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Hey guys, I'm Mike 👋
Serial founder, early-stage investor, speaker, and NYT…
Articles by Michael
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The Case for Radical Transparency
The Case for Radical Transparency
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. Did someone forward it to you?…
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Know When to Pivot
Know When to Pivot
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. Did someone forward it to you?…
7 Comments -
The Hire That Got You Here Won't Get You There
The Hire That Got You Here Won't Get You There
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. Did someone forward it to you?…
3 Comments -
Choose Your Cofounder Like Your Spouse
Choose Your Cofounder Like Your Spouse
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. "I Wish I Had" Verses "I'm Glad I…
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Numbers are boring... until they're not.
Numbers are boring... until they're not.
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. The Thought Almost Every Founder Has…
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LOVE THE SHOVEL
LOVE THE SHOVEL
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. Introducing: The Bridge Hustle Let’s…
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Rip Off the Band-Aid
Rip Off the Band-Aid
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. (REMINDER to sign up for tomorrow's…
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Own Your Origin Story
Own Your Origin Story
WE ARE ALL MINNESOTANS TODAY. We haven’t been able to shake what’s happening in Minnesota.
8 Comments -
EAT YOUR OWN DOG FOOD?
EAT YOUR OWN DOG FOOD?
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. The best leaders eat their own dog…
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The Most Dangerous Reflex
The Most Dangerous Reflex
Kass & Mike’s biweekly harvest to help entrepreneurs shovel their way to success. WANNA HAVE DINNER WITH GARY VEE AND…
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129K followers
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Michael Lazerow posted thisAt nineteen, I had close to zero blood pressure and three hours to live. My aortic valve had burst eight days after open-heart surgery. On the way to the hospital, I asked my mom if we could stop for sushi. She told me to shut up. Minutes later, a surgeon cracked my chest open for the second time in two weeks. I woke up to Rabbi Joe Weinberg standing next to me in full black-tie garb. I assumed I was dead. I wasn't. But I was different. Before that surgery, fear ran my life. Fear of rejection. Fear of embarrassing myself. Fear of performing. After seeing my own death, most of those fears melted away. I started asking one question: what's the worst thing that can happen? Usually, the worst case isn't that bad. And it almost always beats the alternative—doing nothing. That clarity has shaped every major decision since. Starting companies. Taking risks. Betting on myself and others. Near-death gave me permission to stop playing it safe. You don't need a near-death experience to get that clarity. But you do need to ask yourself: what would you do if you weren't afraid?
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Michael Lazerow reposted thisMichael Lazerow reposted thisSerial #entrepreneurs and savvy #investors Kass Lazerow and Michael Lazerow joined our #NUvention: Launch class this week to give unvarnished, practical feedback on #startups pitched by a half dozen student teams. Founders of multiple companies—including Golf.com and Buddy Media, acquired by Salesforce for $745 million—the married couple regularly speak at major events like SXSW, sharing lessons from their The New York Times bestselling book, Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story About the Entrepreneur’s Messy Path to Success. We’re grateful they brought their experience, candor, and encouragement to an intimate setting on campus, where Mike started his first company while studying at Northwestern University Medill School. #entrepreneurshipeducation Hayes Ferguson Lilli Zakarija Eduardo Acuna Terry Chen
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Michael Lazerow shared thisMost leaders think they're protecting their teams by filtering information. They're not. They're creating anxiety. In this week's edition of The Farm, we break down why radical transparency isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a competitive advantage. Dive in now and be sure to share it with all the shovelers in your network.
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Michael Lazerow shared thisI gained twenty pounds building Buddy Media. Constant travel. Client dinners. Late nights eating whatever was fastest. Zero exercise. I stopped working out entirely. Tequila with clients became routine. I'd end each day exhausted in a hotel room, only to wake up and do it again. By the time we sold the company, I was forty-five pounds heavier than I'd been in college. I have a lot more pictures from those days. I'm not eager to share them. Building a company takes a physical toll that's invisible to everyone else. You're not just tired. You're depleted. Your body keeps score even when you ignore it. I wasn't thinking about diet or exercise. I was thinking about survival. If I don't sell, we don't make payroll. If I don't travel, we lose the deal. The feeling was real. Maybe the company would have survived if I'd taken better care of myself. Maybe not. But I know this now: If you're broken, the company will be broken. Your health isn't separate from your work. It's the foundation of it. I wish I'd learned that sooner. What's the physical toll no one sees you paying?
