In this episode, Kieran Krohn speaks with Sidney Minassian, founder of Impact Ladder and seasoned entrepreneur. Sidney shares his Founder’s Playbook, how to scale without burning out, build brands that stand out, leverage partnerships, and develop people. He also reveals why optionality and self-leadership are essential for creating companies that attract investors and thrive long-term.

Key Takeaways:

Brand, partnerships, and people are the growth engine

Founders must own everything but also learn to let go

Self-leadership shapes company leadership

Be known for one thing, niching creates power

Always be exit-ready to unlock optionality

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:09 Sidney’s Founder Journey & Exits

03:29 The Playbook: Brand, Partnerships & People

05:42 Building a Memorable Brand in a Noisy World

09:10 Why Authentic Connection Matters

11:24 The Three Founder Mistakes to Avoid

16:47 Scaling from $20M to $200M

19:05 Designing Companies Investors Want

23:38 Owning the Category & Building Authority

28:16 Optionality: Always Be Exit-Ready

34:33 Self-Care, Detachment & Systems Thinking

41:37 What Sidney Would Build in 2025

46:03 Where to Follow Sidney

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

keywords

entrepreneurship, scaling businesses, founder playbook, brand partnerships, self-leadership, optionality, investor attraction, business growth, AI in business, personal branding

#FoundersPlaybook #StartupGrowth #BusinessLeadership #GrowthUnlocked #SidneyManassian