28 February 2022
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and operations, with new digests from TK Kader, The Daily Stoic, and Masters of Scale. Highlights include Referred leads close at 4x higher win rates than other channels Cowardice is always a choice — and always dangerous
Showing 21 digests for 28 February 2022.
Referral marketing strategy for SaaS go-to-market growth
TK Kader
March 6, 2022
Growth hacking
9
Prospecting & outreach
5
Community building
5
Referred leads close at 4x higher win rates than other channels
Referred customers churn 18% less and deliver 16% more lifetime value
Ad hoc referral asks fail — only systematic programs compound results
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Eight Stoic practices to make courage a daily habit
The Daily Stoic
March 6, 2022
Cowardice is always a choice — and always dangerous
JFK won an election with a few seconds of moral courage
Courage is the foundational Stoic virtue; all others depend on it
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Andrew Sullivan on the classics, independent thinking, and the dangers of social media
The Daily Stoic
March 5, 2022
Identity & self-belief
9
Deep work & focus
8
Mental health & wellbeing
5
Losing a shared classical canon makes liberal democracy itself fragile.
Audience capture turns independent thinkers into radicalized, angry partisans.
Social media's addictive design colonises the slow, deep mind the classics built.
Founder interviews
Podcast
GM's Gerald Johnson on moving big fast and building an inclusive EV future
Masters of Scale
March 3, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Culture building
8
Long-term planning
6
A 9,000-lb vehicle hits zero-to-60 in three seconds — so can GM
Discomfort is not failure; it is the condition where learning happens
Equitable EV access means no urban community gets left behind
Can you do digital marketing with only a smartphone?
Neil Patel
March 3, 2022
Social media
9
Automation & tools
5
Instagram and TikTok are fully operational from a phone alone.
Ad campaigns and SEO work demand a desktop — no workaround.
Phone cameras now rival DSLRs for short-form video content.
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Doing hard things: three practical tips from Brandon Sanderson
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
March 3, 2022
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Goal setting
7
Writing 13 manuscripts before selling one is normal, not failure.
Scheduling philosophy and ritual matter more than motivation or inspiration.
Living a deep life means acting on values despite anxiety, not after it vanishes.
AI tools & automation
YouTube
Returning to the office: hidden costs of remote work and how to decide
HR Party of One
March 3, 2022
AI tools & automation
10
Cash flow management
9
Management
8
Remote work creates overtime creep, time theft, and top-talent attrition.
64% of 2021 graduates preferred on-site work — Gen Z isn't fully remote.
BerniePortal used NASA's Kepner-Tregoe method to make the return decision.
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Overthinking is the founder's biggest mistake: the midwit meme explained
Y Combinator
March 2, 2022
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
6
Pivoting
5
The idiot approach and the genius approach are usually identical.
Fundraising, MVPs, co-founders: the midwit overcomplicates every decision.
Most startup ideas that worked started embarrassingly simple.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Ukraine, inflation, and lessons from Peloton, Theranos, and Meta
Masters of Scale
March 1, 2022
Founder interviews
9
Pivoting
7
Management
6
Peloton mistook a pandemic spike for a permanent new normal.
Leaders who can't truth-tell about risk eventually blow themselves up.
Rule of law isn't partisan — it's the foundation business runs on.
Customer support ops
Podcast
Nine tactics for better customer support in bootstrapped SaaS
Startups For the Rest of Us
March 1, 2022
Customer support ops
9
Customer experience
7
Customer discovery
6
First response time under 12 hours is the one metric that matters.
Support tickets pre-PMF are your best product discovery channel.
Chat widgets and survey tools backfire at small scale — use both carefully.
Eight steps to build a million-dollar online business from scratch
Sunny Lenarduzzi
March 1, 2022
Business models
9
Content marketing
8
Pricing psychology
7
Price on client value, not time — undercharging kills consistency
A tiny targeted audience converts better than a large unfocused one
Evergreen YouTube content compounds into leads for years
Conversion rate optimisation
YouTube
Three outdated marketing habits draining your results
Neil Patel
February 28, 2022
Conversion rate optimisation
7
Automation & tools
6
Saturated tactics waste time — automation tools replace manual SEO research.
Low-ROI channels need trimming, not abandonment; redirect hours to what converts.
Consuming marketing content without implementing it produces zero results.
Using delegation as a tool to refine training documentation
Bill Gallagher
February 28, 2022
Processes & SOPs
8
Delegation
6
Delegating a task exposes gaps in your documentation instantly.
Experts skip unconscious steps — beginners ask the right questions.
Have someone else write the docs while you train them.
Early-stage SaaS marketing: how to find your first customers
Rob Walling
February 28, 2022
Growth hacking
9
Partnerships
7
Pre-PMF marketing fails because too many variables are unknown simultaneously
Start with your inner network before cold audiences — they convert far better
Non-scalable tactics (AppSumo, Product Hunt) must fund your search for scalable ones
How to run an AppSumo lifetime deal for early-stage SaaS
Rob Walling
February 28, 2022
Pricing strategy
8
Business models
7
Processes & SOPs
6
Lifetime deals only work if your marginal support cost is near zero
DocSketch netted $41k from 2,799 buys with a 10% refund rate
Viral components and SMB reach can outweigh the no-recurring-revenue trade-off