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Building is hard, and there are always 100 reasons to give up for the 1 there is to keep going. I've had this rattling around in my brain for a while as a construct that has helped guide my thinking and my approach to interactions of late. Perhaps it will be helpful to you too. And yes I'm dating myself with the George Costanza reference. But the best line in Sitcom history will forever be "George likes his kung pao spicy." Prove me wrong.So we all know the George Costanza type — the constant critic, finder of fault and the one that 'knows better.' Long on opinion, short on action. Rarely is this the person that makes things better, solves a problem or unites a team. George would rant about a coworker’s bad parking or Jerry’s dating life to dodge his own flops, like losing another job. It’s all noise, no fix.&nbsp;<figure id="figure-a2a174ig39monhxtvy" data-full-width=""><img id="a2a174ig39monhxtvy" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2fH8sLWMTDB0O0G7g5Qq76tkqi84G5aG6hAm5us4qxrORXTT1MIvpKx3oO6TlwFt.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2fH8sLWMTDB0O0G7g5Qq76tkqi84G5aG6hAm5us4qxrORXTT1MIvpKx3oO6TlwFt.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>Instead, I say channel your inner Ted Lasso. Look at what Coach Lasso did with AFC Richmond - he came into a divided and horribly underperforming team, owned the challenge, and used positivity, vulnerability and encouragement to unite players like Roy and Jamie and ultimately secure a promotion for the team.No team, company, or startup ecosystem is perfect and the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence. Faced with headwinds, harping on what's wrong certainly highlights what's broken. But in the absence of constructive input or a view on solutions, is not only not helpful, it shuts down trust and stalls progress.&nbsp;Leaders like Satya Nadella at Microsoft prove this works—he turned a stale culture around by encouraging ideas over blame, boosting innovation and tripling the company’s value. Or take Simon Sinek, whose “Start With Why” pushes us to solve problems with purpose, not pettiness.See a problem? Suggest a fix, rally the team, and make it happen. As leaders, we should always want to embody the character and humility that makes Ted Lasso the incredibly endearing and unforgettable character that he is.&nbsp;So be a Ted Lasso.

In a World of George Costanza's, be Ted Lasso.

Great <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovation-isnt-real-estate-why-startup-hubs-waste-money-paul-o-brien-thw1c/" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovation-isnt-real-estate-why-startup-hubs-waste-money-paul-o-brien-thw1c/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> from my friend Paul O'Brien at Startup Economist about what cities are doing right and where they're missing the mark when it comes to building startup ecosystems.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here's the TL;DR:"Too many cities are still spending millions on “innovation hubs” that look busy, photograph well, and impress visiting delegations, but don’t actually produce startups that raise capital, generate revenue, or create jobs. I've written about this before and I'll keep beating on it till cities do better. The graveyard of empty incubators is proof enough: real estate ≠ innovation."<figure id="figure-04697f88cbmonhqjo8" data-full-width=""><img id="04697f88cbmonhqjo8" src="https://cdn.durable.co/covers/dy5bTKS3r168IAOnWYj7cGTYMnArzxROyc9qBUnIKcfG2Vh6jkB3fk1zVTu3b5OZ.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/covers/dy5bTKS3r168IAOnWYj7cGTYMnArzxROyc9qBUnIKcfG2Vh6jkB3fk1zVTu3b5OZ.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>I spent 17 years in the Silicon Valley and the last 11 in flyover country, i.e. Arizona. This is so on-point.&nbsp;Unfettered cheerleading for every founder that registers a domain and unending pitch competitions to win $25K checks not only don't move the needle, they fail to build the culture and discipline that is essential for startup ecosystems to thrive. In many cases, the underlying business models of these 'innovation hubs' is antithetical to the goal of fostering viable startups.What this really articulates to me is a roadmap for cities that aren't VC hubs to build the frameworks to replicate (approximate?) the ecosystem value that VCs provide beyond the check. Create active connective tissue at scale and facilitate access to markets and market leaders in the city/region. Create unfair advantages with the unique players and resources in your region.&nbsp;To take this a step further - it's also essential to find and engage the 'been there, done that' in your city to create real mentorship, constructive support and to dish out the tough love when necessary. VCs do this at scale, and IMHO it's one of the most under recognized &amp; unappreciated elements of why regions like the Silicon Valley continue to attract great founders and produce great startups. Capital is fungible and portable. This kind of connective tissue is not - you have to build it.

Innovation Isn't Real Estate.  Why Startup Hubs Waste Money.

