Kass & Mike

Kass & Mike Entrepreneurs & Investors. Authors & Speakers. Co-founders of Golf.com & Buddy Media. Philanthropists.

Our book, Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story, is now available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/8I6F298 Kass & Mike are serial entrepreneurs and investors best known as the co-founders of Golf.com and Buddy Media, a software company sold to Salesforce.com for $745 million. With decades of experience in building businesses and supporting others as investors and advisors, they are highly sought-after public spea

kers, writers, and podcast guests. After selling Golf.com to Time Warner in 2006, Kass & Mike co-founded Buddy Media, which became the world's leading social media marketing platform. In 2012, Salesforce acquired Buddy Media, marking a significant milestone in their entrepreneurial journey. Since selling Buddy Media, Kass & Mike have focused on investing in and advising the world's most innovative founders. They have supported 100+ early-stage startups, including Scopely, which sold to Savvy Games for $5 billion in 2022, and Liquid Death, a canned water company with a mission to combat plastic pollution. As angel investors and advisors, Kass & Mike bring a wealth of knowledge to every venture. They are passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals and navigate the challenges of scaling a business in today's competitive market. Kass & Mike are active speakers on entrepreneurship, startup growth, effective team building and management, and creating a strong company culture. They are also prolific writers and have contributed to various publications, sharing their expertise on business and innovation. Their upcoming book, Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story, chronicles their entrepreneurial journey and the lessons they've learned along the way. In addition to their professional endeavors, Kass & Mike are dedicated philanthropists, supporting numerous charitable causes and initiatives such as Cycle for Survival, Riley’s Way, and Pencils of Promise just to name a few. They live in NYC with their three grown children (Myles, Cole, and Vivian) and rescue dogs (Cece and Gizmo). For all speaking and podcast inquiries, please contact: [email protected] /
Lazerow Enterprises LLC

09/05/2026

Every founder has an ego. That's table stakes. But if the ego outweighs the value you bring, you're not worth keeping around.

09/04/2026

The real AI advantage hasn't even started yet. And you're not going to out-hire it.

09/04/2026

The time you spend training a great hire today buys back your time tomorrow.

09/03/2026

Every successful founder needs to get three things right. Miss one, and everything gets harder.

09/03/2026

Scaling isn't just about hiring more people. It's about Moneyballing your team and putting the right people in the right positions.

09/02/2026

Founder focus is simple: know where you're going and make sure today's list gets you one step closer.

09/02/2026

One of the hardest parts of being a leader is having difficult conversations.

You know something needs to change.

But you also know that how you handle the conversation will determine whether someone leaves feeling defeated or determined to grow.

Here’s the approach I come back to every time:

1️⃣You have the conversation privately.
Feedback should never come at the expense of someone’s dignity. Correct in private. Recognize in public.

2️⃣You describe the situation.
Be specific. Talk about one moment, one meeting, or one interaction. Avoid words like “always” and “never.” They put people on the defensive.

3️⃣You focus on the behavior, not the person.
Talk about what happened, not who they are. People can change their behavior. They can’t respond to a label.

4️⃣You explain the impact.
Help them understand how their actions affected the team, the customer, or the outcome. People are much more likely to change when they understand why it matters.

5️⃣You get curious before you make assumptions.
One of the most powerful questions you can ask is, “Can you help me understand what was happening?” Sometimes the context changes everything.

6️⃣You listen to understand.
Don't interrupt. Don't rush to solve it. Give people the space to share their perspective before deciding what comes next.

7️⃣You leave with a clear plan.
The goal isn’t to win the conversation. It’s to help someone improve. Agree on what success looks like and how you’ll support them moving forward.

Here's what I’ve learned:

The best leaders don’t avoid difficult conversations.
They have them with honesty, empathy, and respect.

Because the goal isn’t to make someone feel small.
It's’to help them become better.

👇 What’s the best feedback you’ve ever received from a manager?

09/02/2026

Most founders think their biggest job is making decisions.
I've learned it's something much bigger.

It's teaching your team how to make decisions when you're not in the room.

The founders who build companies that scale don't create teams that wait for instructions.

They create teams that know what to do because they've been taught what matters most.

Here's what they do differently.
1. They give their team a mission worth working for.
Not a list of responsibilities. Not a job description. They connect the work to something bigger so people understand why it matters.

2. They don't confuse what they do with why they exist.
"We sell software" isn't a mission. "We help small businesses grow" isn't enough either. A real mission answers one question: What would be missing if our company disappeared tomorrow?

3. They use their mission to make decisions.
The mission isn't something that hangs on a wall. It becomes the filter for hiring, priorities, customer decisions, and everyday conversations.

4. They train people to think, not just execute.
If your team constantly asks for permission, they don't need more instructions. They need more clarity about how to make decisions on their own.

5. They build consistency through repetition.
Your mission isn't something you share once at onboarding. You talk about it in meetings. You recognize it. You coach from it. That's how it becomes part of your culture.

6. They know when their mission is alive.
Your team turns down opportunities that don't align. New hires can explain what your company stands for. People make good decisions without asking you first.

7. They model the standard every day.
Your team won't follow the mission you wrote down. They'll follow the one you live. Leadership isn't what you say. It's what you consistently reinforce.

Here's what I've learned:
Every founder is training their team every single day.
The question isn't whether you're training them.
It's what you're training them to do.

If you're training people to wait for you, your business will always depend on you.
If you're training people to think, your business can grow beyond you.

👇 What's one decision your team should be able to make without asking you first?

09/01/2026

Competition doesn't scare me as an investor. It usually means there's a big market worth winning.

Address

Cleveland, OH

Telephone

+12164104066

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