terms. 

You know what’s worse than failing? Spending years of your life 
building a company that’s successful based on ​other people’s 
definition of success and not your own. That’s the trap you can fall 
into if you don’t define success up front and on your own terms. 

The scary truth is that not every founder is cut out to build a 
billion-dollar business, not every idea has billion-dollar potential and 
not every team can stick it out long enough to capitalize on a 
billion-dollar opportunity. 
There are really 6 things you need to consider when trying to 
determine what your definition of business success is. 

They are: 

— ​Market​ — how many people or businesses need your product and 

how many competitors do you have? 

— ​Financial input​ — how much cash is required to start and grow 

your business over time? 

— ​Financial outcome​ — do you want to replace your salary or sell 

your business for millions/billions of dollars? 

— ​Lifestyle input​ — what level of personal sacrifice are you willing 

to make in order to grow your business? 

— ​Lifestyle outcome​ — what do you want your life to be like when 

you achieve your definition of success? 

— ​Risk tolerance​ — do you like to risk it all or are you more 

conservative? 
Once you know your definition of success, you can determine which 
trajectory your business needs to take — and the sacrifices you 
need to make — to get you there. 

If you want to build the next Uber or Airbnb, you’d better be 
prepared to raise a heap of money, dedicate every single waking 
moment to your business for the next 7–15 years and be 
comfortable knowing your chance of success is about 1 in 1,000. 

If that’s not appealing, then you might want to think about the 
alternate option — building a good, solid, (gasp!) profitable 
business that grows a bit slower, by reinvesting profits and 
continually improving your product. 

Sure it might take a bit longer and you might not get featured on the 
cover of a magazine or be on any of those “Top 10” lists, but you’ll 
sacrifice less, enjoy the ride and have a better chance of achieving 
some sort of work/life balance after the first few years if that’s 
important to you. 
Not every company can be (or should be) a unicorn. If you start with 
your own definition of success, then at least you know the 
risk-versus-reward ratio and can decide whether you’re willing to 
give it a shot or not. 
 
   
 CHAPTER 3: PATIENCE 
 
I’ve always been a short-term thinker and planner. I find it hard to 
plan over a time period longer than about a year. 

I found this short-term thinking was good for getting incremental 

results and for achieving small goals, such as reading a specific 
number of books, improving a product with a few features, etc. 

The problem with short term thinking, though, is that it can turn you 
into an incremental thinker - when, really, you want to be a 
step-function thinker. 

What’s the difference? 

Well, short term thinking is ​“what can I do in 2017 to grow my 

business to $1M in sales?”​. Step-function thinking is ​“who can help 
me build my business to $100M in sales within 10 years?”​. 

Did you notice the subtle difference? 

Short term thinking is all focused on “I” — what “I” can do. It also 
generally revolves around small, or incremental, gains. 5% here. 
15% there, etc. 

Long term thinking (or what I call step-function thinking) is all 

focused on “who” — “who” can help me? “who” can I model? “who” do 
I need to hire, etc. It revolves around larger, more compound gains. 
1,000% growth in revenue. Helping 1,000,000 people, etc. 

Recently I decided I needed to retrain my brain so that I was a 

long-term thinker by default. 

Any new company I launched, any new hobby I started, any new skill 
I wanted to master or any relationship I wanted to nurture needed to 
be focused on long-term outcomes, not short-term quick wins and 
incremental gains. 

When I think about the people I consider role models, such as Elon 
Musk, Michelle Obama, Arnold Schwarzenegger, LeBron James and 
others, they all have one thing in common — it took them decades 
to get to where they are right now. 
Which to me, says their default method of thinking and planning is 
long term. Otherwise most of them would’ve quit before they even 
started. 

It’s not easy to create and mass produce an electric car, inspire a 
nation of children to exercise or win multiple NBA championships. 
These endeavors, by default, require patience and a long-term 
commitment. 

So how did I become a long-term thinker by default? Well, for me it 

came down to one single question, which I now write down every 
single day: 

What seeds am I planting today that will turn into trees in 1, 3, 5, 10 
and 20 years from now? 

Reading this one question immediately pulls me “out of the weeds” 

and shifts my focus to the long term. Strategy. Investing. Building 
my skill set. Hiring incredible people. Working on my mind and body. 
 I have a list of 1 year goals, but also 3, 5, 10 and 20 year 
“investments”. These could be investments I’m making (or plan to 
make) in skills, people, assets, businesses, relationships or 
experiences. Some cost money, some cost time. 

Bill Gates famously said “Most people overestimate what they can 
do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years”. 
And I’ve found that’s true 100% of the time. 

