15 February 2021
This week's additions focus on operations, mindset, and founder stories, with new digests from Bill Gallagher, Founders, and Joanna Wiebe. Highlights include Stop waiting for free time — design your cadence and claim it first Four years of near-zero revenue before the business could support them
Showing 13 digests for 15 February 2021.
How to build and protect a meeting cadence that sticks
Bill Gallagher
February 21, 2021
Processes & SOPs
9
Management
6
Stop waiting for free time — design your cadence and claim it first
Treat internal meeting slots as booked, not optional or negotiable
Consistent meeting discipline visibly signals operational rigour to investors
Founder interviews
YouTube
Building a subscription box business from scratch with DateBox Club
Bill Gallagher
February 21, 2021
Founder interviews
9
Pivoting
6
Scaling infrastructure
5
Four years of near-zero revenue before the business could support them
Designed for empty nesters; real customers turned out to be exhausted young parents
Pandemic quadrupled volume — now choosing fulfilment centre over warehouse to reach 10x
Founder interviews
Podcast
Larry Miller: building a billion-dollar empire from a parts counter
Founders
February 21, 2021
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
7
From 961st-ranked parts manager to owner of 90 companies
Why 90-hour weeks built his empire but destroyed his family
How fast-tracking built a 20,000-seat arena in 15 months
How to organise copywriting research using a message map
Joanna Wiebe
February 20, 2021
Copywriting
10
Processes & SOPs
6
Messy notes are normal — the gap between research and writing is the real problem
A message map consolidates product and persona knowledge across all projects
A solution design (PCPO + rule of one) bridges research to writing for each piece
Jackie Cochran: from barefoot mill girl to aviation's all-time record holder
Founders
February 19, 2021
Origin stories
9
Resilience & grit
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Orphaned and shoeless at eight, she became history's most decorated pilot
Self-belief treated as a practical tool, not a personality trait
Still breaking speed records at nearly 60 — until doctors grounded her
How the New York Times Survived 170 Years and Reinvented Itself
Acquired
February 18, 2021
Origin stories
9
Business models
8
A broke outsider from Tennessee bought the NYT using none of his own money.
Cutting price from 3 cents to 1 cent tripled circulation and saved the paper.
Trump's presidency became the single greatest subscriber growth driver in Times history.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport's habit Q&A: planning, anxiety, writing, and deep work
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 18, 2021
Productivity & habits
10
Deep work & focus
7
Time management
6
Weekly planning should take under an hour — not several.
Pre-meeting rehearsal rituals mute anxiety without addressing ruminations directly.
Top publications seek distinctive writers, not interesting submissions.
How to use internal links to rank higher in Google
Ahrefs
February 17, 2021
SEO
10
Automation & tools
5
Internal links pass PageRank freely — no outreach required
Content hubs let every page in a cluster share authority
Three free methods to find missed linking opportunities on any site
Eight Pillars of Trust: The Root Cause Behind Every Leadership Problem
Bill Gallagher
February 17, 2021
Management
10
Communication
7
Conflict resolution
5
Every org problem — sales, engagement, innovation — is a trust deficit in disguise.
Eight validated pillars (clarity to consistency) diagnose and fix trust systematically.
Apologies never rebuild trust; only new commitments kept over time do.
How to protect meeting cadence when your calendar fills up
Bill Gallagher
February 16, 2021
Processes & SOPs
8
Management
5
Block recurring meetings first — treat them as already booked.
Reactive scheduling is why cadence meetings never happen.
A paused banker meeting became proof of operational discipline.
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Four lessons from 2020: perspective, resilience, opportunity, and action
Startups For the Rest of Us
February 16, 2021
Resilience & grit
8
Niche selection
7
Identity & self-belief
5
Startup problems shrink against crises like pandemics and civil unrest.
Founders who ship publicly during chaos catch luck others never see.
Recessions spawn new categories; hunters of emerging problems thrive.
Five profitable business ideas for 2021 backed by data
Noah Kagan
February 15, 2021
Niche selection
9
Market research
7
MVP & prototyping
5
Organ supplements: a $6B adjacent market with no dominant brands
31 million skilled trade jobs left vacant — massive gap, few takers
ADUs can boost property values 30% with near-zero owner risk
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Escaping the autonomy trap: why knowledge work defaults to chaos
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
February 15, 2021
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
8
Processes & SOPs
6
Peter Drucker's autonomy doctrine accidentally created the inbox-obsessed workplace
Separating workflow design from execution is how teams escape the hive mind
Consistent two-hour deep work sessions outperform sporadic heroic marathon days