What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. 🐦 Jack Butcher | Transparency Threads (e.g. Opepen)

2. 🎙 Gimlet Media | The Startup Podcast

3. 📚 Clayton Christenson | The Prosperity Paradox

Today marks a beautiful turning point for the startup because we’re launching a new unique AI product called: Nack.

It brings the power of several AI models (chat, images, upscaling, etc.) directly to your mobile device (both Android and iOS).

It’s also launching on Product Hunt today, and we would appreciate your votes 🙏

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/nack-ai

What does this mean for the newsletter?

I love The Startup Podcast and Jack Butcher’s Transparency Threads (e.g. Opepen) because you get to witness a startup-built life. You see stuff about their ups and downs. Things they’re trying, and so that’s what we’re going to do!

So let’s try something new!

Over the coming weeks, I hope to write about plans, motivations, stats (seriously), ups, downs, difficulties, growth hacks, etc. If you like that kind of thing, keep your eyes peeled! If you have interested friends, share the newsletter 😄.

Final thoughts

This is an experiment, so the newsletter format will keep changing until we find something that sticks! If you have any suggestions, hmu!

Personal Note 📝 - I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again

I know I’ve taken a few months away, but thanks for the continued shares, and welcome to the new subscribers! A special thanks to everyone who reached out and encouraged me to start writing again. I’ll try and re-develop some level of consistency!

And to summarise where I’ve been — diving deeper into this space!

For now, all I can say is it’s time to build!

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𝑿 Profile | 📥 Company | 🔗 LinkedIn | 👨‍💻 Indie Hackers | 🕵️‍♂️ Product Hunt 

— Del Spooner (Will Smith), “I, Robot”

What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. 📝 Dan Roinson | Uniswap v3: The Universal AMM

2. 📝 Hasu | Understanding Automated Market-Makers, Part 1: Price Impact

3. 📝 Matt Levine | Pump and Dump and Pull the Rug

4. 📝 Jakub | Aave – The Road To $3 Billion

Academics used the earliest versions of the internet to share information. Now, we use it for business, shopping and TikToks. Blockchain technology may appear attractive now, but it presents incredible future opportunities. Smart contracts are the most significant advancements to date. They provide a glimpse into the future—for example, they enable a new level of software autonomy.

Autonomous Protocols

Imagine a company automated every single one of its business operations. Eventually, the owner fires everyone because they’re nonessential, and it’s more profitable. Theoretically, if the owner passed away, the business could continue functioning without him for years, without anyone knowing.

If companies operating without human intervention were a norm, how would the world look?

The future is now. For the first time in history, non-human entities can own and transact value. However, smart contracts take this idea a step further. These autonomous protocols are carrying out the functions of a company without any human intervention via the blockchain.

This type of code could completely redefine the concept of a “company”. What do you call ownerless systems that have the power to execute business operations? We’re embarking upon new terrain—automation 2.0. Protocols like Uniswap and Aave function more like money machines than companies because they can thrive without human maintenance.

Autonomy can take other forms too. For example, consider decentralised autonomous organisations (DAO) - algorithmic organisations with encoded governance. Smart contracts can dictate different levels of authority, behaviours and even upgrades. It’s becoming common for community votes to dictate roadmaps, partnerships and to remove bad players.

Final Thoughts

Crypto is redefining life as we know it. The idea of autonomous smart contracts, community-owned networks and DAOs may eventually become the new normal. It’s even challenging the need for privately-owned companies. Providing ownership through governance directly to the end-users may create more alignment, and better incentives could accelerate progress.

If you liked this content, let us know with a like, share and subscribe. 🙏🏾

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Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

• Glossary of Terms - If you’re coming across terms you’ve not heard before (here or anywhere else, check them out in this helpful list of definitions).

• I revisited some old videos from Andreas Antonopolous. He was the person who convinced me of blockchain technology’s value in 2017. It’s worth checking out his material regardless of how long you’ve been in the space.

  • Bitcoin For Beginners

  • Blockchain For Beginners

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

🌊 From The Crypto Wave To Mainstream

During a bull run, it’s been easy to develop a false long term view of cryptocurrency returns. One feature of mass adoption will probably be increased stability. However, yields will remain higher than current markets because of a reduced number of intermediaries. We’re also still early, and identifying early gems will always pay off.

🇬🇧🍴🔥 The London Hard Fork | Ethereums Burning Hot

We’ve been eagerly anticipating Ethereum 2.0 for years. However, it finally seems to be taking shape. The London Hard Fork has been live on Ethereum’s test network for almost two weeks. We expect it to hit the main network later this month. This new feature will progressively decrease the amount of Ethereum in circulation, making it increasingly scarce.

👾💻 When Code Starts Writing Code | AI > Autocomplete

We’ve already seen some impressive startups leveraging OpenAI’s GPT-3. Now, Github joined the club with its newly launched product, Copilot. It automatically writes your code. No joke. The system has been “trained on billions of lines of public code”, and its capabilities are scary.

If you liked this content, let us know with a like, share and subscribe. 🙏🏾

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𝑿 Profile | 📥 Company | 🔗 LinkedIn | 👨‍💻 Indie Hackers | 🕵️‍♂️ Product Hunt

— William Pollard

What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. 📚 Andreas M. Antonopoulos & Gavin Wood | Mastering Ethereum

2. 📺 Vance Spencer, Santiago Santos & Spencer Noon | The Current State Of DeFi

3. 📝 Olga Kharif | Cryptocurrency Venture Fund Launches to Focus on Black Startups

It’s hard to appreciate innovation before mass adoption because it’s “not normal”. By nature, the more disruptive the technology, the more resistance it receives. Retrospectively, it always seems inevitable. Prospectively, we have to reject our understanding of “normal”.

Arguably, blockchain technology’s disruption will be comparable to the rise of the internet. It’s forcefully changing our “ordinary” — though it’s not without resistance. Since 2017, I’ve witnessed the growth, maturing and evolution of space. We can’t even begin to quantify the number of potential use cases.

Many people have heard about Bitcoin, Coinbase, Binance, Etheruem, etc. However, few know what they are and how they work. Several people asked to write/speak on this topic. I’ll never capture everything, but consider this an introduction to a series of posts. Here, I’ll explain the high-level properties of the technology that make it so compelling.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)

Fundamentally, it maintains an encrypted, unchangeable record of transactions across a vast network of nodes (i.e. computers). Every node retains a complete history of transactions, improving security and making bad behaviour difficult and expensive. DLT goes further than “cloud” computing because it distributes ownership in addition to computing power and storage. Anybody can operate a node, becoming an integral member of the network. The concept may not seem like much at first, but it underpins the remaining properties.

Digital Scarcity

Thanks to DLT, we can digitally create and manage currencies without a corresponding physical item. For the first time, we can create digital assets that are reliably limited in quantity.

The applications of this technology extend further than “currencies”. You can create utility tokens (like stocks with a business use-case), digital collectables, ID anonymity, ticketing systems, distributed cloud networks, financial instruments, etc. (We'll delve into some of this in future.)

Censorship Resistant

Blockchain networks enable peer-to-peer transactions. Third parties are not required to facilitate transactions, unlike bank transfers. You retain full custodianship of your assets whilst being able to pay people directly. Why is this important?

When sending money via third parties (e.g. banks, western union, etc.), it may be blocked, delayed or have hefty fees applied. Intermediaries can occasionally be helpful (e.g. fraud prevention) — but not always. During the recent END SARS campaign, the Nigerian government prevented international support via blocked transactions. International supporters circumvented the government and funded the campaign with Bitcoin.

Immutable Smart Contracts

A significant milestone in the life of DLT was the introduction of smart contracts. These are public, immutable blocks of code on the network. Smart contracts give blockchain developers new superpowers. Previously, developers sent information via code. Now, they can send value. Making value transfer programmable opens up a world of opportunities. One area this has immediate implications on is finance.

The code being “on-chain” makes it’s publicly accessible and immutable. Aside from some public parameters, nobody can change the code in the future. The public can audit the code and possesses the agency to enter or leave ecosystems. Open, permanent code will redefine how we view security, transparency, and companies altogether.

Final Thoughts

Every investor loves the idea of a “Total Addressable Market” (TAM). However, we learn from the introduction of the wheel, electricity, the sowing machine, and the internet that some markets sizes can never really be quantified. Blockchain technology is a type of market-creating innovation that falls in this category.

I look forward to exploring this with you in the coming posts!

If you liked this content, let us know with a like, share and subscribe. 🙏🏾

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Personal Note 📝

I know I’ve taken a few months away, but thanks for the continued shares, and welcome to the new subscribers! A special thanks to everyone who reached out and encouraged me to start writing again. I’ll try and re-develop some level of consistency!

And to summarise where I’ve been — diving deeper into this space!

For now, all I can say is it’s time to build!

Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

For a relatively thorough breakdown of crypto, here’s a helpful thread of reads and coding resources:

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

⚾️ A16Z: “Go Hard Or Go Home” | Swing Like You Mean It

Venture Capital is driven by power laws, as outliers provide overwhelming returns. Andreessen Horowitz's General Partner Chris Dixon referred to this phenomenon in his article about the Babe Ruth Effect. He argues that the best VCs “swing hard, and either hit big or miss big…” because you “…can't have grand slams without a lot of strikeouts.”

Andreessen Horowitz's just launched Crypto Fund III — the largest dedicated crypto fund ever ($2.2 Billion). They’re going out swinging.

🐶🐕🦮🐩🐕‍🦺🐾 Every Doge Has It’s Day | 101 Dogemations

He started with $1800 on January 31st and had made $3.5m by May 11th. How did he do it? He invested in every single dog coin he liked. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”. Well, I hate this game. 🥲

👥 The People’s Currency | The Nature Of Adoption

Most people view the widespread adoption of blockchain technology purely from a western vantage point. However, we see aggressive adoption rates throughout Africa, South America and Asia. Cryptocurrency is a lifeline, not an optional extra for those struggling with intense currency depreciation or without robust financial infrastructure. Blockchain’s early adoption may present long-term advantages for under-developed economies.

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— James Clear

What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. ✍️ Jared Heyman | On $300B of Y Combinator Startup Success

Most people are familiar with the normal distribution (a.k.a the Gaussian distribution) - if not conceptually, then through experience.

For example, consider exams results. There are three categories:

1. A few poor results;

2. A lot of average results; and

3. A few outstanding results.

However, not all things in life fit this distribution for various reasons. For example, some things follow power-law distributions. Here, there’s a functional relationship. When one contributing variable changes, there’s a proportional, relative change in the other.

Without getting too technical, this means that you get many low to medium results, with very few outliers.

Let’s check out some examples.

Example 1: The World’s Wealth Distribution

Consider the following facts:

• 1% of the world’s wealthiest own 50% of the world’s wealth;

• 10% of the world’s wealthiest own 85% of the world’s wealth; and

• 90% of the world’s most impoverished own 15% of the world’s wealth.

Wealth distribution follows power-law. The top 1% have equal wealth to the remaining 99% of the world combined. In this scenario, the top 1% are the “extreme outliers”, and everyone else forms the “vast majority”.

Example 2: Startups & Venture Capital

We always hear that “90% of the startups fail”. But even when startups succeed, they do so to varying degrees.

Y Combinator is an infamous startup accelerator. They’re known for training and investing in a curated set of founders. They have invested in more than 2500 startups. However, the returns follow the power-law distribution:

What do we notice? Well:

• The top 3 companies account for over half of their returns. Meaning:

  • More specifically, 0.12% of their companies produce 56.2% of their returns.

  • Three companies, outperformed the remaining 2497 put together.

• The top 10 companies produce 75% of their returns.

• The bottom 99% of companies produce less than 15% of their returns.

Again, we see that Airbnb, Doordash and Stripe are YC’s “extreme outliers”. They are “the few” that immensely outperform “the many”.

Power-laws is why funds have to go for moonshots. Anything less than the best startups results in disproportionately low returns. The power laws naturally drive the returns by VC funds too.

There are ways to change this, e.g.:

• Increase the number of outliers:

  • Improving diversity to boost the number of funded startups;

• Increase the rate of good results through risk management (reducing the top end but improving the bottom end):

  • Less pressure on startups scaling in fast and unstainable ways — encouraging early profitability; and

  • VCs liquidating at earlier stages may also reduce the severity of the gradient.

With several promising disruptions taking place, I think we will see improved support at every stage for startups.

Final Thoughts

Whether we’re speaking about the 80-20 rule (a.k.a. the Pareto distribution) or winner-take-all markets, we’re talking about ideas driven by power laws. The benefit is that you realise the stakes at hand.

In some situations, it makes you more concerned about increasing the number of attempts — e.g. investing in or building startups.

Int other situations, it narrows your focus — e.g. the 80:20 rule.

Understanding the situation, the stakes and your risk appetite allows you to leverage power laws to the best of your advantage.

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Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

• Audiblogs - Turn any blog into an audiobook/podcast (and it sounds excellent)

• Lunchclub - Randomly get paired with people in tech for virtual meetings. I had my first two last week, and they were terrific!

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

Elon Musk x Bitcoin x Dogecoin | Fraff And Serious

The world’s richest man has made many jokes on Twitter about Dogecoin — which many have taken seriously. However, his recent support for Bitcoin is no joke. Tesla invested $1.5 billion of the company’s cash reserves in Bitcoin. They haven’t got nearly as much cash many of the big tech giants (which makes this “risky”), but the signalling has paid off, pushing Bitcoin’s price up to an all-time high.

First, early adopters buy. Then Tesla and Square. Eventually, countries and many other companies around the world. “To the revolution!” — “Hamilton”

The Orginal Gamestop vs Robinhood | Apple Deemed Too Risky To Trade

The Gamestop fiasco raised many familiar questions about censorship, seeing as Robinhood (and eventually many other platforms) prevented people from purchasing the shares in the name of volatility. But guess what, the State of Massachusetts did the same thing to Apple in 1980. They said it was too risky.

Those in power have been wrong before. But it doesn’t stop the powerful from censoring everyone. This recurring issue presents an interesting potential use case for blockchain technology.

90% of Developer’s Job | So Much Fun And Pain In A Single Video. Enjoy!

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— Warren Buffet

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What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. 📚 The Prosperity Paradox | Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon

2. 📚 Zero To One | Peter Thiel

Wealth disparities exist between different socioeconomic groups. As the child of ethnic migrants, I was encouraged to save and invest in property. However, I’ve learnt in recent years that one of the best ways to accumulate wealth is through investing in other asset classes. Since 2017, I’ve been investing in startups, public companies and cryptocurrency. Below, I’ve decided to outline five of my primary considerations when investing in companies across different stages:

Innovation Category:

Q: Is this innovation creating or contributing to an entirely new market?

I’ve spoken about different categories of innovation in a previous newsletter. I’m most interested in companies that create new markets, converting non-consumption into consumption. This may look like increased accessibility, making something readily accessible to a broader audience than before. Or it may be an innovative solution that naturally brings in entirely new markets.

One method to spot new markets is to identify problems traditional VCs tend to overlook. By this logic, under-represented communities within the venture space provide immense opportunities. There, exists are substantial solvable problems that VCs are yet to fund.

Market Size:

Q: If this company captures a narrow slice of the market, will they reach billions in revenue?

According to investors like Elad Gil, this is possibly the most crucial question. It’s better to invest in companies that get a small piece of a big market over a significant segment of a small market.

Q: Is the market growing or shrinking?

Consider the trajectory of markets in addition to their current size. For example, oil majors used to be 10x the size of green majors. Now they're similar.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

Q: Are the company's metrics healthy, and if not, is it easily rectifiable?

Depending on the type of startup, there are various KPIs to monitor. For example, SaaS businesses need to be mindful of churn, lifetime value, customer acquisition cost, etc. For stocks, the equivalent is fundamental analysis.

Initially, a company may be unprofitable due to the business model or lacking economies of scale. In these cases, becoming profitability may be a future aspiration.

Team:

Q: Is the company leadership good?

“Good” is intentionally vague because I’m speaking holistically. The best leaders are driven, innovative, thorough, fast at execution, and ethical.

• Startups are rarely overnight successes, usually requiring over a decade of work;

• Standing out from the competition to become “best in class”, requires excellence;

• Clubhouse is impressive because initially, two founders continuously shipped multiple major updates daily; and

• Robinhood app built trust for eight years and lost it in a day due to one unethical move - as far as users were concerned.

  

Customers:

Q: What the company customer’s think?

Companies viewed as one of many alternatives have questionable long-term value. Conversely, products that are loved and healthy communities form durable foundations for brand loyalty. The long term benefits of loyal and happy customers are unparalleled.

Final Thoughts

Investors aren’t monolithic (e.g. see Mac’s Tweet and the comments). They have various priorities, foresee distinct worlds and tolerate different risks. So, developing your investment thesis matters. It ensures your investments stay in line with your long term beliefs.

Questions & Actions

• Where do you think the world is heading?

• Which qualities define the best companies?

• What areas of innovation do you think will change the world?

• What is your strategy for beating the market?

• Create an investment thesis that answers the above and outlines what you believe to be the future. (Check out ARK’s report below for inspiration.)

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Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

• Angel and VC Resource Library: Click Here

• How to start a micro-angel investing thread: Click Here

• Ark Investment - Big Ideas Report 2021: Click Here

• Backstage Capital is crowdfunding: Click Here

• Tax planning guides (UK specific): Click Here

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

♣️ Elon Joined The Club | The Mind Of The World’s Riches Man

The world’s richest man joined clubhouse a couple of days ago and practically broke the app. The room hit the limit, 20+ of overflow rooms formed, and a live youtube stream. He touched on many topics, including Mars exploration ambitions, NeuralLink’s roadmap, Tesla’s AI, and much more. He also had an interesting conversation with the founder of Robinhood. The transcript of their discussion is available in the link above.

