Cody Cross

The difference between a $1M business and a $100M business: Systems. Here’s how we think about building systems for our portfolio of 30+ businesses: Think of systems like a car. You need: - Vision = windshield (see where you're going) - Dashboard = gauges (track your speed) - Goals = GPS (know your destination) - Communication = alerts (stay coordinated) - People = maintenance (keep everything running) Miss any one and you're broken down on the side of the road. 1. Start With The Foundation Most owners focus on tiny processes instead of the big stuff. It's like saying "I want to build the Sistine Chapel" then starting out by picking out what candles you want inside. You have to start with the foundation first or you'll never get the thing done. 2. Use 'Proven' Frameworks Everyone on the internet acts like they have the best new "battle-tested" system, when realistically it's often a lot of fluff. That said, there is a lot of merit in implementing systems that have worked for someone else - just make sure you're getting them from the right place. 3. Follow Dual North Stars The danger of single metrics is it creates tunnel vision. But when you have two, they keep each other honest. It could be: - Revenue + Followers - Sales + Customer satisfaction - Growth + Team retention Just remember to keep one qualitative and the other quantitative. 4. Keep Pace With Your Yearly Vision Without systems, it’s easy to get caught up in busywork. I’ve met hardworking owners who thought they were moving the needle only to realize the opposite at EOY. Building the right systems prevents that: 5. Use Scorecards It’s not enough to give deadlines when assigning tasks. You also want to create a dashboard where you can track: - Completion rates - Who’s responsible for what - Color-coded status updates That way, you can see a bird’s eye view of what's moving along and what isn’t. 6. Apply The Rule of Three for Documentation Do you like repeating yourself? Me neither. Anything you do more than 3 times in a week (or has at least 3 steps) should get documented. Use Loom + Google Docs to create playbooks so specific that even a highschooler can follow. - Only so much I can get into in a single post. If you’re curious to learn more, I’m hosting a workshop on July 15th where we’ll walk through 7 strategies we’ve tested, refined, and consistently rely on to scale our businesses. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/e4xUbkV9

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The difference between a $1M business and a $100M business: Systems. Here’s how we think about building systems for our portfolio of 30+ businesses: Think of systems like a car. You need: - Vision = windshield (see where you're going) - Dashboard = gauges (track your speed) - Goals = GPS (know your destination) - Communication = alerts (stay coordinated) - People = maintenance (keep everything running) Miss any one and you're broken down on the side of the road. 1. Start With The Foundation Most owners focus on tiny processes instead of the big stuff. It's like saying "I want to build the Sistine Chapel" then starting out by picking out what candles you want inside. You have to start with the foundation first or you'll never get the thing done. 2. Use 'Proven' Frameworks Everyone on the internet acts like they have the best new "battle-tested" system, when realistically it's often a lot of fluff. That said, there is a lot of merit in implementing systems that have worked for someone else - just make sure you're getting them from the right place. 3. Follow Dual North Stars The danger of single metrics is it creates tunnel vision. But when you have two, they keep each other honest. It could be: - Revenue + Followers - Sales + Customer satisfaction - Growth + Team retention Just remember to keep one qualitative and the other quantitative. 4. Keep Pace With Your Yearly Vision Without systems, it’s easy to get caught up in busywork. I’ve met hardworking owners who thought they were moving the needle only to realize the opposite at EOY. Building the right systems prevents that: 5. Use Scorecards It’s not enough to give deadlines when assigning tasks. You also want to create a dashboard where you can track: - Completion rates - Who’s responsible for what - Color-coded status updates That way, you can see a bird’s eye view of what's moving along and what isn’t. 6. Apply The Rule of Three for Documentation Do you like repeating yourself? Me neither. Anything you do more than 3 times in a week (or has at least 3 steps) should get documented. Use Loom + Google Docs to create playbooks so specific that even a highschooler can follow. - Only so much I can get into in a single post. If you’re curious to learn more, I’m hosting a workshop on November 12th where we’ll walk you through the four simple levers every business owner can pull to unlock new profit in their business. Last time, we helped owners uncover $5.4 million in hidden cash. Now, it’s your turn. Save your post here: https://lnkd.in/emd63SuT

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Check out the latest funding news from across the Techstars portfolio. → Zipline (Techstars 2011), a drone delivery and logistics startup, raises more than $600M in new funding, boosting its valuation to $7.6B, as it expands commercial deployments. → Language learning startup Preply (Techstars 2015) raises $150M and becomes the 23rd known unicorn from Techstars accelerators. → Hydrosat (Techstars 2019) raises $60M in Series B funding → Tive (Techstars 2017) receives a $20M investment, valuing the shipment-tracking systems developer at slightly more than $500M. → Parambil (Techstars 2023) raises an additional $6M in seed funding ($8M to date). → Seasats (Techstars 2021) receives $24M in Department of War APFIT funding to accelerate the fielding of its autonomous surface vessels. → Hawaiian Airlines’ newly announced $600M Kahuʻewai Hawai‘i Investment Plan features a strategic investment in Ampaire (Techstars 2018) to support hybrid-electric aviation in the islands. → Fintalo (Techstars 2025) secures $500K+ in oversubscribed Pre-Seed funding. → PraxisPro (Techstars 2024) closes an oversubscribed $6M seed round. → Samara Aerospace (Techstars 2024) closes $10M seed round to help bring more stability to sats in orbit. → MyARC (Techstars 2022), a platform that enables fitness creators to train their communities at scale, secures £1.5M investment. Massive congratulations to these incredible portfolio companies!   🔗  Read more at https://lnkd.in/dxtCTvrg 

