The day we calculated we had 40 days left before bankruptcy, I realized we weren’t just struggling with sales — we had a fundamental process problem that was undermining everything we’d built.

It was 2014, and our custom software development company had been operating for seven years. We had talented developers, we delivered quality code and our clients were generally satisfied with our technical work. Yet we remained what I’d call a “garage company” — unable to break through to sustainable growth despite our technical capabilities.

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The technical excellence trap

Like many software companies founded by developers, we’d fallen into a common trap: believing that technical excellence would naturally translate to business success.

We’d spent years perfecting our coding practices, learning new frameworks and delivering solid software solutions. Our assumption was that good work would speak for itself. What we hadn’t realized at the time was that our internal processes were creating friction that technical skill alone couldn’t overcome.

Key warning signs we often ignored:

• Client relationships starting well but becoming tense during project progression
• Operating in reactive mode rather than a proactive communication
• Working hard but not getting referrals
• Difficulty predicting timelines despite technical competence

Identifying process gaps

We started examining our processes systematically and discovered that one of our big blind spots at the time was client communication during development. We were excellent at understanding technical requirements and delivering solutions, but we hadn’t developed effective ways to align with clients about progress, setbacks or changes.

This created a pattern where clients felt disconnected from their own projects, and often had wrong expectations. According to Project.co’s 2025 survey, 68% of people have stopped dealing with a company and moved to a competitor due to poor business communication skills, yet we were optimizing purely for technical outcomes.

Related: I’ve Owned Over 30 Businesses — Here’s How to Master the Art of Running More Than One Company at Once

The partnership management solution

Rather than implementing standard project management methodology immediately, we focused on what we called “partnership management” — actively managing client relationships alongside technical delivery.

Our partnership management strategy included assigning dedicated relationship managers to each project, implementing proactive communication rather than reactive updates, translating technical realities into business language and vice versa, focusing on alignment rather than just reporting status and developing templates for common scenarios such as scope changes, delays and onboarding.

The impact exceeded our expectations. Clients began expressing greater confidence in our work, even when projects encountered technical difficulties.

Creating a structure that works

As communication processes improved, we addressed other operational areas that needed structure. We adopted Scrum methodology but adapted it to include regular client involvement rather than treating it as an internal-only framework.

Key areas we improved included standardizing how we onboard new clients, creating consistent project kickoffs and milestone reviews, setting up clear processes for handling scope changes and technical issues, adding regular project reviews that incorporated client feedback and tracking both project delivery and the overall health of client relationships.

These changes helped ensure that every engagement started with a clear framework and continued with structured checkpoints to keep projects on track.

We also began measuring a broader range of metrics, including client satisfaction, communication frequency and relationship health. We were able to better understand how clients experienced our work, identify potential issues earlier and strengthen the trust and transparency that are critical to long-term partnerships.

Overcoming challenges

The transition wasn’t without difficulties. Some team members initially resisted additional structure, viewing it as bureaucracy.

The key was showing how the new processes actually made their work easier rather than harder. We kept systems flexible while maintaining consistency, and when we saw early improvements, we made sure to acknowledge them. Training everyone on the new communication and project management approaches took some time, but people gradually saw the benefits.

What I found interesting was how process improvements affected our internal culture. Having clearer systems reduced day-to-day confusion and freed up mental space for more creative and strategic thinking.

Measuring success

The changes didn’t happen overnight, but we started seeing meaningful progress that accumulated over time. Client satisfaction improved dramatically, our project timelines became much more reliable, and referral business grew substantially. Our team seemed genuinely happier and more engaged, too.

What started as operational fixes gradually transformed how we worked. By 2018, we’d evolved from a struggling garage company into an organization that caught the attention of potential acquirers. Our technical skills were still crucial, but it was the solid operational foundation — combined with other strategic improvements we’d made — that really made us attractive to potential partners.

Tips for growing software companies

Our experience suggests that process innovation can be as important as technical innovation, particularly during growth phases.

Here are some starting points for similar cases:

• Audit client experience from their perspective, not just technical delivery
• Identify communication gaps in your current project workflows
• Implement regular check-ins and reporting systems to keep everyone aligned on progress
• Assign relationship management responsibilities
• Measure client satisfaction alongside technical metrics
• Create templates for common scenarios to ensure consistency

The most valuable lesson may be that building sustainable business processes is itself a technical problem worth solving systematically — it just requires different tools and approaches than writing software.

