May is shaping up to be one of our busiest months yet — and we’re just getting started.
If you’re new here, Not Another CEO is the #1 place for founders and CEOs to grow themselves and their companies. Below you’ll find everything coming up in May, a recap of what we did in April, and the content worth your time from last month.
Thanks to everyone who showed up last month!
Highlights from last month include Founder’s Day at NeueHouse and Poker Night. Here’s some feedback from attendees:
Table of contents
📅 Upcoming events and speaking opportunities
⏪ April events recap
🔝 Top articles and podcasts
📅 Upcoming events and speaking opportunities
Open Claw and Beyond (AI agent week) [NYC]
Thursday, May 7 | 10am - 12pm EST
Join David Tabachnikov, Co-founder and CEO of ScholarshipOwl, a former Google engineer and hands-on AI agent builder, for this guided workshop during AI Agent Week. You’ll install OpenClaw on your own hardware and learn how to make your agent genuinely useful.
If you are a founder curious about what AI agents can actually do today, you’ll leave with a working agent on your own device and the knowledge to extend it. No prior agent experience required. Bring your own equipment (old laptop, Mac Mini, or Raspberry Pi).
Leadership 360s: The Feedback You’re Not Getting [Virtual]
Tuesday, May 12 | 5pm - 6pm EST
Not Another CEO Co-Founder Nick Freund will break down Leadership 360s: why you need one, what actually happens, and the six-step framework to run it, from picking who leads it to acting on what you learn. We’ll walk through the full process and take your questions live. If you’re a first-time founder or CEO, don’t skip this one.
ATL CEO Club: Morning Walk at Piedmont Park [Atlanta]
Wednesday, May 13th | 7:30am – 8:30am EST
Join Eric Spett and fellow Atlanta-based founders and CEOs for an early morning walk at Piedmont Park. No agenda — just a chance to get outside, clear your head, and connect with other CEOs. We’ll wrap by 8:30am so you can get into the office on time. If you want to keep the conversation going, Eric will head to coffee after.
Open to Atlanta-based CEOs only. Registration requires approval.
100th Episode of The Not Another CEO Podcast drops May 19
This month, we’ll hit the 100th episode of The Not Another CEO podcast. That’s a lot of conversations with founders and CEOs about the unfiltered reality of building and scaling companies. To mark the milestone, we’ll be doing a recap of past episodes, highlighting some of our favorite moments.
⏪ April 2026 events recap
Engaging with Your Audience (w/ Mark Dannenberg) [Virtual]
Mark Dannenberg shared the framework he’s used in 15+ years of helping founders show up with authentic presence, calm confidence, and genuine authority. Drawing from a background in theater, he shared tips on how to present yourself when pitching to investors, leading an all-hands meeting, and closing key partnerships.
Watch for a guest post from Mark on this topic in the coming months. Below is a screen grab from his virtual session in April.
Raiser’s Edge Podcast: Using Story as Strategy with David Politis
David sat down with Ben Elowitz to break down the skill that actually moves the needle in fundraising: storytelling. He walked through why narrative matters more than IQ, how to systematically close investor risk, and much more. Listen or watch the podcast here.
AI Agent Conference Guest Moderator [NYC]
David moderated a panel at the AI Agent Conference about enterprise adoption of AI. Over 3,000 people attended, and panelists included Derek Ho, Co-Founder of Distyl AI, and Julianne Roberson, Director of AI at T-Mobile.
6 Patterns of Startup Failure (w/ Nick Freund) [NYC]
Nick hosted a virtual session sharing the patterns he’s seen in failing startups. You’ll find a screen grab from the presentation below. Read his article on this same topic here.
Guest speaker at Haas School of Business [Berkeley]
David spoke to the “Startup Relationships” class at the Haas School of Business, taught by Jules Maltz, Venture Partner at IVP.
Founder’s Day [NYC]
We hosted our second all-day coworking day at NeueHouse, and it was another awesome event. Founder’s Day is all about bringing people together for meals, networking, and optional workshops. Thanks to everyone who joined us!
Founder’s Club Poker Night [NYC]
We hosted a poker night exclusively for Founders & CEOs and had a great turnout. Thanks again to Vine Ventures for hosting us. We ran a Texas Hold Em tournament and saw many founders go all-in throughout the evening. Not Another CEO Co-founder Nick Freund took third place. If you are an NYC-based founder who loves to play poker, please come out for the next one.
🔝 Top articles and podcasts
Top article last month: The four phases of CEO evolution – From player-coach to force multiplier
David breaks down the transformation every founder CEO goes through as they scale. The core insight: what made you effective at 10 people won’t make you effective at 100. The question isn’t whether you can scale with your company, it’s whether you’re willing to reinvent yourself each time the company demands it.
This was our most engaging article to date.
Top podcasts
We’ve had some incredible guests on our podcast lately. So much so that I want to highlight two podcasts from April.
#1 Not taking money off the table can cost you everything (with Ra’anan Cohen, Founder of Bringg)
Ra’anan walks through the full arc: IPO, total collapse, and eventually selling Bringg at a $1B unicorn valuation. But the real story is about the $10m in stock he turned down during MobileMax’s IPO – a decision that cost him everything and set him up to rebuild from zero. This is a fascinating listen.
#2 He lost everything twice, but didn’t stop building (with Rob LoCasio, founder of LivePerson)
Rob lost control of the company he scaled from $900m to $4B during COVID. He opens up about the emotional toll of watching it decline after his departure and why your creativity (not the company) is the real unfair advantage that no one can take from you.
We look forward to seeing you at our May events. As always, if there’s anything we can do to help or if you want to share anything with the community, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Yes — CEO peer networks become useful when they stay close to real operating transitions. Growth changes the job faster than most founders can admit publicly.