This one simple question helps me focus on the long-term and 

makes me OK knowing that some of the “seeds” I’m planting now 
aren’t designed to bear fruit in the short term. Or in some cases, not 
for decades. 

But if I keep watering those seeds, stay patient and focus on the 
long term, I’ll have multiple trees under which I can catch some 
shade in 3, 5, 10 and even 20 years from now. 

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best 
time is now.” — Chinese Proverb 

   
 CHAPTER 4: STRESS 

Building an important company over time has a lot to do with 

product, capital, team and market. 

It has more to do, however, with what you (the CEO) tell yourself 
every day during those “internal conversations” that play out in your 
head. 

CEO psychology is the most under-appreciated, yet most important 

part of building a company. It rarely gets any attention because it’s 
not “sexy”. But man is it important. 

Everyone talks about startups being akin to rollercoaster rides. 

There are high highs and low lows. The highs are easy to deal 
with — you celebrate with your team, share the victories with your 
friends and partner and maybe even down a few beers that night. 

What’s harder to deal with are the (seemingly constant) 

lows — when things don’t work out as you expect them to. 
Examples include having an important employee resign, a potential 
investor pulling a term sheet at the last minute, a competitor 
winning a big partnership deal and employees passing away. 

All of these have happened to me at some point in the last 10 years. 

And the only way through all the shit is to make sure you talk to 
yourself every day — but in the right way. Not out loud, of course, 
but in your head. 

There are also certain ways you can look at problems to quickly 
figure out if they’re potential “company killers” or if they’re just 
bumps along the way. 

As a CEO, you need to find constant inspiration and rationale to 

move forward. That’s what I’m hoping to give you in this chapter. 

Here are some “no bullshit” ways to manage your psychology as a 

CEO. Everything here comes from my direct experience over the 
last decade or so building ​BigCommerce​ (500 employees, $165M of 
venture capital) and 6 other companies. 

1. Use best/worst/probable analysis when weighing decisions 

Most things we fear never materialize, but we spend so much time 
stressing over the “what ifs”. An alternate approach is to look at 
decisions and problems rationally by creating a 
best/worst/probable case analysis. 

It’s easy to do — create a spreadsheet with the following columns: 

— Outcome 

— Chance (%) 

— Stop 

— Start 

— Keep Doing 

… then fill in the spreadsheet with 3 outcomes: 

1. Best outcome 

2. Worst outcome 

3. Probable outcome 
Chance (%) is the chance of that outcome happening. It’s a 
percentage from 1 to 100. In the “stop” column, list the things you’d 
stop doing if that outcome came to fruition. In the “start” column, 
list things you’d start doing if that outcome came to fruition. In the 
“Keep Doing” column, list things you’d keep doing if that outcome 
came to fruition. 

Pretty simple stuff, but writing down each possible outcome and 
looking at things objectively and rationally can help get the 
negative, fearful thoughts out of your head extremely quickly, 
especially when you realize the chance of the worst outcome 
actually happening is probably tiny. 

2. Focus like crazy to make meaningful progress 

Progress beats the crap out of fear. Every. Single. Time. 

If you feel like shit, commit to spending the next 24 or 48 hours 

working your ass off to make meaningful progress on something 
that’s important to you — and it does NOT have to be about your 
business. 
You could run 10 miles each day, spend more time with your partner, 
design a new product, write a 10,000 word blog post. Whatever it is, 
make sure the effort is rewarded with a legitimate feeling of 
progress in some area of your professional or personal life. 

Feeling like things aren’t moving as quickly as they should be is the 

entrepreneur’s curse. You always want things to move faster and it’s 
easy to get frustrated when they don’t. 

3. Know when to step away 

Some days you’ll just feel down. It happens to everyone. On those 

days, don’t go into the office. Cancel your meetings. Spend time 
alone and do whatever takes your mind off things. Read, write, 
exercise, play video games. It doesn’t matter. 

One big key to maturing as an entrepreneur is to know when you’re 

just not up to working as you normally would. It might be one day a 
month or one day a year. But tune into your thoughts and feelings 
and don’t fight them. When you’re forcing yourself to work, it’s time 
to do the opposite. 
4. Talk to someone and get advice 

As an entrepreneur it’s normal to think you’re the only person who 

doesn’t know how to solve a problem. But most problems have 
already been solved by someone else. Instead of beating yourself up 
for not knowing the answer, talk to someone — ideally a mentor or 
coach, but if you don’t have one, post on Quora or Clarity.fm. 

