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The decision: Keep iterating on the product, or shift resources into scaling distribution. This is one of the highest-stakes calls a founder makes. Scale too early, and the company burns capital, hires ahead of demand, and locks in a go-to-market motion that doesn't actually work — often fatally. Wait too long, and competitors capture the market the founder was building for, while the team loses momentum chasing a "perfect" product that was already good enough. The difficulty

The Decision Beneath the Decision "Should we pivot?" is not really the question founders are asking. The real question is: how much weight should current evidence carry against the plan we already committed to? This is difficult for a structural reason, not a personal one. Founders operate with incomplete information, under time pressure, while personally invested in the outcome. The same trait that makes someone capable of starting a company — conviction in the face of doubt

As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest dilemmas you face is how to completely disrupt a massive market without causing chaos for your customers. In our latest interview at Sbur Decision Lab, Matt Phillips sat down with Yani Deros, CEO and co-founder of CIRQ+, to discuss how his nimble team is doing exactly that in the massive hospitality sector. CIRQ+ has developed an innovative energy management operating system that acts as wireless middleware between utilities and hotel gu

Online reviews are a fundamental pillar of modern commerce. Statistically, 98% of people read reviews before making a purchase decision. Yet, the systems we rely on to guide our decisions are fundamentally obsolete, built more than two decades ago before smartphones, social media, or generative AI existed. Today, less than 2% of consumers actually leave reviews, and of those, over one-third are entirely fake, bought, or artificially generated. In a recent episode of Sbur Deci

Every great startup begins with a moment of sharp clarity—a realization that a widespread problem lacks an accessible, scalable solution. In a recent feature on the Sbur Decision Lab, Pramit Maakoday, co-founder of Relax Infinity, discusses how his team is addressing the global mental health crisis by merging time-tested Eastern wellness practices with modern Western science. For fellow founders navigating the early stages of building a company, the pitch and interview offer

The Decision Behind the Decision Most founders think of fundraising as a capital problem: how much money, at what valuation, from whom. But the investor decision is really a governance and constraint decision disguised as a financing decision. Every investor who joins your cap table acquires some combination of information rights, board influence, follow-on expectations, and reputational association with your company — for the next seven to ten years, regardless of how the bu

Every entrepreneur knows that building a startup from scratch is a series of relentless choices. Some decisions are minor tweaks, while others can entirely shift the trajectory of your company. In a recent interview at the Sbur Decision Lab, Puck Fernsten sat down with Carter Powell and Juad, the co-founders of FlowMo—an AI operating layer for direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses—to discuss their path through bootstrapping, pivoting, and scaling. For founders attempting to nav

As an entrepreneur, the path to building a successful company is rarely a straight line. Every day brings a barrage of choices, industry buzz, and internal dilemmas. In the latest feature from the Sbur Decision Lab, host Puck Fernsten sits down with Joel Francois, the CEO and founder of Helios Health, to unpack the realities of startup growth, the art of the pivot, and the power of alignment. Helios Health leverages psychometrics and AI to align clinicians with healthcare spe

Here's an uncomfortable truth: most founders don't get burned by a bad valuation. They get burned by a clause they never really understood, buried on page 14 of a document they skimmed the night before closing. This can happen first in the Seed and Series A round, setting the tone for later rounds. A company can raise millions, grow for years, and eventually sell for a number that sounds like a win — and the founders still walk away with almost nothing. Not because anyone

Building a startup is rarely about taking the easy path. It is about defying conventional wisdom to build something optimized for tomorrow, rather than just settling for what works today. In a recent episode of the Sbur Decision Lab, Matt Phillips sat down with Elliot Greenblat—an MIT PhD and solo founder with 20 years of AI experience—to discuss his new venture, subindex.ai. Subindex AI is a platform designed to accurately generate, validate, and maintain large-scale researc

