Amy Lenander

Calling all health creators. We’ve opened the API with free credits so you can innovate. Show the world how this technology can be used. The ability to assess human inference is limitless. Save a life, decrease morbidity and mortality, improve the human condition. Show us your best! Camille Noufi, PhD Jeremy Barber Peh Keong Teh Vijay Ravi Chip Skowron Amplifier Health Builders VC Mark Blackwell Paul A. Bell

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Excellence is the ultimate long game. Last quarter, someone on my leadership team asked if we could "fast-track the culture change." I appreciated the enthusiasm. I also had to deliver the news that culture doesn't have an express lane. There's no Amazon Prime for organizational excellence. It's going to take longer than any of us want, cost more than we expect, and require more repetition than we'd like. Welcome to leadership. Will Guidara learned this the hard way at Eleven Madison Park. He describes the years - not months, years - it took to build a culture where every single person on the team was obsessed with making every single guest experience extraordinary. It wasn't a training program or a single motivational speech. It was thousands of small moments, repeated relentlessly, until excellence became the only acceptable standard. Here's what Guidara teaches us about the long road to excellence: You can't skip the reps. Guidara tells about teaching his team to read guests - to notice when someone seemed uncomfortable or distracted and adjust accordingly. This didn't happen overnight. It happened through daily pre-shift meetings, constant coaching, and endless practice until reading the room became instinctive. Excellence is built through repetition that feels boring until suddenly it's not. Culture change happens in the margins. You don't transform a team through grand declarations. You do it by consistently reinforcing what matters in small, daily interactions. Guidara didn't announce "we're going to be the best restaurant in the world" and call it done. He modeled unreasonable attention to detail every single service until his team internalized it. Most people quit before it gets good. This is the brutal part. Real culture change takes 18-24 months minimum before it feels embedded. Most leaders give it six months, don't see dramatic results, and pivot to the next shiny initiative. The people who create excellence are the ones who keep going when it's boring, frustrating, and feels like nothing is changing. Think about The Karate Kid. Daniel wanted to learn karate. Mr. Miyagi made him wax cars and paint fences for weeks. Daniel thought he was being scammed. Turns out, he was building muscle memory - foundation work that looked nothing like the goal but was essential to achieving it. That's what building excellence looks like. Wax on, wax off. For months. Until one day you realize you've built something remarkable. In sales leadership, I see this impatience constantly. Teams want transformational results from a two-day offsite. They want a new CRM to fix a coaching problem. They want culture change from a poster in the break room. Excellence doesn't work that way. Here's my question this week: What excellence are you building right now that won't pay off for 12-18 months? And are you willing to keep investing when nobody's applauding yet? Because that's the test. Anyone can start. Champions finish.

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As an advisor to XUMAN.AI and a longtime observer of global tech expansion, it's critical to understand the White House’s freshly unveiled AI Action Plan. The plan seemingly offers startups a compelling runway for growth. With streamlined access to federal compute resources, faster data‑center permitting, and greater alignment between public-private players, early-stage AI companies are primed to scale more efficiently. Key areas to watch: infrastructure access, reduced regulatory friction, federal funding incentives, state vs. federal policy harmonization, and talent pipeline support. While lightened compliance can cut costs, founders should proactively implement third-party audits and adopt responsible AI frameworks to differentiate and build trust. For investors, the plan underscores a more predictable policy landscape—helping bring clarity to due diligence and de‑risking deployment of capital. The regulatory certainty, export control adjustments, antitrust relief, national security alignment, and state‑federal funding tie‑ins outlined can unlock deal flow, expedite acquisitions, and buoy valuations. At the same time, investors should consider governance readiness, energy usage scrutiny, and geopolitical considerations—especially as trade tariffs and semiconductor policies may shift rapidly under different administrations. This plan could fast-track AI innovation—but looser guardrails also increase risks around misuse, bias, and regulatory whiplash from future leadership changes. Founders and investors should build for resilience by embedding ethical practices, advocating for bipartisan policy consistency, and staying informed. I strongly encourage everyone in the AI space to read the plan firsthand—it’s more than policy, it’s a signal of where AI is headed. #AIInvestment #ResponsibleAI #StartupGrowth #TechPolicy #ElectionReady #Whitehouse #investment https://lnkd.in/gEw-j_Wr

