“WORDS ARE WEAPONS” stared me in the face. Literally. — I was visiting an art gallery in Geneva, where I live, that had works by the French artist “Joseph”. I stared at a modern piece with a highly reflective flat piece of metal or a mirror, with words carved in it in large bold letters. The base, behind the mirror…

“Lies are the social equivalent of toxic waste: Everyone is potentially harmed by their spread.” — Sam Harris, in his 2011 book about lying I am not perfect. I lie. I pride myself of being candid, straightforward, honest, but at times I resort to the lie. I like telling my…

In this series of articles that I call “The incomplete guide to leadership”, I have crowdsourced some leadership lessons from my network as well as added my own. In the third instalment, I talk about how to lead people effectively — even during hard times. — We understand that people who become entrepreneurs are typically more open-minded, they have a sense of duty and are organised, they tend to be emotionally stable, and they do not shy away from conflict. …

In this series of articles that I call “The incomplete guide to leadership”, I have crowdsourced some leadership lessons from my network as well as added my own. In the second instalment, I talk about how to lead people effectively — even during hard times. — “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go in a group.” — An African proverb of unknown origin Nobody embodies the first part of this proverb better than the Swiss alpinist Andreas Steindl. He went from the centre of Zermatt (the Church square)…

In this series of articles that I call “The incomplete guide to leadership”, I have crowdsourced some leadership lessons from my network as well as added my own. Part 1 is about my commitment to leaders and how I think about leadership. Enjoy! — A hierarchical responsibility — a title — is by nomination. Leadership is not. Leadership is the innate individual expression and empowerment of others who take you toward your goals. This empowerment motivates and enables others to contribute. Done well, leadership results in contributions delivered unselfishly by stakeholders and employees alike…

My learnings about endurance and how to best apply them when building a company. — Crazy. The word evokes strong emotions, not all of them positive. But there is definitely such a thing as “good crazy”, meaning you are different, maybe extreme, but you use that trait or talent to do good in the world, or you apply yourself in ways that other “normal” people…

Co-CEO arrangements are more common than you think. Here are my few cents on the leadership arrangement at our German FemTech portfolio company, Clue, and how to make co-CEO arrangements work. They are thoughtful. Intelligent. They talk in a clear, measured way, unhurried, but with weight behind their words. A…

Dear Founder, Dear Leader, Sometimes you listen to people, and they say a lot of smart things in just the right way. Not smart as in popular at the time, but insightful, real, and based on experience. So, I will offer you a time-saving device. Read the bullet points below…

Part II - The man who saved the world — On September 26, 1983, lieutenant colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov assumed his shift where he was responsible for the management of the systems at Serpukhov-15 near Moscow. Mr Petrov’s job was to monitor the early warning systems that would let the Soviet Union know of an incoming US nuclear missile attack…