First 1000 - One-Year Anniversary 🎊
Hello folks 👋, First of all, I would like to welcome the 897 new members to our little family 👨🏽🍼. This Thursday, First 1000 officially turned one year old. Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I get to push a button and reach over 14,000 human beings all across the globe. To each and everyone of you, thank you for coming along on this journey. By now, you would expect me to hit your inbox on Sunday, but this issue took me an excruciatingly long time to put together; for the first time in a year, I have no idea what I am "supposed" to write about. By the numbers
What is my end-game? I don't have one in mind; First 1000 has allowed me to meet so MANY inspiring people. It has slowly grown to become an extension of my identity. If there is anything I want to get out of it, maybe a few more Twitter followers (I am addicted 😅)...but beyond that, First 1000 is my avenue to meet and learn from some of the most brilliant people around the world, and I would not trade that for anything! (don’t hold me to that if I end up selling out though😬) What is my research process like? My research process is ...messy. I try to get inside the founder's head, learn how they think, view the world, and what they care about. So I spend a week or two diving into the company I am writing about; when I go on walks, I listen to founder interviews from 7 years back, I wind down to their podcast appearances. I start my day with a morning coffee and digging through the company's old blog posts. And ofcourse, I look and read almost anyone who has ever remotely written about the company…especially in the early days. After that, I turn my notes into a timeline. There are usually a few gaps in the story...something that goes along the line of "and then they used SEO and got to 7 million users." This is where I roll my sleeves and dive deep into research mode. By combining advanced search on Twitter and Google, some internet archives, early blog posts, and talking to the founders, I, most of the time, manage to fill in these holes and put together a case study that flows as smoothly as a bedtime story. In the cases I don’t manage to do that, I just don’t publish that issue 😢. What are my favorite case studies?
What are some of the companies I really want to write about?
If you know the founders of any of these companies...introduce me, please 😬. If you don't tweet at them and make them come on First 100 🙈 How do I stay motivated? As soon as I start writing an issue, I schedule it to go out on Sunday at 9:19 am. I chose Sundays because I don't want the newsletter to ruin my "entire" weekend and 9:19 am because of a superstition I would rather not get into 😬. Scheduling issues to go out before I finish them was and still is an excellent forcing function, at least in my experience. Whenever I feel I can't finish my newsletter in time that week, I have to go back to the drafts to unschedule it. 9/10 times guilt takes over, and I end up powering through it! What is my plan for year 2 of First 1000? Year 2 is all about writing, writing, and writing. It has been one hell of a year and I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you for your support, thank you for sharing, thank you for all the love you sent through, and thank you for allowing me to occupy a tiny space in your inbox every Sunday. <3, If you liked this post from First 1000, why not share it? |
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🎮 Discord
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Everything you *didnt* know about building Discord. This is a story of a game developer who is extremely talented at building mediocre games and pivoting them into successful software companies.
🐧Toucan
Sunday, May 2, 2021
A deep-dive into the chrome browser extension that helps you learn a new language without setting time aside. We look into Human Psychology, habit formation and posting on online communities..........
💳 Stripe
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Everything you *didn't* know about how Stripe got started + a deep deep dive into how their acquisition + GTM strategy in the early days . This is one of my favorite issues ever (for real)😁.
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Monday, April 19, 2021
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Prt2: Growing First 1000 (this newsletter) to 10k Subscribers
Sunday, April 11, 2021
In part 2 we talk about how I got First 1000 from 2k to 10k. We talk about every strategy I tried, what worked and what didn't .
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