Founder Weekly (Issue 377 - March 6 2019)

Founder Weekly - Issue 377

March 06, 2019

Founder Weekly

Welcome to issue 377 of Founder Weekly. We have a packed issue this week. Enjoy it!

General

Some of Stephen Wolfram’s “productivity hacks” to make his days and projects more productive. Daily life, desk environment, outside the office, presentation setup, filesystem organization, Wolfram Notebook systems, databases, personal analytics.

A summary of nearly everything I think about building companies.

And guess what? It didn’t need any funding. But it did need humans (and still does).

When someone hears we do multiple millions in annual revenue, they assume we have many employees and a large office. We don’t. We run the business remotely.

Punit Soni reflects on the lessons he learned as he transitioned from the scale of helming product at large companies to the rollercoaster ride of founding a startup. He shares his observations on the differences between the two experiences, noting what surprised him, what he felt unprepared for, and what aspiring entrepreneurs should consider as they look to make a similar leap from big to small.

These heuristics are just a starting point to identify interesting, unsolved problems in the world that may turn in to great startups. Entrepreneurs must still go deep on understanding their customers, the business model, have a clear answer to Why Now? there is a big shift in the market, and focus on identifying problems rather than generating ideas that sound good.

A post-mortem on shutting down a product we just launched.

Three decades ago, an influential Harvard Business School professor made the argument that CEO pay should be tied to stock performance. Was he horribly wrong?

How Internet Marketplaces Unlock Economic Wealth.

For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver. 

Books

When you're launching a startup, one of the most important elements is the legal work involved. Unfortunately, it's easy for many entrepreneurs to ignore startup legal work or make costly mistakes that could derail their business before it gets off the ground. But now there's help. In Acceleration, corporate attorney Ryan Roberts guides you through the often confusing early legal decisions critical to getting a startup going. In plain, comprehensible English, he offers expert advice, best practices, legal strategies, and all the information you need to incorporate, issue and divide equity, decipher seed and venture capital investments, and much more

Marketing, Sales and PR

In this post, we’ll help you uncover great stories you might’ve been sitting on all along. From detailing the structure of your company to showcasing office traditions no matter how small (or silly), learn how telling better stories with video can help build your brand and make you stand out amongst the competition.

How brand strategy plays into product adoption.

Money and Finance

Investable Trends & Opportunities within Global Logistics.

Startups of the Week

We Pay You to Learn to Code. Modern Labor is a revolutionary platform that pays you $2000 per month for 5 months to learn in-demand tech skills and then finds you your new job.

Briq captures, automates, and learns from your construction data using AI and machine learning. Build better and smarter with Briq.

Rent beautiful, furnished apartments for durations of 30 days or more. Blueground offers ideally located, fully-equipped, turnkey properties in the best buildings in cities around the world. Our easy, flexible, and instant booking process and guest support takes the hassle out of your housing needs.

Tips, Tools and Services

A peek behind the curtain at what went into the making of Help Scout’s Beacon product.

Don't stop working hard. Just remember to make yourself a priority too.

Avoid the planning fallacy and learn how to better estimate time.

Improving your designs with tactics instead of talent.

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