Founder's Framework

When Mark Abbott posted a Craigslist ad for a part-time assistant back in 2015, he had no idea he was hiring one of the people who would help define the soul of Ninety. In this special episode, Mark sits down with Michelle Rose to retrace more than a decade of building the company from a one-person coaching practice and a rotating cast of assistants into a platform that helped thousands of organiz...

Ninety almost didn't get to build the software that now runs thousands of companies. Mark Abbott marks the company's 10-year anniversary with Christine Watts, Ninety's first full-time employee, tracing the journey from a $500-a-month marketing budget and two college-age engineers to a platform used by roughly 4,000 organizations. They get honest about the years when every feature an...

Every leadership team thinks they're aligned. David Meyer, founder of Spoke Marketing, has run alignment exercises with over a hundred companies across 17 years, and not once have two leaders written the same answer when asked their company's single most important message. That discovery led David to develop what he calls "thresholds of change": the inflection points where a co...

What does it take to build a good life, not just a successful company? In this episode of Founder's Framework, Mark Abbott sits down with Charles Lee, founder of Ideation and author of Design Your Good Life. Charles shares how growing up as the child of immigrant entrepreneurs shaped the way he thinks about work, creativity, and what really matters. In this episode: Why your greatest strength...

Mark and Cole unpack a simple but uncomfortable truth: if your weekly meetings aren’t working, your company probably isn’t either. This conversation breaks down why so many teams dread meetings, what’s actually going wrong beneath the surface, and how those patterns reflect deeper issues with alignment, leadership, and discipline. They walk through real scenarios inside leadership teams, from visi...

Growth creates options, but it also creates complexity. In this Founder’s Framework episode, Mark Abbott and Cole Abbott unpack why so many companies get stuck doing more instead of doing what matters most. What starts as experimentation, ambition, or a flood of good ideas can quietly turn into friction, confusion, and wasted effort across the business. This conversation is about discipline. It’s...

Mark Abbott sits down with Ninety’s head of product, Audra Stanton to discuss how founders should think about AI in their products and operations. As AI becomes part of nearly every business conversation, founders are facing real pressure from investors, customers, and competitors to incorporate it. The question is not whether AI matters. The question is how to approach it thoughtfully without los...

Mark Abbott sits down with Kris Snyder and Christine Watts to introduce Impact Moments , a new podcast from the team at Ninety, the EOS software platform companies have come to know, love, and trust for the past ten years. This show is all about the real stories that shape culture, build clarity, and test leadership. These are the turning points inside EOS sessions and quarterlies that reveal what...

AI is changing how we work, but not by replacing people. It’s raising the bar for how we think. In this Founder’s Framework episode, Mark Abbott explores what AI reveals about our habits, clarity, and decision-making. It doesn’t remove the need for good judgment. It makes the gaps more obvious. This isn’t about fear or hype. It’s about learning how to think with AI in the loop and what that means...

What happens when growth slows and leaders are forced to make decisions they hoped they could avoid? In this episode, Mark Abbott reflects on the hard lessons of 2025, a year that forced difficult decisions, exposed cultural misalignment, and pushed leadership maturity to the forefront. From navigating high care versus high performance to making one-way door decisions under pressure, this conversa...

What does it take to build a brand that actually scales? In this episode, Mark Abbott talks with Jed Morley, founder of Backstory Branding and author of Building a Brand That Scales . They dive deep into the role founders play in shaping brand and culture, and why alignment across both is non-negotiable if you want to build something that lasts. Jed shares how Nike first sparked his obsession with...

What does it take to turn a five-acre crop into a national brand? In this episode, Mark Abbott talks with Jessie and Adrian Capote of J&C Tropicals, a third-generation family business built on their father’s vision and grit. They open up about the near-collapse that nearly ended it all, the decisions that turned things around, and how they’ve evolved from surviving to leading with clarity, cul...

Founders can delegate a lot, but not everything. Mark Abbott sits down with Audra Stanton, Head of Product at Ninety, for a candid conversation about the work founders must own. From team drift to cultural misalignment, they explore how leadership shows up in the hard moments. In this episode: Why escalation is a leadership signal, not a handoff What happens when people avoid friction instead of f...

