Punks & Pinstripes

#SteveJobs said he wouldn't have met his wife Laurene if he hadn't been fired from Apple and forced to rebuild his life. How to leave a senior corporate job, launch a #startup, and not kill your marriage is probably the most frequently shared challenge among the members of Punks & Pinstripes. No one likes to talk about it, but scratch the surface of any post-corporate #entrepreneur, and it’s universally true. When you leave corporate to build a new venture, your spouse becomes your CFO. Now, your money is your checking account, your retirement, your home, your kids’ college fund - at least in the beginning. David Sullivan and I both left senior jobs in finance to launch new ventures. And we had to learn a new language to talk about money with our spouses. It all paid off, our new careers injected new energy into our relationships - but it took a few tries to get it right. (David was COO of Unqork, a $2.5 billion no code platform. He was an EVP at MetLife before that.) In this edition of the newsletter, "Honey, I Shrunk Our Savings." We talk about how to talk about money with your spouse when you leave corporate for a startup. Join us for a jam session on this topic in #NYC on October 1 at our secret bar in the East Village. Space limited to 40. (Second link in the comments.)

The Crush It Summit Is headed to #Chicago, and Punks & Pantsuits has 16 free passes valued at $100k each! Whoever has the best story about the weirdest business retreat they’ve ever been on wins! At #CrushIt, Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, and Brenee Brown will annihilate ignorance and conquer complacency. You better bring an infinite mindset and lead with vulnerability, or you’ll be forced to walk on hot coals. 🔥 🐾 Welcome to the CrushIt Summit – where only the bold survive! 🤘 🏋♀️ 🚀 Actually, you know what? Let’s not go to the Crush It Summit. Sometimes we need the support of a survivor, rather than the advice of an observer. Sometimes we need a community - not a convention center. Instead, apply to be one of the next 12 members of Punks & Pinstripes Chicago before the application deadline on Friday, April 12. We’re a community of Business Punks. We don’t always fit in. But progress is impossible without Punks like us. We're Punk On Purpose. Link in the comments if you want what we have. (BTW, The Crush It Summit doesn't exist. Tony, Simon, and Brenee aren't speaking there. Punks & Pinstripes is very real.) #innovation #leadership

I have 10 free passes (worth $270 each) to Turbo Connexions Winter #networking event On Tuesday March 5th from 6-8pm in #nyc At Turbo Connexions, you’ll enter a windowless Marriott ballroom with beige wall-to-wall carpeting and listen to a panel of #executives whose #marketing team sponsored the event and coached them to stay on message. A friendly interviewer will lob soft balls at them like, “What are some ways you’re taking the lead with #ai?” or “Why is DEI important to you?” Catering waiters wearing black vests and white shirts will slowly meander through the crowd with trays of rubbery mini-burgers, pigs in a blanket, and cold satay chicken skewers. And there will be an open bar with Heineken and Bud Light wrapped in a paper napkin to absorb any condensation. Wait! It gets better: Once you introduce yourself to the one person you actually wanted to talk to, they will look past your ear trying to find someone more important than you. Then they will fling a business card at you and respectfully excuse themselves. DM me RIGHT F**KING NOW if this is how you want to spend an evening instead of having dinner with your family, going to the gym, or binge-watching The Bear. Because there are only 40 tickets left. People LOVE this $hit. Or you can do this instead: Come to the next Punks & Pinstripes Book Burning Party on March 5th at our secret speakeasy in NYC. We’re down to earth, a little bit punk, and talk about real $hit. At our next party Tanisha (T) Robinson, marijuana entrepreneur extraordinaire and former CEO of Brewdog USA, will join us. There’s a rumor that she once started a fight between Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former Supreme Court Justice, and the estate of the Notorious BIG, the deceased titan of hip hop. I’m definitely going to ask her about that. The party is FREE for members of Punks & Pinstripes and $24 for everyone else, and there are only 38 tickets left. Link in the comments. Or, alternatively, go to the nearest Marriott ballroom on any given Tuesday.

I have 10 free passes (worth $270 each) to Turbo Connexions Winter #networking event On Tuesday March 5th from 6-8pm in #nyc At Turbo Connexions, you’ll enter a windowless Marriott ballroom with beige wall-to-wall carpeting and listen to a panel of #executives whose #marketing team sponsored the event and coached them to stay on message. A friendly interviewer will lob soft balls at them like, “What are some ways you’re taking the lead with #ai?” or “Why is DEI important to you?” Catering waiters wearing black vests and white shirts will slowly meander through the crowd with trays of rubbery mini-burgers, pigs in a blanket, and cold satay chicken skewers. And there will be an open bar with Heineken and Bud Light wrapped in a paper napkin to absorb any condensation. Wait! It gets better: Once you introduce yourself to the one person you actually wanted to talk to, they will look past your ear trying to find someone more important than you. Then they will fling a business card at you and respectfully excuse themselves. DM me RIGHT F**KING NOW if this is how you want to spend an evening instead of having dinner with your family, going to the gym, or binge-watching The Bear. Because there are only 40 tickets left. People LOVE this $hit. Or you can do this instead: Come to the next Punks & Pinstripes Book Burning Party on March 5th at our secret speakeasy in NYC. We’re down to earth, a little bit punk, and talk about real $hit. At our next party Tanisha (T) Robinson, marijuana entrepreneur extraordinaire and former CEO of Brewdog USA, will join us. There’s a rumor that she once started a fight between Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the former Supreme Court Justice, and the estate of the Notorious BIG, the deceased titan of hip hop. I’m definitely going to ask her about that. The party is FREE for members of Punks & Pinstripes and $24 for everyone else, and there are only 38 tickets left. Link in the comments. Or, alternatively, go to the nearest Marriott ballroom on any given Tuesday.

New Yorkers! This event sure sounds like it’s going to blow the roof off, fun-wise! Greg Larkin of Punks & Pinstripes is back with one of his famous book burning parties. Here’s why we should join his conversation with Tanisha (T) Robinson: She once accidentally started a fight between RBG, the late Supreme Court Justice, and the estate of the Notorious BIG, the deceased titan of hip hop. She’s the former CEO of BrewDog USA, one of the most successful punk startup growth stories in history, the COO of Gotham, and the founder of W*nder. She’s a gay, Black, ex-Mormon from rural Missouri, who studied Arabic in Syria and served in the Army. She’s intense and compassionate. She defies categories. Everything that makes her an outlier has been fuel for astounding innovation and growth. 5 March! Register here!

I gave Christine Fitzsimonds, an Executive Design Leader at JP Morgan, and a member of Punks & Pinstripes, complete freedom to say whatever she wants on my profile today. Here's what she said: “Hi, I’m Christine Fitzsimonds, Here’s why I’m a member of Punks & Pinstripes. For a long time executive communities seemed to want to shoehorn me into an identity that was constricting. I was a “founder,” “creative director,” or “SVP,” plus another label: woman. I’m so much more than that. I’m a Punk, who grew up in the Deep South, who went to art school in NYC, and then discovered that I love building epic $hit in finance, EdTech and healthcare. I came of age as a designer during the ‘90s and early 2000s when my day job of web design and my night life inside NYC Punk Clubs were deeply intertwined. If there’s one trait I share with the people in this group it’s this: The more Punk I get in my career the more I achieve. The more I stand in my own power. The more I’m seen as a valuable alternative viewpoint, who is unafraid of unconventional thinking. It’s invigorating to feed that part of my identity with this group.” If you want what we have, apply to be one of our next 25 members by this Wednesday January 31. Application link in the comments.