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For a decade straight, the same answer tops the list of why people leave: lack of career…
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Yes, retailers can compete with Amazon
Yes, retailers can compete with Amazon
In this series, retail experts at Shoptalk discuss the most pressing issues facing their industries today. Write your…
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Matt Moog shared thisHR leaders tell their C-suite that investing in people drives business outcomes. The C-suite asks for proof. The math is straightforward, but most teams just haven't run it. Gallup's research puts replacement cost at roughly 100% of an employee's annual salary. This means that a 15% annual turnover at a 1,000-person company is costing an organization $15M in lost productivity, retraining costs, and lost momentum of the team. Every 1% improvement in the retention rate for an organization with 1,000 employees has a $1M impact to the bottom line. The harder question is what actually moves that number, and the answer consistently traces back to the same place. The Work Institute has tracked the #1 driver of voluntary turnover for 10 consecutive years. It hasn't changed: lack of career development. The infographic shows the formula and the 3 structural levers that directly improve it ↓
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Matt Moog shared thisMost HR leaders I speak with are dealing with the same cluster of problems: • Turnover they can't get ahead of. • Learning investments that don't stick. • Employees who can't see a path forward. They treat these as separate issues with separate budgets and separate fixes. Having watched the same pattern repeat across four companies in different industries, the diagnosis is always the same: these aren't separate problems. They're symptoms of one foundational layer that was never built. See how many your organization recognizes ↓
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Matt Moog shared thisIn 1990, an MIT professor named Peter Senge published a book called The Fifth Discipline. One idea in it has stayed with me for 30 years: “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization's ability to learn faster than the competition.” Not technology, capital or brand. All of those can be acquired, copied, or eroded. An organization that genuinely learns faster than its competition has an advantage that cannot be bought. I've founded and led 4 companies and hired thousands of people, and I know for a fact that the organizations that win over the long term are the ones where management has found a way to align talent growth with business growth. The Work Institute has tracked why people voluntarily leave their jobs for 10 consecutive years. The #1 answer has never changed: lack of career development. The people who leave for that reason, the ones most eager to grow, are exactly the people every organization most needs to keep. Building the infrastructure to help your people develop faster it's the only competitive advantage your competitors can't copy. Don't treat it as a HR cost. What does your organization do to make sure it learns faster than its competition?
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Matt Moog shared thisEvery year, at every company I built, we ran an employee engagement survey. The culture scores came back fine. The manager scores came back fine. We won culture awards and people genuinely liked working there. One question, though, always came back with the lowest score, across all 4 companies: "𝘋𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴?" When I read the open-ended comments, the answer was always some version of the same thing: "𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩." Not disengaged. Not unhappy, just uncertain about their future to themselves inside the organization. The Work Institute has asked people why they voluntarily leave their jobs for 10 years in a row. The #1 answer has never changed: lack of career development. I read that stat and thought: I've been living this data across four companies without knowing what to call it. Career Bird is the system I should have had 20 years ago.
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Matt Moog shared thisI got an email today from Fathom, the meeting transcription tool I use. Apparently, I am in the top .04% of their users with 415 meetings recorded in 2025. I strongly recommend you check it out. That also reminded me that ChatGPT sent me similar stats. I'm in the top 3% of users with 7,549 messages sent, and I am among the .1% of first users of the tool. As an entrepreneur, it has been amazing to explore new topics and ideas. I got a kick out of ChatGPT's "If 2025 gave out awards, you'd get". Most Likely to Build an Entire Product just to Fix HR's Root Problem. Yup. That all checks out.
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Matt Moog shared thisFifteen months ago, we launched Career Bird with the goal of helping mid-market organizations offer high-impact talent development programs to their employees. It turns out we entered the market at the perfect moment. There has never been a greater need for skill-based talent development in the age of AI. Today, we are pleased to announce that Career Bird has been chosen to participate in the PeopleTech Partners Growth Program. PeopleTech Partners has a network of 550 people leaders and expert advisors. Through participation in this program, Career Bird will gain exposure, engagement, and real-time market feedback from hundreds of people leaders and senior executives who are leading the way to define the future of work. PeopleTech Partners champions a future of work where every individual is empowered, every team is connected, and every system is AI forward so that work becomes more meaningful and impactful. Career Bird believes that organizations that connect skills, learning, and growth will create cultures that adapt and deliver results. Thank you to Erin M. Faverty, MA COML and Cara Brennan Allamano for inviting Career Bird into the PTP network.
