David’s Articles

Many synonymous words we take for granted, never bothering to contemplate whether or not they are in fact, equivalent. In the last several weeks, I have been struck that there is in fact a difference between being ‘competitive’ and being ‘driven.’ For a long period of...

I can clearly recall the first ‘meta’ thought I encountered. I was sitting in the first day of high school in my first English class, and the professor began with the year with the question of What is a Word? Mind blown. Why? Up to that point, I had been so head down...

Professor Rita Gunther McGrath makes the audacious claim Is Competitive Advantage Actually Dead? in here book (The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business ) published in 2013.  I'm not sold that she proved her point. At...

10 lessons I’ve learned after ~4 years as an entrepreneur It will take twice as long to get where you want to be – no matter how prepared you are, it will take longer than you think The hardest time in the startup is at the “growth plateau” – 7-12 months after you’ve...

3G’s operating model of extreme cost discipline to drive free cash flow, driving further investment in brands and growth is garnering, rightfully so, a lot of attention in the private equity world. Our view is all managers should look at their lessons and see how they can apply them best to their operating businesses.

I just finished reading “What I learned losing a million dollars” by Jim Paul and Brendan Moynihan. This book is the excellent story of a young man who was a successful commodities trader who was entirely wiped out in a period of 6 weeks or so. Per our usual format,...

Book Review of The Masters of Private Equity and Venture Capital    (Disclaimer – These are Amazon Affiliate links and pay a small commission to me for the referral) Finkel’s book includes interviews/profiles with PE and VC leaders.  Not as...