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A school made us a 3D-printed squirrel trophy: "Least Likely to Be Phished." 🐿️🏆 It showed up in my favorite place on the internet, our Slack wins channel. I'm building a company I'd want to work at. That channel is the proof. We're hiring: jobs.ashbyhq.com/cybernut

🐿️ CyberNut is hiring a Community & Brand Manager. A fun role for someone Gen Z and social native. Duolingo has its owl. We have our squirrel. LA preferred, US remote ok. Know someone? Tag them 👇 jobs.ashbyhq.com/cybernut/b1…

I spent my 20s trying to get out of selling to schools. Turns out it was my unfair advantage. 🚀 Trust compounds, and almost nobody is patient enough to earn it. We're hiring 2 K-12 AEs at CyberNut, one Southeast, one West. Why not you? 👇 cybernut.com/careers

Saturday office. Courses, YouTube rabbit holes, and a lot of 'wait, how does that work?' 🐿️ I can't lead a company building with AI without getting my own hands dirty. What's the best AI course or channel you've learned from this year? #AI #FounderLife

Love my essentialism planner by @GregoryMcKeown 🚀

🎙️ Zero Breach Zone Pod Highlight: Turning Funding Into Future-Ready Infrastructure Maurice Payne, CTO of Decatur Public Schools, recently led a data center upgrade that included installing battery backups. ⚡ The project? Funded through E-rate. 💡

I used to wake up and dive straight into work. Slack. Email. Meetings. Chaos. Now? I protect my morning like my life depends on it — because in some ways, it does. Here’s the morning routine that keeps me sane as a startup CEO 🧵 1/ I wake up at 5:30 or 6 a.m. No phone. No notifications. Just silence. I roll out of bed, lace up, and move. 2/ I alternate between strength training and cardio. Some days it’s dumbbells and deadlifts. Other days it’s long, quiet runs. Movement gets me out of my head and back into my body. 3/ Then comes my favorite part: Sauna + cold plunge. 20 minutes in 180°F heat. 4 minutes in 37°F water. It resets my nervous system. And reminds me I can do hard things before 7 a.m. 4/ After that? A cappuccino on the rooftop. Just me, the skyline, and a little gratitude. No screens. No scrolling. Just space to think, breathe, and be. 5/ This routine has become non-negotiable. It’s how I cultivate: • Calm energy • Clarity of mind • A sense of purpose It’s what allows me to show up fully — for my team, my customers, and my company. 6/ Startups are chaotic. The highs are euphoric. The lows are brutal. I used to think grit would get me through. Now I know: rituals are what keep me grounded. 7/ If you’re building something ambitious… Protect your mornings. Protect your mind. Protect your peace. You can’t lead others if you don’t know how to center yourself first. // That’s the real founder advantage: Showing up grounded. Rinse and repeat.

One of the best things we’ve done at CyberNut? Launching a monthly Customer Advisory Call. No fluff. No pitch. Just listening. It’s transformed how we prioritize our roadmap. The format: 45 minutes, 6–8 engaged customers, our PM, engineering lead, and me. We show 2–3 upcoming features, then ask: “What’s missing?” “What’s annoying?” “What would you kill?” We take notes diligently. Why it works: - Customers feel heard - We avoid building in a vacuum - Patterns emerge quickly - Feature requests’ “why” becomes clear - Product debates shift from opinion to evidence It’s user interviews and product validation combined. Bonus: the best ideas often come from quieter customers. These calls give them space to speak, leading to some of our best product decisions. Fellow founders start this now. Monthly is enough. It’s free and builds trust. Customers feel invested. Your team stays grounded. Your roadmap sharpens.

I met an e-commerce founder at an event in Beverly Hills last night. He is generating over $120M annually. Here are 7 concise takeaways for scaling a startup past 20 people: - **20+ people is a breaking point** What worked at 10–15 fails now. Communication, culture, and operations need systems, not just hustle. - **Hire a COO and delegate** As CEO, focus on strategy, culture, and direction while enabling execution. - **Clarity over charisma** Teams need clear direction. Be transparent about goals, wins, failures, and metrics. Alignment trumps motivation. - **Establish a weekly cadence** - Monday: Leadership sync - Tuesday (biweekly): Supply chain - Wednesday: Finance - Friday: Team-building (share 1 personal, 1 professional win) - Monthly: Full-team “general assembly” with honest, transparent metrics - **Remote culture needs rituals** Start simple: weekly bonding, rotating facilitators, annual in-person events. Small habits build strong culture. - **Customer issues can overwhelm** A single Slack channel won’t scale. Use structured forms or Sheets, assign managers, and address root causes. - **Boring equals scalable** Every $100M company relies on systems, SOPs, and consistency to succeed.

