This week's additions focus on founder stories, strategy, and finance, with new digests from Noah Kagan, Founders, and Acquired. Highlights include Military service gives every top recruit a real-world programming crash course. Knight paid himself nothing for seven years while building Nike.

Niche selection

YouTube

How Israel built a startup culture punching far above its weight

Noah Kagan July 28, 2017

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Niche selection 7

Culture building 6

Case studies 5

• Military service gives every top recruit a real-world programming crash course.
• Existential threat forced intelligence leverage — and created a tech powerhouse.
• Radical directness cuts feedback loops that waste hours in Western workplaces.

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Origin stories

Podcast

How Phil Knight built Nike from a crazy idea and zero salary for seven years

Founders July 27, 2017

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Origin stories 10

Resilience & grit 6

Bootstrapping 5

• Knight paid himself nothing for seven years while building Nike.
• Belief in your product outsells any sales technique or training.
• Losing your supplier can be the moment that sets you free.

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Origin stories

Podcast

How Booking.com became the world's largest travel company

Acquired July 26, 2017

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Origin stories 9

Business models 8

Niche selection 6

• Priceline paid $133M for Booking.com; it became worth $60B+.
• Agency model beat merchant model by aligning hotels and travelers.
• Long-tail supply of 500K hotels was the moat no one else could build.

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