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Matt Moog shared thisAs we enter 2026, are you considering how your job and career will evolve over the next 5 years? If not, you should be. Consider what these five facts mean. Job postings in 2025 are down 8% vs 2024 Unemployment among new grads is 9.7% up from 6.8% a year ago 63% of employers worldwide say skills gaps are their most significant barrier to business transformation Employers expect 39%+ of workplace skills to change by 2030, primarily driven by AI There are 7.7+ million job openings in the U.S., with roughly the same number of job seekers. There is a severe shortage of qualified applicants in healthcare, skill trades, advanced manufacturing, logistics, education, and other professions. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IN 2026? This is the year to commit to learning new skills and adopting a growth mindset. Set aside time every week to learn something new. Experiment, listen to a podcast, take an online course, and find ways of applying your learning to build proficiency and fluency. And don’t be afraid to build skills outside of your current role. The people who will thrive during the time of change are those who stay curious, lifelong learners, and build knowledge, skills, and abilities throughout their careers. Never stop learning.
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Matt Moog shared thisWe spoke with over 100 HR executives in the past year and identified a root cause problem that was hiding in plain sight and preventing organizations from adapting to a changing competitive pressures. HR executives shared three common goals Enable workforce transformation Create a culture of learning Improve retention by offering career development The problem is that very few organizations have established a system for managing job requirements, designing jobs, or maintaining a skills-based job architecture. This lack of a system to define and update job requirements is a “root cause problem” that makes it nearly impossible to manage change and upskill employees effectively. You can’t build a house without a strong foundation, and you can’t build a talent development strategy without a clear understanding of the work to be done and the skills needed to accomplish it. This problem can be solved! Use AI to automate workflows that enable every manager in an organization to update job requirements quickly and easily, without the need for months of meetings with HR. Combine expert-designed talent frameworks with AI to create a comprehensive approach to job design Develop personalized learning plans and career paths tailored to the skills required for each job. The future belongs to organizations that can define and develop, employee’s skills faster than their competition.
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Matt Moog shared thisSome people have a gift for asking questions and building rapport and trust. Johnny Levy is one of those people. He shows that active listening and asking great questions are skills worth building. It starts with having some ideas of where you want to take a conversation, but also with being adaptable and flexible enough not to follow an exact script. Thanks to Johnny for the forty-five-minute conversation that covered a lot of ground and told parts of my personal story that were fun to share. https://lnkd.in/g7aSwDf8Matt Moog | The Growth Guide | Designing Careers That Spark Joy and RetentionMatt Moog | The Growth Guide | Designing Careers That Spark Joy and Retention
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisI'm so proud of Mary Grove for giving such an inspiring commencement address to the University of Minnesota school of Continuing & Professional studies this weekend. Over 2/3 of the student body are people of color, and well over 1/2 are first-generation college students. I've never seen a more excited crowd at graduation, and Mary's message hit home. The story of Mary's immigrant parents coming here from Thailand, meeting each other and starting a family, and doing everything they could to build an American dream was a powerful message, especially since so many of these students have lived a similar story. It was especially poignant for Mary to deliver just a few months after losing her dad. "Growing up in this scrappy immigrant entrepreneur family gave me an unfair advantage. It showed me firsthand the grit and tenacity required to take a blank slate and build," she told the crowd. "Immigrant communities bring a nuanced understanding of different cultures, of how to relate to different types of people; an adaptability and a layered richness that is unique. This is an unfair advantage." I'm pretty sure her parents were looking down from above, beaming with pride. I know me, Luke, and Lottie were. ❤️ Here's the speech: https://lnkd.in/g4Mhb5rd
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisWe just announced strong q1 results. I'm proud of our global team for beating our plan. One highlight: B2B growth 44% y/y. Every market showing strength. At the same time, we're unlocking serious operating leverage and investing in stablecoin, agentic AI, and building the infrastructure behind global cross border commerce. None of this happens without tremendous teamwork, the trust of the global payments ecosystem and endless agility, collaboration and hard work. Read more in our earnings release: https://paynr.co/42gRXoa
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisQuick take. I’m officially taking a short position on the business lunch (which is sad given it's one of my favorite things #ShoutoutTheDearborn) One of the most underinvested parts of building an AI native services business is the sales process. For years, services were sold through referrals, meetings, and confidence built in the room. That’s changing. Gen Z still wants trust. They just don’t want the theater. No long lunches. No over selling. No happy hours. Just show me you can do the work better than anyone else. We've worked with three gen z category creators recently who all: - Asked for product demos as looms - Wanted to see real candidate lists in platform - Preferred text or WhatsApp over calls They bought executive search without going through a traditional sales process or actually chatting with anyone on a call. The future of services is frictionless, product driven, and trust first. For the first time, I believe clients will demand this from service providers, the same way they have demanded it from software. I’m not saying the service provider goes away. And I believe very much in "Culture matching" between service provider and client. But I do think the market in time is increase its demand "You show your work" before prospective clients take any of their time...