Love or hate her music or politics, there is one thing no one can deny: Taylor Swift is a marketing genius. The singer-songwriter, whose personal net worth of $1.6 billion makes her the wealthiest female musician in history, stepped back into the spotlight this week, pushing all of the right buttons to whip her fanbase into a frenzy.

On Monday, her PR team’s official Taylor Nation Instagram account shared 12 photos from her massively successful Eras Tour, featuring Swift wearing different shades of orange. “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…'” read the caption.

Related: Taylor Swift Buys Back Her Masters: ‘No Strings Attached’

Swifties lost their minds, with fans recognizing that Swift often uses color-coding to mark her albums. The post garnered over two million likes.

With that hint dropped, Swift’s official website began a countdown clock dialing down to 12:12 a.m. on August 12. And when the clock struck 12:12, she dropped a video preview of an upcoming appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s podcast “New Heights.”

Swifties, rejoice! Her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” lands in October. And as you’ll note in the video, the cover is blurred out. Swift is nothing if not masterful at dropping little breadcrumbs to keep fans engaged and hungry for more in the lead-up to a new release.

Related: Why Taylor Swift Embraces Superstitions

Swift’s appearance on “New Heights,” hosted by Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce, will drop on Wednesday at 7 p.m. While the brothers have certainly discussed Travis and Taylor’s relationship on the show before, this marks the first time she is making an appearance.

Over the years, Swift has found inventive and unexpected ways to announce her new releases. She has surprised fans with announcements during award shows, and, in the middle of an Eras Tour show in Nashville, flashed the album cover and release date of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” which, according to one report, “sent shockwaves through the stadium.”

Business Insider notes that “The Life of a Showgirl” will be Swift’s first new album since the singer successfully bought back her masters. This ostensibly ended the “Taylor’s Version” series, in which Swift re-recorded versions of her older albums to circumvent an ownership dispute with her former record label, Big Machine Records.

Von Miller knows what it takes to dominate a field.

For more than a decade, he’s been one of the NFL’s most feared pass rushers, a Super Bowl MVP and the kind of player who changes games and defines eras. But even after all the sacks and all the glory, Miller found himself pulled toward a very different kind of challenge: raising chickens.

Yes, chickens.

Miller is the co-founder of Greener Pastures Chicken, a poultry company based in Texas that produces premium, ethically raised chicken. It’s not a side hustle. It’s a full-scale, purpose-driven business rooted in sustainability, animal welfare and food transparency. It also happens to be the result of one college class he thought would be an easy A.

Related: This Restaurant CEO Created His Own National Holiday (and Turned It Into a Business Strategy)

At Texas A&M, Miller enrolled in Meat Production 101 to boost his GPA. The coursework was manageable, but he couldn’t stay awake in class — until his professor began calling him out. “He’d wake me up and make me recite what I’d learned,” Miller tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef. “It stuck with me.”

Years later, long after reaching the NFL, Miller revisited the idea of starting a farm. But instead of going the traditional industrial route, he envisioned something better, something he could be proud to put his name behind. That idea became Greener Pastures Chicken.

At first, people didn’t take him seriously. Why would a football star care about chicken farming? But Miller wasn’t interested in licensing his name. He wanted to build something real. And once it was off the ground, others took notice.

Patrick Mahomes. Drew Brees. These weren’t just big names. They believed in what Miller was building: a farm that prioritized sustainability, animal welfare and transparency. When Miller pitched Mahomes the idea, it wasn’t a dream or a plan. “I’ve been doing this for five years,” he told him.

Mahomes, a fellow Texan, already knew the towns, retailers and values behind the operation. That local familiarity, combined with a clear vision, made it an easy yes. “I don’t talk about what I want to do,” Miller says. “I talk about what I’ve done.”

Related: They Opened a Restaurant During the Pandemic — But Locals Showed Up, and Celebrities Followed. Now, It’s Thriving.

A “country club for chickens”

Greener Pastures is not your average chicken farm.

