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External communication combined with radical transparency.

Today, I want to talk about radical transparency and the relationship between what we share internally among Alaners, where we have ultimate and reciprocal trust, and what we can share externally.

We strive to be more transparent than other companies, even outside Alan, but without being naive about the consequences of certain disclosures of ongoing projects that can make a big difference when released externally.

How to approach external transparency

As a company, we do not wish to create more rules, processes, or validations. we want to trust the intelligence of Alaners because that's why they were hired. 

Thus, the questions you should ask yourself every time are: 

• Does it create value for Alan to talk about this now? 

• What are the risks? 

• Has the company communicated about this publicly? 

• And if not, should the information remain confidential? What are the consequences of sharing about it?

Our internal commitment 

Every decision, every project, is accessible to Alaners, because we trust the team, because we owe the team radical transparency, because it's important to create this level of trust together.

It allows us to build an environment where Alaners can make better decisions because they have more information. 

External partners

There is sometimes information that we do not communicate externally, even if we are radically transparent internally.

If you think there is a chance it is an important internal asset of Alan, ask before on the dedicated channel “is it OK to talk about this?”.

People should be nuanced, sometimes it is OK to discuss something with a “friendly company” and not to discuss the same thing with a potential competitor. We trust the team to exercise their best judgement.

Conclusion

We want to create an environment where we have mutual trust, where we don’t have to label everything we share internally with how it could be shared externally, because we do truly believe that every Alaners are capable of exercising their “critical mind” on what to share or not to share, ask when they are unsure, and fight gossiping.

Ultimately, we rely on Alaners judgement. If you’re unsure, don’t share, that's the easiest way!

Some good articles I have read this week

👉Last week Samsung launched its new flagship phone, the Galaxy S24 featuring Galaxy AI. (The Tech Buzz)

• I believe live translation is going to be the new norm with on device live translation 

• It is going to change the way we interact with technology and with others. 

👉 Hims & Hers stocks jumps 30%+ on profitable growth in Q4 (Hims & Hers Q4 & FY23 Shareholder Letter)

• “Hims is focusing on five core specialties, all of which it believes have the opportunity to be $100 million lines of business moving forward: sexual health, men’s dermatology, women’s dermatology, mental health, and weight loss.“ 

• Seeing 85% long term retention

👉 Limbic, a mental health AI startup, raised $14 million in fresh capital to expand access to the company's platform to US-based providers (Link)

• Interesting to deep dive at the crossing of AI x therapy and what is possible.

👉 Duolingo runs a taqueria outside their HQ in Pittsburgh. You get a discount for speaking Spanish (X)

• Duolingo runs a taqueria outside their HQ in Pittsburgh. You get a discount for speaking Spanish. 

• Duolingo's taco shop does almost $700k in revenue

👉 Social Security Financing Act: the Constitutional Council partially censures the text (L’Argus)

• The Council rejected provisions of Article 63, relating to the suspension of daily allowances following a control carried out by a doctor at the employer's request.

• Provisions concerning the prohibition of telemedicine prescription of certain drugs in case of supply disruption were also censored.

👉 Healthy life expectancy: the indicator is set to fall in 2022, according to a study (Le Figaro)

• At 65 years old, women can expect to live 11.8 years without disability, meaning without being limited in daily life activities, and men 10.2 years, according to a study by the Directorate of Studies and Statistics of the Social Ministries (Drees) published on Friday, December 22.

• Progress since 2008: "But these additional years of life are not necessarily all lived "in good health"," adds Drees, which therefore publishes each year an indicator measuring life expectancy in good health.

• This life expectancy without disability at 65 has increased since 2008 by one year and nine months for women, and by one year and six months for men, details Drees.

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