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20 years of juicy startup & life knowledge in 1159 words
- Jargon almost never helps your case. The simplest sentences make things happen.
- There are no guarantees in business. Right now, Google is a $2 trillion dollar company walking around with their pants on fire because of AI. Even Google can get disrupted. Just because your business is doing well today, doesn’t it mean it will tomorrow. All we have with 100% certainty is today.
- Avoid “trust me” people. Constantly the most untrustworthy people.
- Why most products fail: not opinionated enough, wrong opinions, wrong community, distribution never figured out, team gives up, wrong vibe
- Bad copy kills businesses, good copy makes them. Elite copywriters are worth their weight in gold.
- 3 types of goals to hold sacred. Your someday goals. Your 1 year goals. Your daily goals. Everything else doesn’t matter.
- I used to think a low follower to followee ratio was cool. Now I think the opposite. Avoid people who play status games.
- More direct reports you have, the more stress you'll have. That's okay. Just have to acknowledge it.
- Nothing is out of reach. I remember that feeling, on the come up. Top people felts unreachable. They’re just like you.
- Everything is a drug. Coffee is a drug. Food is a drug. Travel is a drug. Business is a drug. Deals are drugs. Use accordingly.
- When someone uses your product, they are having a dialogue with you. It’s kinda spiritual. Will they understand your vision like you do?
- Whenever you’re frustrated with business or life, get up and reset with music. For me, it’s reggae. I can’t be mad at life when reggae is playing.
- Find all your business partners from either people you grew up with or people you find fascinating on the internet, and nothing in between.
- How to hire: based on integrity, grit and how quickly (and willing) they are to learn.
- Replace the words revenue and valuation, with profit and impact. Good things will happen and you’ll sleep like a baby.
- Wake up thinking of cash-flow, go to sleep thinking of cash-flow. Being dependent on anyone is always less than ideal. Zuck or VCs. The more cash flow you have, the less dependencies you have.
- If you want to write an angry email, wait 24h and see if you’d word it differently tomorrow. Hard to write good emails when you're angry.
- Bad copy kills businesses, good copy makes them.
- The wrong customers will drive you crazy. Sometimes I’ll see a wonderful team and product, but they just focused on the wrong customers. So the business ends up sucking. Founders end up ripping their hair out.
- Find invigoration trips. Trips that give you a dose of inspiration. You feel like a new person. Could be your favorite coffeeshop to 24h in a cabin in the woods. Know you invigoration places and visit often.
- If you sell on the internet, you’re a dopamine dealer whether you want to admit it or not.
- Be busy creating, not consuming. Consuming is overvalued and creating is undervalued.
- Follow what competitors are doing, but don’t obsess over it.
- “10 people who yell make more noise than 10,000 people who are silent”
- No amount of marketing can save a lousy product.
- No-one should work at a company for 12+ years. It’s too comfortable.
- Leverage makes you superhuman. Leveraging automations. Leveraging AI. Leveraging community. Leveraging code.
- Your quality of life increases when you screen time goes down.You’re more productive and happy.
- People underestimate a good name for a product. Own a good name. Bonus points if its a dotcom. The internet rewards catchy names.
- When you get rejected,I always remind myself: something about getting rejected makes you want it more. Helps with focus too.
- The real minimum viable product is just a social post. You’ll validate more than 99% of MVPs through a tweet or an IG post.
- When you’re thirsty, it’s too late to be thinking about digging a well
- We often undervalue what we have and overvalue what we don’t have
- Don’t follow growth hacks. If someone is telling you about them, it’s too late
- Accept pain, don’t suffer (pain is inevitable, suffering is optional)
- T-shirt test. Your brand should be so good people want to wear it on t-shirts.
- Give customers a little more than they expect. “Bonuses” go a long way.
- Start even if you’re bad. Get going then get good
- You don't need a green card to the US to "make it" and be wealthy anymore. You need to show up on the internet consistently and get loud.
- Everyone is in the acquisition and retention business. You're either attracting customers or keeping customers. Usually both. Be confident in how you’re doing it.
- You’ll be a lot less happy (and wealthy) if you do what other people expect of you.
- Following the trend is a status game and trends don’t usually work out. Way too competitive. It’s “cool” to zig, it pays to zag.
- The trends that change the world are the ones that are part-inspiring, part-frightening.
- Whatever you’re building, have an aesthetic. And own it. People will notice.
- How to come up with startup ideas: Virtual travel. Go to TikTok, Discords and Subreddits to understand what people want.
- If you want to get into the right room, write well.
- “Home” is where you feel accepted. “Family” is where you feel loved. “Purpose” is where you feel at peace.
- Startup killers: Multi-tasking, too much capital, too little capital, perfectionism, not obsessed enough over details, too obsessed over competition, team burnout, constant pivots, no distribution, no fun anymore.
- The moment you start caring about what other people think, is the moment you start building your company like them
- Life is full of hidden taxes that slow you down. Taxes to keep in mind: attention tax, social tax, boss tax, commute taxes etc. What life taxes are slowing you down?
- Writing and living go hand in hand. They aren’t the same, but by living more and understanding what that means, it helps you understand what it means to capture it in words.
- Managing anxiety and stress has to be one of life's greatest challenge. It's a process.
- Real feedback from colleagues, customers, bosses, investors is sobering. Seek it.
- Nostalgia is the source for some of your worst product ideas and some of your best product ideas
- The fastest way to grow your IG is to start a TikTok. The fastest way to grow a newsletter is to grow your X account. The fastest way to build a community is to make internet friends. The fastest way start a startup is to press publish on an idea.
- If you send a customer a marketing email, it better be good. Your trust is at stake.
- Get HD clear on WHO you're making it for, before WHAT you're making
- Life's too short and there's too much opportunity on the internet for you to hate what you do. If it isn't fun, find something else. If it's fun, enjoy every second.
Forward this to a friend who might enjoy this post. It's free to forward. Tell them to subscribe to this newletter here and to subscribe to my YouTube here for free startup ideas.
You can also listen to my podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It's a library full of startup ideas and frameworks that'll get you thinking.
Last week's episode of the pod: $1M+ business ideas with Brian Feroldi, listen/watch at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube (there are no ads, just enjoy and share if you learned something)
Next up, bookmarks I saved this week worth reading
#1
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Grit Capital, Ancient God of Commerce
@GritGrowthCap
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5:27 PM • Apr 1, 2024
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Are you seeing the same trend? Truth is, if your team gets their job for the week done, it doesn't matter if they're signing off Friday AM.
#2
This will take some time, but probably directionally correct.
#3
Life became more productive and happy as soon as I treated like a video game.
#4
If you're in your 20s or just trying to break through, read this. You want to stand out.
Thank you for reading Greg's Letter. I hope you found it valuable. Forward to a friend if you did or share on social to get others thinking.
I'll keep writing if you keep reading. I read every reply if you care to reply :). You might get an answer back.
Before I head off... some resources to help you grow:
- For the entrepreneurs: if you're serious about building your business, join the private membership at Community Empire. Browse the website and see if it's for you.
- For companies looking to grow with design & brand: Dispatch is going to evolve into something new in 2-3 weeks. So, if you're looking for a design agency partner, for beautiful websites, social assets, brands, book a call with them while you can.
- For companies who want to grow via organic growth: Free course on how to 10x your organic growth using AI-powered SEO and become a "boring marketer" here. Or just book a call here with BoringMarketing.com and have them do it for you.
Until next week.
Be well,
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113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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