🎮 $GME, SET, MATCH | GameStop Gains Stopped

Speaking of Robinhood…

Hedge funds aggressively shorted Gamestop, hoping to make money off their decline. However, a community of Reddit based retail investors pumped the stock price to “stick it to the man” - costing Wallstreet billions. This move gained momentum until Robinhood pulled the plug on all buy orders. They’ve offered reasons, but none seem to satisfy their users. Now, the company faces thousands of negative reviews, online insults and a class-action lawsuit.

📈 Return Of The SPAC | Hidden Figures

SPACs are special-purpose vehicles, designed to take companies public whilst bypassing the traditional IPO process. They have gained traction over the last year - and there are no signs of it slowing.

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— Gary Cohn

What Got Me Thinking 💭

📚 John Warrillow | Built To Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You

I quit my job and started contracting when my 2nd child was born in May 2019. After my 3rd child was born two weeks ago, the client called to terminate the contract.

I learnt from the chaos of 2020 that everything is subject to risk, including 9 to 5s (e.g. Quibi, Covid Redundancy & Unemployment). Thankfully, I took precautions earlier to derisk my situation. But this made me wonder:

• “How often do we tolerate unnecessary risks?”

By "unnecessary”, I mean hedgeable risks (i.e. those we can manage our exposure towards). Here are a few examples in life and business alongside their solutions:

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Key Man:

You’re exposed to this risk when someone irreplaceable is essential for the business to function. It occurs in large organisations due to size and oversight. It happens in startups due to insufficient time and resources. It’s like storing critical information on a single USB - losing it places the company’s future at risk.

• Solution: Knowledge sharing, clear documentation and collaboration.

P.S. This also applies to CEOs. Companies that can’t function without you aren’t worth anything without you. Selling it is problematic, nor can you focus your attention on other company matters. Don’t hoard, delegate!

Investment:

Risk is a necessary facet of investing - and presents upside possibilities. However, you must ensure it’s not too volatile, and that you don’t lose all of your money.

• Solution: Modern portfolio theory says investors should minimise their risk for a given level of return. Therefore, invest in a range of things — differing by asset class, industry, geography, etc.

  • P.S. This also extends to angel investing.

Product Line:

Niches are excellent for many reasons! However, a single product may encounter a range of issues (e.g. supplier problems, distribution, pandemics, competitors, regulations, etc.).

• Solution: Consider branching out within your niche, to offer different products. Contemplate other offerings with good synergies.

Skill Set:

Focus drives excellence within a given field. However, you risk your skills becoming irrelevant.

• Solution: Specialise at the intersection of multiple disciplines. Become generally proficient in a variety of things. Never stop learning, and progress with your field.

P.S. Revisit the newsletter on Intellectual Curiosity and read about becoming T-Shaped:

Client:

“Relying too heavily on one client is risky and will turn off potential buyers. Make sure that no one client makes up more than 15 percent of your revenue.”

— Built To Sell

If a single client provides most of your revenue, you risk unexpectedly losing everything. How can you prevent the loss of a single client from ruining your income?

• Solution: Work with a range of clients. Build up industry rapport. Offer services to multiple clients simultaneously or turn your service into a product.

Final Thoughts

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson

In Monopoly, it’s easy to think you’re “ahead” until you get hit with unexpected repair bills, income tax, or hotel fees. Feeling unlikely doesn’t remove the risks and their consequences. If you’re unprepared, it can ruin you.

We’ve been tackling a pandemic for the last year — rest assured, anything can happen. Where possible, prepare.

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Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

• Interested in becoming a VC Scout? Well here’s a tweet and a lot of useful comments telling you the firms that are looking: Click Here

  Word of advice: there are many scout programmes out there, so pay close attention to the compensation.

• Looking for the best way to launch a venture business? YC’s early application is open for their Summer 2021 Accelerator: Click Here

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

A lot happened this week, but here are some highlights:

🦄 Clubhouse Is The New Unicorn | What’s The Community Saying

• Clubhouse Valuation - May 2020: $100m

• Clubhouse Valuation - Jan 2021: $1bn

This week I’ve seen excitement, frustration and competition. Interesting questions have arisen around equity and diversity, which I may discuss next week. But for me, I wonder how this app will do in a post-pandemic society.

🏦 Monzo’s Founder Leaves | CEO Stopped Banking On Monzo (Get It? 😅)

“Going through a pandemic, going through lockdown and the isolation involved in that has an impact on people’s mental health… I don’t think I was any different, so I was really struggling.”

🦄 Goldman Sachs Fumbled The Bag | How Goldman’s Got Silver

In 1999, Goldman Sachs had a 50% stake in Alibaba, board control and anti-dilution rights. They sold out in 2004, turning their $3.3m investment to $22m. $18.7m profit is rarely a shame, but it is in this case.

If they held it until now, it would be worth over $100bn — hindsight is 20/20.

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— Oliver Wendell Holmes

What Got Me Thinking 💭

1. 📚 Richard P. Feynman | Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman

2. 📚 Clayton M Christensen | Competing Against Luck

The first book I read this year was Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman. From the start, his curiosity amazed me. I was convinced by the end that it was the driving factor behind his success and many others. For example, Peter Thiel confessed that 4 out of 6 of Paypal’s earliest staff made bombs for fun in high school. I don’t encourage it, but that underlying curiosity drives many innovators.

Here are some principles I’ve extrapolated from Feynman’s life:

1. Curiosity makes most people uncomfortable because people resist change.

   Curiosity usually questions the assumptions underlying convention. Challenge naturally threatens peoples’ beliefs, causing resistance - even when those beliefs are wrong.

2. Curiosity fuels contrarianism - challenging conventional thought and rules.

   Feynman continually reimagined questions assigned during his studies at MIT, changing the emphasis, granting him unique perspectives and answers.

   “If everyone is defining a problem or solving it one way and the results are subpar, this is the time to ask, What if I did the opposite? Don't follow a model that doesn't work. If the recipe sucks, it doesn't matter how good a cook you are.” — Tim Ferris (The 4-hour workweek).

3. People don’t like to learn by understanding but by rote.

   Feynmann recounts stories when MIT students and Einstein’s apprentice couldn’t practically apply the theory they already knew. Feynman concludes that many prefer memorising because they dislike understanding.

   “Change is the result of all true learning.” ― Leo Buscaglia.

4. Understand good thought can arise from anyone.

   Feynmann was often underestimated in his earlier years and also underestimated others. He realised, credentials don’t make you insightful and insight can come from anyone.

5. The best minds prefer challenge over conformity.

   Famous physicist Niels Bohr commended Feynmann as “…the only guy who’s not afraid of me, and will say when I’ve got a crazy idea…”. The best minds view the absence of critique as problematic.

6. T-Shaped individuals leverage the depth and breadth of knowledge simultaneously.

   Feynman was both a deep and broad thinker. This allowed him to notice synergies as a multi-disciplinarian whilst excelling as an expert physicist.

   

7. Be curious and experiment with things you enjoy, even if there's no end in mind.

   “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.” — Henry Ford.

   After working on the Atomic Bomb, Feynman suffered from burnout. He decided to go back to fun experiments with no end goal in mind. These experiments led to the work that won him a noble prize.

8. The more you learn, the more opportunities you create for yourself.

   Feynman was a physicist, but his curiosity led him to paint, learn new languages and pick up several instruments - leading to unique performances, exhibitions and travel experiences. This fortune also extended to his chosen profession.

9. Don’t fear failure.

   Feynman’s willingness to fail led to his multi-disciplinarian and expert successes. Each failure presented an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work and grow. I presume this is why children learn new languages quickly.

   'An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.' — Niels Bohr

10. Be investigative - everything is an experiment.

    Feynman viewed life as an array of experiments - enabling him to try new things and learn from the outcomes. He even questioned the well-established ideas, rather than asserting inherited ideas. If the assumptions were false, he discovered something. If they held, he understood them better.

Final Thoughts

Intellectual curiosity lays the foundation for innovation and learning. With information being so readily available, we have no excuse.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin.

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⏱ #TenDaysOfDealflow | One Startup Actively Raising Every Hour

One significant feature about the best funds and angel investors is their deal-flow (i.e. the startups they get access to). Janine Sickmeyer has opened up her platform, placing the spotlight on one curated startup each hour for ten days. If you’re looking for investment opportunities, this is a great place to start!

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

🦄 Black Unicorns | Nine Game Changing Black-Owned Businesses.

“When less than 1% of venture capital is invested in Black businesses each year… these nine startups launched by dynamic entrepreneurs are surpassing expectations, raising serious capital and have the potential to become the first Black unicorn.”

😓 Ever considered the effect of the funding gap? Here’s one example:

Consider men and women. Both are equally capable of running great companies. Therefore, you would roughly expect an equal number of male and female CEOs at IPO. Well, the harsh reality is women barely account for 1%:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

— Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

🏦 London’s Record Investments | Did Europe Just Lose It’s Tech Hub?