Miller calls it a “country club for chickens,” and while that might sound like a punchline, he means it. The birds roam freely on natural grass. They have access to bugs, fresh air and sunshine. The operation is certified organic, non-GMO and humanely raised — the designation Miller is most proud of.

“We want people to see everything,” Miller says. “There’s nothing to hide.” In an industry where transparency is rare, he’s doing the opposite by posting photos, inviting visitors and celebrating a system that gives animals a life worth living, even if it ends in the same place.

The farm isn’t just a business. It’s part of his identity. Miller’s parents and kids are involved. The backyard flock at home now includes nearly 60 birds, some of them practically retirees. “We only eat the eggs,” he jokes. “They’re part of the family.”

Related: These Co-Founders Came From Different Backgrounds, Joined Forces and Now Run 10 Restaurants Together

At scale, Greener Pastures Chicken is proof that purpose and profit can coexist. Miller has taken lessons from championship locker rooms: team-building, grit and competitive fire, and applied them to agriculture. “You can’t ever have another Peyton Manning,” he says. “But you can take little things from great teams and build your own.”

Now he’s imagining what the next five years will bring. Expansion, yes, but never at the cost of core values. Sustainability and humane practices aren’t marketing tools. They’re the foundation. “People care about how their food is produced,” Miller said. “And we start with that in mind.”

Greener Pastures might not have the brand recognition of Tyson or Sanderson Farms, but Miller isn’t chasing anyone else’s model. He’s building something that reflects who he is: disciplined, driven and unafraid to do things differently.

Related: This Restaurant Tech Cost Him a Client — Then Changed Everything for His Business

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In business, every decision tells a story—especially the tools you choose to work with. If you’re serious about building something meaningful, staying connected, and looking sharp while doing it, this unlocked and refurb Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB in Natural Titanium deserves a look. At $769.99 (reg. $1,099), it’s not just a great deal—it’s a smart move for anyone thinking like a founder.

You already know your smartphone is more than a device. It’s your mobile office, your pitch deck viewer, your video conference hub, your travel assistant. So when you opt for a top-tier model like this, you’re not cutting corners. You’re cutting unnecessary costs.

Get enterprise-grade speed, power, and flexibility

With the iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’re getting Apple’s most advanced mobile chip, the A17 Pro. That means faster app performance, better multitasking, and future-proofing for whatever the next OS update throws your way. The USB-C port with USB 3 speeds? That’s faster file sharing when you’re juggling client deliverables or media assets on deadline. And the 5x telephoto lens isn’t just about nice vacation photos, it’s for capturing high-quality visual content that elevates your brand.

Because it’s unlocked, this phone moves with you domestically or globally. If you’re on the road for investor meetings, sourcing, or remote work, that flexibility makes a difference. And its Grade “A” refurbished condition means you’re getting a device that performs like new without the full sticker shock.

Choosing a refurbished model also aligns with a broader mindset: you’re optimizing resources, not wasting them. That’s what good operators do, whether it’s with staffing, software, or smartphones. You’re reallocating the $300+ you’d otherwise spend toward something with more ROI, from new gear for your team, an ad campaign, or your next flight to close the deal.

It may also need to go without saying, but showing up with the latest iPhone still matters. It signals professionalism and readiness. But doing it at 30% off? That shows strategy.

So no, this isn’t just a phone. It’s a reflection of how you operate—modern, lean, forward-looking.

Get a refurbished and unlocked Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB in Natural Titanium for $769.99 (reg. $1,099) and get serious about scaling without overspending.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Franchise leaders know what it takes to build something that lasts.

So we asked some of the top names in the industry to share the traits they believe separate good franchisors from great ones. Whether you already own a franchise or are thinking about getting involved, use this list to reflect on your own approach and find areas to grow. We also asked what they’re doing to keep their brands ahead of the curve. Check out their answers below.

Related: Why Do Some Franchisees Crush It and Others Fail? It Comes Down to This Formula.

We Asked Franchisors

What qualities do you think set the best franchisors apart?

