Forbes: Lessons From Family Business Thinking For Venture-Backed Founders
By Elizabeth A. Marston
Running a family vineyard and building an InsurTech at Lloyd's of London are not as different as they look. The principles that govern one have made me a stronger founder in the other.
Long-term thinking reduces costly do-overs. Ask whether a decision will still make sense in five or ten years — not just the next funding cycle.
Stewardship changes how you lead. When you feel accountable to something beyond the current quarter, you hire differently and decide differently.
Reputation is capital. In high-trust sectors it compounds like money — determining who partners with you, the talent you attract, and how your pipeline engages with you.
Capital discipline forces better decisions. Validate earlier. Commit resources deliberately. Prioritise learning speed over build speed.e full article on Forbes Business Council including what these four principles look like in practice inside a ventur-backed InsurTech at Lloyd's of London.
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Forbes: When Enthusiasm Isn't Enough: The Pivot Signal Every Founder Must Recognize
Enthusiasm and traction are not the same signal. Customers who love the idea but don't adopt the product are giving you important information. The gap between interest and behaviour is the data — and the founders who read it early pivot from a position of strength, not panic.
Enthusiasm tells you the problem hypothesis has merit. It is a starting point, not a destination.
Traction is users returning unprompted, paying, and building the product into their core workflow.
The gap between the two — consistent across cohorts and time — is your product-market fit signal, not a marketing problem.
The full Forbes piece features 18 other signals from business leaders across sectors — from price ceilings and customer apathy to the moment your team stops arguing about how to build something and starts arguing about why.the full article on Forbes Business Council including what these four principles look like in practice inside a ventur-backed InsurTech at Lloyd's of London.
Featured: Elizabeth Marston Named Among 11 Women Leaders Transforming Business Globally
Elizabeth Marston has been featured by Business Outstanders in its round-up of eleven women reshaping business leadership across industries and continents. The profile places her among founders, executives, and consultants spanning risk management, education, travel, and pharmaceuticals, each recognised for building organisations that endure.
The feature centres on Sotera, the technology company Elizabeth founded within Lloyd's of London to apply data modelling and risk analytics to fine art, rare collections, and cultural assets, a category most insurtech overlooks.
It also traces her unconventional route into the sector: degrees in Classical Archaeology and Egyptology from Cambridge that inform how she assesses what these objects are truly worth.
The piece further notes her twenty-plus years stewarding Marston Family Vineyard in Napa Valley, describing her approach to legacy and innovation as inseparable: "good stewardship is what makes good innovation possible."
Featured: Women Leaders Shaping the Next Era of Business
Elizabeth Marston is the Founder of Sotera and Proprietor of Marston Family Vineyard, bringing together deep operational leadership and cultural asset protection expertise.
She began her professional journey in publishing in New York City before returning to her family's winery in Napa Valley, where she has owned and managed the multi-generational estate for the past twenty years, navigating growth, stewardship, and long-term brand preservation.
This experience in legacy business ownership shaped her perspective on risk, preservation, and generational continuity, themes that would later define her technology venture.
Elizabeth co-founded Sotera to address a critical gap in the insurance ecosystem: item-level risk analysis and contents modelling for Fine Art, Specie, and High-Net-Worth home collections. Founded at Accelerate Cambridge and later accelerated at Lloyd's Lab, Sotera is now based within the Lloyd's ecosystem in London.
Originally from California and now based in London, Elizabeth operates at the convergence of technology, insurance, and cultural heritage.
Forbes: Where Founders Should Slow Down To Build Long-Term Growth
I was honoured to contribute to this Forbes Business Council feature, where founders share where patience beats speed when building a company.
My focus was on problem prioritization. I've found that founders often mistake motion for progress. Every customer request or new opportunity can feel urgent, but not everything urgent is equally important.
In my experience building Sotera, slowing down to identify what truly matters has created far greater focus than chasing every opportunity that comes my way.
The companies that endure aren't the ones sprinting after every possibility, they're the ones that stay relentlessly focused on solving the right problems exceptionally well.
I'm featured alongside nineteen other founders and leaders sharing their own hard-won lessons on brand building, key hires, investor selection, and knowing when to pump the brakes.
