Steven Hoffman

996 is a tax on low leverage. Hours are a weak substitute for judgment, distribution, and product quality. 996 often signals a lack of leverage, not grit. What works: build sails, not biceps. In practice that means compounding systems, reusable components, and distribution loops. At Typewise , our best weeks weren’t longer; they were when we shipped primitives that removed future work. If exhaustion is your moat, you don’t have one.

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This week on Tacos & Tech, Faisal Mushtaq shares what founders actually need to grow and why community matters just as much as capital. We dive into his playbook for scaling, the power of writing, and how TechCon Global is reshaping what a tech conference can be. Listen now: https://lnkd.in/g7wZqhB5 TechCon details: https://techconglobal.com/

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Is PT a profitable industry? Practice owners dealing with tight margins often question whether PT is a profitable industry. However, private equity companies continue to buy up practices faster than ever. Maybe there needs to be a perspective shift...what do you think?

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What evidence is sufficient to establish initial customer traction for an investor? That really depends on the type of product or service you are selling, the types of customers, and the specific investor. Let’s break it down: When you’re considering your product or service as it relates to ‘inevitability’ in your company, key factors include your ‘product development cycle’ and your ‘sales cycle’. The product development cycle is a structured, iterative process of bringing a new product from initial concept to market, typically involving ideation, research, prototyping, testing, and launch. To get to a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), this may be a few weeks or a few months for a simple Mobile App that is being sold via an App Store. If you are developing a breakthrough semiconductor system-on-a-chip product, it may be two to three years. Typically, customers won’t commit to buying something that they cannot purchase, so the MVP level is require to start the ‘sales cycle’. The sales cycle is the time it takes to go from generating a customer lead to a purchase of your solution. In a complex enterprise sale, this could be anywhere from a few months to a couple years. In the automotive industry, even longer before you have significant revenue. In a simple lower-price consumer offering, it may be days or weeks, and on the shorter end of this if there is a freemium offering. This is where it might get a bit tricky as it relates to your ability to secure outside investment for your company. Some investors my be comfortable investing if you have signed a joint development agreement, a paid pilot program, or a non-recurring engineering (NRE) contract with a key customer that is representative of the market opportunity. Other investors may want to see ‘design-wins’, or a customer that has committed to purchase your product. If there is a contract to support this, even better. If there is committed minimum volume, even better. If you are in the simple App business, it may be that the investor is looking for subscriber growth, conversions rate from freemium to paid, customer usage stats (i.e., are they just downloading the app, or are they actively using it?), and customer retention. Rate of adoption or ‘velocity’ is a key consideration. Bottom-line, you need to consider the specific product development requirements and market dynamics associated with your solution development & deployment, your business model and your customer base. You need to develop a customer journey process that converts and has repeatability associated with it. The further along you establish this, the investors will start to consider that you have established ‘product-market fit’, and have a clearly refined ‘go-to-market’ strategy. What has been your experience in moving from pilots or MVP offerings to paid customers ramping volume? #startup #founders #sales #funding #strategy

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What gets you from $0 → $1M ARR won’t get you to $10M. What gets you from $1M → $10M won’t get you to $20M. Here’s the 6-motion SaaS Growth Playbook — and how to layer them at every stage. https://lnkd.in/g-zZhsA7

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Buyers don’t pay premiums for what you’ve done. They pay for what they believe they can scale. I’ve seen practices with strong collections get average offers. And I’ve seen smaller groups command aggressive valuations. The difference? Growth visibility. -Is there room to add additional ops? -Can associate capacity increase production? -Is there opportunity for de novos or tuck-ins? -Are systems transferable? If growth feels capped, valuation compresses. If growth feels obtainable, multiples expand. The real question isn’t “What am I worth today?” It’s “How scalable is this platform tomorrow?” That is what sophisticated capital underwrites.

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Your business structure was perfect when you created it, but ten years later it might be costing you millions in exit value. The families who successfully transition don't just have good businesses; they have governance infrastructure that evolves with them. Here are 3 signs your structure is working against you instead of for you.

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📍 Q4: Where Profit Is Made or Missed I’m Steve Olvera, the DTC COO — and if you’re a founder or operator gearing up for Cyber Week, this is your reminder: Your eCommerce site is your storefront. During Q4, it has to be frictionless. ✅ Streamline checkout ✅ Highlight free shipping thresholds ✅ Display real-time inventory ✅ Make sure your site loads in under 2 seconds ✅ Fully optimize for mobile The goal? Reduce friction. Increase conversion. Keep customers moving through the funnel. But it doesn’t stop there — your marketing and operations teams need to tell the same story. Align your paid media, email, social, and SMS through one shared promo calendar. Consistency builds trust — and trust converts. If you’re ready to scale with structure, clarity, and confidence, now’s the time. This Q4 can be your most profitable season yet — but only if your systems are built to handle the growth. 📍 Visit DTCCOO.com to book an intro call. Let’s start building your operations for scale. #Ecommerce #Operations #Q4Strategy #DTC #Leadership #EcommerceOptimization #DTCCOO

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I sat down with Jake Rockafellow, CPA, CMA, CEO of Rig Source, to talk about his journey from CPA to CEO, and what it takes to scale a niche rental business where the mindset toward renting still lags two decades behind general construction.   Here’s what we covered: 1. Why 60% of the drilling market still prefers ownership, and how Rig Source educates contractors on the value of renting 2. The leadership philosophy behind building a high-performance culture that retains top talent 3. Why in-person, on-site visits remain a differentiator in a digital-first world How robust data systems form the foundation for scaling and visibility in rental operations 4. The industry trends shaping the future, from tariffs and supply chains to the growing role of technology As Jake put it:   “What I’m most passionate about is educating our market that there’s many ways to acquire machines… because what I’ve learned is that drillers don’t always need machines. What they really need is a hole in the ground.”   That perspective reframes the rental value proposition entirely: it’s not about competing on equipment alone...it’s about solving the contractor’s real problem.

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