The similarities between poker and business

How to Think for Yourself

You've got to love a good Paul Graham essay, and he doesn't disappoint with his most recent one. In it, he dissects the difference between independent-minded and conventional-minded people. What I appreciate about Paul is that he always names the underlying truth everyone senses but few actually articulate. In this case, it's that conventional-minded people don't like to think of themselves as conventional-minded, while independent-minded people are often unaware of how different their ideas are from conventional ones (at least until they share them publicly). Which one are you? This read will help you figure it out. 

The Growth Strategy Snowflake Used to Get to a $70 Billion Market Cap

A few months ago, data warehousing company Snowflake broke the record for the largest software IPO in history, closing their first day at $253.93 a share to value the company at over $70 billion. In 2015, the company had about 80 paying customers. Now, Snowflake has over 3,400 customers—including some pretty big ones, like Capital One and Adobe. Here are the combination of product, leadership, and investing decisions the company made to achieve such phenomenal growth in essentially six short years. 

6 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Bootstrapped My First SaaS Startup

Pierre de Wulf bootstrapped his first SaaS company and it ended up being a complete flop. But the second company he co-founded has been much more successful, reaching $180k ARR in less than 18 months. What lessons helped him the second time around? He shares them in this article, and I think it's a must-read for anyone who has built a company and failed, or anyone who is just beginning to build their first company and thinks they know everything. Which lesson do you find most illuminating?

The Product / Feature Line

It's the ultimate question for a tech startup these days: Are you building a product feature or a feature as a product? Steve Jobs infamously told Dropbox founder Drew Houston that his company was a feature and not a product. But, what actually makes a feature enough to be a standalone product—something people will buy separately even when it's just a built-in feature on other larger platforms? Here are five good indicators. 

7 Content Marketing Trends to Watch in 2021

Well, 2020 was undoubtedly a crazy year, and one of the things that had to change in drastic fashion very quickly was how businesses engaged in marketing. What does it all mean for content trends as we head into 2021? This is an interesting read about the seven major trends that should be on your radar if you're a marketer. I'm bullish on building content communities and doubling down on SEO, but curious to see how the use of AI-powered content plays out. Check out the full list of content marketing trends for 2021 here.

Layering Sales Onto a Bottom-Up Self-Serve Product

If you're building a SaaS business from the ground up, it's only a matter of time before you have to layer in sales to scale. This is one of the more useful, tactically driven articles I've read in a while about adding sales into your organization. Whether you're wondering if you should even start with a self-serve product, or you're ready to hire but don't exactly know how to set your company up for success in the process, it's covered here. 

Why Product-Led Growth Is Taking Off 

Product-led growth (PLG) is becoming an increasingly popular term in the startup tech world. What exactly makes it unique, and how might it impact the thinking about how to run a SaaS business? This guide covers everything from the benefits of product-led growth to the best approaches for minimizing friction and driving demand when using a PLG framework. Fair warning: This is a long read, but it's worth reading through to the end. 

Why Do You Manage?

Management has been a theme in this newsletter lately because I've talked to so many people who seem to struggle with either being a manager or being managed. If you happen to be a manager, this is a good reminder that your team is always looking at you to manage up, down, sideways, and indirectly on their behalf. It's easy to get lost in a sea of tasks, but remember that you ultimately influence your direct report's lives. It's worth writing down why managing is important to you–and what your standards are for doing the job well, no matter how busy you get.