Enjoy The Work

"To be a founder is a state of being. It's an attitude. It's courage, it's instinct, it's a capacity to push through, despite all sorts of evidence suggesting you're wasting your time. To be a CEO is a craft. It's learning to read financial statements, building a GTM motion, running productive meetings, finding and hiring the best people, planning, etc. The more founders who can accept that those are two separate things, both equally important to build an ascendant startup, the better all of us will be." Jonathan Lowenhar is the co-founder of Enjoy The Work, an executive coaching firm that helps founders become great CEOs. Over the past decade, Enjoy The Work has supported over 160 founders on their journey to becoming better leaders. In our conversation, Jonathan shares: 🔸 The difference between being a founder and a CEO 🔸 Most common failure modes for startup CEOs 🔸 The "magic box" paradigm for selling your company 🔸 How to find and hire the best people 🔸 How to build a repeatable GTM machine 🔸 Why founders need to trust their intuition 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 • YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gQzq7kzA • Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g7ztBDeA • Apple: https://lnkd.in/gMiwTQVi Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for supporting the podcast: 🏆 Pendo.io — The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application: https://www.pendo.io/lenny 🏆 OneSchema — Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny 🏆 Vanta — Automate compliance. Simplify security: https://vanta.com/lenny Some key takeaways: 1. Being a great founder is important, but being a great CEO is a different skill. You need to spend time improving your leadership, financial literacy, and communication skills. Recognize your weaknesses and fill those gaps, because mastering the CEO craft is just as crucial as the entrepreneurial mindset that started your company in the first place. 2. Common failure modes for startup CEOs include: a. The Robot CEO: Believing emotions have no place in a startup b. The Pleaser CEO: Avoiding conflict and difficult decisions c. The Perfectionist CEO: Prioritizing being right over moving forward d. The Angry CEO: Letting frustrations negatively impact the team e. The Laissez-faire CEO: Believing great people don’t need management f. The Micromanager CEO: Not trusting employees to do their jobs g. The Ready, Fire, Aim CEO: Jumping into action without proper planning or direction h. The Riding the Brake CEO: Constantly hesitating to spend or take risks i. The Riding the Gas CEO: Driving growth without a clear strategy 3. If you’re thinking about selling your company (and you should, because that’s where most successful startups end up), don’t wait until you’re desperate to be bought. Instead, work backward from the type of exit you want. Whether that’s an acquisition, IPO, or winding down, you need to define the target first. A successful exit doesn’t just happen; it’s a product of thoughtful, proactive planning.

🍂 This Thanksgiving season, we’re grateful for our incredible community of founders, partners, and entrepreneurs. As a small token of appreciation, in collaboration with Enjoy The Work, we're thrilled to offer a free, exclusive workshop: “Fundraising Is Much More Than a Pitch Deck”. Join Lesley Ross and Ruben Ortega, General Partners at Enjoy The Work, as they dive deep into the essentials of raising venture capital. This workshop is designed to go beyond the basics of pitching, offering frameworks and insights to navigate the fundraising process confidently. Monday, November 25 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PST Sign up here - https://lu.ma/b88si5z5 Let’s kick off this season of gratitude by learning and growing together. 🌱

It's #BuildForBetter Thursday release time! This week I got to hang out with Jonathan Lowenhar from Enjoy The Work, which was, as it always is, delightful. We talked about #Purpose, and when I tell you I had so many options for a trailer for this week I kid you not. He is a LITERAL machine of take-away quotes. Take a listen wherever you listen to podcasts. Spotify - https://lnkd.in/eUKbevPA Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/eHAiaDrw #Founders #Entrepreneur #StartUps #Product #Podcast #Entrepreneurship #MadeWithAugie

Exciting news from the Enjoy The Work community! PeopleOne Health, and co-founders Jordan Taradash and Chris "SparkGuy" Downie, are on a mission to transform healthcare. By seamlessly integrating treatment and prevention, they’re helping employers and employees save while staying healthier. An inspiring vision! We’re thrilled to celebrate their recent success—a $32M Series B fundraise led by GV (Google Ventures). 🎉 Read more about the raise here: https://lnkd.in/eXm2-ndw If you'd like to stay up to date with Enjoy The Work content and companies- follow here: https://bit.ly/3YwOQnZ #venturecapital #startups #founders #entrepreneurship #companybuilding