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisCoinbase just laid off ~14% of its workforce. This is never fun news to cover, but Brian Armstrong's memo is worth reading through. It could be a blueprint for how tech companies is are reorganizing. The talent walking out of Coinbase today is real, and this kind of transition is hard no matter how strong the severance package is or how often layoffs hit. Feel free to message me if affected, and we can try and help you land your next role. For the rest of the industry, I wanted to flag something in Brian Armstrong's email that goes well beyond the layoff itself. This wasn't just a cost-cutting memo. It was a roadmap for how Coinbase is reorganizing around AI, and likely how other companies will be changing too. Three things stood out: 1. No pure managers. Every leader must be a strong IC. "Player-coaches only." This is a growing trend that we just covered about CTOs leaving their titles behind to write code at Anthropic because IC leverage had surpassed management leverage. Coinbase just made that a formal policy. 2. 5 layers max below CEO. Amazon started compressing org charts. Meta is running 50:1 employee-to-manager ratios. Now Coinbase is drawing a hard line. When companies flatten from 7-8 levels to 5, the career path changes. Fewer rungs, wider bands, more competition within each level. As I noted recently, Gallup found the average number of direct reports jumped from 10.9 to 12.1 in a single year. That pace is accelerating. 3. AI-native pods. Small, high-context teams, with Coinbase even testing out one-person roles combining engineering, design, and product. The vision is “humans around the edge, managing fleets of agents.” Block, Coinbase, and many other companies that have been announcing layoffs are all converging on similar things. Less pure managers, smaller teams, and shorter career ladders. The org chart of 2027 is going to look very different from 2024. Once again, to those affected, I hope your next roles are better than your previous ones, and that you land them sooner than you expected. Here’s our job board: https://levels.fyi/jobs
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisThere are many great cycling options within a few hours’ drive of Chicago that I haven’t explored yet, but they seem highly attractive. Much of this expansion has been driven by rails-to-trails conversions. Built on former railway corridors and often surfaced with crushed stone, these routes tend to be relatively flat. That makes them especially appealing for recreational riders using gravel, mountain, or hybrid bikes rather than traditional road bikes. This transformation has resulted in more than 2,400 rail trails across the U.S. Reporter Elaine Glusac highlights five destinations perfect for a weekend of memorable Midwest riding: - Kal-Haven Trail, Michigan — 2 hours from Chicago - Pumpkinvine Nature Trail, Indiana — 2 hours 20 minutes - Elroy-Sparta State Trail, Wisconsin — 4 hours - Tunnel Hill State Trail, Illinois — 5 hours - Root River State Trail, Minnesota — 5 hours With good weather on the way, it’s time to hit the road. See you out there. Read here the complete must read article: https://lnkd.in/diKGwf6r
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisToday’s WSJ includes an article on Colorado’s worsening business climate. It’s important to put that in context. I maintain that, even with our faults, there is still no better place to live and work. Access to the outdoors, 300 days of sunshine, low tax rates (4.4% flat), a top 10 world airport, well-respected universities, and the most highly educated workforce in the country – these are all fundamentals that remain strong. Over the past five years, our tech sector has added 14,000 jobs and attracted near record levels of venture investment. Each tech job supports an additional 2.67 jobs in the broader economy. Despite these positives, there are troubling signs that call for business leaders to speak out. A 2025 survey by the Colorado Chamber found that 67% of business leaders say Colorado is headed in the wrong direction — up from 53% in 2022. 