Last year, London accounted for 25% of Europe's investments and were 3x more than any other European tech city. With Brexit finalised, the world will watch what happens next to the UK and European tech ecosystems.

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— Wayne Gretzky

What Got Me Thinking 💭

• 📚 The Prosperity Paradox | Clayton M. Christensen, Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon

• 📚 Zero To One | Peter Thiel

Innovating is necessary for market disruption, but not all innovations are created equal. Peter Thiel speaks about avoiding competition by building something completely new, taking us from 0 to 1. Clayton Christensen echoes similar sentiments. He argues that efficiency and sustaining innovations take products from 1 to N while, market-creating innovations take you from 0 to 1.

In summary:

Sustaining Innovations

“Sustaining innovations are improvements to existing solutions on the market and are typically targeted at customers who require better performance from a product or service.” — Clayton M. Christensen

Sustaining innovation requires adjusting your product offering to suit the market’s needs better. They help to compete for the existing market share. It also usually results in higher prices and better margins.

Examples: Improving device memory, new car models and different product flavours.

Efficiency Innovations

“Efficiency innovations… enable companies to do more with fewer resources.” — Clayton M. Christensen

These efficiency gains allow for faster scale, lower prices and more profit. The benefits include fewer employees or taking on more functions in the long run. Efficiency is crucial as markets become increasingly crowded. These innovations are usually focusing on product creation and are process-centric.

Examples: Workflow automation, process optimisations and circumventing middlemen.

Market Creating Innovations

“Market-creating innovations… create new markets… that serve people for whom either no products existed or existing products were neither affordable nor accessible for a variety of reasons.” — Clayton M. Christensen

By targeting non-consumption, you can create markets where they’re currently non-existent. The most significant competitors here are workarounds and apathy.

Quantitative approaches to understanding the market fail as there’s no market to segment and no customers to characterise. Understanding the market’s complexity requires investigative, qualitative methods (i.e. the jobs to be done framework).

Once you begin satisfying uncatered needs, the market naturally brings a supporting ecosystem on top of this initial foundation. For example, this may include distribution channels, educational facilities, regulators, manufacturing, maintenance, etc.

Examples: Indomie’s expansion into Nigeria, Henry Fords’ Model T in America and M-Pesa in Kenya.

Final Thoughts

Companies should not overlook innovation types because they can’t go from 0 to 1 forever. No competition gives you the first-mover advantage, but that edge is temporal. They must transition from creating to maintaining the market.

Ford is a prime example. Their Model T created an entire U.S. market and it dominated 60% market share in 1921. However, they failed to invest in sustaining innovations - e.g. car upgrades, new colours and credit purchases. So they lost their market position to General Motors and Chrysler ( 43% and 25% market share respectively) within 15 years.

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Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

 💁🏾‍♀️ The Legends of Sara Menker | Gro Intelligence raises an $85 Series B round

We all know that VCs and their portfolio company founders tend to be white men (cc. Diversity VC Report). No group is hit harder by this unfair reality than black women - who collectively received 0.27% of all venture capital between 2018-2019. However, Sara Menker breaks barriers as Gro Intelligence changes the way we understand agriculture with her data analytics platform.

🤩 No Meetings, No Deadlines, No Full-Time Employees | Life At Gumroad

Sahil Lavingia, CEO & Founder at Gumroad, wrote an article detailing his unconventional approach to running the company. He’s managed to stay meeting, dealing and full-time employee free whilst helping creators on the platform earn over $175 million p/a. The most telling part resembles Tim Ferris’s definition of the “new rich”. The upcoming workforce is becoming more conscious about their lifestyle, time and mobility.

🤫 The Most Cancelled Man In The World | Big Tech Is Silencing Trump

This week we watched the devastating scenes at Capitol. Twitter has responded to Donald Trump’s involvement by removing him from the platform. They’re not alone. Many companies have followed, e.g. (Snap, Facebook, Instagram, Shopify, Paypal, Google, Twitch, Discord, YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Stripe, Pinterest, etc.). This move has sparked heated debates about censorship and freedom of speech.

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What Got Me Thinking 💭

📚 James Clear | Atomic Habits

(Section: Forget About Goals, Focus On Systems Instead)

Many people start new year’s resolutions, and usually, they fail. Goal setting in isolation is flawed, and this is why:

Problem 1: Winners and losers have the same goals.

"If successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the losers." - James Clear

Problem 2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change.

"Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement… the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results… Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves." - James Clear

If your desired results don’t align with your lifestyle, you’ll always be fighting an uphill battle. Re-adjust your lifestyle so that success is the natural outcome.

Problem 3: Goals restrict your happiness.

"The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.”… When you fall in love with the process rather than the product… You can be satisfied anytime your system is running." - James Clear

Problem 4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress.

"The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game... Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress." - James Clear

People often regress after accomplishing goals because progressing further is not incentivised.

Final Thoughts:

"Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress… Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results." - James Clear

Motivation fizzles out, and it’s presence alone doesn’t guarantee success. However, focus on systems and “the score takes care of itself” (ref. Bill Walsh).

Establishing new practices requires you to rewire your existing behaviours. Do this by leveraging contracts, habit-tracking and habit-stacking. Read Atomic Habits for a more thorough breakdown on how to implement these new systems. The principles are lifechanging!

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Founder Spotlight ✨🔦

Jakob Greenfeld

“After finishing my PhD in particle physics, I decided that I don't want to pursue an academic career or get a regular job. Instead, I'm currently doing a 12-month long learning experiment to determine if entrepreneurship is a viable alternative for me.

My first real product was Product Explorer, which was inspired by an idea Andrew Wilkinson mentioned on the My first Million podcast and did surprisingly well so far.

Afterwards, I launched Gum Spy and Newsletter Spy, which are small tools that make it easier to analyse Gumroad products and Substack newsletters, respectively.”

Twitter | Personal Site | Gum Spy | Newsletter Spy | Product Explorer

Do You See What I See? 🗞👀

🥃 Nick Huber - New Year, Hard Truths | A Reflective Thread Of Founder Advice

I love good Twitter threads, but Nick’s advice in this one is top tier. He discusses an array of topics, including competition, intellectual curiosity, vocations and emotional decisions. It’s worthwhile reading, even if you don’t have to agree with everything.

🚚 Covid-19 Vaccine - One Day Deliveries | A Global Amazon Prime Subscription

I laughed. I paused. Then, I questioned, why not? 🤷‍♂️

⏯ It Was Gone In A Flash | Adobe Released The Last Flash Update Ever

“Adobe will stop supporting Flash on December 31st, 2020, and it will block Flash content from running on January 12th, 2021.”

Flash has been around for over the last 20 years, and now, it’s the end of an era.

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— Albert Einstein

2020 Oct-Dec Highlights

What’s happened so far?

• 📰 | 12 newsletters

• 📥 | 530+ amazing subscribers

• 🤓 | 15,000+ newsletter reads

• 📨 | 80+ shares

• 🔝 | 2 recent newsletters hit the front page on Hacker News

• 🔑 | Countless opportunities and benefits

I appreciate you all!

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2021 - What To Expect

I have a third child on the way, and I want to avoid burning out. So, here are few updates for the next year:

1. Price

   The newsletter will continue to be free. But, it is time-consuming, so please keep sharing to make it worthwhile.

2. Quality

   To preserve each issue's quality, I may occasionally skip weeks or produce trimmed newsletters primarily consisting of news updates.

3. Founders

   I’ll start including sections showcasing interesting founders and what their products. If you’re building something exciting and want to be featured, then hit me up! (Click Here)

4. Resource Library

   In a few months, I hope to launch a library of resources. It will include content and books I’m engaging with at the moment. I’ll try my best to keep it organised!

5. Live Business Experiments 🤯

   I’ve been self-employed for 18 months now, and I love it. Many readers want to build their own companies to augment their income or become self-employed. So, I’ve decided to conduct live business experiments. I’ll launch a series of simple businesses in areas I’ve wanted to explore to create passive income.

   Throughout, I’ll document everything - including the steps and the financials. After some time, I’ll convert it into an insightful read, regardless of whether it thrives or fails. The content may exist as a paid newsletter tier or an E-book. Who knows? I don’t!

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What Would You Like?

I’ve floated some ideas, but ultimately, I do this for you.

• Why do you read the newsletter?

• What would you like/dislike?

• Which sections are most valuable?

• How can I help you?

I’d love to hear your feedback or suggestions! (Click Here)

Thanks for reading, and have a happy new year!

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— Margaret J. Wheatley

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Today’s Thought: Review Before Resolves

What got me thinking:

1. ✍️ Tim Ferriss | Forget ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ and conduct a ‘Past Year Review’ Instead

2. 📚 James Clear | Atomic Habits

3. 📚 Stephen R. Covey | The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

4. 📚 Eric Ries | The Lean Startup

Everyone loves New Year’s resolutions. But, bombarded with information and social media, we rarely allow time for structured reflection. Nevertheless, it’s vital.