“They’re visionaries, with a game plan. They know how to build a brand that’s not just a business, but a movement, and are set apart by their dedication to transparency, consistency, and culture. They give their franchisees the tools, the playbook, and the freedom to win, without losing the essence of what makes the brand great.” — Adam Sartin, vice president of franchise growth and development, Motto Mortgage

“Good franchisors listen to their owners. Great franchisors create advisory councils and have a feedback loop that allows franchisees to share what is working and opportunities for improvement. The best of the best aggregate mistakes and create open channels for the sharing of best practices among franchisees.” — Eric Martin, senior vice president of franchise development, Lawn Doctor

“The best franchisors have an entrepreneurial mindset. They approach the business with a creative and innovative spirit, always looking for new opportunities and ways to grow and evolve. An entrepreneurial franchisor is willing to take calculated risks, adapt to changes in the market, and be proactive in driving the success of their franchise network.” —Doug Dickison, founder and chairman, Destination Athlete

Related: 4 Reasons Why Local Entrepreneurship Is the Secret Weapon of Great Franchises

What is your company doing to stay at the top of your industry?

“We’ve found the perfect sweet spot by cobranding Great American Cookies with our sister brand, Marble Slab Creamery. Since launching this concept in 2014, we’ve grown to over 170 cobranded locations worldwide, with franchisees seeing a 10% to 20% lift in incremental sales.” — Allison Lauenstein, president, Great American Cookies

“We stay ahead by continuously investing in technology, enhancing customer experience, and listening closely to our franchise owners. Our focus on operational excellence, brand consistency, and local community engagement helps drive both customer loyalty and raving fans.” — Adam Biedenbender, vice president of franchise development, CertaPro Painters

“We’ve focused on delivering a personalized, world-class customer service model that is resilient during uncertain times. And we continue to grow and outperform market conditions by relentlessly listening to our franchisees and customers and pursuing opportunities that earn our customers’ loyalty.” — Steve Chambers, vice president, retail and business development, The UPS Store

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I was exhausted. My B2B fulfillment business had grown rapidly and was doing $1.2 million annually, but finding new clients was a grind. I was trapped in an endless cycle of networking events, cold calls, and business card exchanges that yielded minimal results.

Then I discovered what I now call the “Lumberjack Strategy” — and I started getting clients with ease. Better yet, I never had to attend another networking event again.

Here’s how it works: Instead of hunting for individual customers in a vast networking forest, I realized I could connect with people who had already chopped down all the trees. These are people who spent years building relationships with exactly the clients I wanted to serve — and now I just needed their help reaching their clients.

How? By playing a long game with relationships, and strategically hinting at how we could do more business together.

Related: How to Craft Irresistible Offers Your Ideal Clients Can’t Refuse

For example, here’s how I did it with Gary (not his real name). He was a marketing manager I’d done some work with, who then moved into a mid-level job at Microsoft. We sent him a huge bouquet of lollipops on his first day. He said no one else did anything like it.

From there, I dripped honey. Once a month, I sent emails on resources and information to help him succeed there. I sent him updates on my business every four to six weeks. I flew to Seattle once a quarter just to catch up with him — though I always told him I was there to “see potential clients.” (I didn’t want to freak him out.)

After about 18 months, an outsourcing opportunity came up at Microsoft — and Gary thought of us. That turned into a $4 million contract. Then he started introducing us to other tech companies he worked with — so that Gary’s clients became our clients.

Gary was a perfect lumberjack. He wasn’t a big shot at Microsoft; he was just a receptive, well-connected person. That’s who you want.

Related: Get Picky With Your Clients — How to Identify and Attract Your Ideal Customer

Here’s how you can find your own lumberjacks:

1. Identify who has your ideal clients.

Start by making two lists: industries full of your potential clients, and specific individuals who already serve them. Look beyond the obvious. Sometimes your best referral partners are in adjacent fields, or even “competitors” who serve slightly different segments.

2. Focus on the connectors, not the connected.

Not all well-connected people are good lumberjacks. For example, I once wasted months pursuing one of Denver’s most well-connected businesspeople, only to realize he collected connections but rarely shared them.

There’s no single way to sniff these people out, but you’ll get a sense over time — and when you see that they don’t make connections, move on.

Related: How To Attract Premium Clients And Charge Accordingly — Even During Market Instability

3. Build relationships intentionally.

I never directly ask for referrals. Instead, once I have a good working relationship with someone, I ask: “Do you know one other person who might benefit from the experience you’re having?”

