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More Scars Than Trophies

The book

More Scars Than Trophies

A practical framework for founders, investors and startup boards who need to distinguish genuine evidence from activity, optimism and startup theatre.

Front cover of More Scars Than Trophies by Petri Lehmuskoski: the title in white on a deep red ground with sweeping darker red arcs.

More Scars Than Trophies

A practical framework for founders, investors and startup boards who need to distinguish genuine evidence from activity, optimism and startup theatre.

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Paperback available from 12 October 2026.

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Publication
Publishes 12 October 2026
Formats
Kindle ebook, Paperback

About the book

Most startup mistakes are not obviously bad decisions. They are decisions made before the relevant evidence exists.

More Scars Than Trophies introduces the Proof Stack, a practical framework for determining what a company has actually proved before committing more capital, people and time.

Written from more than four decades of operating and investing experience, the book helps founders, investors and startup boards distinguish genuine progress from activity, optimism and startup theatre. Its central principle is simple: the most expensive startup decision is often a good decision made too early.

Who it is for

Founders, angel and early-stage investors, and board members who have to act before the evidence is complete.

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Cover illustration: a scarred gorilla seated on a rock holding a compass, offering direction to a camel carrying a patched backpack.

Inside

Inside the book

The book uses recurring illustrations to make each stage of the Proof Stack recognisable long after the chapter is finished.

Four-panel illustration: a gorilla with a backpack faces a single wooden signpost, which multiplies panel by panel into a dense forest of contradictory arrows pointing every direction, until a single narrow footpath marked with footprints emerges through the clutter.
A scarred gorilla with a backpack walks a wide circle across empty ground, squinting at a spinning compass while its own footprints loop back on themselves.

Discovery

Motion without direction: activity that feels like progress while the same ground is covered twice.

A camel aims a reflector at a large lens that concentrates scattered light into a single beam, lighting a small fire while the gorilla watches.

Buyer Proof

Scattered interest focused into one repeatable reason someone actually buys.

The gorilla strains to press a barbell whose plates are labelled with metrics. MAU, DAU, CAC, LTV and CTR are on one side; ARR, growth, churn, NPS and pipeline are on the other. A man wheels a trolley past, unimpressed.

Value Proof

Metrics lifted for display, and the buyer who walks past them unmoved.

A timber roof collapses in a cloud of dust beside an unfinished wall and a blueprint on the ground; the gorilla sits watching while a camel with a tool belt scratches its head.

Scaling Proof

What happens when the structure is scaled before the foundation has been proved.

Surrounded by stacks of charts and reports, the gorilla stares open-mouthed into a glowing crystal ball labelled AI while a man waves a fan of banknotes.

Governance

Reports, dashboards and oracles standing in for evidence at the board table.

Four-panel illustration: a gorilla studies a single candidate card and takes notes; a machine then mass-produces identical cards in a stream; the gorilla cheers waist-deep in the resulting pile; finally a balance scale weighs that entire mountain of paper against one single card, and the single card holds its own.
Back cover artwork: the gorilla rests a hand on a patched backpack and looks along a winding desert track towards a distant camel and unicorn.

Back cover

The scars are the method. What is left at the end is a company someone else can believe in.

Exit Proof

Illustrations by the author's own hand run through the whole book, one per stage, so the framework stays memorable in the room where the decision is actually made.