Beyond the Case

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Host Sohin Shah speaks with Linnette Le, co-founder and COO of MyStudio and co-owner of InCourage Martial Arts. She shares her path from consulting to building a multi-location business and a fully bootstrapped software company.

The conversation takes a deeply personal turn as Linnette describes the nine months she lived in a children’s hospital while her infant son fought leukemia. The experience reshaped her views on time, leadership, and risk, and strengthened her belief that systems and software should give owners the freedom to step away when life demands it.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

1. Start with a real, painful problem
   MyStudio began as an internal tool to fix specific operational issues at InCourage Martial Arts. The pain was real enough that other owners started asking to use it—product–market fit followed the problem, not the other way around.
2. Pair deep domain expertise with a beginner’s mind
   Tu brought decades of martial arts and studio ownership; Linnette brought a fresh student’s perspective and digital transformation. That combination—“inside the industry” plus “new eyes”—let them see gaps others missed.
3. Borrow what works from other industries
   Instead of reinventing the wheel, they studied tools like Shopify and Eventbrite and adapted patterns. Great innovation often means creatively recombining existing ideas in a niche that’s been ignored.
4. Bootstrapping forces discipline and clarity
   MyStudio has been profitable since year one and remains 100% founder-owned. With no outside funding to fall back on, every dollar had to work hard. That constraint sharpened focus on real customer value and lean operations.
5. Systems should buy owners freedom
   When Jayce was in the hospital for nine months, strong systems and software meant the martial arts business could keep running, and key metrics were available from a hospital room. Linnette wants other owners to have the same ability to step away without the business collapsing.
6. Surviving a true crisis resets the risk bar
   After navigating a life-threatening illness for a newborn and countless ambulance rides, most business “fires” feel manageable. Linnette now asks, “Is it cancer? Is someone going to die?” If not, it’s a problem to be solved, not a catastrophe.
7. Hyper-intentional scheduling protects what matters most
   Family time, work blocks, weekly date nights, and kid routines all go on the calendar. If it isn’t scheduled, it’s vulnerable to being taken over by someone else’s priorities. Structure becomes the guardrail that protects relationships.
8. Lead by modeling the behavior you want
   Motherhood and leadership converged into one principle: children and teams copy what they see, not just what they hear. If patience, feedback, or transparency are expected, they have to show up consistently in the leader’s own actions.
9. Assume positive intent to keep the culture healthy
   As an owner, Linnette encourages teams to interpret decisions and feedback through the lens of “best intent,” and in return, she treats anonymous feedback with the same generosity.
10. Don’t let fear of ‘no’ limit your life
    To her younger self: try more, risk more, and don’t measure self-worth by how many people say yes. Most of the opportunities that shaped her journey, from entrepreneurship to OPM, came from being willing to step forward even when rejection was possible. 

Book: The Road Less Traveled

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In this episode, host Sohin Shah speaks with David Hemmat, founder and sole shareholder of Blue Coding, a 150-person software development company based in the Dominican Republic. 

He shares the story of his first failed venture funded partly by selling his father’s car and using student loans. Weak sales and operational challenges forced them to sell at a loss, teaching him early lessons about failure. David explains how Blue Coding began almost accidentally: needing more income, he took on a contract job at night, then left his day job to consult full-time. He grew the company organically.

He also describes how his risk tolerance evolved: taking bold swings early when stakes were low, becoming more cautious as the business scaled. Inspired partly by the Owner/President Management (OPM) program at Harvard Business School, he is now considering raising capital for more aggressive growth.

Beyond business, David founded the Radiant Hearts Foundation, supporting small, grassroots community projects. David emphasizes principle-driven leadership, patience, long-term thinking.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

1. Failure Can Be Your First Investor

David’s first business failed, but it gave him the confidence, skills, and resilience that later made Blue Coding possible. He treats failure as tuition - paid upfront, wisdom delivered later.

2. Your First Believer Matters More Than Capital

Selling his father’s car to fund his college venture wasn’t just money, it was validation. Every entrepreneur needs one person who says “go for it.”

3. Start Small, But Think Longer Than You Think You Should

His original goal? Just $2,000/month. Yet the journey became far bigger. Start tiny, but expect the compounding to surprise you.

4. Pick Principles Before You Pick Strategies

David runs his business with “fairness” and “honesty” as non-negotiables even when it costs money. Principles are cheaper than repairing broken trust.

5. Delegation Is a Growth Engine, Not a Luxury

The company doubled while he was riding a motorcycle from Denver to Argentina.

6. Growth Requires Occasional Reinvention

Every 5 years, David re-evaluates his life and business. He treats ambition like software, constantly updated, never finished.

7. Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable Again

The motorcycle trip reminded him that comfort breeds stagnation. Discomfort is a multiplier - for creativity, ambition, and humility.

8. Patience Beats Genius for Early Entrepreneurs

It took him 11 years to reach 150 employees. Most founders fail because they want results in 12 months, not 12 years.

9. Protect Yourself From Your Own Risk Aversion

His CFO forced him to take money out of the business so he would stop being overly cautious and begin thinking bigger. Sometimes someone else has to unlock your next level.