Don’t ever be embarrassed to share your problems and ask for help. 
The best entrepreneurs are the most vulnerable and the most 
opening to learning and listening to others. 

5. Ignore your competition 

Your closest competitor just raise $100M. Or they went public. Or 
they won a big customer. Or they hired a smart executive. Who 
cares? 

Spending too much time thinking about your competitors will run 
you into the ground. Instead, dial up the time you spend with your 
customers. If you’re not spending any time with them, now’s a great 
time to start. 
Just email a few and ask them to catch up for a chat. Ask about 
their business, how they use your product and what you can do to 
make it better. The main thing you’ll get out of this is real, authentic 
feedback from paying customers who LOVE what you do. And that 
positivity will rub off on you and how you feel. Trust me. 

6. Watch Tony Robbins videos on Youtube 

He’s the master of human psychology, plain and simple. Just go to 
Youtube, search for “Tony Robbins” and choose a few videos. After 
an hour you’ll feel like a different person and will get more clarity 
and a better perspective on what’s important and your current 
situation. 

7. Compare your life today versus 5 years ago 

Another easy one. Write down 5–10 things you have today that you 
didn’t have 5 years ago. This will bring about feelings of gratitude, 
which will help release dopamine — the “happy chemical” in your 
brain. 
When you write this list, don’t list “stuff”. Write down things about 
your business, your family (wife/husband, kids), places you wanted 
to visit that you’ve been to, people you’ve helped, books and people 
that have changed your life, etc. 

8. Realize it takes 7–10 years to make anything truly great 

If you’re a few years in, you’re just getting started. 98% of big, 
important companies took at LEAST 7–10 years to make their first 
mark on the world. Building an enduring company is a marathon not 
a sprint. Step back and put this into perspective whenever short 
term problems are clouding your long-term view. 

9. Go to your vice regularly 

What’s the one thing you do that excites the hell out of you? It 
should take 100% of your focus and make you feel amazing when 
you’re done. 

It could be exercise, sex, drawing, painting, public speaking, helping 

someone, volunteering, video games or cooking. 
Whatever it is, do it regularly to top up your dopamine levels. If you 
don’t have a (healthy, safe) vice, take some time to find one. Try a lot 
of new things and keep the ones that make you come alive. 

What’s the worst thing that can happen? 

Suppose your company fails. What’s really the worst thing that can 
happen? You have to start again? So what. Your lifestyle takes a bit 
of a hit? So what. Your pride gets crushed? So what. You have to tell 
investors you’ve lost their money? That’s hard to do, but they’ve 
baked your small chance of success into their models. 

The odds of everything falling apart are so small that most times it’s 
not even worth considering — and that’s from someone who's been 
so close to the wheels falling off dozens of times in the last decade. 

You might come close, but the wheels rarely, if ever, fall off. 

The next time you feel down/upset/angry/frustrated/like shit, step 

back, be aware of how you feel and do whatever it takes to manage 
your own psychology — because in the end that’s really all that 
matters. 
 
   
 CHAPTER 5: CULTURE 
When ​news broke early in 2016​ that Parker Conrad, the founder and 
former CEO of “unicorn” startup Zenefits had built a macro to help 
his sales reps avoid the mandatory training to get their insurance 
license, it was easy to understand why the company was in turmoil. 

From day one, he created a culture focused completely on doing 

whatever it takes to win, all ethics and morals aside. Further stories 
have been reported about the company’s culture of drinking, sex in 
stairwells and all sorts of crazy behaviour that involved huge 
amounts of money and social irresponsibility. And it all started with 
1) the founder and 2) the team he built around him and 3) his attitude 
towards company culture. 

David Sacks was, until recently, Zenefits’ new CEO. He was hired by 
the board to turn the ship around, which he’s since done. Putting all 
of that aside, the stories and scandals coming out about Zenefits 
really got me thinking about culture — and two points specifically. 
First, how it all starts and ends with the founder, no excuses, no 
exceptions. And second, how hard it is to change course once 
you’ve achieved some sort of critical mass in terms of headcount. 

The culture of a startup is really born from how the founders views 
the world and what they will or won’t sacrifice to grow. A lot of it has 
to do with their upbringing too. What were they taught by their 
parents? How straight is their moral compass? What do they believe 
to be true about competition and winning? What does being a 
founder mean to them and is it all about the money, or is it about 
building a legacy that outlasts them? Will they hire someone who is 
functionally great, but morally bankrupt? Etc. 

It really boils down to one simple statement: all businesses can 

grow in one of two ways — the right way or the wrong way. 