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Michael Lazerow reposted thisMichael Lazerow reposted thisCoasts have hype. Chicago has receipts. 30 of them walked into a breakfast this morning. Executives, founders, operators. Each one a proof point. Different industries. Different scars. Same conviction. The kind LinkedIn never sees. We brought Kass Lazerow and Michael Lazerow into the room. Serial founders. $745M Salesforce exit. Backers of 100+ companies. $10B in collective exits. A founder's mindset meeting a city built on grit. Their takeaway? Chicago always shows up. That room would humble most coastal ecosystems. That's the bet. That's why Merraine Group is planting our flag here in Chicago. Big thanks to Michael Winnick and the Dscout team for the space. And to every woman who showed up and sharpened the room. Cinco de Mayo. A breakfast. A reminder. Chicago doesn't produce executives. It forges operators. What's the most underrated leadership trait forged in this city?
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Michael Lazerow reposted thisMichael Lazerow reposted thisI had the wonderful opportunity to spend a whole day learning from Kass and Mike Lazerow last week. They built Golf .com, then sold Buddy Media to Salesforce for $745 million, and they've been early investors in Facebook, Twitter, and SpaceX. Their book Shoveling Shit highlights their biggest lesson for entrepreneurs, which is to learn to love the shovel. Building a business is mostly unglamorous. The hiring, the firing, the 2am decisions, the pivots you didn't see coming, and so on... Most people quit because they think the mess means something is wrong, when in reality the mess IS the work. So if you're in the thick of it right now, keep shoveling because that's the whole job! #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BusinessLessons #StartupLife #Founders #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #Mentorship
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Michael Lazerow posted thisIn February 2000, we got a phone call that wiped out $1.5 million overnight. Chipshot.com, the company we had merged with, was dead. Sequoia pulled out their funding. Our bank accounts were frozen. We had no money to cover payroll. The next morning, we gathered our team and told them the truth. We're starting over. We're going to raise money and make this right. But there are no guarantees. And right now, there's no money to pay you. I expected most of them to walk out. Probably to the nearest bar. Not one person left. They stayed. They kept working. They trusted us to figure it out. Three months later, we raised $3 million and rebuilt the company. That moment taught me something I've never forgotten: Loyalty under pressure reveals who people really are. When everything is going well, everyone looks committed. It's easy to show up when the stock is rising and the press is good. But when the wheels come off? That's when you see grit. The people who stayed through Chipshot became the foundation of everything we built after. Hire for skills. But bet on the people who stay when it gets hard. Who stayed with you when things fell apart?
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Michael Lazerow shared thisI quit the baseball team my junior year of high school because I was scared of failing. The coach told me I had to play outfield. I was terrified I'd drop a fly ball in front of everyone. So I quit. → Fear of embarrassment. → Fear of failure. → Fear of what people would think. I let fear make the decision for me. Looking back, that moment taught me something important about entrepreneurship: Founders can't quit when they're scared. The whole job is doing things that might not work. → Pitching investors who might say no. → Launching products that might flop. → Having hard conversations that might go sideways. If I had let fear run my companies the way I let it run my baseball career, I never would have started anything. After my heart surgery at nineteen, something shifted. I started asking myself: what's the worst that can happen? The answer is almost never as bad as the fear makes it feel. Fear of failure is natural. Every founder feels it. But fear of failure can't be the thing that decides what you do. What's something you almost quit because you were scared?
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Michael Lazerow shared thisGoogle offered us more money than Salesforce. We chose Salesforce anyway. When we were selling Buddy Media in 2012, we had multiple offers on the table. Google's was significantly higher. But we went with Marc Benioff and Salesforce. Here's why: Marc gave us his word. And he stood by it. Days after we agreed to terms, Facebook went public. The stock dropped 50% in early trading. Marc had every excuse to renegotiate. His board probably pushed him to. The market had just handed him leverage on a silver platter. He didn't use it. He had given us his word, and that was enough for him. That moment told me everything I needed to know about who we were partnering with. When you're choosing investors, acquirers, or any long-term partner, ask yourself: ↳ Will they stand by their word when it's inconvenient? ↳ Will they be there when things get hard? The biggest check isn't always the best deal. The best partner is. We've never regretted choosing Salesforce. What's more important to you, the biggest check or the best partner?
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Michael Lazerow reacted on thisMichael Lazerow reacted on thisAI is loud. Real rooms still win. 48 hours in Chicago. Two Merraine rooms. Both Lazerows. Tuesday: Kass Lazerow hosted a women's leadership breakfast. A room of incredible women building, leading, refusing to wait their turn. Wednesday: The Operator's Table. Founders. Investors. Builders. Conversation jumped from AI to token markets to talent density. But the signal underneath both rooms was the same: People still build companies. Models don't. Grateful for my partners Kass and Michael Lazerow . Operators who don't outsource conviction. Their mandate when they acquired Merraine Group was simple: Recruiting should be led by operators who've built. Not recruiters who've just placed. Speed without compromise. Insight over instinct. Partnerships built on trust. This is Chicago. Talent density wins rings. And the week isn't over. This morning Mike takes the stage at 1871's 10th annual ScaleUP. If you're there, come say hi. Chapter 1 filled before we could invite everyone. Chapter 2 just wrapped. Chapter 3 is loading. Want a seat at the next table? DM me. P.S. If you're scaling and need operators who've actually built - same DM.
