Scale Faster: Vistage Chair Francine Lasky’s COVID Startup Success | 843

Francine Lasky traces a journey that runs from advertising to running her family’s medical-device company, then to finding Vistage as a lifeline when she suddenly inherited the CEO seat. The peer-advisory experience transformed her so completely that she decided to become a Vistage Chair herself, launching her first CEO group in Chicagoland and taking over her own mentor’s group just before the pandemic hit.

Much of the conversation centers on why a confidential peer group matters to owners who feel isolated at the top. Francine explains how diverse perspectives saved her costly legal fees, challenged her blind spots, and forced the self-awareness needed to fix people and process bottlenecks. She stresses that CEOs control only two levers—people and resources—and that scalable systems appear only after leaders admit what they do not know and hire accordingly .

The show’s most compelling section covers her “startup during COVID” story. With lockdowns looming, she learned Zoom overnight, convened members online, and turned the crisis into a mastermind that swapped PPP bank contacts, safety policies, and moral support. That crucible built her second group entirely on video and cemented her belief that intentional leadership plus a strong peer safety net lowers risk in any future crisis.