71% describe the state's regulatory and political climate as more costly or burdensome than three years ago. The Colorado Business Roundtable’s 2026 survey of 52 C-suite leaders revealed that 81% of executives now say state policy is negatively impacting their business — up from 65% just six months earlier — while only 2% report a positive impact, down from 4%. Almost 30 companies relocated out of Colorado last year alone. 230 business leaders, including me, recently signed a letter calling for greater attention to these issues, and highlighting the negative downstream impacts of losing businesses. This can be fixed in a few ways. First, we need to elect representatives who are willing to have dialogue with the business community, with the aim of finding win-win solutions. We too want our local community to be safe and vibrant and our employees to be satisfied. Right now, there is far too much political point-scoring and too little problem-solving. Second, we need to reform our state government. That means paying our civil servants more. Many of the most talented people have high opportunity costs, and paying them $45,000 in annual salary is not enough to entice them to run for office. I can’t think of a better ROI than getting better decision-making across the board by having people with real-world experience, not just career politicians. We should pass the open primaries initiative, which will allow independent voters to vote in party primaries, restoring power to centrists and reducing the influence of the most extreme ends of both political parties. Finally, we should no longer allow our state legislators to introduce bills within a week of the session ending. Third, businesses need to raise their voices. It’s not good enough to let a few vocal leaders spend their time and money advocating for change, or educating our policy-makers. Everyone – no matter what size of company – has an obligation to stay informed and get involved. #colorado #denver https://lnkd.in/gy9B7hUt?Entrepreneurs Flocked to Colorado. Now Red Tape Is Driving Some Away.Entrepreneurs Flocked to Colorado. Now Red Tape Is Driving Some Away.
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisFor many of us, a trip is really a series of meals with some sightseeing in between. Issue 7 of Nomadic Spirit is live. It's the first issue we've built entirely around a single idea: food is the point of the trip, not a pleasure you get to once you arrive. This one also introduces Fork First, a new section for restaurants, dishes, and tables worth planning a trip around. A week in Morocco. A barbacoa stand in San Miguel de Allende. San Sebastián. A case for the solo diner. Link in the first comment. Free to sign up.
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Matt Moog liked thisMatt Moog liked thisToday we’re announcing The Abundance Agenda: a marquee project to build a federal policy platform based on abundance principles – including expanding supply, lowering costs, and getting the government to actually deliver. We’re broadening from housing and energy into new areas like health care, child care, and the workforce. We already have a great team of advisors, but we still need help, especially from prospective authors. We’re eager to hear the best abundance ideas from across the country. Check out our RFP and apply here before June 5: https://lnkd.in/ekw8wxUj Read about the project in Axios today: https://lnkd.in/erGnycG5 And in our Substack: https://lnkd.in/e-ia7rxGExclusive: New group plots 2028 "Abundance" agendaExclusive: New group plots 2028 "Abundance" agenda
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Education
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Board Member
Chicago Public Media
- 10 years 10 months
Arts and Culture
Chair 2016/2017
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Chicago Chapter Chair(2015/16), Vice chair (2014/15), Education Chair (2013/14)
YPO Chicago Chapter
- 21 years 4 months
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Patents
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Automated segmentation and yield management
Filed US US 20060167752 A1
Methods, systems and computer readable media for presenting an offer. In one such method, a consumer is assigned to one of a plurality of market segments, and a yield for a plurality of offers is determined based on the assigned market segment. An offer is then selected for presentation to the consumer based on the yield.
