Daniel Ionescu ✨’s Post

If you wouldn’t work with someone for 10 years, don’t work with them for a single day. Let’s get real about company culture—it exists whether you define it or not. It’s in every interaction, every value, every action your team takes. And it starts with YOU, the founder. You have to be careful about the culture you’re building inside your walls. One common mistake founders make: hiring people you don’t fully trust or genuinely want to work with just because they dazzled you with their resume or they seem well-connected. Maybe they’re good on paper, but they’re not good for YOU. I’ve seen this over and over—founders overlooking their gut instinct, tempted by what someone could bring to the table, even if their internal bullshit detector says, “This doesn’t feel right.” Ask yourself: 🤔 Do I trust this person? 🤔 Am I excited to be working with this person? 🤔 Is there a growing excitement among the rest of the team about this person? Simple questions, but it’s easy for founders to skip them—and end up wishing they hadn’t. The truth? If you wouldn’t want to work with someone for the rest of your life, don’t bring them on board at all. Your culture depends on it. Check out the latest episode of The 0 to $30 Million Blueprint to learn what to look for when making your startup’s first hires. 👇

One of the best arguments we’ve heard on why your company shouldn’t be a family. (For starters - you don’t fire your kids.)   Listen to the latest episode of Invested with Jonathan (Yonatan) Adiri, Founder and President of Healthy.io and Michael Eisenberg for why the “mythical founder” approach is the exception for successful companies and not the rule, and how to build a healthy company culture where trust is a given on all sides. Link in the comments.

Being part of an IPO is a dream, especially when you’re the 6th employee at a company that goes public for $2.25 billion. Rick Foerster lived that dream. But after 12 years of hard work and success, he found himself grappling with deeper issues—loss of identity, purpose, and meaning. In this episode, Rick opens up about the emotional rollercoaster post-exit, the fear of irrelevance, and ultimately, how he found meaning in freedom. 🔑 Key Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction: The Illusion of Wealth and Success 04:00 Climbing the Corporate Ladder 09:08 Reflecting on Commitment and Longevity 14:36 The Emotional Rollercoaster Post-Exit 22:59 Facing the Fear of Irrelevance 29:10 Questioning Life's Direction and Identity 37:08 Embracing the Wilderness 40:49 Finding Meaning in Freedom 46:45 Scaling Impact: Depth vs. Breadth 58:58 Advice to My Younger Self 👉 Watch now to explore the highs and lows of financial success and what it really means to find happiness. Link: https://lnkd.in/ebGMJssB

In this episode, TJ Burns and I dive into how raising a family became the ultimate driver for leaving the corporate world and starting a business. Discover the challenges and rewards of building a career around spending more time with the ones who matter most. Watch to see how values and priorities shaped this journey.

🚀 New Episode Alert on She's Ambitious AF! 🚀 This week, we dive into an inspiring conversation with 🤓 Mandy Thompson 🏳️🌈, CEO of Digital Reach Online Solutions, who’s redefining what it means to build a purpose-driven business. 💡 Episode Highlights ✨ 💼 Lessons from Prior Ventures: Mandy shares hard-won insights from her entrepreneurial journey. 🌍 Scaling a Remote Team: Building a global workforce and making it feel like family. 🧡 Leading with Intention: Why culture and purpose are as important as profit. 💪 Working with Your Partner: The ups, downs, and everything in between of mixing love and business. 🎧 Episode link in comments ⬇️  

Long-term value beats short-term gains. In this episode of Unlearn, host Barry O'Reilly interviews Michael A. Morell, Founder & Managing Partner at Riviera Partners and former Technology Advisory Board member at Bridgewater Associates, to explore how building relationships over time serves as the cornerstone of long-term business success. Enterprise sales and strategic partnerships take time, much like growing any successful venture. Whether it’s nurturing a business or establishing trust, investing in long-term relationships requires patience. While these processes may feel slow, the payoffs are substantial, as sustained efforts result in deeper connections and more meaningful opportunities. Sharing insights, offering advice, and providing support—even when you’re not expecting immediate gains—helps build a strong foundation of trust. This long-term strategy often positions you as a go-to resource when key decisions or opportunities arise. Building these relationships often means playing the long game, as the most effective connections are formed over time. Whether it’s sharing articles, offering a helping hand, or simply being available, staying engaged with your network fosters trust and lasting partnerships. 🎧 Tune in to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gQEuZ6WC _________________________________ Download my free innovation map I use to help companies like Google and Nike figure out the gap between their current state and desired state. Download Now: https://bit.ly/3YvXBlK #BusinessGrowth #RelationshipBuilding #LongTermSuccess #EnterpriseSales #Unlearn #Patience #NetworkingTips

The hardest part of building a startup—recognizing the difference between “nice to haves” and “essentials” for your business. Full Tyler Denk 🐝 (beehiiv) episode out TOMORROW!

Let's be real—hiring takes time, effort, and a lot of money. So why not get it right the first time? 💸 This week’s episode of Build to Enough is all about hiring quality people. Keila explains how bringing on the right team members saves you time, money, and stress in the long run. Because when you hire the right person from the start, you can avoid costly mistakes and set your business up for success. #HiringTips #WorkSmart #TeamSuccess #BuildToEnough #

Uncertain how to tell if a sales candidate truly fits? Worried about choosing the right sales strategy for market expansion? 🤔 Discover the answers in our latest VC Series! 🎉 Watch as the tables turn on our host, James Hounslow, who is interviewed by experienced VCs Daniel Frankenstein and Boaz Albaranes. Dive deep into the mechanics of hiring, scaling, and optimizing sales teams within VC-backed environments. Both episodes are crammed with actionable advice, offering a roadmap to sales success and helping you navigate the pitfalls of sales hires and strategic planning. 🚀 Don’t miss out on this must-watch series for founders, sales leaders, and VCs aiming to smash their next revenue targets. Watch now and empower your go-to-market strategies with proven insights from the top minds in tech sales! 👇 Episode 1: https://lnkd.in/dM_QeeKc Episode 2: https://lnkd.in/e6h8Jeac #TechSalescraft #VentureCapitalist #VCGrowth #SalesCareers 

A lot of Superclusters listeners asked about hearing the psychology of an individual LP, and today we finally have the amazing Susan Kimberlin, who's been the founding LP of Backstage Capital, as well as an early LP in Forum Ventures, Operator Collective 🔆, Boom Capital, The Council just to name a few. And of course, big thank you to the amazing Amber Illig at The Council for setting up this intro! Without you, this episode would not have been possible! From how Susan's first check in Backstage was structured to what motivates Susan to write emerging manager checks, we covered a lot of ground. Hell, even how Susan first started with acapella. But sharing my favorite soundbites below: 🏎 Drive is the relentless pursuit of a goal, but also having the flexibility and the willingness to find more than one path to it. There are often multiple paths Fund I and II managers can take to build an enduring brand, and how one repeatedly tackles that goal is a huge tell on their resilience, but also their mental plasticity. ❓ The value of starting from the why. Why are you doing this? Why do this over the 100s of other options you have? What would the GP be doing if they had to do something else? Motivations transcend pure strategy. In fact, most things are likely to change between a Fund I and a Fund III. Most things won't go according to plan. And there are many opportunities for GPs to give up partway through. But if they really plan for VC to be the last career they'll ever have, they'll have an extremely clear why. 🏆 To build a world-class organization, you must always have high expectations. But there's a delicate balance between having high expectations and conveying the trust you have in your team's ability to get there. And you always need the latter, and to communicate that as explicitly as possible, if you expect high expectations to meet reality. Of course, as always, full episode in the comments