Arshiya Kherani

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 💸 Who Gets To Decide What’s Worth Existing? I was on a panel a few weeks ago called Capital As Activism, and one of the questions broke my brain: If government funding is fragile and traditional markets keep failing the people who need them most, how do we actually move from passive resistance to real economic...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. ⚡ The Jolt The other day I jolted awake at 2 am and couldn't fall back to sleep. My mind was racing with open loops and irrational fears: what if I don't close the client tomorrow? Why didn't I negotiate this differently? Did I respond to that email? My credit card payment is due and I still need to get paid...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 💸 How Do You Get Capital Behind A Big Idea? Earlier today, I spoke on a panel: Capital As Activism, and while preparing for it, I found myself thinking about how much of my career has involved making the case for things traditional markets don't always know how to value. Before I became an entrepreneur, I spent...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 🧠 The Best CEO I Ever Worked For The best CEO I've ever worked for started every Monday morning company meeting with a personal story. Of course, he would share a company update and KPI recap after, but he'd always anchor the time together on a story, sometimes from his personal life, sometimes from his career....

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 🧠 What Summer Slump?! In my business, August has historically been a bit of a slow month for me. To be fair, last year I was getting married in August (!!!), and the year before that was year one. Nonetheless, I'm absolutely surprised by how busy this month has been! I've had my hands in a bunch of different...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 🟥 Even Worse Than Communism We had the Kornacki Cam on in our living room for about 7 hours straight last night. We kept telling ourselves they'll call it any second...but it was almost midnight PST when AP News finally called the historic win: Abdul El-Sayed won the senate primary for Michigan last night by 1...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 🎯 The Wrong Constraint This weekend, I facilitated an entrepreneurial workshop on digital channel strategy. In the session's pre-work, I asked everyone one simple question: Where do you think your biggest opportunity for growth is right now? Almost every founder gave some version of the same answer: "I need to...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 🎙️ The Gap In Perception I recently had two discovery calls that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. On one call, the prospect named a five-figure budget before I'd even finished my pitch. She'd attended one of my workshops months earlier, understood the value of the work, and knew exactly what she...

You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values. 📖 The Stories We Inherit Last week I went to Alaska with my whole family (I know!!! Yes, it was a once-in-a-lifetime-incredible-experience!) One of the most magical stops was in Glacier Bay, where you get these magnificent views of a glacier nestled between mountain ranges so beautiful they look fake. I felt...