Why Every Business Needs Both Poetry and Plumbing:

In 20+ years scaling companies from startup to IPO, I've watched countless founders burn through capital chasing vision without operational discipline. The pattern repeats: compelling pitch deck, excited investors, then execution stalls because no one built the systems to deliver on the promise.

James March described this gap in the 1970s as the difference between poetry and plumbing. Poetry is your vision—the why, the narrative that generates alignment. Plumbing is your operational infrastructure—the processes and systems that make vision repeatable in the real world.

Here's what I've learned: vision without plumbing doesn't scale. It burns time, talent, and capital.

What Poetry Actually Does

Poetry isn't mission statements or marketing copy. It's the lived story your business carries. Clear, emotionally resonant, and actionable enough that your team makes decisions without constant escalation.

When I evaluate a company's poetry, I look for whether it:

• Coordinates decisions so teams prioritize without asking permission
• Builds trust because employees and customers understand what you stand for
• Reduces ambiguity so people know when to double down or pivot
• Sustains culture when revenue wobbles

Your employees and customers should be able to explain why you exist and whose problem you're solving without coaching. If they can't, your story isn't clear enough. Founders fall into this trap so often, trying to be everything for everyone and they fail to gain understanding. 

For investors, narrative clarity is a screening criterion. If your story shifts with every trend, your infrastructure doesn't matter— you won't compound value over time.

Plumbing: Where Execution Happens

Plumbing is unglamorous. And as AI Agents evolve - it will become more and more autonomous. Plumbing is forecasting systems, data infrastructure, revenue operations, compensation design, and the processes that move work from intention to completion. 

I've seen this repeatedly at AWS, Coupang, and in the dozens of companies I advise: technology doesn't replace operational discipline. AI makes plumbing cheaper and faster, and more independent, but you still need structured systems, real-time visibility, and accountability to transform vision into reliable results.

Without plumbing:

• Metrics look good while customer value deteriorates
• Compensation plans reward activity over outcomes
• Systems optimize for volume at the expense of retention

Plumbing reveals the reality underneath your story. Without it, even a compelling narrative is just a facade.

Growth Is Multiplicative, Not Additive

The biggest strategic mistake I see founders make is treating growth as linear: add pipeline, hire headcount, hit the plan. This ignores how growth actually works—as a compounding system.

Business outcomes are multiplicative. A 10% leak early in your funnel doesn't stay small—it compounds as it moves through your system. Real growth comes from understanding the multipliers: conversion rates, time to close, lifetime value. Not from adding more activity.

When I scaled AWS Marketplace from $1-$10 in 18 months, we focused on system level improvements, not headcount. I think I only hired 2 people. At Coupang, growing GMV over 350% from -20% annual "growth" to +95% annual growth required fixing the mechanics that drove retention, not just acquisition volume and integrating the revenue chain from brand, to demand, to success.

This shift—from additive to multiplicative thinking—separates companies that scale from those that plateau.

Experimentation Connects Vision to Execution

The companies I work with that learn fastest don't treat experimentation as a checkbox. They test internal operations, pricing decisions, customer success workflows, and cross-functional incentives.

This builds a learning system where feedback loops inform both your story and your mechanics. You'll make mistakes, but you'll avoid systematic blind spots.

Most organizations limit experiments to website A/B tests. That's useful but superficial. The real value comes from testing the deeper mechanisms of how you create and capture value.

Why Plumbing Drives ROI

When I show founders the financial impact of plumbing, the conversation shifts. Plumbing isn't overhead it's a strategic lever:

• Streamlined operations reduce waste and improve decision speed
• Better systems surface cost savings that immediately affect margins
• Small improvements in reliability and customer experience compound into exponential gains in retention and referrals

When your plumbing aligns with your story, every operational improvement reinforces your competitive position.

What I Look For in Investible Companies

Whether I'm advising or evaluating an investment opportunity, I assess five things:

1. Story to system alignment — Does what you deliver match what you promise?
2. Willingness to delegate plumbing — Can you let operational experts own the systems while the CEO maintains GTM ownership?
3. Disciplined capital allocation — Does every dollar have a clear job and expected return?
4. Learning culture — Do you make data-informed decisions and adjust quickly?
5. System-level thinking — Can you explain how value compounds, not just what you hope happens?

Simple test: Can you explain your plumbing in 15 minutes and 3 slides or less? If not, the gap between story and execution is too wide to fund.

The Bottom Line

Every business needs both poetry and plumbing. Poetry gives meaning. Plumbing makes that meaning real.

The firms that thrive aren't seduced by narrative alone, nor obsessed only with efficiency. They manage the tension between storytelling and systems thinking, treating experimentation as ongoing discipline.

That's where strategy becomes reality.