24 September 2018
This week's additions focus on leadership, mindset, and finance, with new digests from Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life, Y Combinator, and Ahrefs. Highlights include Working past 55 hours a week actively harms output quality Almost every reason founders don't apply is self-imposed, not real.
Showing 10 digests for 24 September 2018.
Work-life balance
Podcast
Why a weekly hard break drives more productivity than grinding
Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life
September 28, 2018
Work-life balance
9
Productivity & habits
7
Working past 55 hours a week actively harms output quality
The brain's default mode network generates creativity only during genuine rest
Chick-fil-A closes Sundays and outsells rivals fourfold — rest scales
Pitching investors
YouTube
How to apply and succeed at Y Combinator
Y Combinator
September 28, 2018
Pitching investors
9
Fundraising & VC
7
Almost every reason founders don't apply is self-imposed, not real.
Clarity beats persuasion — short, jargon-free applications win.
The interview is a conversation; self-awareness beats over-rehearsed confidence.
SEO fundamentals for startups: organic growth as an untapped channel
Y Combinator
September 27, 2018
SEO
10
Content marketing
6
Paid channels are saturated — organic is the underinvested, compounding alternative.
Crawlable architecture and raw text content beat tricks every time.
Quality links from real content beat hundreds of bought or swapped links.
Broken link building: a real campaign with conversion rates revealed
Ahrefs
September 26, 2018
Management
9
Resilience & grit
6
52 emails, 15 links — a 28.8% conversion rate from one campaign
Two small tweaks (screenshot + follow-up) more than doubled response rates
Anchor text on dead pages tells you exactly what your replacement must cover
How CEOs become the bottleneck and how to break through it
Bill Gallagher
September 26, 2018
Management
9
Business operating systems
7
Identity & self-belief
5
The founder is always the bottleneck — your mindset caps company growth.
Scaling before stage three (16+ employees) actively damages your business.
Early loyalists become liabilities; separating friendship from role is essential.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How to find, evaluate, and close engineering hires at a startup
Y Combinator
September 26, 2018
Hiring & recruitment
9
Processes & SOPs
6
Management
5
Interviews are as noisy as random movie reviews — structure fixes this.
Personal networks beat all other sourcing channels, especially early on.
Speed and transparency in offers close candidates big companies can't.
Founder sales: how to close your first enterprise customers
Y Combinator
September 26, 2018
B2B sales
10
Prospecting & outreach
8
Pricing strategy
6
Only 2.5% of the market will buy from an unproven startup
Sales is listening 70% of the time, not pitching
Free trials kill momentum — use a 30-day opt-out instead
Founder interviews
Podcast
Using imposter syndrome as fuel: Dom Price on how he works
How I Work
September 25, 2018
Founder interviews
9
Identity & self-belief
8
Communication
5
Imposter syndrome, embraced rather than suppressed, drives relentless self-improvement.
Deleting every calendar meeting — and a third never came back.
Energy over time: no fixed hours, outcome-based work and a 70% definition of done.
Alibaba: How Jack Ma built China's dominant tech empire
Acquired
September 24, 2018
Origin stories
10
Business models
6
Jack Ma failed KFC's hiring process; later built a half-trillion-dollar company.
Alibaba owns no inventory, employs no couriers, yet outsells Walmart globally.
Goldman Sachs sold its Alibaba stake for $22M — now worth tens of billions.
Walt Disney: obsession, control, and building an empire from scratch
Founders
September 24, 2018
Origin stories
10
Business models
6
Bootstrapping
5
Losing control of Oswald the Rabbit made Disney own everything after
Nearly insolvent for 40 years — Disneyland finally delivered stability
Chaplin's one rule: to stay independent, own every picture you make