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A method for issuing and processing electronic certificates having both transaction data and identification data
EP1082692A4
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Natasha Pongonis
Year in Review: 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 2025 delivered major wins: product breakthroughs at Envisify, gained full ownership, network expansion as Fractional CEO, and Ambitio's growth alongside powerhouse women execs. The falls? They mattered just as much, shaping core values, resilience under fire, and standing taller after every hit. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗔𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱 More bold learning (what others call "failures"), purpose-driven leadership, and relentless focus on scalability & innovation across business, friendships, and life. This morning, while listening to a podcast, one line stuck with me: 𝘼𝙫𝙤𝙞𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙙𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. Here's to 2026, the Year of the Fire Horse: fierce, unstoppable, ready to charge 🔥 #motivation #leadership #growth #innovation
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Salesfully.com
Startups don’t need VC to grow. Revenue-based financing doubled from $1.8B in 2021 to over $3.8B in 2024 and average deals are ~$350k with a 6% cap. Funding mix in 2025: VC 52%, crowdfunding 14%, RBF 11%, angels 10%, partnerships 7%, grants 6%. 1,500 companies raised $700M via crowdfunding in 2023. Explore smarter funding options: https://lnkd.in/ebTeA_MX #StartupFunding #AlternativeFinance
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NaTalia Singleton
Most startups die trying to get what an existing business already has — Customers Cash flow Systems Brand trust Why start from zero when you can buy from momentum? Buy a business doing $500K–$2M in revenue. Leverage seller financing, SBA, or private capital. Keep the team, fix the margins, and scale. It’s not about being an entrepreneur anymore. It’s about being an acquirer. Startups are hope. Acquisitions are math. And math wins. 🦈
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Jeremiah Owyang
VC schedules, and thoughts on being a VC noob. -- VC schedules to know -- Most venture capital firms hold partner meetings on Mondays. This is typically when the investment committee votes on new investments and other key decisions. Savvy founders learn the exact timing and may need to provide additional data over the weekend to stay in motion. It is also well known that many venture capitalists observe a “European summer,” with August often being light or fully off. Similarly, the winter holidays reduce activity across much of December. That said, data from Carta shows a meaningful year-end push to close deals in December, followed by a flurry of activity in January. Founders should be cautious about kicking off fundraising during these slower periods. You do not want a raise to go stale and fall apart. VCs talk to each other, the industry is highly interconnected. -- I’m a mid career Noob! -- I am an “emerging manager,” effectively a new VC, less than three years in. In venture capital, the timeline is long. On my Linkedin you'll see I have two roles at Blitzscaling: Limited Partner means I put money into a fund, but have no decision making ability, and General Partner means I'm actively finding startups, bringing them to the partnership, and funding. As a General Partner, you are often considered an emerging manager for close to a decade, as it takes years for a fund to fully mature and establish a VC track record. Investing is a long game, but the upside can be extraordinary. Fortunately, I entered this role with a positive angel track record from my own bank account, which is often a good idea to have as a VC. When I learn a new VC concept or term, I’m an AI first, I’ll link to my post a few days ago in the comments, I totally live for constant growth and learning, if you’re not growing you’re dying. Fun fact: Many/most start their VC career in their 40s, as they need to have enough tech and biz cycles, a broad enough network, resources, and a platform to stand upon. As we end the year, I'm sharing more career thoughts, and productivity thoughts, rather than industry trends and market maps and frameworks and forecasts. I wrote all of this by hand myself, but used AI to edit some of it.
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Dan Cremons
There are 5 dead-simple questions every PE board + mgmt should be aligned on. But some aren't. The cost? → Lost time → Wasted effort → Value creation risk. Here they are ↓ (In our Ascend PE accelerator, we help execs lead from the front in driving clarity & alignment here. Info in the comments.)
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Medha Agarwal
I’m thrilled to announce defy.vc’s investment in Birches Health as part of their $20M combined Seed and Series A funding round, alongside incredible partners like AlleyCorp, General Catalyst, Will Ventures, and others. As someone deeply passionate about backing companies that tackle important problems for our society, I couldn’t be more excited about what Birches is building—a national virtual clinic dedicated to treating gambling addiction and related behavioral disorders like gaming, sex, porn, and internet addictions. What excites me most is Birches’ innovative health assurance model: proactive, accessible, and affordable care that’s evidence-based and delivered right at home. With the explosion of legal sports betting—think nearly $1.5 billion wagered on this year’s Super Bowl alone—we’re staring down a looming public health emergency. Traditional options like hotlines or generic therapy fall short for this high-acuity issue, but Birches changes that by offering specialized therapy from trained clinicians, multimodal treatment, and peer support, all covered by major insurers like United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s available in all 50 states, breaking down geographical and financial barriers that have left so many without help. The impact is already profound: 96% of patients report an improved quality of life, and 94% give Birches a 5/5 rating. By partnering with state governments, payors, and policymakers, Birches is pushing gambling addiction into the spotlight of behavioral health conversations, where it’s been neglected for too long—often leading to shame, worsened outcomes, and higher suicidality risks. This funding will supercharge their growth: expanding the provider network, boosting clinical excellence, scaling infrastructure, and deepening insurance and state partnerships to meet surging demand. Very excited to partner with Elliott Rapaport and the entire Birches team! See more about our POV in the blog post linked in the comments. #GamblingAddiction #BehavioralHealth #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation
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