10. Purpose Evolves — Let It

He began with a need for income, but built Radiant Hearts when he no longer needed the money. Profit started the journey; purpose continues it.

Books: Traction, The E-Myth, Rich Dad Poor Dad & The Richest Man in Babylon

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In this episode, Sohin Shah sits down with Mathieu Roegiers, a Belgian entrepreneur who has already lived three careers: professional field hockey player, 777 captain for Etihad Airways, and now founder of Cosmos Fund.

He takes us into the cockpit during a brutal flight through extreme weather, when a 26-year-old Mathieu had to fly the aircraft alone. That moment, along with years of intense simulator training, shaped his decision-making style: identify the biggest risk, act quickly with imperfect information, and compartmentalize.

When COVID grounded global aviation, Mathieu lost his job. Instead of breaking, he used the reset to pivot into entrepreneurship, building a luxury property development and management business in Bali.

Mathieu also reflects on his time at Harvard Business School’s OPM program - especially the two competing schools of thought he encountered: building businesses to last vs. building businesses to sell, and how that reframed his sense of long-term value.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

1. Reinvention is a skill, not an event.

Mathieu has lived three full professional lives - athlete, airline captain, entrepreneur. Each pivot required humility, discomfort, and starting from zero, proving reinvention is a muscle you build.

2. Leadership shows up when the title disappears.

His definition of leadership: people follow you even when you don’t have authority. The best leaders give responsibility, not orders, and they don’t need the spotlight.

3. Calm is a competitive advantage.

In the cockpit, when a senior captain froze in extreme weather, Mathieu - 26 years old - took over. His calm wasn’t talent; it was trained under pressure over years. 

4. You can always reset the situation.

His story about confronting the worst captain in the company - and then turning it into the best flight of his career - reminds us that almost any relationship can be reset if someone is willing to own the moment.

5. Prioritization = survival.

Aviation teaches ruthless focus: handle the biggest fire first, then the next one. Leaders often drown in data; Mathieu focuses on “the next right decision.”

6. Comfort is the enemy of growth.

He applied to Harvard Business School’s OPM not because he thought he belonged, but because it scared him. He thrives outside the comfort zone - and credits discomfort for every major leap.

7. Don’t pivot alone.

Mathieu says his transition from aviation to real estate only worked because he had partners who balanced him. His formula: find people smarter than you in the domain you want to enter.

8. Take bigger swings early in life.

If he could go back to age 20, he’d take more risks. When you’re young and responsibility-light, “the sky is not the limit” - your imagination is.

9. Don’t marry your beliefs forever.

He openly admits he changes his mind often. Sticking to one lifelong belief, he says, is “not a healthy principle.” Adaptability beats stubbornness.

10. Build to last… but don’t ignore exits.

Before HBS, he only thought in “build forever” terms. Professor Das’s frameworks made him rethink the strategic value of building to sell - and keeping both lenses on the table.

Books: 

• Think & Grow Rich, Retire Young, Retire Rich  and The E-Myth

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In this episode of Beyond the Case, Sohin Shah sits down with Ray & Monica Harrigill — founders of The Sunray Companies and fellow Harvard Business School OPM participants — for a conversation packed with hard-earned wisdom, mental models, and first-principles thinking.

From restaurants to salons, spas, hotels, and more, the Harrigills have built and scaled a multi-business portfolio grounded in integrity, disciplined risk-taking, and a shared belief that leadership is a “we, not I” journey. We talk through the frameworks that guide their decisions, how OPM (including insights from Linda Applegate) sharpened their strategic focus, and why sometimes the most important step in entrepreneurship is simply taking the shot.

This is a story about building as partners, thinking long-term, approaching risk thoughtfully, and developing people so the whole organization can rise. As Ray says, entrepreneurs need both the hope to believe a better future is possible and the discipline to make principled decisions while building it.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

1. “Take the Shot” — Hope Is a Strategy
   Entrepreneurs act before certainty. Linda Applegate’s framework resonated: narrow the field, find the opening, and take the shot — even with shaky legs.
2. First Principles: People + Process
   Their model: People build businesses. Processes sustain them. Leaders step out of operations so scale can happen.
3. Ray’s Shoe Philosophy
   His dad said: “When you put your shoes on, decide if you work for yourself or someone else.” Early seeds of ownership and agency.
4. Integrity Is Non-Negotiable
   If a leader bends 5%, the team bends 15%. The rule: don’t bend — ever.
5. Their Relationship Is the Operating System
   Monica leads people and culture; Ray leads growth and finance. Clear lanes create alignment without ego.
6. Instinct + Analysis
   Gut drives speed; analysis drives safety. Their decision-making blends both.
7. Debt as a Tool
   Ray jokes: “I bathe with debt.” Their view: use debt, don’t fear it, and manage downside risk intentionally.
8. “I → We” Is the Leadership Upgrade
   Monica’s lesson: leadership becomes real when you stop saying “I” and start saying “We.”
9. Teach Kids to Build, Not Receive
   “A gift isn’t sustainable.” Their children are taught to work, grow, and sustain themselves.
10. Constant Learning Wins
    Their reading list: Think and Grow Rich, Extreme Ownership, Scaling Up, and Who. Books matter not just for information — but for timing.