Quick Note: As you can see we’re on a new platform. Substack’s virality and shareability was just too huge to pass up. Thanks for sticking with us. 😁

Startups are hard. They often crash a burn. If they do succeed, they don’t forever. When you do get a unicorn it’s like winning the lottery.

Rand Fishkin the former “Wizard of Moz” and the current “Wizard of Sparktoro” published a blog post about his last few year at Moz and what really happened (from his POV) when he was pushed out of the company he started 17 years prior.

It shows how much he learned from his experience as well as the broken friendships, betrayal, the nightmares, the fear. It’s a must read for everyone who want's to do a startup or is in a startup. Honestly it’s an important read for everyone in business.

I’ve been part of a few startups. All, other than the current one, have failed and fizzled. That’s not to say we didn’t try. The market wasn’t right, it was the wrong time, so many different factors.

The current startup, where I’m and advisor and interim marketing lead, Public Assembly, is promising. To be honest, I wouldn’t be working on it if it wasn’t. And even this one has a 1 in a 1000 chance of making it.

So why do people do startups?

Honestly, many reasons.

For one, it’s fun to make something from nothing or near nothing. It’s rewarding to try and get that idea out of your head and funded. There are so many reasons. And you don’t have to pick just one.

But remember one thing, and this is a cliche, be willing to FAIL FAST.

What do you think? Leave me a comment or hit reply.

A special Halloween Newsletter! I hope this one finds you on your porch giving out candy to the neighborhood kids.

We’ll be back to Wednesdays next week!

The Latest From Entrepreneur’s Enigma

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Web Jawn

• Meta Posts Record Quarterly Revenue Results, Sees Steady User Increase
  Kind of surprising, since people generally hate Meta and Zuckerberg.

• Instagram Will Enable You to Create Stickers from Entities in Your Photos
  This is a cool feature that will make the Meta-owned property even more sticky and fun to use.

• TikTok is Experimenting With 15-Minute Uploads
  I feel like this is going well beyond the app’s appeal, but I could be wrong. I know that I won’t be watching 15 minute vertical videos. But maybe this is more for Gen-Z and Alpha.

• New WordPress Gutenberg 16.9 Makes It Easier To Create
  All I can say, as a person who uses WordPress everyday, is I hope it does. The Gutenberg/Block Editor roll out hasn’t been the easiest.

• Remarketing Vs. Retargeting: Are They The Same Thing?
  They’re different in one key way. But you should read the whole article, so no spoilers.

• For Silicon Valley Bank clients, First Citizens is an unknown – and unproven – new partner
  Remember this fiasco of late last year? Well SVB is still in the news with their new owner First Citizens. This is definitely a story to watch as it directly effects the tech and startup worlds.

• Exclusive: Adobe's effort to catch deep fakes hits key milestone

  Interesting how Adobe is trying to stop the proliferation of AI deep fakes.

• AI Chatbots Can Guess Your Personal Information From What You Type
  I can’t say I’m surprised. Especially since the deeper the conversation the more the AI can glean.

• White House Is Set To Set Sweeping AI Executive Order Into Place Next Week
  AI needs regulation, there I said it. This is a good move by the Biden Administration.

• OpenAI forms team to study ‘catastrophic’ AI risks, including nuclear threats

  Well this isn’t that surprising but still terrifying that AI had nuclear risks.

• What is the Optimal Number of Ads in an Audio Ad Break?
  I can tell you right now more than 2 (more often 1) ad in an ad break and I’m splitting and not coming back to the show. Even great shows that I enjoy the host and/or the guest, if there are too many ads, I’m O-U-T.

• Google’s Broad Core Algorithm Updates: Important Points And Frequently Answered Questions For Site Owners And SEOs
  A good roundup and FAQ from SEO royalty Glenn Gabe.

• Instagram Tests New ‘Nearby’ Feed for Stories
  This could be really hand for small brick-and-mortar stores. I’ll be interested to see how business owners use it.

• G7 introduces voluntary AI code of conduct
  This might have more teeth on it than US President Biden’s executive order. I think it’s a good thing to have some regulation and guiderails on AI.

• White House unveils AI.gov in a historic move towards comprehensive AI oversight

  Not sure how much teeth this has being an executive order and not a law, but it’s a good start.

• X is officially worth less than half of what Elon Musk paid for it
  In my opinion this is exactly what Musk wants. He has no interest in making Twitter/X succeed.

• Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business
  I agree with Pichai. I don’t think they’re evil either. I do think they are a monopoly though. 😜 So in my opinion they need to be broken up.

• TikTok’s Spotify competitor adds indie artists to its library
  Can’t say I’m surprised that TikTok is getting into music streaming. Like Myspace before it, TikTok is a place where artists get discovered.

Find Of The Week

NoozCraft is a new AI writing tool for creating newletters fast with help from AI. Not exactly novel but a neat tool none the less. It takes your writing that you pipe into it to learn your writing tone and style. It looks like it does a decent job too. Check it out here.

Until Next Week!

Always stay curious!

- Seth

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