Every entrepreneur knows that the path from a frustrating personal experience to a functioning startup is filled with difficult choices. In this episode of the Sbur Decision Lab, host Puck Fernsten sits down with Ray Bartlett, a lifelong travel writer and the founder of TripSquee, a travel application designed to shrink hours of tedious vacation planning down to just minutes. Ray shares his candid journey of building a startup, pitching a $1.5M seed round, and navigating the

Lately, I have been hearing more concerns from friends about their children’s futures after graduation. These students attend some of the top schools in Boston. Additionally, numerous articles report that current college graduates are struggling to find jobs, and large companies are reducing their hiring for entry-level positions. AI is disrupting both the corporate job market and college education simultaneously. Instead of knowledge or skill-based, education is going to ori

"Every week I’m not funded is another week I risk shutting down—not because the business failed, but because I simply ran out of runway." That’s the brutal reality of the pre-seed stage, yet most fundraising advice ignores the specific, messy trade-offs you face right now. Not all money is good money. This guide, based on Sbur founder and investor discussions (750+ founder members and 230+ in-person peer-to-peer advisory board meetings), breaks down exactly how to weigh spe

Every entrepreneur starts with a vision. Whether inspired by a personal frustration or a massive gap in the market, the initial spark is what drives us to build. However, the true test of entrepreneurship isn't just about having a great idea—it’s about the willingness to step outside your own imagination, face cold hard data, and ground your business strategy in reality. In a recent episode of Sbur Decision Lab, host Tony Zhang sat down with Martin Jeon, the founder and CEO o

Entrepreneurship is often defined by the decisions made in the face of uncertainty. In a recent episode of the Sbur Decision Lab series, we sat down with Kai Francis Kaizuka, the solo founder of Alstrum, to explore how he is navigating the complex world of FinTech and capital markets. Kai is on a mission to democratize retail trading through his app, Strike, by providing everyday investors with the same institutional-grade data and real-time positioning insights used by major

At Sbur Decision Lab, we feature entrepreneurs sharing their stories and decision-making processes so you can make smarter decisions and achieve success. Recently, we sat down with Ben Pope, co-founder of Mellicell, to discuss his journey in developing a revolutionary oral therapeutic targeting obesity, Alzheimer's, and Fragile X. Here are the key learning points and insights for entrepreneurs from our conversation: Finding Your "Why" Personal Connection Drives Passion: Ben’s

Endometriosis is a devastating disease affecting one in ten women worldwide, often leaving patients in desperate situations with no known cure and few effective treatments. In a recent episode of Sbur Decision Lab, Tony Zhang sat down with Mark Connell, co-founder and president of SLBST Pharma, to discuss how his team is working to change this narrative through strategic decision-making and innovative science. The Challenge and the Solution For many women, the current "standa

In the high-stakes world of entrepreneurship, we often focus on product-market fit, burn rates, and scaling strategies. However, a staggering 65% of startups fail due to a much more personal reason: founder misalignment. In our latest episode of Sbur Decision Lab, we sat down with Mark Styles, a veteran lawyer and the founder of Joze AI, to discuss how he is using technology to solve this $250 billion problem. Here are the key takeaways for every entrepreneur looking to build

In the latest episode of Sbur Decisions Lab, we sat down with Reneldy Senat, the founder of Jeffrey AI, to discuss how he is tackling one of the most persistent and costly problems in property management: the communication "glitch." With 18 years of experience building world-class products, Reneldy is now focusing his expertise on "Inbox Intelligence" for property management teams. Jeffrey AI isn't just another property management system; it is a specialized platform that liv

The journey of an entrepreneur is rarely a straight line, but for Kevin Connley, founder and CEO of VesiFlo, it has been a twelve-year marathon. Having founded and operated five medical device manufacturing companies, Connley is no stranger to the industry, but his latest venture, the inFlow Voiding Prosthesis, presented unique challenges that offer invaluable lessons for any innovator. Lessons from a 12-Year Journey The Regulatory and Reimbursement Hurdle: Even after receivi