In this episode of The Cred Podcast, Mack talks with Steven Rosenblatt, co-founder and General Partner at Oceans, about how decisions really get made when you're building companies, backing founders, and choosing what to stand behind before the outcome is obvious.

Steven reflects on the early mobile days, helping Apple launch iAd, and his time at Foursquare, where survival meant rethinking the business entirely. Those experiences now shape how he invests at Oceans: why it's all about the people, how he evaluates founders, and why consensus can be dangerous in venture investing.

More than anything, Steven makes clear that early-stage decision-making is about backing people and committing to the call.

On this episode of The Cred Podcast, Tess Michaels, Founder and CEO of Clasp, joins Mack McKelvey to talk about making decisions while building a new category at the intersection of education, healthcare, and workforce retention, where there is no established playbook to follow.

Tess breaks down how customer signals shape better decisions, why pattern recognition beats perfect data, and how learning when to say no is critical to scaling without distraction. Listen in on a sharp conversation on leadership, focus, and navigating the gray.

Rafat Ali doesn't take notes.

And he makes decisions on instinct.

In this episode, the founder and CEO of Skift breaks down how he actually makes decisions as a global operator, committing to a choice, avoiding second-guessing, and never falling in love with a single option. He explains how visualization helps him pressure-test hires, products, and acquisitions, why early yellow flags almost always turn red, and the defining mistake early in his career when he sold his first company.

Rafat looks for two signals when decisions are being made. First, is there a clear owner who will carry it forward once the conversation ends, or is it drifting in a sea of shared responsibility? When no one is clearly on the hook, progress slows and things slip. Second, he pays attention to how people handle details as a gauge for decision readiness. The people who think through implications and follow through are usually the ones prepared to make the call, not just weigh in.

Tune in for a candid conversation about instinct, ownership, and what it really means to decide.