This question is magic. It transforms the conversation from a self-serving request into an opportunity for them to help their friends.

4. Model the behavior you want.

Often, the best way to get clients is to first start referring clients. I will start sending clients to a potential lumberjack, in the hopes that they’ll want to return the favor.

Related: 3 Ways to Attract the Customers You Deserve

Not everyone will embrace this approach. That’s fine.

You only need three to five good lumberjacks to transform your business.

This isn’t about hoping for referrals; it’s about intentionally building relationships with people who can connect you with entire forests of clients. It took me five businesses to learn this lesson — but once I did, I was finally able to make my network work for me.

Chuck Blakeman is a serial entrepreneur. This article is drawn from Chuck’s new book, Sell Less, Earn More, now available everywhere.

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GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke stepped down on Monday after four years with the company.

In a post on LinkedIn, he thanked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and others while announcing he was leaving to get back to his entrepreneurial roots. (GitHub, a platform for software developers to store and share code, is owned by Microsoft).

“After nearly four years as CEO, I’m leaving GitHub to become a startup founder again,” Dohmke wrote on LinkedIn.

Related: I Left the Corporate World to Start a Chicken Coop Business — Here Are 3 Valuable Lessons I Learned Along the Way

While Dohmke didn’t elaborate on his future entrepreneurial plans, he did explain more about why he is leaving the day-to-day corporate world for entrepreneurship in a blog post.

“Over a decade ago, my family and I made the leap to move from Germany to the United States after the sale of my startup to Microsoft,” he wrote. “After all this time, my startup roots have begun tugging on me, and I’ve decided to leave GitHub to become a founder again.”

Dohmke also predicts that AI will enable software developers to create the “new gold rush of software.”

“Because of your relentless work, GitHub Copilot has introduced the greatest change to software development since the advent of the personal computer,” he wrote. “I am more convinced than ever that the world will soon see one billion developers enabled by billions of AI agents, each imprinting human ingenuity into a new gold rush of software. When that day comes, we’ll know where the path began: with GitHub.”

Related: AI Will Create More Millionaires in the Next 5 Years Than the Internet Did in 2 Decades, According to Nvidia’s CEO

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If you are old enough to remember the signature pinging, boinging, and hissing sounds that came with connecting to the Internet in the early days, hold onto those memories — AOL just announced that its dial-up is about to hang up forever.

The company released a statement on Friday, which read: “AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue Dial-up Internet.”

The service and all associated software will stop working on September 30, 2025, the company added.

Related: Billionaire Investor Frank McCourt Jr. Wants to Transform the Entire Internet. Here’s How.

Wait, AOL dial-up service has been available all this time? That’s a valid question, and the answer is shockingly yes. The New York Times, citing U.S. Census Bureau data, reports that in 2023, 163,000 United States households relied on dial-up service to access the internet. That represents just over 1 percent of all internet subscribers in the country.

The last time AOL released dial-up user numbers was in 2015, when the company reported two million users that represented $40 million a month in revenue. The company did not offer current user numbers with its closing announcement.

AOL’s dial-up service unlocked internet access for millions of users in the 1990s, and its signature “You’ve Got Mail” sign-on announcement was so iconic that it spurred a rom-com of the same name starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan as a couple who fall in love over instant messaging.

Related: ‘Thought It Had Been Deleted’: Elon Musk Says His Team at X Found the Vine Video Archive

While the closure is sure to inspire a wave of nostalgic thinkpieces about a happier time of the internet’s existence, Gen Xers should remember that the web might have seemed nicer than what we have today, but it was insanely slower. Dial-up internet speeds average about 56 kilobytes a second, reports The Times. Typical broadband connections are several thousand times faster. Think about that the next time you’re frustrated that a web page took more than half a second to load.

End of an Era…

Dial Up Internet will be discontinued by AOL on September 30, 2025 pic.twitter.com/MXn5t4MzJv

— ? Physical Media Forever ? (@VHSDVDBLURAY4K) August 9, 2025

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Here’s what I’ve learned from over a decade advising, navigating and building businesses across some of the most complex markets in the world: The real risk is rarely what’s visible; it’s what’s missing. Not the numbers in the spreadsheet, but the name that wasn’t on the invite list. Not the strategy in the deck, but the question nobody thought to ask.