Self-reflection is a recurring theme in most books I read - like the secret sauce that underlying growth.

📚 Atomic Habits | “…avoid slipping into the trap of complacency. The solution? Establish a system for reflection and review”

📚 The Lean Startup | The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop is the book’s core framework. If we view resolutions as “building”, then we must also “measure” and “learn” from our current progress.

Reviews and reflection are integral to project management, product development, habit-forming, stoic philosophy, investments, religion, employee development, education, etc. Executed correctly, it drives future progress.

Before setting next year’s goals, reflect on how you’re doing.

In addition to other reflections, ask yourself:

1. What’s most critical?

Look through your calendar and note-taking app. Consider your habits, finances, health, vocation, learnings, meetings, etc. Which actions were most significant?

Not all behaviours are created equal. Pareto’s law says 80% of the results stem from 20% of the actions. Filter out distractions. Focusing your efforts, let’s you address the most helpful and harmful areas of life.

Reference: 💡 | The Startup - Focus

2. What’s compounding?

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.” — Albert Einstein

“The first rule of compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily.” — Charlie Munger

Understanding how compounding works and the concept’s broader application is game-changing. Whatever is currently compounding in your life will eventually become significant - for better or for worse.

Determine what’s compounding in your life at the moment and whether it’s a good thing.

Reference: 💡 | The Startup - Consistency

3. What’s your objective?

Progression requires direction. What are your core priorities, values and goals? Ensure you distinguish between your ultimate goal (e.g. time with family) and the means (e.g. financial stability).

Now, assess whether your answers to (1) and (2) are in or out of sync with your objectives? Some behaviours attain the means whilst detracting from the goal (e.g. money at the expense of your health). These actions invalidate all perceived “progress” as you’ll drift away from your real aims.

Understanding your objective allows you to realign yourself. Determine what’s going well and propelling you in the correct direction. Address the negatives and things pulling you away from your targets.

Reference: 💡 | The Startup - Lifestyle Design

Final Thoughts

“The most dangerous items on your to-do list are the ones that look like opportunities but are actually distractions.” - James Clear.

You can make yourself think you’re progressing by making plans without reflection. But, reviews force us to confront brutal realities, exposing our flaws. They prevent complacency, enhance self-awareness, help us avoid mistakes, and focus our efforts on significant areas.

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Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

The best gift you can give yourself is an honest assessment of how you’re doing. Don’t know where to start? Check out the Annual Planning Workbook - a free resource by Janine Sickmeyer!

Merry Christmas 🎅

Do you see what I see? 🗞👀

💳 Unconventional Pay, Unexpected Consquences | When $70k Is Minimum Wage

Dan Price cut his CEO salary by $1 million and raised the company’s minimum wage to $70k in 2015. He’s seen excellent results (e.g. 3x Revenue, 70% more employees, etc.) and most importantly, employee loyalty. Gravity Payments lost half it’s revenue, during the pandemic. However, 98% of staff anonymously volunteered to cut their pay and 10% offered to work for free. Kind gestures are repaid in unimaginable ways.

🎙 Audio Wars | Twitter Launch Spaces - What Does This Mean For Clubhouse?

Twitter has officially started rolling out its audio feature, Twitter Spaces. Overall, the feedback seems optimistic, unlike Fleets. Some of the differences from Clubhouse include the speaker limit, tweet and emoji reactions, realtime transcription, fixed room names, a tweet board, etc. Both platforms are still relatively closed. However, the success will come down to critical areas such as managing scale, conversation recommendations, demographics, monetisation, and content quality.

I’m sure the battle will eventually be featured on Business Wars.

♛ | Netflix Advertising? | The Queen’s Gambit And Chess.Com

About two months ago, Netflix released an original series titled The Queens Gambit. The inspirational chess story became their biggest scripted limited series ever. However, the impact had an immense knock-on effect on chess companies. The term “Chess” became searched on Google 2-3x as much as before. Chess.com received 100,000 new players daily. This sudden rise in popularity has been unparalleled over the last 50 years.

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— Jeff Bezos

Today’s Thought: Unicorn Traits

What got me thinking:

🎙 | Early Signs Of A Billion Dollar Company - Elad Gil

Recently, I’ve written my first angel investments into early-stage companies (with a few more in the process). But, I also say “no” regularly, even though most ideas are great. With such risky investments, the question is, what makes a good investor?

Elad Gil is a renown angel investor. His portfolio includes Airbnb, Airtable, Anduril, Brex, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Gitlab, Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, PagerDuty, Pinterest, Samsara, Square, Stripe, and Wish. He recently sat down on NFX to discuss how he spots companies before they’re worth billions. Here are four key takeaways:

1. A colossal market is more important than you think. Teams matter a lot, but that’s probably the wrong emphasis. Even the best founders will fail without sufficient demand. Conversely, mediocre founders can exceed expectations in large markets.

2. Companies that innovate early and get to a second product line tend to innovate frequently. Like most things, innovation takes practice. It’s a muscle that necessitates working out. If you innovate early, when operations are small, you’ll likely do it again. If you leave it late, you’ll struggle to do it repeatedly as operations scale.

3. Every startup needs a single miracle. Any less would result in an overcrowded market because entering would be too easy. Any more would require “cascading miracles” (ref. John Malone) to succeed. The compounded difficulty, reduces the slim chance of success from low to virtually zero.

4. Balance a fair valuation and expert board members. Early board seats within companies are as significant as early hires. Board members can even vote to remove the founders. So make sure you bring people on board who you’re comfortable working with for at least a decade. Also, make sure one or two of them has growth stage expertise. The skills needed initially differ to those required when scaling, acquiring companies and expanding geographically.

Final Thoughts

Investing is an area full of tried and tested principles. I’ve spoken to veterans who’ve wasted money trying to rewrite these principles only to lose money. This list is not exhaustive, and there’s some room for a bespoke thesis. However, study these principles and others, that will allow you to spot outliers.

Yes - I’m The Plug 🔌

• Last week, I built this No Code Resource. It’s continued to grow, so check it out.

• This week, I’ve found the Side Hustle Stack. If you’re looking for some extra income in 2021, here’s a great place to start.

Merry Christmas 🎅

Do you see what I see? 🗞👀

☕️ How Morning Brew Got It’s First 10k Customers | Do Things That Don’t Scale

Morning Brew is one of the most successful newsletters to hit the scene. They did so well that Insider Inc. purchased a majority stake at a $75 million valuation (someone should tell them to buy mine 😅). However, their initial growth was through 5-minute university lectures - and manually adding emails. Paul Graham’s startup advice is still relevant, “Do things that don’t scale”.

📈 From Rugs To Riches | Doordash Investor Turned $1.9mil into $440mil

The recent IPOs are providing jaw-dropping returns to many early investors. In this case, Mar Hershenson and Pejman Nozad (former rug dealer turned investor) made a killing. Their initial Doordash investment is up circa 1000x. However, their blended position through follow-ups has them up 233x overall.

🐦 Twitter Purchases Squad | From Tweets To Virtual Hangouts

Squad is an app that lets you hang out with your friends via video chat and screen-sharing. We’ve already seen Twitter mention their shift towards fleets and spaces, so this acquisition is less alarming. But will this be enough for them to compete with Clubhouse?

🐦 Twitter | 🔗 LinkedIn | 👨‍💻 Indie Hackers | 🕵️‍♂️ Product Hunt | 📥 Personal Site

— John F. Kennedy

Today’s Thought: The Lean Startup <> No Code

What got me thinking:

1. 📚 Eric Ries | The Lean Startup (Complete)

2. 📚 James Clear | Atomic Habits (Complete)

It’s too easy to get caught up in a false sense of progress. We obsess over perfect plans rather than taking action. Or we wait to perfect a product before releasing it. Most ideas and resolutions fold before making any real headway.

It’s like studying how to lift weights without ever putting in the reps.

Preparation can gradually become a form of procrastination.

🐦 Click To Tweet

Eric Ries argues the best way to learn is by doing. More specifically, by leveraging the “Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop”, which is “at the core of the Lean Startup model”. The idea is that:

1. Build - to test assumptions.

2. Measure - the results.

3. Learn - whether the assumptions were valid.

4. Return to step 1.

The faster this process, the faster we learn and improve upon our product.

This is why data, iteration speeds and R&D matter.

One investor told me over lunch:

“The impressive companies are not great because of how much they accomplish, but how fast they accomplish it.”

As a founder in the trenches, I understood it partially. But in hindsight, I appreciate it much more. Many traits make a great startup, but:

“The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.” — Eric Ries.

🐦 Click To Tweet

Effortless habits are easier to form. Conversely, friction prevents progress.

Likewise, No-Code solutions make product development faster and simpler. These platforms let you build websites, blogs, forums, stores, job boards, social media platforms, even newsletters 👀, without any programming.

If I were to build another product, I probably wouldn’t code.

