Founder's Journal

Episode 122: Lulu Meservey is the former Chief Communications Officer of Activision Blizzard and Substack. This episode, I read her recent manifesto, which details the importance of founders crafting their narrative, learning how to communicate, and going direct to their audiences via social media. Original essay: https://www.rostra.co/ Send us an email and let us know what you think of the idea!...

Episode 121: Writer, Columbia Business School grad, and college athlete Jack Raines' essay, "The Opportunity Cost of Everything," forces readers to ask themselves the only question that really matters: If I was nearing the end of my life, would I be happy with how I am currently spending my time? It is a question that any human being must ask themselves periodically, but I find that it is especial...

Episode 120: Andrew Wilkinson is the co-founder and CEO of Tiny, a publicly traded holding company trying to be Berkshire Hathaway but for internet companies. In 2007, Andrew started a Canada-based design agency called MetaLab, which grew to $40-50 million in revenue & $20 million in profit. After trying and failing to launch other businesses, Andrew pivoted to buying businesses to grow his holdin...

Episode 119: LTV, or lifetime value, has become the gold standard for startups, specifically how they measure the effectiveness of their various marketing channels. LTV does have merit, and it is a helpful proxy to prioritize marketing and understand the economics of each customer you acquire, but if relied on entirely, it can be misleading at best and harmful to your business at worst. I’ve found...

Episode 118: Million Dollar Weekend, by Noah Kagan, the founder & CEO of AppSumo, walks you through the step-by-step process for building a 7-figure business in 48 hours. I know it sounds too good to be true, and no, you’re not going to make $1 million in 2 days, but after reading the book, I can promise you that you will have a repeatable process for going from business idea to revenue in 48 hour...

Episode 117: Just under 13 years ago, Marc Andreessen proclaimed that software would transform every industry. He couldn’t have been more right; software did eat the world. 7 of the 10 largest companies in the world today are technology or software businesses, and Andreessen Horowitz, the investment firm Marc founded in 2009, grew to become the largest VC in the world. Today, we’re going to be rea...

Episode 116: I found one of the best resources on hiring by one of the most well-respected founders and early-stage investors, Elad Gil. In this episode, I'll be reading highlights from the Hiring chapter of Elad’s startup book, High Growth Handbook, and cover job descriptions, interview questions, candidate scoring, work projects, building a diverse team, and more. Original essay: https://growth....

Episode 115: Today’s essay breaks down one of the best business strategy books I’ve ever read. Startup founder Abi Tunggal breaks down 7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer, which is a book about the seven proven business strategies that lead to sustained competitive advantage for companies. By the end of this episode, you’ll understand each of these strategies, why they created powerful moats, and examples...

Episode 114: Yesterday, Snowflake announced that its CEO, Frank Slootman, was retiring. Slootman, former CEO of Data Domain and ServiceNow, is such a successful and well-respected CEO that Snowflake's stock was down 24.5% or $17 billion. In honor of Slootman’s amazing leadership, defined by high standards and high intensity, I’m reading an article he wrote in 2018 about how he runs his companies....

Episode 113: Today’s read is by one of my favorite startup creators, Lenny Rachitsky. The essay, How To Kickstart & Scale a Consumer Business, breaks down the seven proven strategies to acquire your first 1,000 users as a B2C startup. I’m going to read through each of the strategies, share some examples that Lenny provides, and provide some of my own thoughts on early growth. Original essay: https...

Episode 112: Today’s read was recommended by my buddy Sam Parr & it was written by Jason Cohen, a serial entrepreneur who has built 4 businesses, resulting in 2 exits and 2 unicorns. The essay is called Rich vs. King in the Real World & it explores Jason’s decision to sell his business, the unexpected criticism he received from friends & colleagues, and why he believes it was ultimately the right...

Episode 111: In today's episode, I talk about transitioning from early-stage founder to late-stage CEO. I read the essay, The second job of a startup CEO by Ali Rowghan, Managing Director at Y Combinator, the former COO of Twitter, and CFO of Disney. Ali breaks down the three distinct jobs of a startup CEO and how to go from being a stage 1 doer-in-chief to a stage 2 company-builder-in-chief. Orig...

