Michael Perry

Tech doesn’t have to be lonely. SMBs are expected to scale like startups and secure like enterprises—often with a fraction of the resources. That’s why mentorship and real-world guidance matter just as much as the tech stack itself. This San Francisco Business Times piece echoes what we see every day: tools are just one piece of the puzzle. What really drives growth? Clarity, community, and making intentional tech decisions that actually serve the business. Because strong tech foundations aren’t a luxury. They’re what keep your momentum moving forward. https://lnkd.in/epGKeQrE  #SmallBusiness #TechStrategy #SMBsupport 

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Great founders know where to focus. Bret Taylor knows how to break it down. We pulled some key insights from the Sierra co-founder and CEO's Frameworks for Growth episode—on customers, selling outcomes instead of features, and what some startups miss about pace, product, and predictions. 🧵 Highlights in the carousel 🎬 Watch the full ep: https://lnkd.in/g9WmVtzf

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For many founders, the path from bootstrapping to venture-backed growth is filled with both promise and pressure. Knowing when to bring in outside expertise—specifically, a venture capital consulting firm—can mean the difference between stalled growth and a successful funding round. In this post, we’ll highlight five clear signs your startup is ready to benefit from venture capital consulting services, and how acting early can unlock smarter decisions and better outcomes. https://lnkd.in/gmumR5D2

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Two of my fav questions I like to ask ask founders of VC backed companies to determine values alignment? 1️⃣ What was the biggest commission check you signed last quarter? 2️⃣ How many reps got to 90% of quota? *What* and *how* they answer typically give me all the information I need around their understanding and respect for sales 🔑 Things I don’t want to hear: “well last quarter was unique in why not a big % of reps hit quota…” 👎 “we are spending too much on commissions and need to raise goals” 👎 “It’s odd that a rep that went to a state school will make more than a PHD data scientist from Stanford” 👎 Even if some of these may be valid things if they are the first and only things you share with me, I know we are not going to see the world through the same lens 🤷🏽‍♀️ Best b2b founders that manage ent sales teams celebrate big commissions and respect sales just as much as they do engineering 🔑 #founders #sales #cro #revenue #commissions #startup #technicalfounder

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Greg Brown, SVP of DUDE Wipes, broke down something most DTC brands are still figuring out: how to grow without bloating your headcount. DUDE Wipes is staying lean by leaning into AI and automation, not as a buzzword, but as actual infrastructure that lets them scale and handle inevitable fire drills without adding more bodies to the org. Greg’s take is that every operator needs to level up on what AI actually means for their day-to-day. Not the hype! But the practical stuff that keeps you nimble when things get chaotic. Full convo on Commerce is Chaos here: https://lnkd.in/gbS_tnck

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I’ve been talking with founders about how painful enterprise customization still is — even in 2025. David Dworsky and Gordon Ritter just put words to what we’ve been seeing: the age of point-and-click configuration is ending, and the next category winners will make customization conversational. For early-stage founders, this is the wedge: - Own one painful workflow - Capture the data - Build toward becoming a system of record If you’re building in this space, I’d love to hear how you’re approaching it. Link to the full article on this in the comments. 

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For years, brands have asked us: “When are you launching in California?” The answer is: now. Hummingbirds is officially live across six California cities — San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and Los Angeles. We didn’t rush this expansion. We built a creator network grounded in real households, real routines, and real buying behavior — because everyday products don’t live in idealized worlds. They win in familiar ones. And as more of the internet fills with AI-generated UGC and synthetic taste, we’re betting on the opposite: lived experience over generated content. Real taste over rendered opinions. Real people don’t just create content — they earn trust. If you’re a brand selling into California and looking for a more durable, trust-driven way to connect with consumers, this is the model we’ve been building toward.

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𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗽, 𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗣 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟰 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝘀. Tomorrow's board meeting looms. They want to know why DTC revenue is down 18%. They don't want to hear about your 500 unqualified applicants or the two "perfect fits" who ghosted after round three. You put on the confident face. "We're handling it internally while we find the right leader." But internally? You're drowning. 🔻 The freelancer you hired last month just increased their rate 🔻 Your team is burned out 🔻 That recruiter who promised "top-tier talent" sent you someone who thinks Shopify Plus is a subscription box This isn't just about missing revenue. It's about you working 70-hour weeks while your kids ask why you missed another dinner. It's about wondering if leadership is one bad quarter away from "restructuring" your role. It's about carrying the weight of that last bad hire who cost you $200K and six months of momentum. You're not failing. The system is. Post-and-pray recruiting doesn't work for transformational roles. Neither does hoping the perfect candidate stumbles across your LinkedIn job post between 200 others. What actually works: 🔹 Building targeted pipelines before you need them 🔹 Embedding interim talent Day 1 while you hire right 🔹 Using scorecards that predict performance, not pedigree You didn't get to your level by doing things halfway. Stop recruiting that way. What's keeping you working past midnight – missing targets or missing talent?

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99.4% telemetry distillation. That's the latest benchmark for OtterMon AI's MVP build. But you might be surprised to hear data optimization isn't our primary focus... Our platform is designed to help customers *prevent* security incidents and business outages instead of them constantly reacting to problems. We accomplish that by sitting on top of their existing DevOps tools and analyzing their holistic digital footprint. What are they monitoring? What vendors are they using? What critical context is hiding in documentation, code, and runbooks? Today, trying to process all that data just doesn't scale. But by solving the data volume problem first, we also solved the data silo problem. And now our customers can see auto-detected issues, risks, and optimization opportunities instead of drowning in disparate dashboards and endless alerts. That's the power of Unified DevOps Intelligence 🚀

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