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AI Won’t Fix a Messy Operating System
AI is entering its less sparkly era. And honestly? That might be the best thing that could happen to it. For the last couple of years, AI has been treated like the business equivalent of a new puppy. Everyone is excited. Everyone wants to show you what it can do. Someone is definitely saying, “Look, it wrote a poem about our quarterly goals.” Cute? Sure. Transformational? Not yet. Because the next phase of AI will not reward the companies with the most experiments. It will re
Wendi Pannell
Apr 284 min read


Who Got You Here Won't Get You There
We've all heard the saying: "What got you here won't get you there." But what if the real challenge isn't about changing what you do—it's about recognizing that who got you here won't get you there either? As a founder, you've built something remarkable. You've surrounded yourself with people who believed in the vision, hustled through the early days, and helped you get from zero to one. But here's the hard truth: the team that got you to $1M isn't always the team that will g
Wendi Pannell
Feb 122 min read


When Execution Isn’t the Problem—Clarity Is
Every December, I get the same call. A leader, stressed, saying some version of: "We set all these goals in January and somehow it's December and none of them are done. I don't know what happened." I do. What happened is February. And March. And seventeen other priorities that felt urgent. And five org changes. And that one "quick win" that turned into a whole thing. But when I ask, "What were your top three goals for the year?"—crickets. Then they pulled up their January kic
Wendi Pannell
Dec 22, 20254 min read


When Does a Fractional COO Make Perfect Sense?
Happy Monday, everyone! Let’s kick off our “behind the curtain” week by answering a big question: WHEN exactly does it make sense to...
Wendi Pannell
Jul 28, 20251 min read
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