Our B2B Cybersecurity SaaS Just passed $1.5M ARR after closing $1M in new sales this year. We did it: • With only angel + pre-seed funding • In 15 months • Selling to K–12 schools — one of the hardest B2B markets • Winning 70+ accounts from multi-billion dollar legacy incumbents No shortcuts. Just grit, obsession, and a 10-year overnight success in the making.

#ADHD has been my greatest asset — and my greatest liability. It gave me vision, energy, risk tolerance, and creativity. But it also brought burnout, shame spirals, and a browser with 47 open tabs. If you’re wired like me, here’s what’s actually helped 👇 🧵 1.One priority per day I used to chase 10 things at once. Now I pick one needle-mover each day. No more to-do lists that become guilt-trips. One thing. Done well. That’s the game. 2.Work in sprints, not marathons I set timers: 25–45 mins on, 5–15 off. ADHD craves urgency. Timed focus = flow. It’s not hustle. It’s rhythm. Rest is part of the process — not a reward. 3.Design your environment ADHD doesn’t need motivation. It needs friction removal. – Clean workspace – Noise-canceling headphones – Phone in another room – Full-screen mode Make distraction hard. Make focus easy. 4.Outsource memory to systems I stopped pretending I could “just remember.” Now I use: – Recurring calendar blocks – Notion dashboards – Reminders for everything My brain is creative. My systems are organized. That’s the partnership. 5.Build in accountability Every Monday, I share my top 3 goals with someone I trust. They don’t manage me. They mirror me. ADHD loves external pressure — use it wisely. 6.Learn to say no ADHD says YES to anything exciting. I’ve had to train myself to pause. Ask: Does this serve my bigger vision? If not, it’s a no — even if it’s brilliant. 7.Treat your nervous system like a co-founder ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s a regulation problem. No sleep, sugar, chaos = no focus. Now I prioritize: – Sleep – Walks – Protein – Less caffeine Because if my body’s fried, my brain is too. — ADHD made me a founder. It also almost broke me. Learning to work with it, instead of against it, changed my life. If you’re on the same path, keep going. You’re not broken. You just need a different playbook.

The One Question That Keeps Me Sane as a Startup Founder Most founders drown in noise. Endless fires. Constant Slack. A never-ending to-do list. I’ve been there. But this one question changed how I work: “What’s the ONE thing only I can do—that would meaningfully move the business forward?” Inspired by The One Thing and Essentialism, it forces clarity. It’s not: — What’s on fire? — What’s everyone else doing? — What feels urgent? It’s: What’s essential? What creates the most leverage? What requires me and no one else? For me lately, that’s looked like: ✅ Exploring our fundraising options ✅ Finalizing the Q4 product roadmap ✅ Setting cultural tone as we scale These are things only I can own. When I don't ask this question, I get trapped: — Responding to every email — Jumping on every call — Making reactive decisions — Feeling productive, but moving sideways Founders don’t get paid to do everything. We get paid to do the right thing. The thing that breaks bottlenecks, creates momentum, or unlocks the next level. So here’s my challenge to you: This week, ask yourself: “What’s the ONE thing only I can do… that would meaningfully move the business forward?” Then do that—first, and fiercely.

I've listened to 10,000 hours of self-help and professional development content over the past decade, contributing to at least 60% of my success on my entrepreneurial journey.

Used to walk into networking events trying to meet everyone. Now I just try to meet one interesting, high-quality person. Go an inch wide and a mile deep. One real connection beats 20 forgettable handshakes.

Most people think startups are about hustle. They’re not. They’re about surviving the emotional chaos long enough to make it work. The single most important skill I’ve learned as a founder? Staying in a good mood even when nothing’s going right. Alex Hormozi said it best: “Be in a good mood in the absence of things to be in a good mood about.” It sounds simple. But it’s elite-level emotional control — and most founders never develop it. Because when you’re building: • The highs are fleeting • The lows are daily • And the uncertainty never stops If your mood is tied to your metrics, you’re on a one-way ride to burnout. Learning to regulate without needing dopamine hits, praise, or constant progress changed everything for me. It made me a better CEO. A better partner. And honestly, just a more peaceful human. Train your nervous system like you train product-market fit: Sleep. Move. Breathe. Laugh. Detach from the dashboard. This isn’t soft — it’s survival. Startups are brutal. But your mood doesn’t have to be. The real founder advantage isn’t hustle. It’s emotional resilience. Master that — and you win, no matter what.

Everyone’s chasing AI, crypto, or the next hot consumer app. I picked an unsexy niche, cybersecurity training for public schools. It’s a painful, ignored, regulated niche with budgets and urgency. Now we’re in over 200 school districts and disrupting a multibillion incumbent called KnowBe4. Feels so great to beat out the old With a killer solution the customers actually love to use. You don’t need a genius idea. You need conviction, grit, and a problem that actually matters. Start there.

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