CoFounder Weekly
CoFounder Weekly is a newsletter about startup life. This week’s newsletter we’re trying out a different format because YOLO. Sections: Thought Starters, Trends, Founder Stuff, Investor Stuff, Crossword Puzzle, Holiday Gift Guide, Weekly Thought.
Feedback, as always, is welcome. This is not your average newsletter (could be better or worse).
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Source: Matt Blease
THOUGHT STARTERS 💡💡
TRENDS 📉
Tweetstorm here.
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Vox journalist Rebecca Jennings lived a week exclusively using startup brands. $4,900 worth of Glossier, AllBirds, Casper, etc. She went a little mad. LINK.
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Twitter/Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been meditating for 20 years, did a 10-day silent vipassana retreat, and shared his journey via Twitter (see tweetstorm here).
I have trouble doing more than 10 minutes, so 10 days of silent meditation is quite a feat.
As expected, Twitter had a field day in response….
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Academic excellence is not a strong predictor of career excellence, according to a recent NY Times article. Here’s why:
Getting straight A’s requires conformity. Having an influential career demands originality.
If your goal is to graduate without a blemish on your transcript, you end up taking easier classes and staying within your comfort zone.
Academic grades rarely assess qualities like creativity, leadership and teamwork skills, or social, emotional and political intelligence. Yes, straight-A students master cramming information and regurgitating it on exams. But career success is rarely about finding the right solution to a problem — it’s more about finding the right problem to solve.”
Straight-A students also miss out socially. More time studying in the library means less time to start lifelong friendships, join new clubs or volunteer.
Over in Twitterworld, Basecamp’s David Heinemeier Hansson in fact said he’s skeptical of hiring 4.0 GPA candidates.
Founder stuff 🐢
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Maker Weekly shared an interesting thread about the trend of startup founders sharing their company stats (revenue, subscribers, etc.). Is it a sleazy marketing tactic to generate more awareness or a way to connect with likeminded fans/customers in a crowded marketplace? Seems to be a bit of both. Tweetstorm here.
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The skills of a founder vs. CEO. LINK.
Investor stuff 💰
If you’re working on podcasts, hit up Andrew at Tiny for some $$$. The podcast market is boooooming.
Tweetstorm here.
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First Round Capital published the State of Startups for 2018 this week. 529 founders surveyed. Lots of pretty charts. Lots of blockchain skeptics. It’s another example of a VC being a media company. LINK.
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I think of Glassdoor in this context not literally, but as a proxy for team and culture.
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Tweetstorm here.
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Tweetstorm here (worth clicking).
This Week’s Crossword:
OK, so last week we created a contest for the fastest crossword puzzle completion time.
The winner was…no one.
No one tweeted a screenshot of the fastest time.
People screenshoted and texted us the results, but zero tweets.
A few theories of why that happened:
You just weren’t interested or motivated to share your results on Twitter
The tweet would have felt spammy
Not many of our newsletter recipients are on Twitter. Hence, why our Twitter recap is useful
Our prize, the Useless Box, was not compelling
You didn’t finish the puzzle, but would have tweeted it if you did finish!
Any of the above resonate!?! Please let us know so we can improve! Reply to this email with your best guess!
This week’s puzzle: Can you get them all?
Email us back with how long it takes you!
CoFounder Weekly Holiday Gift Guide
CoFounder Weekly subscription. Want to keep your loved ones informed about startup things? Gift them a subscription to CoFounder Weekly. $0. LINK.
Weekend Thought:
The Skimm. Morning Brew. Market Snacks.
Daily newsletters are in.
But do you need daily newsletters?
“Lets cram in everything that happened yesterday and provide a hot take”.
So often, the dust needs to settle to get a well rounded POV.
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