23 May 2022
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and founder stories, with new digests from TK Kader, The Daily Stoic, and Silicon Valley Girl. Highlights include Why treating your manifesto as a checkbox kills go-to-market results Define success before you start — money is fuel, not the goal.
Showing 25 digests for 23 May 2022.
How to build and deploy an effective SaaS go-to-market manifesto
TK Kader
May 29, 2022
Vision & mission
9
Branding
7
Pitching investors
5
Why treating your manifesto as a checkbox kills go-to-market results
Chasing multiple manifestos sets early-stage founders up for failure
Deploying your manifesto as ads, lead magnets, and sales decks multiplies impact
Founder interviews
Podcast
12 lessons from 12 months owning an independent bookstore
The Daily Stoic
May 29, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Niche selection
8
Resilience & grit
6
Define success before you start — money is fuel, not the goal.
Aim to be the only, not the first: radical curation beats competition.
Earned confidence only comes from doing the hard thing anyway.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Moving to the US at 25: one founder's immigration journey
Silicon Valley Girl
May 28, 2022
Founder interviews
10
Compliance & regulation
6
Resilience & grit
6
Why the O-1 visa got denied at the consulate after approval
Renting an apartment in Silicon Valley with no credit history
Immigration paperwork runs as a second full-time job alongside your startup
Five techniques for explaining yourself clearly in high-stakes conversations
Dr. Grace Lee
May 28, 2022
Communication
9
Prospecting & outreach
6
Align your explanation to their values, not your knowledge.
Cleverness buries the lead — clarity always wins.
Status quo bias is why change is hard to pitch.
John D. Rockefeller: how Standard Oil became a world monopoly
Founders
May 28, 2022
Origin stories
10
Business operating systems
8
Bootstrapping
6
Secret railroad rebates made competition mathematically impossible for rivals
Rockefeller never had a single losing year across three decades of expansion
Retiring at 58, the automobile boom made him richer than his entire career had
How to create SEO content that ranks on Google's first page
Semrush
May 27, 2022
SEO
9
Content marketing
7
Copywriting
5
Prioritise bottom-of-funnel keywords first — one lead beats thousands of clicks
Differentiation beats imitation: bring something competitors can't easily replicate
80% keyword-driven content, 20% link bait built for backlinks
Three low-cost ways to train a small business team
Layla at ProcessDriven
May 27, 2022
Culture building
8
Processes & SOPs
7
A central knowledge hub means never answering the same question twice
A monthly 45-minute session beats one-off onboarding every time
Public praise in team meetings trains behaviour without a training programme
How a first-time event organiser built a global benefit concert for Ukraine in six weeks
Masters of Scale
May 26, 2022
Case studies
10
Management
6
Pivoting
5
Cold calls alone secured Pink Floyd, streaming partners, and 100 volunteers.
Setting a $10M target — not $3M — was a deliberate tactic to attract bigger names.
Shared purpose replaced management: no egos, no friction, fast decisions.
Content marketing
YouTube
Remarketing hack: switch emotional vs logical pitch to win lost visitors
Neil Patel
May 26, 2022
Content marketing
10
Prospecting & outreach
10
AI tools & automation
10
Sending visitors back to the same page almost never converts.
Switch pitch type — logic to emotion, or emotion to logic.
This tactic alone drives 6% of sales over five years.
Segmenting link prospects to scale personalised outreach
Ahrefs
May 25, 2022
Referencing a specific stat beats mentioning the page topic
One linkable point becomes a segment of hundreds of prospects
Mentions alerts automate discovery of new prospects indefinitely
Anduril: Building autonomous defense systems at startup speed
Business Breakdowns
May 25, 2022
Case studies
9
Business models
7
MVP & prototyping
6
How cost-plus contracts removed all innovation incentives from legacy defense contractors.
Autonomy and software platforms unlock cheaper, faster systems that scale without massive teams.
Modern conflicts prove disaggregated, unmanned systems defeat concentrated armor and air defense.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Admiral Stavridis on risk, decision-making, and moral courage
The Daily Stoic
May 25, 2022
Founder interviews
9
Communication
7
Resilience & grit
6
Doing the right thing can still end your career — and that's the point.
Zelensky vs. Ghani: one choice changed whether a country survived.
Preparation happens before the crisis — know your values now, not then.
One-page marketing plan framework for small business growth
KeyPersonOfInfluence
May 25, 2022
Branding
9
Niche selection
8
SEO
5
The best marketer wins — not the best product or service.
Niche down to an inch wide, mile deep to attract premium clients.
Most revenue is made after the sale, not at conversion.
ClickUp email vs Missive: five key differences for team inboxes
Layla at ProcessDriven
May 25, 2022
Communication
10
Identity & self-belief
6
ClickUp variables are blocked from manual emails entirely
Missive supports unlimited alias addresses; ClickUp charges per account
ClickUp's mobile app has zero email support
Resilience & grit
YouTube
How to deal with setbacks as a startup founder
Y Combinator
May 25, 2022
Resilience & grit
9
Fundraising & VC
5
Case studies
5
Setbacks are not anomalies — they are the game itself.
Failed Series A rounds are common; no one announces them.
Your reaction to a punch is entirely within your control.