How to Lead with Reflection and Scale with Focus

Author

Benjamin Friedman
June 24, 2025

Morning beehiivcommunity!

This newsletter turns experience into lessons you can apply to your startup. As a growth partner for visionary founders, we help sharpen leadership skills and unlock growth potential.

Introverted Leadership from Reflection to Revolution

“Leaders don’t have all the great ideas. They provide support for those who want to contribute and inspire people to come together for the group.” — Simon Sinek

Both introverted and extroverted leaders can succeed in startups by playing to their strengths while managing their challenges.

Introverted leaders shine through deep focus, careful decision-making, and nurturing trust in small groups, though they may find large social settings challenging. Extroverted leaders excel in dynamic environments and naturally inspire teams, but need to guard against making rushed decisions or drowning out quieter team members.

As startups scale, founders must shift from hands-on work to strategic leadership. Delegating effectively means knowing what responsibilities to delegate, selecting capable team members, and providing support while maintaining appropriate oversight.

Leaders who combine self-awareness, adaptability, and diverse team-building can drive growth while staying true to their leadership style.

Ideas and Real Conversations

Since 2019, Startup Lean Coffee has been a vibrant community of founders, startup advisors, corporate employees, fractional leaders, and experienced investors who share challenges, opportunities, and experiences from their startup journeys.

We've explored everything from fundraising and business development to social equity, solopreneur support, outsourcing, and co-founder relationships. Some sessions are based on an industry or theme.

These meetings provide valuable opportunities for in-person connection, brainstorming, and collaboration. We're currently exploring partnership options. Reply to this email to learn more.

Expert Tips for Startups
Quick, valuable insights from accomplished founders

Tune Out the Noise—Prioritize Your Customers

Never let the tail wag the dog in your business.

When making key decisions about hiring, marketing, or other crucial matters, trust your intuition and prioritize your customers' needs—not the preferences of investors, advisors, or others with their own agendas.

Remember that even well-meaning people see opportunities and challenges through their experiences and perspectives, not yours.

Kevin Zhang is a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures, partnering with iconic businesses to reimagine the way we live and work.

Photos by Leah Friedman

The New York Tech CFO Group:
Where CFOs Meet and Learn from Peers 

The New York Tech CFO Group enables finance leaders to share insights on strategic planning, financial software, service providers, and emerging solutions.

We also host regular in-person gatherings—from casual happy hours and breakfasts to educational and networking events. Last week, we hosted "The CEO-CFO Alliance: Growth, Challenge, and Collaboration."

Our next event is "Navigating Secondary Markets" in July. This fall's lineup includes "How Non-Tech Companies Are Winning with AI and Automation," "Fundraising Tradeoffs: Lessons VCs Don't Teach You," "Automation and AI in the Finance Stack," and a Happy Hour.

We're currently exploring event sponsorship options. Reply to this email to learn more.

How We Can Help

Over 90% of startups fail. Build Scale Grow helps founders beat these odds by efficiently scaling businesses and aligning vision, resources, and efforts.

We partner with founders to build and manage teams, systems, and functions, such as Customer Success and Revenue Operations, that drive rapid growth.

Book a free 30-minute call HERE to see how we can help.