Some of the benefits are:

1. Easier initial MVP build;

2. Faster iteration speeds;

3. Easier maintenance via:

   • Reduced points of failure;

   • White label support;

   • Reduced product complexity;

No-code solutions are empowering a new generation of makers.

🐦 Click To Tweet

Final thoughts

If you have an idea in mind, before consulting a developer, try an build it yourself. Whether you use it in production or you use it as a blueprint for developers, it’s crucial to understand how much power this gives you.

I’ve created a quick set of products and resources to get you started here:

🔗 | NO CODE RESOURCE LIST

(I’ll continuously update this - but also feel free to make suggestions)

Do you see what I see? 🗞👀

🐦 No Code tools extend beyond startups

The adoption is becoming inevitable at every level. Creators have built several companies worth millions on No-Code platforms. Democratising development will shift the emphasis from coding to innovation.

💰 Sequoia Returns >8x the investment on 3 funds

Amidst the turbulence of 2020, Sequoia’s LPs are still laughing to the bank. Their 2010 fund is expecting to return circa 11x the initial investments thanks to the Airbnb and Doordash IPOs. Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and GGV Capital are also looking forward to a good number of IPOs this year.

📚 Are you running out of book recommendations? Look no further.

I’ve read some, and I’m going to read others. Maybe I’ll make my reading list, highlights and notes more visible in the new year.

📈 Palantir wins $44 million FDA contract | Shares up over 21%

“Palantir Technologies Inc was awarded a $44.4 million contract by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a Palantir spokeswoman said, sending its shares up around 21%.”

🎙 Elad Gil speaks on NFX | The Unusual Signs of a Billion Dollar Company

Elad’s portfolio includes Airbnb, Airtable, Anduril, Brex, Checkr, Coinbase, Flexport, Gitlab, Gusto, Instacart, Opendoor, PagerDuty, Pinterest, Samsara, Square, Stripe, and Wish. I’ll be listening to this within the next couple of days!

🐦 Twitter | 🔗 LinkedIn | 👨‍💻 Indie Hackers | 🕵️‍♂️ Product Hunt | 📥 Personal Site

―Napoleon Bonapart

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Today’s Thought: Directional Framework

What got me thinking:

1. 📚 Marcus Aurelius | Meditations (Complete)

2. 📚 James Clear | Atomic Habits (Complete)

3. 📚 Stephen R. Covey | The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (WIP)

Four Core Propositions:

#1 - Change is inevitable.

“Is any man afraid of change? Why what can take place without change?… All things are changing: and you yourself are in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction, and the whole universe too.”

— Marcus Aurelius

I’ve learnt that nothing lasts forever. Change is the only constant - in life, businesses, relationships, industries, etc.

Don’t fear change - embrace it.

#2 - The critical link between now and the future is a direction.

Notwithstanding things outside of our control, the future state of everything is a function of the initial state, time, velocity and direction.

The time required to reach an outcome is impacted by the first three. But only the direction determines the nature of the ultimate result.

#3 - The present state is a lagging measure of the past trajectory.

“Your outcome is a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits.”

— James clear

When forecasting, understanding the trajectory is probably more significant than the present reality.

Trajectories function as predictors in every sphere. We see trends in remote work, globalisation, political instability, AI, social networks, cryptocurrency, computing, etc. They’re driving the future landscape. Interpreted correctly, they help us pre-empt the future.

#4 - Directional thinking produces leverage.

True independence of character empowers us to act rather than be acted upon... If you wait to be acted upon, you will be acted upon.

— Stephen R. Covey

I used to save up money. I added to it nominally, whilst deteriorating in purchasing power. I fixated on its state at the moment of adding without realising it was being “acted upon” negatively.

Increased directional awareness would have made me invest it. This small directional shift let me leverage time positively.

Two fundamental forms of leverage:

1. Personal: flowing from healthy habits and practices; and

2. External: insights derived from trends.

The former creates leverage, and the latter identifies opportunities.

Final Thoughts

"To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know." - Stephen R. Covey

Self-awareness is key. Reading alone won’t change anything. You must be proactive and not reactive. Ask yourself:

1. Where are your habits currently leading you?

2. Are there trajectories I’m not currently leveraging?

3. How can I shift the odds in my favour and benefit from time?

Now change your trajectory.

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Do you see what I see? 🗞👀

Directional thinking makes this worth reading :)

💰 Bitcoin Prices At An All-Time High | The Rise Of Digital Currencies

I watched BTC used to support campaigners. They circumvented government, bypassing all censorship, during the #EndSars campaign. This campaign confirmed the permanence of cryptocurrencies for me.

👨‍💻 Salesforce Is Trying To Buy Slack | A Remote World?

Slack went from being worth $9bn in January to $24bn. Remote working is not a short term pandemic response, but a new world order. Shane Mac’s rolling fund is investing in companies with this thesis in mind. How will remote impact education, shopping, fitness, healthcare, etc.?

💰 Future VC | Paid VC Internships | Deadline - 8th Jan 2021

If you are interested in a career in Venture capital, this program may be for you!

🧑🏾‍💻 Calendly Is Not The Only Black-Owned SaaS Company | A List By Janine

Janine lists nineteen companies in response to a request for black-owned SaaS companies.

✍️ The Edvolution | Who’s Life Are You Living?

Independent thought is incredibly hard. We’ve accepted numerous assumptions without any critique. In this piece, Shireen argues that the key to a meaningful life lies in your ability to unlearn and think for yourself.

😔 Tony Hsieh, Zappos Ex-CEO Who Revolutionized the Shoe Business Dies at 46

Tony’s death is sad news. Let this remind us that life is short. Keep the first things. Live and prioritise accordingly. My condolences to all those most affected.

Hey, it’s Richard Awoyemi and thanks for reading The Startup!

I’m an Actuary, tech entrepreneur, self-taught engineer and angel investor. I muse about entrepreneurship, personal development and lifestyle design.

• Have comments? | Let me know your thoughts!

• Founder looking for angel investment? | Send me a deck!

• Have opportunities to discuss? | Drop me a message!

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I’m an Actuary, tech entrepreneur, self-taught engineer and angel investor. I muse about entrepreneurship, personal development and lifestyle design.

Warning: you may notice some stylistic changes, let me know your thoughts!

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Today’s Thought: Niches

What got me thinking: Hatching Twitter 📚

I started reading Hatching Twitter two days back. It covers the story behind Twitter. Fun fact: MSN Messenger’s status updates inspired Twitter’s creation.

I’ve written on focusing your efforts elsewhere (click here) - but one way this plays out is niches. Twitter turned an overlooked feature into a company worth over $35 billion.

Another Case Study

Burbn also famously pivoted. They started as a confusing app with check-ins, posting plans and photo sharing. The app was cluttered, but users loved sharing photos. So they removed everything else, renamed themselves “Instagram”, and relaunched. They became the top photo app on the apple store within hours.

Benefits

Narrowing the focus creates numerous benefits at every stage of building a company.

Consider Twitter’s story:

• Jack was a junior employee when he built the first version of Twitter in 2 weeks. It was fast, cheap and relatively simple to make because the scope was minimal.

• They prevented Yahoo from building a competing product because they could iterate quicker since their app was smaller.

• Twitter struggled to handle their growth rate. But, it would have been impossible if they were managing a more complex application.

• They struggled to articulate what Twitter was for a long time. But it only gets harder if there’s more functionality to explain.

Ultimately, narrow scopes let you cater to the problem you’re solving faster, cheaper and better.

Final Thoughts

My first startup attempt was “ambitious”. We tried building a product that attempted to accommodate everyone. With limited energy and time, that was a mistake. Everything took too long and was complicated. Hindsight is 20/20.

It’s easy to wonder: “Is the market large enough for this?”

But in an increasingly digital age, there probably is if you’re solving a real problem.

Additional Resource:

The Unbundling Of Udemy by Greg Isenberg | Checkout how Greg unbundles Udemy. He shows that narrow verticals can disrupt CourseTech.

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Do you see what I see? 🗞👀

📰 Speaking of Twitter… I know you saw “Fleets”, but did you hear about Spaces?

Twitter “Spaces” will be like Twitter for audio. Great idea, but Clubhouse got there first - and is snowballing. I’m convinced, having been on it loads this week. It’s exceptional for authentic community discussion and discovery. Chalk and others are also worth watching in this space. Most people naturally support these underdogs over the tech giants, but who knows what will happen. I’ve noticed two critical characteristics of this growing space:

1. Audio makes social networks more personal in a digital world; and

2. Engaging in these rooms is time-consuming.

🐦 The Return Of The Bay | San Fransisco Strikes Back

In recent years, people have been increasingly sceptical about SF’s status as the Tech Hub of the world. Since COVID-19, the scepticism has increased drastically. Regardless of whether other capitals around the world are producing more unicorns, this puts SF back up there.