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The loan disbursement process is awful, which is why Mastercard and LoanPro announced our strategic partnership today. 📣 While payments went instant and mobile wallets became standard, most lenders are still pushing funds through ACH—slow, inflexible, and invisible to both the borrower and lender. This changes today. Through Mastercard, lenders can allow borrowers to gain instant access to loan funds through a virtual card in their mobile wallet. Borrowers can spend immediately online or in-store, anywhere Mastercard is accepted globally. The financial instrument stays structured and predictable—fixed installments, not revolving balances combining the predictability of an installment loan with the convenience of a card. This Loan on Card product launch will be available H1 2026 to LoanPro customers, Mastercard issuers, and lenders participating in Mastercard Installments. A HUGE thank you to Stefany Bello, Cosku Cobanoglu, Ginger Siegel, Olim Toiriyon, Priscilla Gomez, Nida Ozair and the entire Mastercard team, plus Colin Terry, Rhett Roberts, Nate Wood, Scott Johnson, Charles Sweeney, Mike Simmons and our Product and Technology teams for bringing this much needed innovation to life. 2026 is going to be a major year for lending infrastructure. Buckle up 💯

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When Andy Jassy took over as CEO of Amazon in 2021, the pressure was immense. Yet under his leadership, Amazon hasn’t just maintained its momentum—it’s accelerated. 🚀 In a recent HBR conversation, Jassy shared key insights on leading a giant like Amazon with a startup mindset: Embrace risk—“If you aren’t failing, you’re not inventing enough.” Flatten the organization to move faster. Push innovation, especially with AI. Make bold decisions, like bringing employees back to the office to strengthen collaboration. A great reminder that growth comes from taking chances and staying customer-obsessed. What do you think—should more large companies adopt a startup mentality? #Leadership #Innovation #StartupMindset #DigitalTransformation #AI #OrganizationalDesign #GrowthMindset #Amazon #BusinessTransformation

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Thrilled to share Synchrony's new partnership with Walmart! The new #creditcard program will combine Walmart’s strong track record of transforming shopping and its vast reach to millions of U.S. customers with OnePay’s digital banking platform and Synchrony’s industry-leading technology, products, and deep lending expertise. Look forward to working together on this powerful collaboration to enhance the shopping and #payments experiences for Walmart customers.

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Your credit card risk strategy is Trust And Cross Our fingers? Maybe time for a Plan B. If a 10% APR cap hits, revolving portfolios won't save themselves. But you can hedge now - launch BNPL and real-time term loans off pre-approved limits. Same customers, structured repayment, better loss predictability. With timveroOS, that's a week to market. Not a year. https://lnkd.in/dW3i29c7

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In many of my conversations with bank CEOs, I sense frustration that their teams aren’t more curious. What surprises me is how often those same banks list curiosity (or something similar) as a core value. Curiosity usually mirrors leadership, but could also exist in pockets of an organization. When the CEO asks questions, explores ideas, and looks beyond banking for inspiration, others will likely follow. When they don’t, curiosity can quietly disappear. I’ve started asking a couple simple questions in those conversations: Who’s the most curious person in your bank? Who do you think should be? If the answer isn’t the CEO, then it better be clear who is, and that he/she is empowered to be. How are they demonstrating it and encouraging others? Culture is how curiosity appears and gets activated in an organization. Are people asking and exploring “How might we…?” in the bank? Curiosity isn’t just about innovation; it’s about empathy, understanding customers, and challenging assumptions. It’s how a bank learns to stay relevant. So I’ll ask: who’s the most curious person in your bank, whether you work there or do business with them, and what do they do that shows it?

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