Stefan Zanetti – Stefan Zanetti

18 Jul

From 3H to 3E: Exploit, Experiment, Explore

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

It’s time to retire the 3 Horizons Model because it's quietly costing growth-stage tech ventures millions. The future belongs to the 3E...

15 Jul

Stefan Zanetti

3 reasons why 3H model hasn’t aged well

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

Unpopular opinion: The Three Horizons model hasn't aged well. It served as a framework to allocate innovation efforts as of 1999, but t...

12 Jul

Stefan Zanetti

Interview: 20 questions on the role of boards in pivot situations

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

Earlier this year, Kevin D. Klak (founder of Digitalrat and editor-in-chief of the magazine 'Der Verwaltungsrat') interviewed me on wha...

08 Jul

Stefan Zanetti

Blind to disruption: the horse carriage case

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

Only 1 in 4,000 horse carriage manufacturers survived the shift to cars. The rest vanished. What can we learn from it, today? When...

03 Jul

Stefan Zanetti

The climate tech company that burned 60% they’d raised in seed round

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

This is the story of the founder of ACME 23, a climate tech company, who burned 60% of his seed round... ...by not telling investo...

25 Jun

Stefan Zanetti

The founder who hadn’t slept in weeks

July 30, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

I recently worked with a founder who hadn't slept in weeks. He’d invested €100k into a consultant-led GTM motion, hoping for growth. Bu...

10 Jun

Background, Stefan Zanetti

From Pivot to Progress: Why I’m Launching Unionarity.com

June 24, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

I’ve been in the lab again cooking up something these past few months, and today I’m launching it: Unionarity.com. When I launched P...

02 Jun

Knowledge, Stefan Zanetti

What I’d Do If I Were a VC: 3 Bold Shifts to Support Founders Better

June 19, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

Recently, I was asked by a GP what I’d do in her seat. I’m far from fully understanding all relevant VC responsibilities, and theref...

20 May

Background, Stefan Zanetti

Why “AI Agents Running Businesses Alone” Is Clickbait – My Real Setup with Hybrid AI

June 19, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

“I made $3M ARR in 6 months using AI agents.” – Seen these posts too? Let’s call them what they are: Clickbait. There's no denying t...

16 May

Knowledge, Stefan Zanetti

One bold decision is all it takes to put a “stalled” startup back on track to become a 7–8 figure venture again.

May 18, 2025
By Stefan Zanetti

From what I’ve seen working alongside early-stage founders: Tech startups don’t fail because the tech isn't feasible. They fail beca...