#SEO is dead, long live #GEO. More data showing how AI has fundamentally changed users' search behavior, and how AI is essentially a black hole when it comes to referral traffic.<figure id="figure-34gfrd26xrmongiu4i"><img id="34gfrd26xrmongiu4i" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/7DZncnifFxMbs5l5AcsoQV6pfRzfosHV3a621OL4DHRvXEbXNXmqc659Qjc7mnrD.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/></figure>"Users prefer aggregated AI answers over clicking through websites to find their answers."How quickly will companies reorient their strategy away from search optimization to generative optimization? At what point are websites even relevant anymore?<a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-talking-my-users-tomasz-tunguz-ehnzc/?trackingId=tNJeD2mWOU%2BpPNUwCppKPA%3D%3D" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-talking-my-users-tomasz-tunguz-ehnzc/?trackingId=tNJeD2mWOU%2BpPNUwCppKPA%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source article</a> from Tomasz Tunguz at Theory VC.

SEO Is Dead.  Long Live GEO.

The Administration just announced a new initiative that has the potential shake up the hashtag#healthtech space. By partnering with companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and OpenAI to create a more patient-centric healthcare system, they again demonstrate openness to embrace market led solutions vs. a 'government knows best' mentality. Here's a link to the <a data-mce-href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/white-house-tech-leaders-commit-create-patient-centric-healthcare-ecosystem" href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/white-house-tech-leaders-commit-create-patient-centric-healthcare-ecosystem" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement from CMS.</a> &nbsp; For those of us who’ve been in the healthcare tech world for a while, we know how much of a roadblock EMR systems like Epic have been. Made mandatory by the ACA in 2013, they're notoriously hard to work with - both technically and from a business standpoint - and because EMR integration has been a non-negotiable prerequisite for doing business with hospitals, have made it insanely difficult for startups to get their foot in the door. The costs, the red tape, the time it takes to even get a conversation started have all been huge barriers to innovation. &nbsp; For example, HL7 FHIR was introduced in 2012. While it was developed to address API standardization for interoperability, it's done little to mitigate the massive barriers that EMR platforms still present to innovators and startups. And, healthcare system's general bias for platform breadth vs. point solutions adds even more friction.<figure id="figure-e1w0894evgmongcwjw" class=""><img id="e1w0894evgmongcwjw" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/1eEf7THp4TnZhuAY2W0zsnDiIw9alNn708N5kiD4OSjc9fBLnJpR8sHlJYIYDd4e.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/1eEf7THp4TnZhuAY2W0zsnDiIw9alNn708N5kiD4OSjc9fBLnJpR8sHlJYIYDd4e.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>What excites me most about this, though, is the pivot to a patient-first perspective vs. an industry controlled initiative. Yes, data privacy is critical - even more so in a data portability scenario - but the technology exists to address those risks. It's not a new idea - there's been talk for years about 'patients own their data', but precious little progress to make that happen. Case in point - Apple introduced its Health Records feature in 2018, but in the 7 years since, less than 10% of hospitals have opened up their EMRs to the 150M+ iPhone users in the US. &nbsp; The reality is that the technology isn't the hard part here. I worry that, as has been the case for decades, the primary challenges to this kind of innovation will come both from incumbents like Epic who will be loathe to give up their death grip on patient data, and from the healthcare systems themselves who will similarly see data portability as a threat to their ability to manage &amp; control their relationships with patients. Objections will likely be contextualized under the guise of data security and patient confidentiality...shrieks of what about HIPAA?!?!?!?!?....but the real fear is neither of those. &nbsp; So call me cautiously optimistic. This initiative could help tear down the walls that have kept so many entrepreneurs and investors on the sidelines of the healthcare space and represent a big step toward creating a more open, innovative environment in healthcare. Or it could be much ado about very little in reality, just like HL7 FHIR. We'll see what happens...

White House, Tech Leaders Commit to Create Patient-Centric Healthcare Ecosystem

<h3><a data-mce-href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/inno/stories/news/2025/01/23/new-program-launches-for-health-tech-companies.html" href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/inno/stories/news/2025/01/23/new-program-launches-for-health-tech-companies.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New Arizona program launches to scale health tech companies</a> </h3><a data-mce-href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/inno/stories/news/2025/01/23/new-program-launches-for-health-tech-companies.html" href="https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/inno/stories/news/2025/01/23/new-program-launches-for-health-tech-companies.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Program will be housed at 850 PBC building, now being leased by biotech startups</a>I'm honored to serve as an advisor to the new <a data-mce-href="https://phoenixbiosciencecore.com/xlr8/" href="https://phoenixbiosciencecore.com/xlr8/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">XLR8 PBC</a> program at <a data-mce-href="https://phoenixbiosciencecore.com/" href="https://phoenixbiosciencecore.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phoenix Bioscience Core</a>, which I believe fills a much needed gap in the AZ ecosystem to help health tech founders successfully navigate the gap from start-up to scale-up. We've got an amazing group of leaders, executives and operators around the table - including, among others <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanebrown3/" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanebrown3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shane Brown</a>, <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianellerman/" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianellerman/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Ellerman</a>, <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlett-spring-871a077/" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/scarlett-spring-871a077/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scarlett Spring</a>, and <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiran-avancha-phd-89b72616/" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiran-avancha-phd-89b72616/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kiran Avancha, PhD</a> - to help make this a success, and I'm looking forward to pitching in!The application window is open until 2/19, and if you're interested, learn more and apply at <a href="https://lnkd.in/gZitEwPT" data-mce-href="https://lnkd.in/gZitEwPT">https://lnkd.in/gZitEwPT</a>.<figure id="figure-yl6p6cb59emong1f0d" data-full-width=""><img id="yl6p6cb59emong1f0d" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2bYR3v9N4clF07TdTHmqpSvHGC7sMrHSh5nWeELS1S3uAR6evp6AMei4ipZTiLLH.jpg" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="true" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2bYR3v9N4clF07TdTHmqpSvHGC7sMrHSh5nWeELS1S3uAR6evp6AMei4ipZTiLLH.jpg" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure>