When you make sacrifices in the right way, you do so with integrity 
and honesty. For example, you might sacrifice time away from your 
family to open a sales office in another country. Or you might sit 
through dozens of interviews to find the perfect person because 
you won’t sacrifice your hiring standards. Or you might pull endless 
midnight shifts to make sure your next product release is perfect. 

Those are all examples of good sacrifices. 

So what about making sacrifices in the wrong way? Well, that’s 

when you “interpret” the law in your own way. You live in the land of 
make believe and focus on revenue (not profit) growth at all costs, 
assuming you’ll just continue to raise money from investors who are 
happy to keep pushing the idea of profitability out in exchange for 
market share - “it’s a land grab!”, they tell you. 

You treat people as numbers, cogs in your wheel to get ahead no 
matter what. When you’re done with them, you replace them. You 
don’t place too much emphasis on culture because, fuck it, “that 
doesn’t matter here”. And you don’t worry about your reputation 
because once you sell your startup for $100,000,000,000 you won’t 
give a shit what people think of you. 

You’re all about that fuck-you-money, baby. 

The founder with the correct moral compass tends to make the 
right decisions and hire the best people early on — good, honest 
and hardworking people like them, who see the world in the same 
way. This sets the tone for everything moving forward as they start 
to experience growth and some sort of success. They take pride in 
their reputation and their integrity and want their name to stand for 
something. They want their kids to be proud of them not because of 
the money they make, but because of the positive impact they’ve 
had on the world. 

They don’t tolerate liars, cheats and people who are only in it for 
themselves. They are selfless and put their employees and 
customers ahead of everyone else — including themselves, their 
investors and their board. 

They want to go to bed at night with a clear conscience, even if that 

means growing a little bit slower and in a way that’s a little more 
controlled. 

These are the traits of the best founders I know. And these are 
people running companies which collectively generate billions of 
dollars in annual revenue. They all work hard, are honest people and 
shake their heads when they hear about the Zenefits story. Because 
they know from experience, there’s a completely different way to 
grow a business. 

Founders who are primarily focused on the money or the short term 
tend to take the view that nothing but growth matters. Ironically, 
though, the best way to grow is to hire people who share the same 
views on the right way to win — as a team, honestly, with integrity 
and while serving customers so amazingly well that they tell 
everyone about you. 

If your foundation is solid and you’re lucky enough to get past 

product-market fit and into the ​getting ready to scale​ or ​scaling 
phases of your business's growth, it’s 1,000 times easier to make 
that transition when the team you’ve hired is full of genuinely good, 
helpful people who care about your customers like they’re family. 

When you experience that, it’s magic. Everyone pulls in the same 
direction, based heavily on the voice of the customer. They support 
each other and help out where they need to. When someone tries to 
take a shortcut or cheat, they’re called out not by the founder, but 
by their peers. 

The culture takes on a life of its own because the founder made the 
right kind of sacrifices early on. They didn’t lie, cheat, break the law 
or take dishonest shortcuts. They put in the work, hired the people 
and never put revenue ahead of their honest intentions. 

That’s the kind of culture that makes a business great from day one 
and continues to keep it great on day 10,000. And it all starts and 
ends with the founder. 

 
   
 WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT ​REALLY​ TAKES 
TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? 
If so, make sure you subscribe to the Insane Growth podcast. Via 
new weekly episodes, you'll learn strategies to: 

● Sharpen your marketing, so you can generate ​more leads, 

customers and sales 
● Develop your mindset, so you start to think like ​a 9-figure 
leader​ and business owner 
● Integrate work and life, so you really can have ​the best of both 
worlds 

 
  
CHAPTER 6: PREDICTABILITY 
 
Since 2001 I’ve built (and sold) companies in a variety of industries 
including software, real estate, online education, consulting and 
professional services. 

After growing my first few companies, I realized there are really just 
4 things we need to get right as founders to build our businesses to 
$10M in revenue and beyond. 

In this chapter, I wanted to share them with you. 

Here they are: 

1. Understand the PAIN in your market and show them your “pain 
killer” 
 
You’ve probably heard this before, but it bears repeating — the 
best ​products ​don’t win, the best ​marketing​ does. 

So how can you market better than your competitors? 

Well, you need to start by “finding the pain” in your market. What is 
the single biggest pain point they are experiencing right now in their 
business or life? 

Once you understand that pain in excruciating detail, you need to 
“regurgitate” it back to them in a way that’s clearer than they can 
describe on their own. 

You then need to talk about your “pain killer” (the product/service 
you sell) and how it will eliminate their pain quickly. 

