Founder Weekly

Welcome to issue 429 of Founder Weekly. Let's get straight to the links this week.

General

Why "Crossing the Chasm" doesn't work for workplace products

How to build a balanced self-serve and enterprise-grade platform with multiple reinforcements.

The Welfare Effects of Social Media

The rise of social media has provoked both optimism about poten-tial societal benefits and concern about harms such as addiction,depression, and political polarization. In a randomized experiment,we find that deactivating Facebook for the four weeks before the 2018 US midterm election (i)reduced online activity, while increasing offline activities such as watching TV alone and socializing with family and friends; (ii)reduced both factual news knowledge and political polarization; (iii)increased subjective well-being; and (iv)caused a large persistent reduction in post-experiment Facebook use. Deactivation reduced post-experiment valuations of Facebook,suggesting that traditional metrics may overstate consumer surplus.

Hope after the Coronavirus Pandemic: Are These 10 New Consumer Behaviors Here To Stay?

Signaling as a Service

Marketing, Sales and PR

Forget about empathetic emails and start making your brand money

Marketers deal with crises through communications, but it is through product, price and distribution that we can make most difference to customers and keep the economy moving.

No one’s buying your product now: what should your growth team do?

My local bakery has a one-week wait queue for sourdough, but I’m assuming you’re not seeing the same demand for your product now. If you are (e.g. Slack’s Q1 earnings), then it’s clear what your growth team should focus on: onboarding and activation. What if almost no one’s trying out or buying your product? You probably shouldn’t just carry on with your acquisition strategy — splurging on prospecting campaigns or outbound sales. Then what should you focus on?

Marketing Right Now Is #$%*ing Hard.

The New SaaS Metric You Should Be Tracking

Money and Finance

The Rise of Alternative Venture Capital

A new age of startup investing has arisen amid the demands of entrepreneurs, and it is altering the traditional venture capital model as we know it.

Here’s What You Need To Know About Equity If You’ve Been Laid Off

With layoffs among startups, there’s an additional component employees need to worry about if they’ve been let go: how to handle equity.

VC in the Time of Corona

This is how much harder it is to raise capital during a downturn

Startups of the Week

Mistro

Benefits + perks for your distributed team. From health insurance to gym memberships, Mistro makes it easy to provide benefits + perks in over 200 countries.

Daily.co

Ship 1-click video chat faster and smarter. The Daily.co API adds video chat to any app or site, in minutes. We have more features that make live video easier to work with, so developers launch faster, ship more, and scale with global infrastructure.

Grido

Grido is building the world's largest charging and services network for lighter-than-car electric vehicles.

Tips, Tools and Services

What motivates people to develop good habits?

The ability to understand human habits is a powerful tool in the world of design — not only in the discovery phase, but throughout the product or service lifecycle. In this article, I’ll explore what motivates people to form new, positive habits. And to help you understand your own customers’ motivations.

YC Alum Advice for Managing Remote Teams

CEOs and Leaders: Here’s how to prepare for an extended period of remote work

Our Other Newsletters

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NoSQL Weekly

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