“Your favorite authors’ first drafts are bad—no better than yours.” —Julian Shapiro Your favorite athlete's first workout was just as bad as yours. Your favorite chef's first meal was just as bad as yours. Your favorite artist’s first work was just as bad as yours. Keep going
Steven Spielberg says he re-watches Lawrence of Arabia before filming every new movie. It reminds him what a job well done looks like. There's an analog for startups. Before you start your next startup, rewatch @mwseibel's video on Building Product: youtu.be/C27RVio2rOs
The smartest people I’ve met: They retrain their minds to enjoy being wrong. They get a dopamine hit when proven wrong because they’re excited to be closer to the truth. The truth is addictive. In contrast, if you refuse to lose a debate, your brain keeps running old firmware.
Reading a book without taking notes is like discovering a new territory and forgetting to draw a map.
Newsletters are quietly fixing what's broken with mainstream news. Newsletters surface the most meaningful stories. They focus on quality, not clickbait, because they need to retain the subscriber’s trust in order to get the next email opened. Newsletters optimize for trust.
People don't have short attention spans: • They finish 3 hour Joe Rogan episodes. • They binge 14 hour shows. They have short *consideration spans:* they must be hooked quickly. Point: Don't fear making great, in-depth content. But, ensure your first minute is incredible.
How to hire A+ talent: • Seek them on LinkedIn. Don’t expect them to come to you. • Include a salary range in your first message. • The first call is for getting them excited. Not for grilling them. • Have them list what stops them from saying yes. Handle each objection.
Great minds became brilliant through the act of writing. Writing is a laxative for the mind. Great ideas emerge while writing—not before. After writing ideas down, your brain is compelled to draw connections. It can’t help itself. Write to access your mind's full capacity.
The world is not run by exceptional people. This is the hidden reason for imposter syndrome. We mistakenly think imposter syndrome is due to low confidence/anxiety. No, it’s caused by not accepting that your new, world-class peers aren’t that special. It’s mostly discipline.
Most friends aren't friends. They're acquaintances. Friends phone you out-of-the-blue because they want to hear your voice. Friends would drive you to the emergency room at 3 AM. Friends are the family you choose, and they're key to happiness in old age. Invest in good people.
Two questions to ask when hiring: 1. What needs to be true for joining us to be a no-brainer? ☝️ This gives you a roadmap for convincing them to join 2. If you were to leave us after six months, what are the most likely causes? ☝️ This gives you a roadmap for keeping them
The danger of pursuing many good projects is not having the time to pursue many great projects. A rule of thumb: Move slowly when choosing what to focus on. But move very quickly once you've decided. Move slow then fast.
What an astonishing thing a book is. A flat object made from a tree on which funny dark squiggles are imprinted. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another. Maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, they speak directly to you. —Carl Sagan
Here's a LOOSE idea of which customer acquisition channels to prioritize based on your business model. This isn't set in stone—try many channels over time. pic.twitter.com/vhrlriv7zp
To see how competitors are running acquisition: • View their Google Ads via Ahrefs • View their popular blog posts via Buzzsumo • View their Facebook ads via the Facebook Ads Library • All of these also reveal which landing pages they're using
A content "engine" is a process for: 1. Consuming high-value information. 2. Synthesizing ideas out of it. 3. Narrowing into the good stuff. ... and doing this without burning out.
If you want to write well, writing style is only 10% of it. 90% is actually having something to say. Aim to think well. Thread: Learnings from many years of writing...
Telling an author "You're my favorite writer" is like telling a comedian "You're my favorite speaker." Writing and speaking are how ideas are distributed. But 90% of the work is the thinking before the distribution. When you praise creators, praise their minds.
Writing is the most radical thing you can do without money. If you have something important to say and you say it well, you send strangers down paths badly needed. It's a disservice to others to keep thoughts to yourself. As a writer, you can change the world from your couch.
An unspoken ingredient in writing success: Having a bit of shamelessness about getting things wrong in public. Too much shamelessness = you're a charlatan. But, too little = you'll never publish. No creator is always right. Do your best and move boldly.
To be specific, most companies are unable to profitably acquire paying users through ad platforms such as: • Instagram Ads • Facebook Ads • Google Ads • More
However, there are constraints that make paid channels difficult: A. Profit margin: How much profit you earn per sale is critical to making paid work. B. Audience size: Audience isn't just a function of how many people want your product, but more narrowly...
...how many are potentially suitable users of your product, want your product more than your competition, want it now, and can afford it. The resulting audience is smaller than you estimate. Many startups find their audience is too small to keep Facebook ads running at-scale.
C. Next factor in making ads work: Degree of product demand How badly does your market want your product? If your product is just a nicety, you're at a disadvantage relative to companies selling what people critically need—or THINK they need—such as health insurance or loans.
Further, the less obviously valuable your product is, the better you need to be at pitching it. This can take exceptional marketing skill and months of iteration.
All this said, here are two types of companies with an increased chance of making paid (e.g. ads) work: A. High margins: If you charge customers $2,000 for a mattress or $10,000/year for enterprise software, you have more wiggle room to experiment with ads until they work.
B. Products with a high word-of-mouth or referral rate: If new users refer many more paying users, then you may be able to tolerate a small upfront loss when acquiring customers via ads.
Part 3. How do I make unpaid channels work? If you fail to make paid work, you'll be relying on unpaid channels: Content marketing, referrals, word-of-mouth, sales, PR, community, more. This is normal. Succeeding at paid acquisition isn't a necessity—it's just convenient.
Benefits of unpaid channels: They may be less at the mercy of ad channel volatility, audience saturation risks, and CPM pressures. In other words: Unpaid growth is often more reliable and more in your control.
Some major unpaid channels: A. Product-led growth: If your product grows virally from users inviting others who then use the app together, you have the potential for product-led growth. This is probably the healthiest + fastest way to grow. See Dropbox, Slack, Zoom, + PayPal.