2. Build a predictable, scalable customer acquisition “machine” 

 
You can have the most amazing product in the world, but if you can’t 
reliably capture leads and turn them into paying customers, then 
what’s the point? 

Every company that’s grown to $10M in revenue and beyond has 

figured out their own version of what I call a customer acquisition 
“machine”. 
And the machine is different for every business, depending on what 
you sell, your price point, etc. 

— For an ecommerce business it might be Facebook Ad -> Online 

Store -> Purchase 

— For a restaurant it might be Google AdWords -> Online 

Reservation -> Purchase 

— For a professional services firm it might be Facebook Ad -> 

Webinar -> Lead -> Call -> Client 

At the end of the day the point is the same — you need to 
“architect” a constant flow of leads and customers to your business 
that just works. Day in, day out. 

3. Use leverage to get yourself out of the day-to-day of your 

business 
 
I don’t know about you, but I’m not a fan of working 14 hours a day, 7 
days a week. 
Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE working, but I also love seeing my 
family, going on holidays and just living life in general. 

I don’t “live to work”. I work to live. 

The trick is to understand the leverage points in your business and 

how you can use them to get more done while you spend less time 
in the office. 

The most common way to gain leverage in any business is to start 

slowly hiring great people who can take some of the work off your 
shoulders. 

As they prove themselves and you feel confident in their 

abilities — and your sales start growing much faster — you 
continue to hire more and more people. 

Within a few short months, you’ve delegated what I call your “low 
value” tasks to your team. This gives you: 1) a lot more free time and 
2) time to work ​on​ the business instead of ​in​ it. 
When you work on your business, you get clarity. You see new 
opportunities for growth. You attend conferences, events and 
roundtables and meet smart founders who help you come up with 
even better ideas. 

And your business starts to grow faster while the time you spend in 
your business continues to drop, month on month. 

4. Surround yourself with people who have “seen the movie” 

before 
 
Back in 2006 I was trying to grow one of my companies to $1M in 
sales. But it just wasn’t happening, no matter what I did. 

Then I got my first business coach. That year we did $2M in sales 
and the following year we did over $5M. 

So I doubled down on what was working and went to the best — I 

hired 2 “master coaches” from personal development legend Tony 
Robbins’ company. 
Fast forward a few short years and not only did my business top 
$20M in sales, but I was transformed as a founder. As a person. And 
as a leader. 

It was incredible. 

Now whenever I want to accelerate my progress in ANYTHING 

(especially business), I always remind myself of this quote: 

2X Thinking Is “What Can I Do?”. 10X Thinking Is “Who Can Help Me?” 

 
   
 CHAPTER 7: HIRING 
 
I’ve interviewed close to 1,000 people for all sorts of roles during my 
career as an entrepreneur. From sales to marketing to engineering 
to customer service to management and even CEOs and board 
members. 
 
When I started interviewing, I’d estimate my hit rate was right 
around 50%, which means only 1 in 2 candidates would be a good fit 
for the role. Over the years and as I continued to interview and hire, I 
started to see the “real life” impact of hiring A-players. 
 
If you haven’t heard the term “A-players” before, don’t feel bad. 
 
Here’s a quick rundown — when it comes to people in the context of 
work, you can generally group them into 3 categories: 
 
— ​A-players: the top 5% of people. They work hard, go over and 
above, are well liked and respected and typically move “up the 
ranks” fast. 
 
— ​B-players: most people. They do the 9–5 thing, do their job well 
and are generally the “good not great” people. 
 
— ​C-players: the bottom 10%. They do just enough to scrape 
through, don’t volunteer to take on new projects, like (and cause) 
conflict and have little to no personal accountability or 
responsibility. 
 
In terms of hiring, your managers are A/B/C players too, which 
means: 
 
— ​A-players love to hire other A-players and build teams of super 
smart people that love to win. They genuinely want to be the 
“dumbest” person in the room and love learning from those around 
them 
 
— ​B-players hire C-players because they’re worried about someone 
coming in and taking their job 
 
— ​C-players don’t really hire (too hard/too lazy), but if they do, they’ll 
pretty much take whoever comes along 
 
So obviously you want to hire A-players, right? Good. Before writing 
this book, I sat down and thought about all of the A-players I’ve been 
fortunate enough to hire over the years — most of which are still 
happily working at those companies today. 
 
I thought about the commonalities between them and what “makes 
them tick” and I also thought about my actual interviews with them 
— even the interviews back in the early 2000s. When I asked myself 
“What do they all have in common that makes them an A-player?”​, I 
came up with a series of personality traits and past experiences. 
 