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Michael Lazerow reacted on thisMichael Lazerow reacted on thisSuch an insightful experience learning from Michael Lazerow at 1871’s 10th Annual ScaleUp Conference
Experience
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Education
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Northwestern University
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Successfully completed Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism's Masters program.
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Publications
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The Dreamer’s Dilemma: Prevent Your Dreams from Turning into Nightmares
LinkedIn
See publicationIf you think your dream should come true and you’re not violating any rules of physics (or basic human ethics), go for it. Tune out the critics. Or better yet, turn those critics into the electric power to fuel your dreams, as Elon did.
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When is it OK to bash a founder?
LinkedIn
See publicationSo why is it that some of my fellow entrepreneurs have no problem publicly attacking other business builders?
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Why Weirdos Outperform Normals
LinkedIn
See publicationWe should teach our kids to be weird. Instead of trying to get our kids to fit in, we should help them celebrate why they are different.
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Twitter's Ads API is Here: So What and Now What?
Ad Age
See publicationTwitter's ad APIs are a natural progression for the company. And, quite frankly, I expected it to come a bit sooner. Nonetheless, this is a game changer for brands who need the power to pull off real-time engagement that turns tweets and posts into memorable content.
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Facebook Graph Search Is Here. What Do Marketers Need to Know?
Ad Age
See publicationWhile Zuck did not focus on brands, it's clear where Facebook is going with its search strategy. And businesses large and small will be one of the primary beneficiaries.
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The Truth About Facebook Advertising
Fast Company
See publicationOur aggregate, quantifiable numbers, as well as knowledge of our brands' ad spend, show the speed at which brand advertisers are investing into Facebook. Companies that spent $1 million last year are spending $5 million this year. Companies that spent $10 million last year are upping spend to $25 million or more.
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Social Media Advertising Is Set to Explode. Who Will Control It?
Ad Age
See publicationIn a world where the content is the ad and the ad is the content, the barriers between the different types of agencies go away, and all are frothing at all the new and growing revenue streams.
Honors & Awards
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Leader of the Future Award
Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute
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#1: Silicon Alley 100
Business Insider
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Ad Age Digital A-List
Ad Age Magazine
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Crain's New York 40 Under 40
Crain's New York Business
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Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
Ernst & Young
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Fortune Magazine 40 Under 40
Fortune Magazine
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Young Sohn
Exciting to see the incredible progress from Peptone, a company we’ve backed since the early days at Walden Catalyst Ventures. Peptone just announced Peptron-O, developed in collaboration with NVIDIA — a groundbreaking AI engine that brings ensemble-first structure prediction to the disordered proteome. This is a major scientific and technological milestone, targeting one of the most complex and previously inaccessible areas of biology: intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). By shifting the paradigm from static models to dynamic ensembles, Peptron-O opens new doors for drug discovery — especially in areas like oncology and neurodegeneration, where IDPs play critical roles. We’re proud to have supported Peptone on their mission to build the infrastructure for next-gen molecular physics. Their work is a great example of how deep tech can transform life sciences. Read more about the announcement: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eygnKQ67 #AI #Biotech #DrugDiscovery #DeepTech #LifeSciences #WaldenCatalyst #Peptone #NVIDIA #PeptronO with: Kamil Tamiola, Ph.D. Francis Ho Shankar Chandran Nicolas Autret Andy Kau Roni Hefetz Victoria Slivkoff
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Augustin Sayer
Thrilled for OVNI Capital to be backing RIFT in a pre-seed round led by AlleyCorp (Luc Ryan-Schreiber). Rift is building the first real-time aerial intelligence network, a new layer of infrastructure for persistent, on-demand visibility where it matters most. This funding will scale production of their autonomous stations, accelerate deployment in high-stakes environments, and expand the team leading the next phase. 🗞️ Explore the full story: - StartupMafia: https://lnkd.in/dARrg25N - BFM Business (FR): https://lnkd.in/eADSUsn7 - Les Échos (FR): https://lnkd.in/eFG3zAy5 👨🚀 Join the mission → https://lnkd.in/erm_SrTG
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JT Benton
Every #VentureStudio GP knows some portfolio bets won’t hit. That's expected - and it's one of the reasons studios are such a powerful vehicle for innovation. And while a venture's failure might be what's visible to the outsider, what keeps them up at night isn’t failure at the venture level — it’s failure at the systemic level within the studio. One bad entity design. One IP misstep. One governance gap. That’s how studio operations fall apart. We break down how to spot (and fix) these cracks before they turn into fault lines in our latest paper, "The GP Dilemma" - DM me and I'll send you a copy!
