MegaMaker - Realizations

Three things for you this Saturday: us vs them, panic, and diamonds on the soles of your shoes.

✊ How to compete against bigger companies

Canva is a $40-billion-dollar success story; why would a small company like Snappa even try to enter that market? This thread (by Josh Garofalo) is excellent:

🤔 Josh Garofalo

@swaycopy

Why would anyone choose @Snappa, a small self-funded startup, over a giant like Canva?

Thousands of people do and Snappa has blown past $1M ARR as a result.

This is how shaping the Category Story plays a role...

🧵 (with images and analysis)

November 19th 2021

5

Retweets

25

Likes

This part is particularly helpful:

We asked customers whether they switched from a competing product. If they answered "yes," we wanted to know:

a) What did you switch from?
b) Why did you switch?
c) How their experience compared

And we got gold...

You can compete with a bigger incumbent, you just have to figure out why people are switching to you. Then, in your marketing, you double-down on that job to be done.

🤿 It could happen to you

Derek Sivers is one of my favorite writers. His latest piece is powerful:

I learned a few lessons from this experience.

There are things in life we think won’t apply to us: Panic. Addiction. Depression.

I thought that was for other people. I thought I wasn’t that type. Why is this happening to me?

But I learned so much empathy that day. These things that only seem to happen to other people can happen to me. We’re not so different. It helps me recognize it in others, and be most helpful by remembering that feeling.

I've written about a similar realization here.

🐥Tweets

🎧 Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

When Paul Simon's Graceland album came out in 1984, I was obsessed with it. We had it on tape cassette, and played it over and over again in our station wagon. It was also (oddly) a regular soundtrack at outdoor waterparks, playing on loudspeakers while you waited for your turn on the waterslide.

Anyways, I'm a fan. Malcolm Gladwell has produced a new private podcast on Paul Simon and it's excellent.

Gladwell is specifically interested in Paul Simon's creative process: unlike other musicians, who peak early and then fall into obscurity, Simon has continued to produce music that connects.

I purchased it last week, and I've been listening to chapter after chapter, every chance I get. I've since recommended it to others. (You can get it here)

Cheers,
Justin Jackson
@mijustin

PS: Transistor.fm is getting ready to do our first Black Friday sale (on Nov 26). If you've been wanting to start a podcast (or switch from your existing hosting provider) this will be a good time to do it! Get notified here.

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MegaMaker - Realizations

✊ How to compete against bigger companies

🤿 It could happen to you

🐥Tweets

🎧 Diamonds on the soles of her shoes

Older messages

I've gotten more DMs about this than anything else

Wealth, twitter fights, and gen-z

Excited about this

It might never go away

So, what does work?

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