🗓 Black Founder Showcase With Google for Startups UK

Some amazing black founders from the UK, pitching and doing some Q&As - I’m lucky to know many of them! There will also be talks by exited founders Shola Akinlade (Paystack - exited to Stripe in 2020) and Novo Abakare (Syft - exited to Indeed in 2019). Finally, a deep dive into The Black Report with the authors Anika Henry and Andy Davis.

🐦 Who said humour is dead?

Founder Steve Lamar wrote a funny thread about going from 143 followers to 150 in 6 months. It got him over 17,000 more followers in 24 hours.

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“Make yourself indispensable.”

So I did. I operated within a niche. I was an Actuary who could code and build financial models. This mix of skills drastically increased my market value. Yet, the world is always evolving. So, how does someone remain valuable?

A Common Problem

Linchpin: somebody in an organization who is indispensable - who cannot be replaced because their role is too unique and valuable.

Linchpins usually aren’t commendable. Often, they’re overseeing terrible processes and concealing knowledge from peers.

It’s politics. Otherwise, we’re calling the person’s usefulness into question. Smooth processes are easily understood, and knowledge sharing removes their advantage.

In this state, you’re problematic and a risk.

That is the worst way to retain “value”.

Ask The Right Questions

Technology is continually advancing e.g.

Article | GPT-3 means machines could eventually replace writers.

Video | Self-driving cars could soon replace taxis and delivery services.

Product Hunt | Countless products are launched daily.

Many roles will eventually disappear with the rise of AI, machine-learning, no-code, advanced robotics, etc.

If solving a problem today makes captures your value, then someone is conceiving ways to automate this by tomorrow. So, ask yourself:

• Could someone build solutions that could replace you?

• Is the world’s general trajectory reducing or amplifying your value?

• Can others strategise to make you invaluable?

• Could your role eventually be automated, made easier, or insignificant?

When your value is exclusively attached to something you do, then you’ll always face the risk of replacement.

Standard Moats

Moat: a way to retain your competitive advantage - for example:

• Switching Costs - ensuring replacement is expensive;

• Complexity - highly complicated function; and

• Low price - often achieved through economies of scale.

These Moats are relatively defensive. Progressively, competitors begin eating away your value. They’ll make switching easier, tackle complexities and leverage capital injections for scale.

Long-Term Bet

The best MOATs preserve value by increasing value:

Everything is becoming commoditised. White-label products are replacing everything we do. So lasting moats require human elements:

Branding: Nowadays, anyone can build a product that resembles Facebook or Google within hours. Out-of-the-box solutions exist. The biggest differentiator between products will be branding. For the 21st-century company, authenticity, storytelling and missions are soaring in importance.

P.S. The same applies to individuals. Most jobs come via networking and referrals. In a remote world, your online presence may outweigh your CV.

Communities: I’ve written about online communities before because they’re so underrated. Competitors can replicate products, but not relationships.

Healthy communities create strong relationships, loyalty, and alignment. Well-managed, they’re hard to penetrate.

VCs like Lolita Taub & Jesse Middleton have spotted this and invest in startups with community moats.

Niches: Protect your value by operating within a narrow niche. Blending skills creates new markets and offers new forms of value. Nobody can be you. The more unique the blend of skills required, the more difficult it is to replicate what you do.

Final Thoughts

“Is any man afraid of change? What can take place without change? What then is more pleasing or more suitable to the universal nature”

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Someone can always improve a function - so don’t fear change, embrace it. Become a lifelong learner. It’s a form of adapting in a world that’s forever changing.

As some final food for thought, ask yourself:

1. What value do I currently offer?

2. Does my value grow or shrink with time?

Briefs

Newsletter: Thanks for all the fantastic feedback from the last post! If you want me to write about a topic, email me. Additionally, these newsletters are free, so please do share it if you like it!

Instagram: Launched an Instagram page for the newsletter. Shares and follows would be appreciated!

Work: Started making a budgeting spreadsheet. I am hoping to wrap it up this week and place it on sale via Gumroad.

Book: Finished Atomic Habits by James Clear. Onto The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.

Random: I joined Clubhouse this week. Convos have been good. I appreciate the human element. Get in touch with me on the platform: RichAwo.

Recent News

Europe’s Newest Unicorn | Hopin worth $2.1 billion 8 months after launch.

New EdTech startup | By the co-founders Udemy and altMBA.

The Epiphany

For years, I optimised my income without respect to my lifestyle. My work accommodated my life as opposed to the inverse:

I was juggling permanent work, startup life and 101 personal commitments. I was burning out, sacrificing too much - and it wasn’t worth it.

Ask The Right Questions

I knew I wasn’t satisfied with my current trajectory anymore, but I couldn’t put my finger on the source of my frustration. Reading books like The 4-Hour Workweek and Built To Sell helped me to ask better questions:

• Do you need to work so intensely to meet your needs? Or are you working for work’s sake?

• How much money would you need before you have “enough”? Or are you spending your life saving up an indefinite amount?

• What did you sacrifice for a higher income? Time? Mobility? Sleep? Family? Happiness? Mental Health?… Was it worth it?

• Will your trajectory lead you towards your target lifestyle? Or would it require more sacrifice, moving you further away?

• Do you want your boss’s job?

• What exactly would you want to do in retirement? Are you waiting because of compulsion or convention?

• Is it necessary for everyone to work a 9-5 for 40-50 years and then retire?

What’s The Alternative?

Lifestyle Design.

The freedom available via a lifestyle first approach is more holistic than work-life balance. You define your priorities and schedule - then you figure out how how to monetise it with minimal effort.

• For Tim Ferriss, disconnecting your income from your time and location is fundamental.

• For others, it’s about assessing your real priorities in life and working in line with them.

I decided to change tomorrow’s course by reassessing my priorities now - instead of riding yesterday’s momentum in the wrong direction. The design differs by person, but it optimises the process alongside the results. (Share this on Twitter)

IKIGAI

The Japanese have a helpful concept called Ikigai ("a reason for being").

It argues that the most purposeful actions are enjoyable, helpful, skilful, and something we can monetise. Ikigai enhances our framework for assessing what we pursue.

Answering Objections

Here are some objections that may make inaction attractive and the responses:

“I’m already too far down another path.”

This is sunk cost fallacy.

“If the recipe sucks, it doesn’t matter how good a cook you are… The consequences of bad decisions, do not get better with age." - Tim Ferriss

(Share this on Twitter)

“This sounds way too risky.”

Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. However, we can mitigate most risks once we’ve clearly defined them.

Additionally, they are usually less scary once you take them.

If we define risk as “the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome,” inaction is the greatest risk of all. - Tim Ferriss

(Share this on Twitter)

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister

(Share this on Twitter)

“If it were this easy, everyone would do it.”

The real problem isn’t the difficulty executing. The challenge is rejecting conventional wisdom and being different.

“Humans are herd animals. We want to fit in, to bond with others, and to earn the respect and approval of our peers.” - James Clear

Even social media incentives the perception of success and happiness more than the reality itself. Fitting in is more important to us than we often care to admit.

“This is only good for those who can code.”

Not at all - this can work for anyone. If you need to build a product, validate the idea for free, then outsource the build or use solutions that don’t require any code (I will write on this soon).

Alternatively, I’ve seen plenty of successful information products (e.g. newsletters and ebooks) making in 6-7 figures in annual revenue.

Food For Thought

Article by Julain Shapiro - What to work on

Exercise: Finding your Ikigai

Video: Mastering the Lifestyle-First Approach to Indie Hacking with Daniel Vassallo and Courtland Allen

Podcast by Courtland Allen and Dru Riley: Persisting Through Failures to Find a Winning Trend

A Challenge:

I’ll aim to do Jack’s challenge over the next two weeks with a new product and get back to you with the progress. If you’re interested, join me - and let me know how you get on! You can also follow along my journey on Twitter!

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R.

Difficulty

Unfulfilled Expectations

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten.” – Bill Gates.

We’re always disappointed at the initial progress when started something new. Most of us quit during the valley of disappointment because we don’t believe in the power of consistent marginal improvements.

Fear

The fear of failure often prohibits consistency. It makes us more uncertain about whether we can succeed. But, consistency is the perfect medicine for doubt.

“When people talk about trying to suppress your fear … I mean, I look at it differently. I try to expand my comfort zone by practising the moves over and over again.” - Alex Honnold.

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” - Seneca.

How To Improve Consistency?

The key is to keep going long enough to hit the “Critical Threshold” - the point our results, finally meet our initial expectations.

Below, I’ve detailed a few way’s to improve our commitment until (and beyond) this point.

Social Contracts

Making yourself accountable to people encourages you to persist.

Startups are increasingly documenting their developments publicly (i.e. #BuildInPublic) for this reason too. Public accountability motivates us to be consistent. We also see this with other communities (e.g. #100DaysOfCode and #100DaysOfNoCode).

Find Partners

Taking it one step further, you can find a partner or community. They won’t just listen to your aspirations but will place clear expectations on you.

• Want to work out? Get a gym partner.

• Want to read more? Find a book club.