Inclusion has become a popular headline, a word we nod to in pitch decks and panels. But in practice, it remains under-implemented where it matters most: in who gets funded, who sits at the table, who conducts due diligence and who gets listened to in strategy sessions.

The cost of that oversight is not theoretical. It is measurable: missed market insight, failed market entry, underperformance in diverse consumer bases and deals built on incomplete context. In other words, a structurally flawed foundation for growth.

Related: Why Diverse Leadership Is a Competitive Advantage — and How Women Can Lead the Shift

Exclusion is expensive

Every leader, investor and boardroom decision-maker has blind spots. I have it. That’s human. We talk about what makes a strong founder: ambition, vision and execution. We rarely ask where they are standing. Are they solving a problem they’ve lived? Are they close enough to the people they serve to see the whole picture?

Inclusion is not about charity or fairness. It’s about accuracy. When you exclude regional expertise, local founders or diverse leadership, you miss the very signals that determine whether a deal succeeds. I have watched well-capitalized ventures fail in emerging markets because the only people in the room were external consultants with no lived connection to the terrain. They had the capital, but not the context.

The risk we don’t quantify

We measure downside risk by market conditions, regulatory hurdles and customer acquisition costs. We rarely ask who was missing when we made this decision. Whose insight would have changed this deal?

As an international lawyer, advisor and entrepreneur, I have led due diligence processes on everything from major infrastructure bids to startup fundraises. In every case, the question of who gets consulted is as important as what gets audited. Inclusion becomes a form of risk management, not an HR initiative.

Related: Getting Funding as a Minority-Owned Business Shouldn’t Be a Far-Fetched Dream. Here’s How This CEO is Making Public Capital More Available to All.

The investor’s blind spot

We claim to back disruptive ideas, but the real disruption is often ignored, solutions coming from outside traditional networks. Women founders in underserved markets building scalable businesses. Local entrepreneurs with community-rooted traction. People solving problems they’ve lived. Quiet operators reshaping industries on the ground.

We reward polish. We fund confidence. But we miss something bigger — proximity. The most undervalued trait in deal-making today is proximity — proximity to the problem, the market and the people being served. We over-index on pitch fluency and underweight contextual fluency. We reward those who can speak the language of investors, but overlook those who speak the language of the communities they serve.

The blind spot? Too many investors still treat inclusion as a social checkbox, rather than a strategic advantage. In opaque or volatile markets, where data is incomplete and relationships matter, a founder’s proximity is not a liability; it’s leverage. When investors fail to see this, they don’t just exclude people. They exclude upside.

The strongest investors are evolving. They know how to read beyond the numbers. They’re not just evaluating execution, they’re assessing depth. Inclusion is about better data, better insight and better decisions. It’s not a PR move, it’s a performance edge.

Rewriting the playbook

If inclusion feels like a nice-to-have, it’s because we’re still viewing it from the top down. What if instead, we treated it as a strategic necessity? Imagine due diligence that factors in representation, not as a gesture, but as a governance mechanism. Imagine a risk matrix that quantifies groupthink.

This isn’t theoretical. Funds are starting to integrate inclusion into their operational models, not just in who they invest in, but who advises them, who reviews their pipelines and how they train partners to evaluate value through broader lenses.

Related: Your Diversity Statement Isn’t Enough — Here’s What You Need to Do as a Leader to Drive Real Change

From optics to outcomes

We’re past the point where inclusion is about headlines. In high-stakes businesses, it’s about outcomes. Companies that outperform are not only diverse in identity, but in insight. They draw from a richer range of perspectives and are less likely to miss critical data because they design systems that look beyond sameness.

The most successful leaders I’ve worked with — the ones who really move markets — share one trait: curiosity. They don’t assume they’ve got it all figured out; they build rooms full of people who can challenge their blind spots. If you’re making high-stakes decisions, whether as an investor, a policymaker or a founder, and the room looks just like you, you’re already exposed.

The future of serious business is not just inclusive. It’s integrated. It understands that who is in the room changes what gets built. So here’s the question I’d leave you with:

What are you not seeing? And who do you need to invite in to help you see it?