Issue #89 • August 29rd, 2026

Hi Reader,

I was talking to a podcaster this week about joining him on an upcoming episode. He's originally from Mumbai, and he told me a story that does really well on his channel: a wealthy hotel owner who threw a massive party next to his hotel's tourist attraction, a pond full of hungry crocodiles. I'd heard the same story before, alligators instead of crocodiles, a Texas rancher instead of a hotel owner. Same lake, different accent. I'm stealing it either way.

The water erupted before anyone knew what was happening. A cowboy named Rusty had gone flying into a lake full of alligators.

Minutes earlier, a Texas oil tycoon had made the crowd at his barbecue an offer: swim across, and the land, the cattle, the mansion, all of it is yours. Nobody moved. The lake was thick with gators he'd imported for years just to show off.

Then Rusty jumped. Fought off two of them with his bare hands. Punched one in the snout, kicked another off his boots, and clawed his way up the far bank shaking, alive, and rich.

The crowd went wild. The rancher ran over and asked what gave him the courage to jump.

Rusty wiped the mud off his face and growled,

A hundred people watched him nearly get eaten. Not one of them got wet.

I see that lake in two places lately.

One business I recently interviewed to join my Birhthing of Giants Cohort receives roughly 60% of its revenue from one single channel. It's worked for years. Every investor who's looked at it has flagged the same thing: one single big customer is one gator away from taking the whole business down, and they price it that way, no matter how good the numbers look 0otherwise.

And one of my own CPG investments here in Austin is being wound down right now, not because the market turned, but because the majority shareholder stopped believing in it. One person's confidence was holding up the whole thing. When it went, so did the business.

Different lakes. Same story. Someone strong enough to keep swimming, and no one else in the water.

Birthing of Giants exists for owners who decided that wasn't good enough. Not a crowd cheering from the bank, people in the water with you, who've already hit the current that's pulling at your business right now.

Rusty was strong enough to beat two alligators alone. That's a hell of a way to win once. A business that only runs because one person is strong enough to keep swimming doesn't sell for what it's worth. Often it doesn't sell at all.

The next cohort starts October 15, capped at 16 seats. If you want to know what it looks like before they're gone, reply this week.

Mathias Ihlenfeld | Entrepreneur | Coach | Advisor

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