Congratulations to Enjoy The Work community member HoneyBook for being named a 2024 Inc. Magazine Power Partner in Customer Relationship Management! This recognition, awarded during the Inc. Power Partner Awards, celebrates the B2B companies providing vital support and resources to entrepreneurs. "We’re honored to be recognized as an Inc. Power Partner," says Oz Alon, CEO and Co-Founder. "This award reflects our commitment to being an essential partner for independent businesses, helping them streamline operations so they can focus on what they do best—their craft.” We’re incredibly proud of Oz, co-founder Naama Alon, and the entire HoneyBook team. Bravo! 🎉 Read more about the award here: https://lnkd.in/guUn6XBK To stay up to date with all of our companies and content-follow us: https://bit.ly/3YwOQnZ #venturecapital #startups #founders #entrepreneurship #companybuilding

Can you imagine taking any video and within seconds transforming into a compelling, branded, shareable clip for your business? This is what our remarkable AI startup @Augie Studio just delivered to the world thanks to their launch of Highlighter—a game-changer for creating social-ready video highlights! 🎉 It’s up on product hunt right now - would love your reactions, and if so moved, please do as I just did and vote here: https://lnkd.in/gn_QkB8i I don’t recommend tools too often; mostly because I’m technically out of my depth more often than not. But this solution is so easy and effective, I’m a convert. Enjoy The Work JT White Jeremy Toeman Yanush Cherkis Devan Batavia Lesley Ross Leslie Fine Holly Pulford Ned Renzi Mike P Lewis Ruben Ortega Kristen Hamilton Sarah Schaaf

Happy to introduce and officially welcome Novi Connect to the Enjoy The Work family! Have you ever wondered about the raw materials in the consumer products and cosmetics you purchase for yourself and your family? Do you know if they are safe or sustainably sourced? They may claim to be “clean”, but are they really? If you’re like me, you have no real idea. And as it turns out, it’s incredibly hard to track the provenance of all the ingredients in the products you use everyday. Today more consumers are demanding transparency from both retailer and brand alike. That’s why Kimberly and team created Novi Connect - to help brands and retailers create and sell more products that are actually clean, and give the public remarkable transparency into the things the products they buy and use regularly. Novi is dedicated to meeting the rising demand for clean and sustainable consumer packaged goods (CPG). Their innovative platform verifies clean and sustainability claims across brands, products, ingredients, and packaging, helping to build trust and drive consumer interest. Leading retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty, and Credo partner with Novi Connect to develop and enhance transparent and trusted clean programs. I had the pleasure of meeting founder and CEO Kimberly Shenk through our shared community in Marin County, and we bonded immediately over our shared passion for Novi’s mission. I'm thrilled to welcome her and the Novi Connect team to the Enjoy The Work community. Learn more about the work they do here: https://lnkd.in/gmJHhP52 Stay up to date with all Enjoy The Work companies by following us: https://bit.ly/3YwOQnZ #venturecapital #startups #founders #entrepreneurship #companybuilding

At Bloomlife we have an unshakeable belief in what the future of maternal care will look like.  Where every mother has access to the care and information she needs - made possible by a combination of technology that monitors the health of mom and baby anytime/anywhere, AI-enabled analytics to predict and manage pregnancy complication risk, and clinical oversight to intervene should a problem arise.  While most of the time, the data collected is reassuring and requires no action.  But sometimes, timely intervention is the answer and the impact on mom and baby can be profound.  In our journey to bring long overdue innovation to maternal health, we are proud to partner with mission aligned investors including Kapor Capital, Noshaq, RH Capital and many more who believe in our team and have invested to make our vision of maternal care a reality.  With this new funding, we're excited to grow our commercial reach through new clinical partnerships, expand the breadth of our remote care services, and continue working to ensure the future of maternal care is delivered equitably to improve birth outcomes and decrease disparities.  https://lnkd.in/ghBhjruH