XLR8 Launch at Phoenix Bioscence Core

Tomasz Tunguz shared a thought-provoking <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenge-saas-orthodoxy-tomasz-tunguz-zpbec/?trackingId=EFeInD%2BfQ9mvVsVSH7EcXA%3D%3D" href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/challenge-saas-orthodoxy-tomasz-tunguz-zpbec/?trackingId=EFeInD%2BfQ9mvVsVSH7EcXA%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> analyzing Klarna’s recent annncement on their plans to replace 3rd party vertical SaaS tools with internally developed AI and how that could signal a shift in the B2B SaaS orthodoxy that has driven the last 20 years of B2B SaaS development.Does this signal a fundamental change in the dynamics – the ‘orthodoxy’ - of the B2B SaaS market? Maybe, but there will be some non-trivial hurdles:<ol><li>It’s a big company model (for now). In the MongoDB example, Tomasz estimates the annual cost offset for sales to be $12-15M for a company with 1,250 people in sales. I would venture most companies with yearly budgets of even a few $M would struggle to keep parity. And that’s just 1 SaaS tool vertical among many. </li><li>Focus. The fact that lack of focus = failure is a truism. Instead of the leadership having laser focus on the core company mission, ICP &amp; value props, and competition, they’re now going to have to split their focus between building for external vs. internal customers. There is a reason there aren’t many companies left that look like GE in the late 2000’s. </li><li>Resource contention. Let’s say AI can handle most of the dev lift. There will still be people that manage &amp; support it, costs to operate it, etc. Like any company with limited resources (all of them), there will constantly be tradeoffs between investing $1 to make the AI tools better vs. bringing more customers through the funnel.&nbsp;</li></ol>For those reasons and more, I’m skeptical that this approach will become the de-facto IT strategy for the broader enterprise market. But, at the risk of contradicting myself…<figure id="figure-q3mf1d9qgmonffktm"data-full-width><img id="q3mf1d9qgmonffktm" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/8VPM7jDYO36WUlThEUH7s6AaB7XeUUeSryNRWfrnNTSN2aqNwwhi764d2ojvnYwS.png" alt="" title="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="true"/></figure>Let’s say instead, Klarna builds the absolute best AI-driven CRM (would we still even call it that?) ever and decides to sell it to the market before Salesforce et al. can effectively respond. What if this ends up looking more like how Twitter &amp; Slack were born vs. just a massive internal IT exercise?Companies that can harness the best talent in AI could also demolish the entire vertical construct in B2B SaaS and instead build entire AI-driven solutions around JTBD (jobs to be done) frameworks.&nbsp;For example, the JTBD for a manufacturer is to ship 10,000 widgets this year. That would entail engaging AI for:1.&nbsp; &nbsp;Product design 2. &nbsp;Marketing &amp; lead gen 3. &nbsp;Sales 4. &nbsp;ERP &amp; Supply Chain 5. &nbsp;Shipping &amp; Logistics 6. &nbsp;Accounting &amp; collections 7. &nbsp;Customer SupportRather than a company buying 7 different SaaS products from 7 vendors, they buy 1 AI bot designed specifically for manufacturing customers that manages the entire product lifecycle. AI seems to offer a feasible path toward these kinds of JTBD bots, in contrast to ‘traditional’ software dev architecture.Ultimately, I 100% agree with Tomasz that the orthodoxy of enterprise SaaS will fundamentally change because of AI. How long will it take? Who knows, but it will be fun to watch.

Insights

In a World of George Costanza's, be Ted Lasso.

Innovation Isn't Real Estate. Why Startup Hubs Waste Money.

SEO Is Dead. Long Live GEO.

White House, Tech Leaders Commit to Create Patient-Centri...

XLR8 Launch at Phoenix Bioscence Core

Is AI Eating SaaS?