I then looked at it from another angle and came up with 7 questions 
you can use in your interview process to give you a much better 
chance of finding and hiring them. 
 
Here are those 7 questions: 
 
Q1: Have they been promoted at least once in a previous role? 
 
A-players are great at what they do and good managers will pick up 
on that fast, offering them more responsibility and eventually a 
more challenging role. Look at their LinkedIn profile and see if, at 
any of their previous companies, they’ve been promoted. Once is 
great, twice is amazing and three times is out of this world. 
 
Q2: Have they had to lead a big project in a previous role? How did 
they handle it? 
 
A-players like to take on more responsibility over time, not less. 
Have they had a previous manager that was so confident in their 
abilities that they were given a large or important project to run on 
their own? 
 
Q3: Is this the same role as a previous job or is it 
somewhat/completely different? 
 
A-players love challenges. I found that most A-players don’t change 
companies so much as they change roles — because they like the 
challenge of constantly learning new things and being in new 
situations. 
 
Q4: Can they speak about your company and tell you what they like 
and what they might change? 
 
A-players do research on a company before an interview. They try 
to understand your strategy, what’s going well and even what’s not. 
Can they clearly articulate what they like about your company but 
also provide some constructive feedback on something you might 
want to change? 
 
If they don’t know what your company does or they have no opinion 
(positive or negative) about it, that’s a red flag. 
 
Q5: Are they confident without being cocky? 
 
This is a fine line. A-players have great track records and you want 
someone who talks a lot about being on great teams and having 
great managers and mentors, not someone constantly saying “I this, 
I that”. 
 
Q6: Are they committed to continual learning? Can they prove it? 
 
A-players love learning new skills. Ask them what they learned in 
their previous role. Ask which book they’re currently reading. Ask 
what they plan to learn in the next 6–12 months and how they’ll go 
about doing that. 
 
Q7: How would you rate the quality and quantity of questions they 
ask YOU during the interview? 
 
A great interview is always a conversation — it’s never one-sided. 
Look at the quantity and quality of questions they ask YOU.  
 
A-players care about the team they’ll be on, their manager and 
where you want to take your company moving forward. 
 
Remember, hiring A-players isn’t a science. There’s a lot more to it 
than asking the 7 questions above, but in my experience it’s a great 
place to start. You also need to trust your gut, check references, 
assess if they’re a great cultural fit and most importantly ask the 
people on the team they’ll be a part of whether they’d like to work 
with them or not. 
 CHAPTER 8: DELEGATION 

“Once you build out your executive team you’ll have so much time on 
your hands you won’t know what to do with yourself!”​ said one of our 
investors. 

We’d just raised our $20M series B for BigCommerce in 2012 and 
upon hearing that, I thought ​“Ha, yeah right! I don’t have time to do 
anything but work and that won’t change!”.​  

Back then our “executive team” was me, Eddie (my co-founder) and 
Rob —who is BigCommerce’s CFO, COO and culture beacon. We 
were a force to be reckoned with, but we were just 3 people. 

Between 2012 and 2014 we worked hard to build a great leadership 

team at BigCommerce. We agreed on the positions we wanted to fill 
first — starting with the roles that would help us continue our 
growth. Engineering was first. Then product, sales, support, 
marketing, business development, communications and most 
recently, corporate development. 
We worked with some great executive search firms, leveraged our 
network (specifically via our investors including Larry Bohn, Steve 
Case, Kal Raman and Lorrie Norrington, the former president of 
eBay International), ramped up our PR, doubled-down on our 
company culture and started to win a lot of the “best places to work” 
awards. 

The buzz we were able to create no-doubt helped in our recruiting 

efforts, considering just a few years earlier there were 12 of us 
working out of a small office in Sydney, Australia. If you lived in San 
Francisco in 2014 I’m sure you remember our ​#GetPoached 
campaign​. 

It was ballsy, but wow did it work. 

From 2012–2014 we built a great leadership team with amazingly 

talented people from companies like Google, Salesforce, Paypal and 
Twitter (hi guys+gals if you’re reading!). There were a few bumps 
along the way, but as each executive started to ramp and really own 
their strategy, we felt comfortable handing off the important 
decisions. 
I remember hearing Jack Dorsey’s now-famous quote that great 
founders are “editors”, not “writers”. And if you start to “write” more 
than you “edit”, you’ve hired the wrong person. 

“Your job as an executive is to edit, not write. It’s OK to write once in 
a while, but if you do it often there’s a fundamental problem with 
the team. Every time you do something, ask if you’re writing or 
editing and get in the mode of editing.” 