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Eric Fan
Love this - AI is the Oppenheimer moment for marketing. It fundamentally collapses the time and cost of production. A $2.5 million campaign that used to take four months can now be delivered for $500,000 in four weeks. Legacy firms that charge based on hours with the 'time-driven' model are existentially threatened by this.
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Tré Baker
More layoffs announced as the economy remains uncertain and the slow (but increasing) march towards increasing ai/automation dominance continues. Neo-liberal capitalism is not equipped to deal with the social upheaval this will cause. In order to soften the blows, business and government leaders need to re-orient our system from income for labor towards income from assets, with more widespread asset ownership. At the national level, it looks like sovereign wealth funds, but at the local level, it’s increasing support and incentives for employee-owned businesses and co-ops, which have proven to be more resilient through economic shifts over time. https://lnkd.in/esXW4CKa
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Jonathan Userovici
The Headline family is experiencing incredible momentum, and today our portfolio company DeepIP is announcing a $25M Series B, bringing total funding to $40M. This is the kind of company that doesn’t just add AI to a workflow, but it sets the standard for an entire category. The momentum speaks for itself: 1️⃣ 10x ARR growth in < 18 months 2️⃣ Trusted by 400+ law firms and leading corporate IP teams globally 3️⃣ 2M+ chats on the DeepIP platform We’ve had the chance to back FX (Francois-Xavier) L. and Edouard D., leading their Seed round with Headline. Watching them take on a problem as complex and high-stakes as patent work has been genuinely impressive. And working with them has been an absolute pleasure: these 2 are coupling very high ambition and humility. Tech built in Europe, but opening the US office very early and FX starting a life in NYC with his family with 0 hesitation in order to build a global category leader in the IP industry. What convinced me early is still what stands out today: patent teams don’t need another standalone AI tool. They need something that fits the way the work actually happens: documents, long-running matters, multiple stakeholders, and zero room for sloppy context handoffs. Big congrats to the whole DeepIP team + Korelya Capital, Balderton & Serena Proud that we’re doubling down at Headline and continuing the support for what’s next!
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Anjli Jain
**Apple's Strategic Acquisition: A Game-Changer in Video Editing?** Apple's recent acquisition of MotionVFX highlights a significant strategic move to enhance its suite of creative tools and better compete with Adobe's offerings. As a General Partner at ElevenX Capital, we recognize how such acquisitions reflect market trends and consumer demands, prompting investors to reassess their portfolios in the tech space. How do you see this acquisition affecting competition in the creativity software market? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship
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Paul Perrett
Big milestone for Firmable. We’ve raised $14m Series A led by Airtree. Sales has moved through a few big waves: intuition-led, CRM-led, data-led. We’re now entering the next one – intelligence-led sales. The opportunity isn’t just better data. It’s turning that data into clear direction and action, without adding more work for sales teams. That’s what we’re building at Firmable: a foundation of trusted external data, layered with intelligence that helps sellers know who to focus on and when. Led by Airtree, this round supports our expansion across Asia and into the US – and accelerates the build-out of AI agents that take the admin work off sales teams so they can focus on what they do best. Proud of the team, grateful to our customers and investors. We’re just getting started. Read the exclusive in the AFR. https://lnkd.in/gr66uknb Leigh Jasper | Tara Salmon | Karthik Venkatasubramanian| Chester Thompson| Chath Widanapathirana
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Linnea Jungnelius
As Two Circles CEO Gareth Balch and I were talking about how sport has evolved, he framed it simply: we’re in the Third Age of Sports. What’s changed most isn’t distribution. It’s visibility. Color TV. Then cable. Now streaming and data. That's made audiences trackable for the first time. And consequently, fan attention and affection can be understood, compared, and valued. A few data points he shared: - 3+ trillion hours of sport are consumed globally each year - Consumption is 2.5x what it was a decade ago - 6B people consume sports content worldwide - ~4B identify as sports fans - ~1.5B transact annually Value creation lives in that gap between attention, affection, and action. And with the intelligence that exists now, value is both growing and concentrating: - Global sports IP generates about $170B per year now - Up from roughly $110B ten years ago - The Top 20 Leagues capture 44% of global sports revenue today - And that share is expected to move closer to 60% The biggest audiences win. Not by accident. They win by knowing their fans best. And that's what Two Circles is all about. 🎙️I loved this deep dive with Gareth and hope you will too. More on the Third Age of Sport on the podcast: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eaY7wWpa Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eSaWJzYi Apple: https://lnkd.in/ePUbJsRZ
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