7 December 2020
This week's additions focus on strategy, founder stories, and marketing, with new digests from Cameron Herold, Acquired, and Noah Kagan. Highlights include Harvard identified seven distinct COO types — each serves a different need Sequoia's $585k seed check returned over $11 billion at IPO
Showing 16 digests for 7 December 2020.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
The seven types of COO and how to choose the right one
Cameron Herold
December 13, 2020
Hiring & recruitment
9
Management
6
Outsourcing & delegation
5
Harvard identified seven distinct COO types — each serves a different need
Giving the COO title too early strands the person with nowhere to grow
There is no universal COO scorecard; the role depends on which type you need
Airbnb IPO: the story, business model, and growth challenges
Acquired
December 11, 2020
Origin stories
9
Business models
8
Growth hacking
7
Sequoia's $585k seed check returned over $11 billion at IPO
91% direct traffic is both Airbnb's greatest moat and its performance marketing blind spot
Growth slowed to 29% pre-COVID while fixed costs grew 60% — the cost structure never adjusted
How people build audiences and businesses on TikTok
Noah Kagan
December 11, 2020
Social media
9
Content marketing
7
Business models
5
Most TikTok creators earn only from sponsored posts — leaving revenue untapped
Your email list outlasts any platform algorithm or government ban
Test, verify, double down — only scale TikTok if it drives real results
Action-triggered emails: turning clicks into conversions
Joanna Wiebe
December 11, 2020
Business models
9
Outsourcing & delegation
8
Prospecting & outreach
6
A click is a buying signal — follow up within 30 minutes
Triggered emails drove the highest-revenue days of a Black Friday launch
Two extra sales a day on evergreen pays for itself within a week
DoorDash: How a Stanford Startup Won the Food Delivery Wars
Acquired
December 10, 2020
Case studies
9
Fundraising & VC
7
Business models
7
Suburban launch, not urban, was the move that unlocked DoorDash's growth.
Two down rounds and a near-death bridge loan preceded a $70B IPO.
Contribution margin only turned positive in the pandemic quarter that changed everything.
How fitness YouTubers build real businesses from niche expertise
Noah Kagan
December 10, 2020
Growth hacking
9
Product-market fit
8
Community building
7
YouTube is the funnel — the real money is in owned products and communities
Science, journey content, and community each outcompete looks as a differentiator
Six-plus years of consistent weekly uploads precede every overnight success
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Habit tune-up: ideas capture, leisure overload, shallow work, side hustles, and deep companies
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 10, 2020
Deep work & focus
10
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
6
Negotiate a deep-to-shallow work ratio before quitting your job
Money is the only honest signal your side hustle is working
Unscheduled messaging across all processes kills organisational deep work
Scaling Up Coach Panel: Leadership, wellbeing, and growth strategies for the new year
Bill Gallagher
December 9, 2020
Management
8
Business operating systems
7
Work-life balance
6
Scaling yourself as a leader must come before scaling your company.
Tony Hsieh's death reveals the hidden cost of founder isolation and addiction.
Musk's method: question every assumption, work backwards from massive problems.
DoorDash's original Y Combinator application video from 2013
Y Combinator
December 9, 2020
Origin stories
9
Customer discovery
7
100+ customer interviews led to a problem worth solving
Founders drove deliveries themselves before hiring anyone
$10,000 in sales in month one with no real marketing
How to get a clear yes or no from corporate prospects
Cameron Herold
December 8, 2020
B2B sales
9
Sales systems & CRM
6
Big companies string vendors along rather than saying no
A three-option email forces prospects to give a real answer
Removing stalled leads is as valuable as closing a deal
Building Nugget: How Justin Vincent turned failed apps into a founder education platform
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 8, 2020
Case studies
9
Pivoting
6
Identity & self-belief
6
Why loving your market matters more than execution ability
Test 100 startup ideas fast before committing to any one
Most founders attempt SaaS before mastering traffic or sales
How entrepreneurs build real businesses on OnlyFans
Noah Kagan
December 7, 2020
Business models
10
Growth hacking
7
Retention & loyalty
5
OnlyFans pays creators directly — no advertisers taking the cut
Recurring subscriptions, upsells, and bundles are the real business model
Early movers on new platforms consistently outperform latecomers
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport on deep resets, saying no, and living a life of impact
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 7, 2020
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Building an email list is the wrong goal — become interesting first.
Self-criticism improves when redirected from identity to process.
Local, character-based impact beats chasing grandiose world-changing ideals.
How collaboration and cross-disciplinary thinking created the digital age
Founders
December 7, 2020
Origin stories
9
Fundraising & VC
6
Culture building
5
Ada Lovelace foresaw programmable computers and AI in the 1840s.
The Traitorous Eight's exit from Shockley accidentally birthed Silicon Valley.
Jobs, Gates, and Case won by executing on ideas others merely observed.
Virtual eSports characters built with live animation and real brand deals
Y Combinator
December 7, 2020
Case studies
8
Business models
7
Influencer & partnerships
6
WWE-style fictional characters competing live at real eSports games
Home-office motion capture stack using Unreal Engine and ARKit
Virtual characters unlock brand integrations human streamers cannot offer