Simple translation — if you start to do the work of your executive 

team, you’ve hired the wrong people. They should share their 
decisions and strategy with you, but you shouldn’t be creating it for 
them. 

As we started to “hand over” the reigns to our new executives, I kept 

hearing that quote about being less busy in my head. And funnily 
enough, our investor was right. As you scale your company and hire 
people who are much smarter than you, it’s scary at first but 
eventually it becomes liberating. You definitely spend less time “in” 
the business and start to work more “on” the business, which means 
a lot more time on strategy and helping to reel in the “big fish” for 
important roles, key partners, etc. 

You’re still busy, but in a very different kind of way. 

Good CEOs are busy working “in” the business for the first few years. 
That’s just how it is. You wear 7 different hats. One day you’re 
answering a support ticket, the next day you’re interviewing a head 
of marketing. 

As you start to grow from a tiny business into something that 

resembles a more mature organization, your #1 priority becomes 
surrounding yourself with incredible leaders who can do their jobs 
better than you ever did. 

You start to nod in agreement more, trust your team and think to 
yourself “​wow, this is one hell of a team we’ve been able to build!”​ . 
You delegate more, question less and start to see the big picture. 

And that’s how you become less busy working “in” the business. But 
you’ll ​always​ be working “on” the business. That’s why you’re the 
CEO. 
 

CHAPTER 9: DEFENSE 

In business there are two ways you can approach customer 

acquisition and build your business into something big and 
impactful. 

First, you can spend a heap of money on customer acquisition 

channels like Facebook Ads and Google AdWords. These work, no 
doubt, but when you turn off the “money tap”, the leads dry up. 

The second approach is to build what I call defensible assets. These 

don’t have an immediate, short-term pay off (or even a measurable 
ROI most times), but they are your ​constant​, ​predictable​, ​LIFE TIME 
source of leads and traffic when they start to take off. 

Defensible assets are things like: 

— Hiring an SEO agency 

— Writing helpful guides and eBooks 

— Starting a podcast 
— Starting a publication on Medium 

— Recording and posting archives of live webinars 

— Free tools for your audience 

— Etc, etc, etc 

None of these will make you $1 today. Or even tomorrow or probably 

not even this month. But they build up a base under your brand that 
competitors can never, ever disrupt — no matter how big their 
marketing budget. 

Which company has nailed the approach around defensible assets 

to build a billion dollar business? The extreme example is Hubspot. 
But there are amazing companies all around us building defensible 
assets. 

Defensible assets take time, aren’t cheap (they need sweat equity 
or cash to hire someone) and won’t show a return for a while, but if 
you plan to be in the game (and winning) in 5 years from now, they 
are crucial to not just your future success but also to get off the 
“pay per click treadmill” that so many businesses find themselves 
on. 
So where do you start? If you’re already investing in PPC, email 
marketing, etc, aim to add just one defensible asset to your 
business each month: 

— In August you might launch a podcast (​like mine​) 

— In September you might host a Facebook live stream (​like mine​) 

— In October you might create a resource guide (​like this one from 
Helpscout​) 

— In November you might launch a tool to help your audience (​like 

this one from Hubspot​) 

These assets accrue in value over time. Not directly, but indirectly 
by acting as magnets for visitors, leads and customers - and also 
helping you dominate search rankings on Google (if you build 
enough high-quality backlinks to each piece of content). 

Great businesses presell with content and free resources. They 

don’t go in “naked” with just a sales rep pounding the phones cold. 

Your defensible assets build immediate likeability and trust with 

anyone that finds your brand. And believe me, when you invest in 
these defensible assets, you’ll have a much better chance of being 
found organically (read: for free) for years to come. 

Don’t give up the PPC, but start to compliment it. That would be my 
final piece of advice. 
 
   
 CHAPTER 10: MOTIVATION 
 
Here are 58 powerful quotes that have kept me focused and moving 
forward as an entrepreneur since 2001: 
 

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and 
we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it” — Michaelangelo 

“The biggest challenge you have is to challenge your own self-doubt 

and your laziness. It is your self-doubt and your laziness that define 
and limit who you are. If you want to change what you are you must 
take on your self-doubt and your laziness” — Robert Kiyosaki 

“Your job as an executive is to edit, not write. It’s OK to write once in a 

while but if you do it often there’s a fundamental problem with the 
team.Every time you do something ask if you’re writing or editing and 
get in the mode of editing” — Jack Dorsey 

“The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up 
control over their life” — Robert Kiyosaki 
“You’re either an entrepreneur, artist or manager. Spend most of your 
time in that role and you’ll be fulfilled” 

“A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan 

executed next week” — George Patton 

“Don’t focus on the victory, focus on the task” — Coach Erik 

Spoelstra 

“Dreamers dream dreams and rich people create plans and build 
bridges to their dreams”- Robert Kiyosaki 

“Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear 

and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth): 
Make the growth choice a dozen times a day” — Abraham Maslow 

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good for the great” — John D 

Rockefeller 
“It’s a great strength to live knowing that if you lost every material 
possession, you would still have a life worth living” 

“If you don’t believe in yourself, you don’t take massive action. 
Instead, you take small action which validates that in fact, you 
weren’t good enough to achieve something huge.” 