AI isn’t just changing how we work, it’s reshaping what it means to work. In this episode, Mark and Cole explore how AI is impacting small and mid-sized businesses, leadership, and culture. They discuss: How AI is organically transforming teams and tools inside Ninety Why some organizations embrace AI while others resist it The role of employee archetypes in understanding how people adopt new tech...

Emotional intelligence is not learned in a seminar. It is trained like a muscle. In this Founder’s Framework Podcast episode, Mark Abbott talks with Theran Knighton-Fitt, Co-Founder of MyGrow, about what they call the “EQ Gym,” a practical way for people to grow emotional intelligence inside companies. The conversation covers: Why most leadership training fails to create lasting change The differe...

Everyone talks about freedom as the ultimate goal of entrepreneurship, but for most founders, it’s not that simple. In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Mark Abbott sits down with serial entrepreneur and bestselling author Bob Glazer to unpack the real truth about freedom in the founder’s journey. They explore: Why most founders feel less free after starting a business The mental sh...

Building an AI assistant sounds like the obvious next move in today’s market—but most tools miss the mark. In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Mark Abbott talks with Ninety’s Head of AI Products, TJ Kneale, about what it really took to build Maz , Ninety’s AI assistant designed to help teams run better. You’ll learn: → The internal problem that sparked the idea for Maz → Why Ninety...

It’s one thing to start a business. It’s another to intentionally design a company that can grow and evolve beyond your daily effort. In this episode, Ninety Founder & CEO Mark Abbott sits down with Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth, to explore what it really means to build a company. They break down the trap of doing the work, the power of the Dreaming Room, and the eight personas every...

Building a mobile app sounds like a natural step for product-led startups, but it’s not always the right move. In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Mark Abbott talks with Ninety’s Head of Product, Kyle Phillips, about what it really takes to build and maintain a mobile app. You’ll learn: Why timing matters more than ambition when launching a mobile experience The surprising tradeoff...

In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Mark Abbott explores the tension between intensity and consistency in high-growth companies. Founders are often wired to push hard, but without consistency, that intensity becomes unsustainable and even damaging. Mark shares insights on how founders can build systems that support sustained growth, prevent burnout, and maintain alignment with thei...

Join us on the Founder’s Framework podcast as we dive deep with Mark Abbott, author of “Work 9.0: The Evolution of Work” , exploring the profound shifts shaping our workplaces—and our world. We stand at the intersection of two eras: leaving behind the Age of Information (Work 7.0) and embracing the Age of Understanding (Work 8.0), with our sights set on the transformative horizon of Self-Actualiza...

When a recession hits, will your company break, survive, or get stronger? In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Ninety Founder & CEO Mark Abbott and Brand Strategist Cole Abbott unpack how the most resilient companies prepare for economic uncertainty. From zero-based budgeting and leadership alignment to antifragile culture and high-trust stakeholder relationships, this is your b...

One team uses Asana. Another’s on Monday. A new hire swears by ClickUp. Everyone’s “getting work done,” but no one’s aligned. This is what we call OS Anarchy — when every department runs its own tools and processes, creating friction, fragmentation, and a whole lot of rework. In this episode of the Founder’s Framework podcast, Ninety Founder & CEO Mark Abbott and Brand Strategist Cole Abbott d...

Raising money is one thing. Choosing investors who truly align with your company’s values, strategy, and long-term vision is another. In this episode, Ninety Founder & CEO Mark Abbott and Brand Strategist Cole Abbott explore why investor relationships often outlast everything else and what founders need to consider before signing a term sheet. From alignment on Forever Agreements to spotting r...

You can’t scale what you can’t define, and few things test that truth more than Brand Drift. In this episode, Ninety Founder & CEO Mark Abbott and Brand Strategist Cole Abbott unpack one of the most common challenges growing companies face: the slow, often invisible slide into brand misalignment. Vision starts clear. Messaging feels right. But as the team expands, the offering matures, and the...