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Luke Kanies
Luke Kanies

6.2K Followers

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Nov 18, 2020

My Monopolies

Most industries are dominated by monopolies. How we enforce antitrust law explains far more than you might think. Photo courtesy of BP Miller. My first monopoly was AT&T. I lived on a commune until I was eight. We didn’t have toilets, but we did have phones. We didn’t own them…

6 min read

My Monopolies
My Monopolies

6 min read


Jul 22, 2020

Don’t Make Board Decks

Why and how my team built board reports instead of PowerPoint decks. Fifty pages, less work than slides, and more valuable. Image courtesy of Drew Beamer. Board meetings are a critical time of communication and reflection for a company. You have to share enough information that the people in the…

Startup

7 min read

Don’t Make Board Decks
Don’t Make Board Decks
Startup

7 min read


Jul 7, 2020

Entrepreneur, Stage 1: Bootstrapping, Burnout, and Babies

How I got here, how it went, and what happened along the way. I didn’t want to start a company. But I had no choice. I was a SysAdmin after college, because I tried everything else and got fired from them all. I had seven jobs in two and a…

Founders

11 min read

Entrepreneur, Stage 1: Bootstrapping, Burnout, and Babies
Entrepreneur, Stage 1: Bootstrapping, Burnout, and Babies
Founders

11 min read


Jun 30, 2020

The First Two-Million-Dollar Check

A single drink perfectly captures the weirdness of raising money for the first time. Photo courtesy of Dylan de Jonge I found myself at a hotel with some friends. I was visiting Portland for a conference. Puppet’s first investment round — and mine! — was closing. …

Founders

4 min read

The First Two-Million-Dollar Check
The First Two-Million-Dollar Check
Founders

4 min read


May 21, 2020

How TechCrunch is like the Iliad

The drive for social status created the worst, most important part of the Iliad. Now it’s filling up investment announcements. Picture by Mikuláš Prokop My fancy liberal arts school hazed me, like it does all students: I had to read The Iliad and The Odyssey. We did more than read…

Founder

4 min read

How TechCrunch is like the Iliad
How TechCrunch is like the Iliad
Founder

4 min read


May 24, 2019

The Automator’s Dilemma

Automation is not to blame for all the job destruction and wage stagnation. But you can still do great harm if you build it for the wrong reasons. We’re told that automation is destroying jobs, that technology is replacing people, making them dumber, less capable. These are lies, with just…

Startup

6 min read

Startup

6 min read


Nov 29, 2018

Review of the 2018 iPad Pro

The sideways logo gets hidden, rather than fixed. Photo by eleven x. Yes, I know this photo is of the old model. But it perfectly captures what’s still wrong with the new one. The iPad has been my primary mobile computing platform since a couple years after it came out…

21 min read

Review of the 2018 iPad Pro
Review of the 2018 iPad Pro

21 min read


Nov 29, 2018

Review of the 2018 iPad Pro

The sideways logo gets hidden, rather than fixed. Photo by eleven x. Yes, I know this photo is of the old model. But it perfectly captures what’s still wrong with the new one. The iPad has been my primary mobile computing platform since a couple years after it came out…

Apple

21 min read

Review of the 2018 iPad Pro
Review of the 2018 iPad Pro
Apple

21 min read


Published in NewCo Shift

·Oct 16, 2018

Hold On to Your Why

Founders need to retain their own mission while they build out the company’s. — Photo by Sharon McCutcheon Managing a high-growth company is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. One big reason is that I only received problems that no one else could figure out. …

Startup

5 min read

Hold on to your why
Hold on to your why
Startup

5 min read


Sep 7, 2018

How to Neg a Founder

Is that a compliment, or an insult? Photo by John Salvino My experience growing and fundraising for Puppet was full of inspirational-sounding phrases that cut like a knife. Aggressive goals got praise for wanting to “build a real product” and “really scale this thing.” These are some of my favorites…

Advice

2 min read

How to Neg a Founder
How to Neg a Founder
Advice

2 min read

Luke Kanies

Luke Kanies

6.2K Followers

Founder, adviser, and strategist. Writing at lukekanies.com and second-publishing here.

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