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit 
story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve 
it” — Jordan Belfort 

“The neutralizer to fear is self belief” — Mark Bouris 

“It’s never too late to reinvent yourself for the next chapter” 

“One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an 
interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your 
passions choose you” — Jeff Bezos 

“Age is not based on chronology, but psychology” — Tony Robbins 

“See it as it is, not worse than it is just so you have a reason not to 
try” — Tony Robbins 

“It’s not what we get that makes us happy, it’s who we 
become” — Tony Robbins 

“Live deliberately” — Scott Harris 

“Do what no one else does… follow through” 

“80% of success is mental, 20% is the how” — Scott Harris 

“If you keep moving in the right direction you’ll get your dream or 
something better” 

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” 

“You feel what you’re focused on” — Tony Robbins 

“Some day your life will flash before your eyes — make sure it’s worth 
watching” 

“I accept myself unconditionally, right now” — Louise Hay 

“The secret to living is giving” — Tony Robbins 

“When you believe it, it becomes self fulfilling” — Tony Robbins 

“Always have something to look forward to” — Tony Robbins 

“Progress equals happiness” — Tony Robbins 

“Time is the capital of your life, so spend it wisely” — Tony Robbins 

“The how will show up after the commitment to the what” — Tony 

Robbins 

“If you wait until you feel like doing something, you will likely never 
accomplish it” — John C Maxwell 
“Passion is the bridge between goals and accomplishment”- Jim Rohn 

“In life you have three options with any situation that is a challenge. 
Remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it” — Dr Phil 

“You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in 
my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideals come along, and I’ve had long 
dry spells. If I get an ideal next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do 
a damn thing.” — Warren Buffett 

“The joy is in creating, not maintaining” — Vince Lombardi 

“People who experience negative or stressful emotions on an ongoing 

basis are less healthy and live shorter lives” — Tony Robbins 

“I make it a personal rule never to do anything that I don’t really care 

about. It is surprising how much this cuts out” — Richard Koch 

“It’s through our expenses that we become richer or poorer, 

regardless of how much money we make” — Robert Kiyosaki 
“If a man will devote his time to securing facts in an impartial, 
objective way, his worries will usually evaporate in the light of 
knowledge” — Herbert E. Hawkes 

“The more communities in which you are an active participant, the 

more likely it is that you’ll be happy” — Ted Leonsis 

“Power begins with your own self perception” — Siimon Reynolds 

“All of the answers to your problems are outside your comfort 

zone” — Keith Cunningham 

“The only way you grow is by being uncomfortable” — Scott Harris 

“You can’t sit at the table of success for too long or you’ll feel bored 
and dead” — Tony Robbins 

“It doesn’t matter what you achieve, if you don’t keep growing you’ll 
feel dead”- Tony Robbins 
“To influence yourself, you have to ask better questions” — Tony 
Robbins 

“Unsuccessful people in life are mood dominated — “I don’t feel like 

working today” — Siimon Reynolds 

“If you’re bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a 
burning desire to do things — you don’t have enough goals” — Lou 
Holtz 

“We are kept from our goal not by obstacles but by a clear path to a 
lesser goal” — Robert Brault 

“Your destiny is determined by your decisions” — Tony Robbins 

“Visualize how you want things to be and then diligently work on a plan 
to make that your reality” 

“Most people are as happy as they decide to be” — Abraham Lincoln 

“If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast 
enough.” — Mario Andretti 

“A man is what he thinks about all day long” — Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“The person who has the guts to ask themselves ‘Why?’ at least once a 
week, and be totally honest with themselves about the answer, is 
already twenty steps ahead of their smarter, more experienced 
rival” — Mark Bouris 

“What you allow is what will continue” 

“Self belief will always push fear away, but you need to always 
practice self belief otherwise fear will come back and tap you on the 
shoulder” — Mark Bouris 
 
 
   
 WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT ​REALLY​ TAKES 
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