Unit economics

YouTube

Real estate investing vs short-term rentals: a practical framework

Noah Kagan March 1, 2019

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Unit economics 9

Business models 6

Cash flow management 5

• Cap rate beats cash flow — buy on income stream, not appreciation bets
• Airbnb is running a hotel, not being a real estate investor
• Wealth doesn't kill financial anxiety; only emotional work does

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SEO

YouTube

YouTube keyword research process for consistent search traffic

Ahrefs February 27, 2019

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SEO 9

Content marketing 6

• View counts are misleading — most could be paid ad traffic.
• Build a topic hierarchy to target keywords with real search demand.
• Rank on Google too by matching video content to search intent.

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Culture building

YouTube

Building a values-based business through strengths and manager development

Bill Gallagher February 27, 2019

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Culture building 9

Management 8

Hiring & recruitment 5

• Only 2% of companies formally train managers to engage employees
• Managers define culture in practice — 75% of exits are their fault
• Strengths-based role design can flip engagement from 35% to 70%

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Management

YouTube

COO Alliance: the value of peer learning for operations leaders

Cameron Herold February 27, 2019

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Management 7

• True peers — not experts — give operators an unfair advantage
• Even the group's founder takes pages of notes at each event
• Mutual help is the core mechanic: members both give and receive

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Case studies

YouTube

How Cover built a national insurance brokerage on $3.2M

Y Combinator February 27, 2019

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Case studies 9

Business models 8

Bootstrapping 6

• 49 states, 30 carriers, one layer of the stack — on $3.2M
• Why attacking distribution, underwriting, and claims at once burns companies
• Free defensive driving school as a top-of-funnel with 480,000 users

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Case studies

Podcast

How Facebook built Instagram into a $150B business

Acquired February 26, 2019

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Case studies 10

Vision & mission 7

Branding 6

• Keeping Instagram separate from Facebook was the strategy, not an accident
• Every early ad was hand-curated — self-serve didn't exist until 2015
• Monetising bought autonomy: revenue meant writing your own rules within Facebook

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Case studies

Podcast

Malcolm McLean and the shipping container that rewired global trade

Founders February 25, 2019

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Case studies 9

Business models 7

Processes & SOPs 5

• An outsider trucking magnate solved shipping's biggest problem by ignoring ships.
• Container loading cut costs from $5.83 per ton to $0.15 per ton.
• Excessive debt destroyed McLean twice — even obsessive frugality couldn't save him.

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