Before You Blow It.

The guardrails nobody tells you about.

The third book in the trilogy. After the equity questions and the rebuild story, this one is about protection. How to keep a nine-figure win from disappearing the same way the first two empires did.

In the manuscript stage. Release date to be announced.

Start with Founder Fallout See the trilogy

Why this book exists

The trap on the other side of the win.

Every founder I know who lost a fortune lost it after they made it. Not before. The first bankruptcy is bad luck and bad partners. The second one is a lifestyle, an entity stack, and a tax structure that everyone said was fine.

I've watched friends sell for $40M and be broke in six years. I've watched founders pay more in penalties than they ever paid in salary. I've watched marriages, kids, and equity tables come apart inside the same fiscal year. None of it was inevitable. All of it was preventable.

This is the book I wish someone had handed me at $7M, $20M, and $50M. Three different sets of guardrails. Three different ways to blow it. Three different ways to not.

From the manuscript

Nobody tells the second story.

The cover stories are always about the exit. The Zoom call where the wire hits. The car they bought. The house. The trip. Nobody ever publishes the second story. The one where the wire hits and three years later the money is gone and the marriage is a deposition.

I have seen the second story too many times to write any other book next. The first bankruptcy taught me how I lost everything when I had nothing. The second one taught me how to lose it when I had something. This book is what I learned watching the third version of that movie play out in other people's lives.

More from the manuscript will surface as the book moves toward release.

The trilogy