Oct 1, 2026 · 40 min · 11 segments
Mike Grinberg (Proofpoint Marketing) unpacks why most founders think they know their positioning - and why the surface-level answers they give reveal a gap that's costing them growth. Visit…
Mike GrinbergGuestBen EdwardsHostI've just been writing down a note, sort of like the internet would have you believe that you can build anything.
I mean, that's actually one of the dangers of vibe coding in AI, the inflated sense of being able to build anything.
And if you're a consultancy tapped into the knowledge economy, AI is a wonderful enabler of that, and being able to scale by using tech and build something with great margins and highly sort of, um, interesting from an acquisitions po- point of view.
But then when you, when you actually think about some of their clients and then the work that they do for the clients, you mentioned some of the regulated industries, life sciences being one.
I know plenty of multi, multi-million dollar mul- several hundred people consultancies, and none of that is their motivation.
Like they l- they're in it because they genuinely wanna help their client help the end customer, which is people who wanna, like-
A lot of them, I mean, and that, I do a lot of work in the life sciences space, so like a lot of them were scientists to start, and then they got into consulting and they built their firms around whatever regulatory or, uh, you know, uh, whatnot and, um, kind of went from there.
And there's a, uh, there's a, there's a, there is a real purpose around, um...
I, I have seen it, like the successful firms, they have a real purpose around.
Sometimes it's a sp- like a particular modality even that they specialize in because they really care about You know, neuro diseases or whatever it is
Uh, but it-- You know, I also know people who on the face of it might be in like quite a dry line of consulting, but it's because like they see the impact of that on the world.
But underneath it is actually like the impact that can have on being able to like get phenomenal product right across the globe.
There's a s- there's something behind it, and th- not everybody is, um, tied to this same agenda.
Well, and there's, there's an interesting sort of-- there's a flip side to this coin where I've seen founders get so obsessed with their passion.
So like a founder might be really passionate about, about, um, environmental protection.
Like, "Oh, we, we, we have to do work in this space." And if you're at a, like right now, like in the US, for example, the market doesn't really...
Like the, the, you know, the current administration and all the stuff that's happening, like the market doesn't really support that.
I've just been writing down a note, sort of like the internet would have you believe that you can build anything.
I mean, that's actually one of the dangers of vibe coding in AI, the inflated sense of being able to build anything.
And if you're a consultancy tapped into the knowledge economy, AI is a wonderful enabler of that, and being able to scale by using tech and build something with great margins and highly sort of, um, interesting from an acquisitions po- point of view.
But then when you, when you actually think about some of their clients and then the work that they do for the clients, you mentioned some of the regulated industries, life sciences being one.
I know plenty of multi, multi-million dollar mul- several hundred people consultancies, and none of that is their motivation.
Like they l- they're in it because they genuinely wanna help their client help the end customer, which is people who wanna, like-
A lot of them, I mean, and that, I do a lot of work in the life sciences space, so like a lot of them were scientists to start, and then they got into consulting and they built their firms around whatever regulatory or, uh, you know, uh, whatnot and, um, kind of went from there.
And there's a, uh, there's a, there's a, there is a real purpose around, um...
I, I have seen it, like the successful firms, they have a real purpose around.
Sometimes it's a sp- like a particular modality even that they specialize in because they really care about You know, neuro diseases or whatever it is
Uh, but it-- You know, I also know people who on the face of it might be in like quite a dry line of consulting, but it's because like they see the impact of that on the world.
But underneath it is actually like the impact that can have on being able to like get phenomenal product right across the globe.
There's a s- there's something behind it, and th- not everybody is, um, tied to this same agenda.
Well, and there's, there's an interesting sort of-- there's a flip side to this coin where I've seen founders get so obsessed with their passion.
So like a founder might be really passionate about, about, um, environmental protection.
Like, "Oh, we, we, we have to do work in this space." And if you're at a, like right now, like in the US, for example, the market doesn't really...
Like the, the, you know, the current administration and all the stuff that's happening, like the market doesn't really support that.
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