The cobbler’s children have no shoes 👞

Eight months, three projects, zero posts. What do defence innovation, health care data and custom software development have in common? And why did I neglect my most important client?

You know the saying: the cobbler’s children have no shoes.

My last post on this blog is from February 2026. Then: silence.

Not because I ran out of opinions. I ran out of evenings.

In the past eight months I worked on three projects which, on the surface, have nothing in common:

• Defence innovation business development for an international software company. A market that speaks its own language – TRL levels, dual-use, EDF, NATO DIANA – and where trust is built slowly and lost quickly. I mapped the terrain, shaped a value proposition and built a stakeholder network from zero.
• A data warehouse and analytics platform for a leading Hungarian medical software company: business concept, roadmap and pilot built on real Hungarian healthcare data, with the pilot specified together with Big Pharma management.
• Project management of an integrated enterprise level custom content management system – from TRL 4+ to TRL 6 in four months.

Defence, healthcare data, CMS software. Three different worlds.

So what did they have in common?

First: technology was never the bottleneck. In every case the technology was sound – often more mature than the market realised. What was missing was the translation: who needs this, why now, what is it worth, and who signs.

Second: the decision-maker was in the room. Decisions took days, not quarters. If something didn’t work, we said so on Tuesday and changed it by Thursday. (Regular readers know my view on the cost of the opposite – see The Price of Lying.)

Third: speed came from separation. TRL 6 in four months was not heroism. It was clear phases, clear owners and honest status reports. Remember the brain2text story from last year? Make separations, introduce phases, and the picture becomes clearer. It works outside neuroscience too.

And while I was busy delivering, I neglected one client completely: myself.

Classic cobbler.

So here is the update.

What I do: I help owner-led technology companies – and tech businesses with short decision-making chains – turn advanced technology into revenue, especially in markets that are complex, regulated or new to them. Mostly as a fractional business development lead; in fixed-scope market entry sprints; and when needed, as the project manager who gets things to the next TRL.

What I don’t do anymore: navigate seven layers of corporate approval to move one slide. I know that terrain well – I spent two decades in it, and I respect it. But my best work happens where the person who decides is also the person who listens.

From now on: a new post here every week, and on LinkedIn. Market entry, health data, defence innovation, owner-led companies – and, I promise, the occasional detour into literature and art.

One question to you:

If you run a company where the technology is ahead of the sales – which market would you enter tomorrow if you had a guide?

Write me, please.

Gábor

I help owner-led tech companies turn advanced technology into revenue. If that’s you, write me: priegl.gabor@gmail.com