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About Business At The Speed of People
After 25 years of guiding startup founders from ideation through launch, emergence and growth, I am now distilling the experiences of hundreds of startups I've worked with into the Momentum Scaling framework. I’m on a mission to rewrite how emerging ventures can thrive in these uncertain and unpredictable times:
Scaling isn't about exponential growth. It's a strategic transformation from a concept to an enduring business by managing uncertainty, leveraging constraints and maximizing execution.
99% of startups don't need investors. Instead of wasting time and resources looking for money, they need to establish credibility, build capability and generate cashflow by seeking users who recognize the value they offer and are ready to commit. Clients are the best source of funding that startups need to thrive and grow.
Transformation beats disruption every time. The goal of a scaling startup is to build its influence and leadership in the market by adding value to every stakeholder in the customer’s value creation chain.
I call this blog “Business At The Speed of People” because while technology can exponentially scale, people cannot. Instead, they evolve and adapt. This is the biggest constraint to a startup venture’s evolution—and its most significant opportunity.
Momentum Scaling is about giving voice to innovative founders who are quietly building ventures that positively impact their corner of the world - without Silicon Valley's spotlight. True innovation isn't about hockey stick growth but creating enduring value.
To every entrepreneur charting their unique path: Be patient. Be bold. Be creative. Your unconventional journey is your greatest asset.
About Davender
My passion is to guide founders, entrepreneurs and managers in developing the knowledge, skills, and confidence to enter, engage and lead their markets by thinking strategically and acting tactically, despite having to deal with an unpredictable world.
My first career spanned fifteen years as a research and development aerospace engineer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, where I had to solve urgent problems with flight deck simulators, operational mission simulators, and flight test imagery instrumentation. I learned two critical life skills: how to lead by supporting people to develop their potential, and how to be an intrapreneur to find the resources I needed through negotiation and improvisation despite my junior officer rank.
My second career started when I left the military and moved to Calgary to launch a technology startup in digital imaging, the “AI” of the mid-1990s. Not only did I have to adjust to life as a civilian, but it was my initiation into entrepreneurship. I eventually merged with a fast-growth startup by becoming their Director of Development. This was my baptism into the world of exponential growth as our team of engineers grew from six to over sixty in a few months. Our venture had a lot of promise, but we made every mistake in the book, which I will share through my posts here.
The company collapsed in 2000, which caused me to face the biggest failure of my career. I no longer wanted to be an engineer. Through a chance encounter, I discovered the emerging profession of coaching. I decided to become an entrepreneurial coach, helping founders avoid the mistakes I made and to succeed in their ventures.
This third career lasted over 20 years, during which I worked with hundreds of startups across Canada and the US. I helped develop startup accelerator programs in Calgary, Quebec City, Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Gatineau (Ottawa). I started to see patterns as startups navigated the stages of ideation, development and market entry. These became the foundation of Momentum Scaling, a growth strategy for startups without raising venture capital funding.
In 2016, I returned to school to get my MBA, using this opportunity to formalize the Momentum Scaling framework. After graduation, I relaunched my coaching practice, focusing on applying the principles to ventures entering the market and earning their first $1M to $5M in revenues.
The pandemic pause of 2020 was a major stumbling block because my client base disappeared due to the sudden economic and societal shutdown. Again, fortune opened a door, as I was invited to join Canada’s National Research Council Industrial Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP) as an Industrial Technology Advisor (*see note below). Now, through this fourth career, and supported by a team and resources, I can expand my work to a broader variety of companies and situations.
I hold a B.Eng. in Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada, a MS in Imaging Science from the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology, and an Executive MBA from McGill University and Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC Montreal).
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/coachdavender
Bluesky: @coachdavender.bsky.social
Substack: https://coachdavender.substack.com
Slideshare: https://www.slideshare.net/coachdavender
Website: https://davender.com
My Manifesto
I'm on a mission to equip passion-driven leaders with the clarity, commitment, confidence and courage to make a positive difference in the world.
We need a new approach to leadership to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing and chaotic future.
Entrepreneurship is the best way to ignite imagination, focus resources, and stimulate massive action to overcome the obstacles we face.
The future we desperately need will be created not by the mindset of the old guard but by a new generation of citizen-leaders who are crystal-clear about their purpose, who are powered by the passion of a big vision, and who transform the status quo by mobilizing communities of people to build systems that create prosperity for all.
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(*) NOTE: Opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not represent the views, opinions, policies or positions of my employer.
