Founder interviews

Podcast

Sam Walton's principles for building Walmart from a single store

Founders May 14, 2017

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Founder interviews 10

Bootstrapping 7

Long-term planning 7

• Obsessive competitor study was Walton's single biggest edge
• Treating associates well is the root of Walmart's profit model
• Walton died with no regrets — passion to compete defined his life

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Identity & self-belief

YouTube

How Ryan Holiday thinks about work, fear, and wanting less

Noah Kagan May 12, 2017

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Identity & self-belief 8

Deep work & focus 6

• Write crappy pages anyway — the gap between vision and output never closes.
• Jealousy is a compass: most envied things cost $100 on Craigslist.
• Chase discomfort in your career, not on a roller coaster.

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Product-market fit

YouTube

How to market a book: product-market fit before promotion

Noah Kagan May 11, 2017

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Product-market fit 8

Content marketing 7

• Bad marketing usually means a bad product, not bad promotion.
• Know exactly who buys the first 1,000 copies before launch.
• Doing unscalable things — calls, giveaways — beats passive Amazon listings.

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Origin stories

Podcast

How MLB built the future of streaming inside a sports league

Acquired May 10, 2017

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Origin stories 9

Business models 8

Pivoting 6

• MLB secretly built a $3.5B streaming giant before Netflix existed
• Live sports rights turned a tech vendor into a cable-killer
• Disney paid $1B to own the future of direct-to-consumer TV

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Fundraising & VC

Podcast

Why founders should raise more capital than they think they need

Masters of Scale May 10, 2017

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Fundraising & VC 9

Origin stories 7

Resilience & grit 6

• Unknown costs always exceed the plan — budget as if you have half
• Taking capital right before Lehman collapsed saved Minted from extinction
• Post-bust conservatism is a founder's curse, not a virtue

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Unit economics

YouTube

The real economics of writing and publishing a book

Noah Kagan May 9, 2017

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Unit economics 9

Business models 7

Content marketing 5

• Most authors never earn beyond their advance — and that's fine.
• The real money comes from what the book enables, not sells.
• Sustained weekly sales over years beat any launch spike.

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Growth hacking

YouTube

Why most artists fail: it's not talent, it's who they make for

Noah Kagan May 8, 2017

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Growth hacking 8

Niche selection 6

Product-market fit 5

• The starving artist myth: gatekeepers are gone, so excuses are too.
• Same book, different outcome — quality doesn't determine success.
• Build audience into the work before launch, not after.

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Identity & self-belief

YouTube

Apprenticeship, smart cuts, and building a career without shortcuts

Noah Kagan May 8, 2017

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Identity & self-belief 8

Resilience & grit 7

Productivity & habits 5

• Working for a mentor beats any credential — it's paid access to expertise.
• Turning down an early book deal made the eventual book far better.
• Smart cuts find faster routes; they don't eliminate the work required.

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