Morning beehiivcommunity!

This newsletter tackles the dilemma, “How do I know what I don’t know?” with pointed predictions, practical takeaways, and curated NYC events to help founders and CFOs expand options and build resilience.

A New Wave of Founders Building for Impact and Revenue

I’ve had a front-row seat to something genuinely encouraging: a wave of startups that are solving real problems, generating revenue (or will soon), and improving communities.

Over the past few months, I’ve met founders through Columbia University’s Almaworks, Columbia Business School’s Lang Fund, NYU’s Entrepreneurs Challenge, UMass Amherst’s Berthiaume Center, and the Hult Foundation. 

All the ideas were great, and their intention and tenacity really stood out.

Below are a few of the teams that left a lasting impression on me, listed in alphabetical order. I was impressed by many others, too, but I wanted to highlight a cross-section of the problems being solved. The founders are listed at the end of each one.

AISA Solutions is a socially driven startup to address the daily challenges faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. (Amirali Rezaei)

Brainbox detects cognitive decline and mental health disorders years before traditional methods by analyzing hundreds of markers from everyday conversation. (Rishi Kanchi)

CRIO Systems assists municipalities with continual monitoring, inspection, operations, and preservation of critical infrastructure. (Michael Sansone)

Foregger Energy Solutions (FES) is a cleantech startup developing retrofit kits to hybridize refrigerated trucking trailers. (Lassiter Foregger)

Neatly Health records your medical appointments, translates provider jargon into plain language, and helps you figure out what to do next. (Larry Cordisco)

Oaken is an AI speaking skills training video game that helps people build confidence and relationships. (Michael Shen)

Pupil is an identity-driven college guidance platform that helps high school students explore colleges and careers with relatable near-peer mentors. (Dario Anaya)

If any of these startups resonate with you, they’d welcome your support.

Expert Tips for Startups

Building Profitability That Lasts

Recently, four experts shared practical ways to improve control, create consistency, survive downturns, and build a foundation for long‑term growth.

The NYC event, “The CFO as Value Architect,” was organized by the NY Tech CFO Group and sponsored by Build Scale Grow.

Christina Ross, CEO and Founder of Cube, noted that headcount is often the largest expense. She uses AI to benchmark against industry standards, set healthy headcount ranges by department, and flag potential bloat. For Christina, everyone must work from the same numbers and metrics.

Joe Manganelli, Chief Revenue Officer at Amalgam, opened by saying that cutting costs is a lazy way to maximize profit. He emphasized educating teams on metrics like customer dollars per employee, giving mid‑level managers P&L visibility, and tying compensation and bonuses directly to performance.

Kurt Chessman, VP, Strategic Finance at Primary Venture Partners, focuses on unit economics: each incremental dollar of revenue must be sufficient to pay back the cost of investing in the business. He looks for well‑run operations alongside a great product, and he values third‑party data and competitor benchmarks. 

Jennifer Yousem, Founder of I Heart EBITDA, has seen sales teams obsess over gross margin while overlooking overall profitability, especially when loss leaders become a large share of new sales. She recommends giving teams clear targets for key metrics, such as setting a maximum percentage of loss-leader deals.

Build What Matters, Without Burning Out

For founders, the gap between big ideas and consistent follow‑through is where companies fail. But plans don’t matter until you do something with them.

Build Scale Grow turns ambition into growth. We lead cross-team projects, align outcomes with clear metrics, and reduce the risks that derail progress. You get high‑level thinking for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive, so you can scale smarter.

Email us at [email protected] or click HERE for a free consultation.