Episode 110: On today’s episode, I am going to break down 17 startup principles by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI & former President of YCombinator. The essay is called What I Wish Someone Had Told Me & as I read the piece I found myself nodding from beginning to end. Sam managed to bottle up so many thoughts & experiences that I’ve had as an entrepreneur, but never articulated in such a clear way....

Episode 109: On today’s episode, I am going to break down & analyze an essay by one of my good friends & the super popular internet writer, David Perell. David is a prolific content creator, the founder of the super popular writing school Write of Passage, and the host of the writing podcast, How I Write. The essay I’ll be sharing is called Imitate, then Innovate, which explores entrepreneurs & cr...

Episode 108: For today’s episode, I read and analyze startup founder Paras Chopra’s essay on market size from his online book Mental Models for Startup Founders. Chopra’s essay suggests that entrepreneurs should want to define their market as narrowly as possible. Original essay: https://invertedpassion.com/define-your-market-as-narrowly-as-possible/ Send us an email and let us know what you think...

Episode 107: Today, I break down one of my favorite issues of one of my favorite newsletters, No Mercy No Malice, which explores why some entrepreneurs are considered visionaries and others are called frauds. Original Essay: https://www.profgalloway.com/tell-me-a-story/ Send us an email and let us know what you think of the idea! foundersjournal@morningbrew.com #FoundersJournal #Startups #Entrepre...

Episode 106: On today’s episode, I read and breakdown Speed as a Habit by David Girouard, CEO of Upstart and former President of Google Enterprise Apps. This essay was originally posted on First Round Review, one of my favorite startup blogs, and it talks about the importance of speed in decision making and execution when building a business. Original essay: https://review.firstround.com/speed-as-...

Episode 105: For today’s episode, I read and break down The Great Online Game by Packy McCormick. This essay provides a completely new way of looking at the internet economy, and how you can structure your career and life in a manner that embraces curiosity, experimentation, and collaboration. Original essay: https://www.notboring.co/p/the-great-online-game Send us an email and let us know what yo...

Episode 104: Today, I’m going to be breaking down an essay by Morgan Housel, one of my favorite internet writers. Morgan is a partner at Collaborative Fund and a New York Times best selling author of The Psychology of Money and Same as Ever, of which he’s sold over 4.5 million copies combined. If there’s one lesson you take from this amazing essay it is the importance of embracing wandering and cu...

Episode 103: I’m going to break down a seminal essay by Andreesen Horowitz General Partner Chris Dixon. In 2010, Chris wrote an essay titled “The next big thing will start out looking like a toy” which talks about why the next big technology product always starts out by being dismissed and being considered “toy-like.” And while I think understanding this essay and Chris’ words are always important...

Episode 102: For today’s episode, I’m going to be reading 3 emails from Elon Musk. These emails were initially just for Tesla employees’ eyes, but were eventually made public. I think these emails not only give good insight into the way in which Elon operates as a person & operates his businesses, but I also think there are great lessons hidden within each of these emails regardless of what you th...

Episode 101: I’m going to be reading quite possibly the most viral twitter thread in the world of business ever. In 2018, Naval Ravikant, wrote “How to Get Rich (Without Getting Lucky),” a 40-tweet thread that covers everything from what wealth is & what it isn’t to the power of leverage to finding your specific knowledge to the power of optimism. For those who don’t know him, Naval is the founder...

Episode 100: On this episode, I’ll be sharing the best moments from Lenny Rachitsky’s recent interview with Brian Chesky, the co-founder & CEO of Airbnb. Airbnb is a $95bn company that under Brian’s leadership has grown into a community of 4 million hosts welcoming over 1.5 billion guests across 220 countries. These moments range from how politics & bureaucracy are created in a company to survivin...

Episode 99: I’m going to be reading & analyzing one of the most famous essays that has been published on the internet in the last 20 years: 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly. Kevin Kelly is the founding Executive Editor of Wired magazine & he wrote 1,000 True Fans to illustrate the ability for creators on the internet to make a very meaningful living with a seemingly small number of consumers or cust...

Episode 98: I’m going to be breaking down a 45-minute video by one of the greatest startup minds of all-time, who quite possibly, you’ve never heard of. Bill Gross is the Founder of IdeaLab, considered by many to be the world’s first venture studio. Modeled after Thomas Edison’s Lab, a place where many ideas and inventions can be tested under one roof, IdeaLab went on to find 5,000 ideas, launch 1...