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Small business lending is broken. - Most SMBs (services, ecom, software) don’t have hard assets, so traditional lending that relies on collateral can't do it. - Limited bureau history and cash-based seasonal businesses make it hard to underwrite. - Small-ticket loans cost almost as much to underwrite/serve as big ones, making it hard to do the "s" in "smb". - This leads to lenders pushing personal guarantees on owners, which defeats the purpose of a "business" loan. The list goes on... This past week Canadian regulators agreed: - The Competition Bureau is launching a market study into the competitiveness of business lending - specifically on whether bank dominance makes it harder on entrepreneurs. - OSFI is proposing to adjust risk-weighting rules to make it more attractive for banks to lend to businesses. So what? As is the case with most financial services problems, the answer is... more competition!! Creating a fair playing field for fintechs to build innovative credit products for small business is how Canada "fixes" these structural problems. Let the fintechs cook! -- On Oct 20th I'm hosting the Canadian Lenders Summit (link in comments), where we'll discuss these issues with every major lender in the country. cc Float Loop Financial Venn Merchant Growth Driven Journey Capital Keep

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🚀 Every.io partners with Draper University's Hero Training Program Company formation and back-office setup shouldn't distract founders from building great products. Today, I'm announcing Every.io's partnership with Draper University to support their Hero Training program, where some of the most ambitious founders take their first entrepreneurial steps. Key partnership elements: - Day 0 integration with direct access to Every's platform - Week 1 workshops on company formation fundamentals - Special offers on formation, banking, payroll, accounting, taxes, and much more. As someone who's scaled venture-backed companies, I wish I'd had this level of infrastructure support from day one. Want to learn more? Chat with us here: https://lnkd.in/ggjPP43x Looking forward to working personally with the Summer 2025 cohort this May in San Mateo! Thank you, Waleed Arshad, for your collaboration on making this happen. #DraperUniversity #HeroTraining #Startups #BuildWithEvery

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We kept hearing this from founders and devs: “I want payments to feel native. Not a redirect. Not a popup. Just part of my product.” So we built Inline Checkout at Dodo Payments. You can embed the entire checkout flow directly inside your app or website. Same global payments, subscriptions, tax handling, and compliance. Zero context switch for your users. Your UI. Your layout. Your brand. Payments just quietly work in the background. If you care about conversion, UX, and ownership of the customer journey, this one’s for you. Docs are live. Try it out.

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After being acquired by Foursquare, most would take a break. Not Sina & Isaac. In this episode, I sat down with Sina Kashuk, Co-Founder & CEO of Fused, he shares why he couldn’t shake the itch to build again, and what really drives repeat founders. We talk about: * Starting from zero (again) * Building teams the right way * Why investors often back people, not products #FounderJourney #SecondTimeFounder #StartupCulture #VentureCapital #FounderMindset #SerialEntrepreneur #EarlyStageFounders #StartupLife #BuildingTeams #FounderInsights #BerkleyHunt

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You don’t need experience to start a $5k/month side hustle. You can place a payment processor at local businesses & take a piece of every transaction. Here’s how: -- This isn't some complicated tech business. It's simple: Businesses need new payment options, and customers want more ways to pay. (The payment processing industry is worth $144 billion for a reason) -- Step 1: Set up your foundation. You need 3 things: 1. Business entity (LLC) 2. Backend processor partnership 3. A good location with lots of transactions The processor handles all technical work. -- Step 2: Target the right businesses. Focus on places with high transactions: • Tourist areas • Jewelry stores • Car dealerships These have the volume you need. -- Step 3: Make it a no-brainer for merchants. Pass the fee to customers, not the owner. This removes all merchant objections. They get a new payment method at zero cost, and you keep 1-2% of every transaction. -- Step 4: Scale rapidly. Success comes from volume: • Direct merchant visits • Referral partnerships • Online marketing • Word of mouth Money loves speed, remember that. -- The timing is perfect. As the adoption of new financial technology continues to accelerate at warp speed... You're positioning yourself as the bridge. There are millions of businesses that need this service (and will continue to need it). -- If you want the complete system for building a digital payment processing business... 📲 DM me “Digital” and I’ll show you how 🤝 Follow me for more content like this

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"How do I make money on a small fund?" Easy: Stack your management fees upfront. Instead of 2% per year for the next 10 years, take 3.5-5% in year one. That's $50-100K on a $2M fund. Deploy quickly, and then start Fund II. Now you have stacked management fees. Fund I + Fund II. By year three, you're making more than the manager who spent four years trying to close a $50M fund. Small funds aren't a limitation. They're your launchpad. Start small. Stack funds. Build momentum.

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