The growth play they didn't ask for
Every week, one company I admire gets a free, public growth play — the gap their own recent moves created, what closing it is worth, and the specific first move to make. No pitch, no paywall, no invoice.
Opinions are cheap and everywhere. A play is different: it names a gap, sizes it, picks the first move, and says who should own it. If a beat can't be answered from public sources, the play doesn't get published.
The specific thing their own recent moves created and haven't closed — sourced to a public fact, not a hunch.
What did they just do that they haven't finished?
Why it's still open: sequencing, incentives, org boundaries, or a motion nobody owns.
Why hasn't someone inside already fixed it?
What closing it is worth, sized against a real public benchmark or comparable.
What is this worth, and against what comparable?
The first move, named. One partner, one channel, one segment, one acquisition target.
What's the single first move, by name?
Why now, and what closes the window — a competitor's move, a renewal cycle, a product cycle.
What makes this expire?
Who inside the company should own it, and what their first 90 days looks like.
Whose desk does this land on, and what do they do first?
Each play runs on LinkedIn first and lands here after. Free to read, free to steal — if you ship one of these, I'd just like to hear about it.
Fifteen-plus years in business development and alliances — building partner ecosystems, channel motions and direct-sales playbooks for companies whose growth had to come from somebody else's distribution. Zoom, TiVo, Microsoft, and most recently as Global Alliances Chief and Americas GM at ULAP Networks. I've led global BD teams of two to six for over a decade, closed 17 of the top 25 broadband providers, and grew a region 6x.
The plays here are the same analysis I'd run inside a company, done in public and for free. Sometimes that's the start of a conversation about executing one. Usually it's just a good idea somebody else gets to use.
Nominate any company — yours, a competitor, or one you just find interesting. Tell me the gap you think you see. If it's a good one, it becomes a play.
Nominate a company