• Want to build a company? Join a mastermind group or get a co-founder.

This community/partner will help you overcome the valley of disappointment.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” - African Proverb

Reduce Friction

In Atomic Habits, James Clear argues that we prefer habits that are most:

• Obvious

• Easy

• Attractive

• Satisfying

If you want to become more consistent, then make the option more preferable by leveraging the above.

Identity Change

Our actions ultimately result from our beliefs about ourself. Fear hinders us from believing we’re genuinely the people we aspire to be. I feared my numerical background prevented me from identifying as a writer.

However, the best way to overcome this is to identify as the person we’re aspiring to be. If you want to read more, you must see yourself as a reader. If you’re learning to code, you must identify as a coder.

You will ultimately live up to your view of yourself.

Love The Process

Obsession with the results is discouraging in the early stages. However, learning to find satisfaction in the process eliminates our premature disappointment.

“When you fall in love with the process, not the product you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy, you can be satisfied anytime your system is running” - Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Long Term Benefits

The longer we remain consistent, the more the benefits compound. The latter stages of exponential growth can drastically exceed our earlier aspirations.

There may also be long-term peripheral benefits:

• Regular Workouts - Improved muscle memory and athleticism;

• Regular Reading - Improved retention and reading speed; and

• Regular Coding - Improved aptitude for learning new languages and general problem-solving.

Consistency also nurtures habits - which progressively reduces effort, alleviates the mental burden and improves efficiency.

Food For Thought

"Many a false step was made by standing still." - Fortune Cookie (found in The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss)

"Don't stop working, before it starts working." - Jack Butcher

Final Words

Consistency is challenging, not impossible. Ben Horowitz’s ends his book (The Hard Thing About Hard Things) with these words:

“Life is struggle.”

I believe that within that quote lies the most important lesson…

Embrace the struggle.

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• Nobody was doing what they were doing;

• Nobody was addressing their markets; and

• They were better than every competitor in every way, shape and form.

Initially, I thought it was right, but revisiting this mindset, after years of experience and loads of reading, I’m not so convinced anymore.

Mind > Matter? 👀

I love passionate founders, ready to change the world. But, if your product is better than every competitor’s, then why haven’t you dominated your market? Why do over 90% of startups with these decks end up failing?

This short video sums it up nicely:

Unpopular Opinion 🤷‍♂️

Peter Thiel is famously quoted saying “Competition is for losers”. I partially agree with the sentiment, but in another sense “everyone has competition” - the question is whether you know it. When a startup claims to solve the “unsolved”, there is always an alternative, for example:

Your competitors may lack elegance and simplicity, but they still exist. Before Airbnb, you could still sleep at hostels or expensive hotels. You could also couch surf, rent, purchase timeshares or even sleep in the street. No competition is desirable; however, in reality, a substitute is present in some regard even if it’s not appealing.

Where’s My Competition? 🕵️‍♂️

Harvard Business School’s Professor Clayton Christensen is a leading thinker in frameworks for disruptive innovation. His book, “Competing Against Luck”, begins by demonstrating that:

1. Customers use products for a variety of reasons;

2. Each reason exposes a new competitive landscape; and

3. Understanding the above improves your ability to innovate.

Consider ginger beer, for example:

1. My wife drinks it reduce her nausea whilst pregnant.

   Competition: other remedies and medicines for nausea.

2. I often see friends buy it for parties as a nice drink.

   Competition: other drinks in the supermarket.

3. I love it mixed with spiced rum, as an excellent mixer.

   Competition: every other alcoholic mixer.

4. Five seconds on Google reveals it’s also great for making a cake.

   Competition: Other potential cake recipe ingredients (e.g. carrot, apricot, lemon, bananas, etc.).

The same is true in tech. Netflix is assumed to compete against Disney+ and Amazon video. But, on date night, it also competes against the bowling alley, rollerskating and dance classes. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has even said his biggest competitor is sleep - because, at night, both options exist.

Do’s and Dont’s 📝

✅ Understand why customers use your product. Use this to inform you about your competition.

✅ Develop an accurate picture of your competition - even if it’s in the form of several workarounds.

✅ Change your product with an awareness of different customer use cases and competitive landscapes in mind.

🚫 Don’t obsess over the competition - obsess over the customers and the problems you’re solving.

🚫 Don’t blindly copy competitor solutions - without regard to your diverse customer base and the broader competitive landscape.

🚫 Don’t deny you have competition because you have a USP / Competitive Advantage.

Book Extracts 🤓

📚 Book - The Hard Things About Hard Things:

There may be nothing scarier in business than facing an existential threat. So
scary that many in the organization will do anything to avoid facing it. They will
look for… any excuse… I see this often in startup pitches…

Entrepreneur: “We have the best product in the market by far. All the
customers love it and prefer it to competitor X.”
Me: “Why does competitor X have five times your revenue?”
Entrepreneur: “We are using partners and OEMs, because we can’t build a
direct channel like competitor X.”
Me: “Why not? If you have the better product, why not knuckle up and go to
war?”
Entrepreneur: “Ummm.”

… If you find yourself running when you should be fighting, you need to ask yourself, “If our company isn’t good enough to win, then do we need to exist at all?”

Food For Thought 🍽

• Yesterday, I played a game of chess with Brian, an older man I randomly met. The game was long and fun. I thought I was winning, but eventually, I lost. But I was exposed to the threats I didn’t even realise existed.

  1. Interview your customers;

  2. Understand why they use your product; and

  3. Determine, who are you really up against?

• 📚 Book - Competing Against Luck - Must Read!!!

  For a better understanding of competition, and disruption, pick up this book and read it!

  • Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) Framework - If you can’t get the book, study this framework.

What Am I Doing? 👨‍💻

Headspace 💆‍♂️

2020, has been challenging. Taking time off work to rest, reflect and plan.

Learning 🤯

Using some no-code tools - will hopefully write some on their power shortly.

Projects 🛠

Yesterday, I built the landing page for a new project. I’m also reaching out to early customers to gauge interest and understand their needs (more details next week or follow on Twitter for regular updates); and

Newsletter 📩

We’re at over 200 subscribers - thanks to everyone who’s been sharing the content!

I’m also speaking to some fantastic founders about featuring as case studies in the occasional newsletter (I have about 50 requests so far). If you want to be featured or know anyone that you think I should interview, get in touch at me@richawo.com;

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R.

What’s the problem? 🤔

I’m no psychologist 🤦🏾‍♂️, but, here’s my struggle in a tweet (or two):

Embracing The Fear 💪🏾

As a startup, one of your most significant superpowers is your ability to iterate quickly. However, an unhealthy fear of failure stifles that, making us perfectionists or procrastinators:

(Credits - Jack Butcher)

I found this working on my first project. Our desire to be perfect was paralysing at worst and was painfully slow at best. Everything from product launch to social media posts was far too time-consuming. Fearing imperfection left us majoring on minors. However, embracing failure as a possibility is necessary for rapid progress.

Even now, I still struggle with it (as I write), but I’ve learnt a few things:

1. Don’t suppress fear 🤐 - instead, practice the uncomfortable and expand your comfort zone;

2. Where there’s no chance of failure, there’s no room for growth; and

3. Failure doesn’t have to be ultimate or purposeless. Aim to “fail forward” - iterate and pivot your product and ideas until you succeed.

Let’s Run The Numbers 🧑🏽‍🏫

Failure is offputting until you realise it’s advantageous because it allows us to move on and try other things. Assuming only 5% of startups “succeed”:

The more attempts you make, the greater your odds of finding success - which actually improves faster than this if you allow for the things you’ve learnt from previous attempts. This also extends to experimenting with product features. When faced with poor the odds, testing more ideas quickly speeds up your product development.

Book Extracts 🤓

📚 Book - The Lean Startup:

“If you cannot fail, you cannot learn.”

Startups aim to understand and solve customer’s problems more quickly than anybody else. Accomplishing this requires you to create an environment conducive for learning, regardless of whether your assumptions are proven right, or wrong.

📚 Book - The Hard Thing About Hard Things:

“The Struggle is not failure… The Struggle is where greatness comes from.”

📚 Book - The 4-Hour Work Week:

“Eustress, on the other hand, is a word most of you have probably never heard… Role models who push us to exceed our limits, physical training that removes our spare tires, and risks that expand our sphere of comfortable action are all examples of eustress—stress that is healthful and the stimulus for growth.”

🗣 Additional Quotes:

Niels Bohr - “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.”

Frank Wilczek - If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.

Bill Gates - "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."

Horace - “Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.”

Food For Thought 🍽

• Kyle Gawley - The Startup Success Delusion That Put Me In Hospital

• Sahil Lavingia - Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company

• David Brown - Heres What Fail Fast Really Means

• Google product graveyard - Killed By Google

• When impostor syndrome strikes, remember 💭:

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If you enjoyed this - please share the posts or snippets that stood out! Additionally, go ahead and click that subscribe button if you’re not already, you won’t regret it :)

Thanks for reading!

R.