6 February 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and leadership, with new digests from TK Kader, Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth, and Neil Patel. Highlights include Start with market, not code — most founders get this backwards. A guided onboarding wizard drove a 20% activation lift at Airtable.
Showing 29 digests for 6 February 2023.
Customer discovery
YouTube
How to start a SaaS company: three steps before writing code
TK Kader
February 12, 2023
Customer discovery
9
Niche selection
7
Growth hacking
6
Start with market, not code — most founders get this backwards.
Build a mailing list and real conversations before building anything.
Only a credit card swipe proves your market thesis is correct.
Iteration & feedback loops
Podcast
Onboarding as a growth lever: lessons from Airtable's activation team
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
February 12, 2023
Iteration & feedback loops
9
Retention & loyalty
8
Business models
6
A guided onboarding wizard drove a 20% activation lift at Airtable.
Low activation rates (5–15%) correlate more strongly with long-term retention.
Reverse trials combine freemium and free trials to maximise user growth.
Why not scrubbing your email list kills deliverability
Neil Patel
February 11, 2023
Inactive subscribers make Gmail flag your emails as spam
Your engaged subscribers stop seeing emails because of cold ones
Delete or re-engage cold contacts every 30 days
Founder interviews
YouTube
From fan to owner: Ryan Smith on buying the Utah Jazz
GaryVee
February 11, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Management
7
Owning your dream team is a liability as much as an asset
Radical candor is the only thing that works with players
Don't wait for rock bottom — low-grade unhappiness is enough
Resilience & grit
Podcast
Turning everyday stress into strength: Dr. Samantha Boardman on vitality
The Daily Stoic
February 11, 2023
Resilience & grit
9
Productivity & habits
7
Identity & self-belief
6
Daily grind drains more than crises — little-r resilience is what's missing.
Insight without behaviour change accomplishes nothing; act opposite your impulses.
Deliberate delight-hunting and hobbies build the vitality that therapy alone can't.
Revenue-based financing as a non-dilutive growth path for SaaS founders
TK Kader
February 10, 2023
Fundraising & VC
9
Bootstrapping
7
Long-term planning
6
Skip early funding rounds and keep 40%+ more equity
Repay with a revenue royalty — no board seat, no dilution
Best entry point: $2–15M ARR with improving unit economics
Should you outsource business process documentation?
Layla at ProcessDriven
February 10, 2023
Processes & SOPs
9
Delegation
5
Outsourced docs go stale when teams didn't build them.
The real cost is extraction time, not the consulting fee.
A 'done with you' model beats both extremes.
How Keith Yandell leads cross-functional teams with empathy at DoorDash
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
February 9, 2023
Management
9
Hiring & recruitment
8
Case studies
7
Why leading teams outside your expertise drives 10x outcomes
Helping reports find other jobs makes them more likely to stay
Steelmanning the other side is the fastest path to hard decisions
Competitive analysis
Podcast
How FanDuel built a 50% market share in US sports betting
Masters of Scale
February 9, 2023
Competitive analysis
9
Growth hacking
7
Pricing strategy
5
The house doesn't always win — and FanDuel prefers it that way
Pre-existing fantasy users gave FanDuel a compounding first-mover edge
Three biggest US states still illegal — the growth story isn't over
Carousel ads: the low-effort social tactic with outsized ROI
Neil Patel
February 9, 2023
Social media
9
Conversion rate optimisation
7
Carousel ads drive 72% higher CTR than single-image ads.
Mixed image-and-video carousels push engagement to 2.33%.
Sell inside the ad so clicks arrive as buying decisions.
AI tools & automation
YouTube
Using ChatGPT to scale content, marketing, and business output
Silicon Valley Girl
February 9, 2023
AI tools & automation
9
Content marketing
7
Copywriting
6
ChatGPT drafts scripts, emails, and newsletters in seconds
A 10-email funnel worth $2,500 can be built in hours
Generic outputs need your personality — it's a multiplier, not a replacement
TinySeed accelerator Q&A: application criteria, funding terms, and program value
Startups For the Rest of Us
February 9, 2023
Fundraising & VC
9
Business models
6
Acceptance rate is ~2–3% — more selective than Harvard
The money ranks third or fourth; mentors and community are the real value
Profitable operation for a decade is a valid outcome — VCs would never allow it
Founder interviews
YouTube
Why Gary Vaynerchuk went quiet on sports cards
GaryVee
February 9, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Niche selection
6
Community building
5
His audience was large enough to move card prices unintentionally.
The 2019–2022 boom was a generational moment; the market is now rational.
Public promotion drives demand — tearing down influencers shrinks the market.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
How to conduct effective DEI outreach in recruitment
HR Party of One
February 9, 2023
Hiring & recruitment
9
Processes & SOPs
6
Branding
5
A diversity statement means nothing without structural outreach behind it.
70% of candidates abandon applications that take more than 15 minutes.
Go beyond job boards: HBCUs, libraries, and community orgs reach missed talent.
How to launch your startup: continuous launches beat the perfect one
Y Combinator
February 9, 2023
Growth hacking
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Copywriting
6
Launch immediately — waiting for perfection kills startups before they start.
One clear sentence about what you do is your most important growth tool.
Every channel — HN, communities, social, waitlists — is a separate launch opportunity.