I recently spent an afternoon with an old mentor & friend of mine. It’d been seven or so years since our last sit-down conversation. His name is Rishi Shah.  As we shared lunch in my kitchen, it was clear that aspects of our lives had evolved similarly: we’re...

“I’ve got a question for you” said my friend Sunny Shah, while coaching me through the kickoff session for a set of short videos we’re doing, “What do you value?” Gah. I knew the answer intuitively, but it really pissed me off that I struggled to articulate it. “Let’s...

Aren’t we the best species in the history of the planet at building community? Idk, I probably got a C in that class too. But I think we’re pretty good at it, and I’m certain that we lost a step in our togetherness groove over the last four years. So, my “startup...

I used to think of pressure in a “vertical” sense, like this thing that’s raining down on me. Lightning bolts and thunder clouds. That feeling of being under pressure.  At some point along the path of growth it hit me that we’re not under pressure, we’re facing...

Pick a business management or leadership book. It’ll provide some emphasis on conflict, dynamic tension, debate, etc. The experts generally agree that in order to chisel down to the best decisions and focused priorities for a company, conflict is a necessary...

I had one stack of rhyme notebooks and two problems: I couldn’t figure out where to share them, and I was afraid of what would happen if I did. A dingy closet-sized bedroom in Wicker Park served as my first humble abode in Chicago, circa 2013. Mattress on the ground,...

You can’t spend a decade building a curiosity focused ed-tech company without being wildly & continuously curious about understanding exactly how learning works. At Packback, we fuel our own curiosity on this subject matter via primary research studies,...