Calo

Different startup models have different blind spots, and those blind spots create a unique "financial gravity" for founders/finance to thrive, only if they understand it well. My latest article breaks down each model and the one finance priority that matters for each. Link in the comments.

As the years pass, it’s deeply rewarding to see individuals who started different journeys with you step up, taking ownership, making sound decisions, and driving businesses forward. Even more impactful is watching them build strong teams and develop the next generation of leaders. It becomes a school that passes from one to another! Great teams don’t grow by chance, they grow through consistent and intentional investment in people. Lucky to be living the days validating early investments in the team

2 years ago I stumbled into something I didn't expect to love: sitting with young founders and helping them get clarity on the finance side of their ideas. These young hungry talents are just different. I sit with them making sense of their ideas, and I think: they are here for the idea. But, little that I know that they’re here for the both, the idea and the experience. They’re completely fine if this particular idea didn’t work because they are already ready for the next one, and by then, they’ve picked up a thing or two from the first. This got me thinking: these founders don't need to be taught finance. They need clarity. Let me tell you what I mean.. If you’re teaching them Finance, you’d send them a “model” template, explain what "EBITDA" means, and they're sent off to raise money from people who have spent twenty years reading financial models. This might work for a founder who’s done that been there.. but not for founders on their first lap. I ran a finance workshop for early-stage startups at the Riyada Business Accelerator in Bahrain. EventTech, EdTech, FoodTech, SaaS, and AI. Five sectors, five business models. Five different ways money moves. The most important thing we did wasn't building the models It was asking clarity questions → What do you actually believe about your idea? → Who are your customers? How many can you realistically capture in year one? and How? → What does your vendor need to feel before they activate on your platform? The answers to those questions are the model. The spreadsheet is just where you write them down. Finance isn't the hard part for founders. Clarity is. And that's the only thing I'm actually teaching.