Founder interviews

Podcast

How Packy McCormick built Not Boring into a solo media and venture empire

Acquired December 3, 2021

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Founder interviews 10

Business models 7

Bootstrapping 5

• One person, no employees: how Not Boring runs a newsletter and venture fund simultaneously
• Rejecting subscriptions and pioneering paid deep dives turned a media ghetto into a moat
• Why joining a VC firm full-time would immediately destroy most of Packy's value

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Niche selection

YouTube

How to start an online business: market, testing, and mindset

Silicon Valley Girl December 2, 2021

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Niche selection 8

MVP & prototyping 7

Goal setting 5

• Why passion without a growing market wastes your best effort
• A $15,000 lesson: never outsource before validating with customers
• Define your success threshold before running any test

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Productivity & habits

Podcast

Autopilot scheduling, hyperactive hive mind alternatives, and Trello organisation

Deep Questions with Cal Newport December 2, 2021

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Productivity & habits 8

Processes & SOPs 7

Deep work & focus 6

• Fixed time-slots for recurring tasks eliminate repeated scheduling decisions.
• Replace ad hoc messaging with deferral, automation, or externalization workflows.
• Evolving study habits through experimentation beats working harder.

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Processes & SOPs

YouTube

How to build a scalable content creation system

Ahrefs December 1, 2021

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Processes & SOPs 9

Content marketing 7

Hiring & recruitment 6

• Adding parallel writers degrades quality — build an assembly line instead.
• SOPs and content briefs protect quality better than editorial review alone.
• Hire to match throughput at each stage, not just to fill roles.

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Case studies

Podcast

Novocure: Using Electrical Fields as a Fourth Cancer Treatment Modality

Business Breakdowns December 1, 2021

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Case studies 10

Competitive analysis 7

Fundraising & VC 5

• A physics trick — tuned electric fields — kills cancer cells without toxicity.
• Tripled five-year GBM survival; 30% for patients using the device 20+ hours daily.
• Subscription model, 80% gross margins, no equity raised since 2015 IPO.

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Fundraising & VC

Podcast

SaaS fundraising landscape and the TinySeed syndicate explained

Startups For the Rest of Us December 1, 2021

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Fundraising & VC 9

Business models 5

• Those cold investor emails are PE funds, not VCs — know the difference
• Secondary lets founders de-risk personally without abandoning a bigger exit
• TinySeed's syndicate pools angel checks into one cap table line item

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Automation & tools

YouTube

How to Deliver Productized Services Professionally as a Freelancer

Joanna Wiebe November 30, 2021

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Automation & tools 8

Closing techniques 7

• Productized services are paid lead gen — delivery quality wins bigger projects.
• A tight Typeform intake keeps jobs moving fast and friction-free.
• One Pack link with embedded Calendly converts buyers into full clients.

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Work-life balance

Podcast

Remote work makes rural living a realistic option for knowledge workers

Deep Questions with Cal Newport November 29, 2021

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Work-life balance 8

Deep work & focus 7

Productivity & habits 5

• The McKibben rural escape is now an instruction manual, not just aspiration.
• Lower rural expenses mean working less, not just working from somewhere prettier.
• Autonomy requires career capital — rare skills are the currency to buy it.

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Fundraising & VC

YouTube

Common fundraising mistakes YC founders make

Y Combinator November 29, 2021

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Fundraising & VC 9

Bootstrapping 6

Identity & self-belief 5

• Raising before traction is fear-based — it kills your leverage permanently.
• Founders who obsess over investors instead of customers are building wrong.
• Google and Facebook raised from strength; that's why founders kept control.

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