Todd Emaus

Helping Founders Do The Hard Thing: Lead Themselves - 3x Founder - Author of Scale Without Losing Your Soul - Partner @ Evolution

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

Everything grand is made from a series of ugly little moments. Everything worthwhile by hours of self-doubt and days of drudgery. All the works by people you and I admire sit atop a foundation of failures.

- Pierce Brown

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

Culture isn't soft.
It's the operating system that runs everything.

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

As your startup scales beyond you:

Old habits will fail you.
Micromanagement will sink you.
Control will strangle growth.
But evolution will save you.

ADAPT

The leadership skills that got you here
Won't be the ones that take you further.

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

Decisions without owners are just good intentions.

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

As decisions pile up endlessly:

- Some deserve your full attention.
- Most deserve delegation.
- Many deserve automation.
- A few deserve elimination.

FOCUS

Your job isn't to make every decision.
It's to make space for the ones only you can make.

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

I thought that leadership meant appearing bulletproof.

I never showed weakness or doubt.

When I finally dropped the act, something unexpected happened:
- My team didn't lose confidence in me.
- They trusted me more.
- They started sharing their own struggles.

And real solutions emerged from real conversations.

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

You don't have to carry it all alone.

Building a company is hard enough without fighting your own mind in isolation.

The strongest leaders I know? They all have someone in their corner.

Who is in yours?

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

I've worked with leaders at Slack, Notion, and Iterable.
They all struggled with the same invisible problem.

It wasn't strategy. It wasn't team. It wasn't money.

It was something much more personal:

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

Breaking the isolation requires 3 things:

1. A mirror - Someone who can reflect back what's actually happening vs. what your brain is telling you
2. A sounding board - Safe space to voice the doubts without judgment
3. A challenger - Person who won't let you stay small

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

Belonging requires the courage to be fully seen.
Most people aren't willing.

Thx @ConnorBeaton

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

@Austen They get ya w those queso, cream, guac upgrades.

[Warren Shaeffer @wwshaef]

Going through an accelerator as a first-time founder was one of the best life decisions I've made.

If you're all-in on your startup and are on the fence about applying to an accelerator, here's the message you've been waiting for: apply.

Even if you don't get in, the forcing function of putting your thoughts down on paper will help increase your odds of success.

If you do get in, you'll learn alongside ambitious peers and industry veterans alike, plus get a host of other benefits.

PearX applications close at midnight on 4/28. It's not too late. Apply! 👇

[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

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[Todd Emaus @toddemaus]

@fortelabs 5 best, 4 ok too.