13 December 2021
This week's additions focus on finance, founder stories, and marketing, with new digests from Noah Kagan, Masters of Scale, and Deep Questions with Cal Newport. Highlights include $300k on day one; $8M in the first six months. Flexibility over control drove record growth during peak COVID uncertainty
Showing 9 digests for 13 December 2021.
How one founder built an $800k/month mask business during COVID
Noah Kagan
December 17, 2021
Case studies
9
Content marketing
7
Email marketing
6
$300k on day one; $8M in the first six months.
SMS list converts 3–4x better than email, live demo proves it.
Chinese masks cost 1.5 cents — government subsidies, not efficiency.
Leading a retail brand through pandemic disruption: lessons from Crate & Barrel's CEO
Masters of Scale
December 16, 2021
Vision & mission
9
Supply chain
8
Branding
7
Flexibility over control drove record growth during peak COVID uncertainty
Crate & Barrel was rebooted from a nostalgia brand into a purpose-led home retailer
Labour disruption rivals supply chain disruption — trust is the only fix
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Cal Newport's process for writing New Yorker articles and managing context
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 16, 2021
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Mixing email contexts in one inbox drains cognitive energy silently.
Processing after every meeting beats end-of-day shutdown overwhelm.
New Yorker columns written in one weekday morning and a Sunday session.
How investors use terms and soft nos to take advantage of founders
Y Combinator
December 16, 2021
Fundraising & VC
9
Pitching investors
7
A high valuation means nothing if the terms hand away board control
"Come back with a lead" is VC-speak for no
Investors push founders to raise more to hit their ownership targets, not yours
How FTX built the fastest-growing crypto exchange in two years
Acquired
December 15, 2021
Case studies
9
Competitive analysis
7
Hiring & recruitment
5
Incumbent exchanges were losing customer profits to broken liquidation engines weekly.
FTX launched by seeding its own liquidity via Alameda to solve the volume catch-22.
Brand deals are brand investment, not customer acquisition — a deliberate distinction.
How to find and choose a profitable niche for an online business
Ahrefs
December 15, 2021
Finding niches is easy — choosing one you'll commit to is the hard part.
Vet any niche across web traffic feasibility and long-term market trend data.
Start narrow, map a topic hierarchy, and plan to niche up over time.
Cash flow management
Podcast
How SaaS founders should think about inflation and personal investing
Startups For the Rest of Us
December 14, 2021
Cash flow management
9
Pricing strategy
6
SaaS margins of 85–95% absorb inflation that would destroy thin-margin businesses
Fixed-rate debt is a hidden inflation advantage — future repayments cost less in real terms
Gradual rebalancing beats market timing; being right twice is harder than it looks
Productivity & habits
Podcast
How to fix a leaking productivity system and study effectively
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
December 13, 2021
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
7
Processes & SOPs
5
A leaky system is a trust problem — one hour fixes it.
Track 3 daily metrics before attempting full planning systems.
90-minute deep work blocks yield far more output than 60-minute ones.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Charlie Munger: lessons on building a well-rounded, durable life
Founders
December 13, 2021
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
7
Investing strategy
6
Why Munger chose breadth over obsession — and outperformed most investors
Good businesses make decisions easy; bad ones make every decision painful
Great opportunities are rare — when odds favour you, bet heavily