10 April 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, strategy, and mindset, with new digests from Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth, Rob Walling, and TK Kader. Highlights include Crowdsource decisions with a structured curiosity loop, not vague advice-seeking SaaS data models need one-to-many flexibility built in from day one.
Showing 33 digests for 10 April 2023.
Founder interviews
YouTube
How Frank Slootman built three billion-dollar companies
EO
April 12, 2023
Founder interviews
10
Vision & mission
8
Management
7
Why 'OK' is the enemy of energy in organizations
Narrow, precise missions beat vague ones every time
Failure is the norm — and that's what makes founders
Social media strategy, AI copyright risk, and the NFT reset
GaryVee
April 12, 2023
Social media
9
Content marketing
7
AI strategy & adoption
5
Green-screen article overlays get 3–5x more views than plain video
AI is here but legally untouchable for client work right now
NFTs collapsed like dot-com stocks — the technology is still sound
Five steps to define workflows and connect SOPs in SmartSuite
Layla at ProcessDriven
April 12, 2023
Processes & SOPs
9
Automation & tools
6
Four ways to represent process phases — pick by complexity, not power
Checklists support assignees and defaults; sub items do not
Five methods to attach SOPs, each suited to different process volumes
Nintendo: How a toy company won and lost the console wars — then won again
Acquired
April 11, 2023
Case studies
9
Competitive analysis
8
Business models
7
Sega's four-point plan took Nintendo from 100% to 50% market share in one generation.
The Game Boy and DS generated ~$50B, silently saving Nintendo through three home console disasters.
The Switch succeeded by abandoning casual gaming and returning to quality mid-core IP.
Three proven link building tactics for affiliate sites
Ahrefs
April 11, 2023
Expertise beats volume — credibility makes editors actually respond.
HARO gives free high-authority links with journalists doing the outreach.
Podcast episodes almost always link back to guests automatically.
Google's Eric Schmidt on managing innovation through controlled chaos
Masters of Scale
April 11, 2023
Culture building
9
Processes & SOPs
7
Business operating systems
5
Schmidt was certain auction-based ad pricing would bankrupt Google — it didn't.
20% time was a structural check on management power, not just a perk.
Persistence and curiosity outpredict talent as hiring signals in knowledge work.
Taste vs. shipping, being first vs. best, and knowing what you want
Startups For the Rest of Us
April 11, 2023
Niche selection
8
Goal setting
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Ship before it's perfect — great artists did, and so should you.
Positioning beats head-to-head competition against well-funded incumbents.
Copy the wrong role model and you'll optimize for someone else's goal.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Why this era is the best time to be alive: GaryVee fireside Q&A
GaryVee
April 11, 2023
Founder interviews
10
Motivation
8
Resilience & grit
6
Happiness requires active effort — most people never make it.
Your cohort is more valuable than anything the program teaches you.
Material goals produce flatness; define success on your own terms.
Hiring & recruitment
YouTube
Quiet hiring: filling roles without new headcount
HR Party of One
April 11, 2023
Hiring & recruitment
8
Management
6
Fill open needs using contractors or internal staff, not new hires
Economic uncertainty made quiet hiring spike sharply in 2023
Right framing turns reassignment into a career growth opportunity
Affiliate link building: middleman method and content quality strategy
Ahrefs
April 10, 2023
SEO
9
Content marketing
7
Middleman method: build links to informational posts, pass authority to money pages.
Commercial pages need direct links earned through content far better than competitors.
Effective outreach leads with genuine value, not self-serving product page pitches.
Work-life balance
Podcast
Avoiding burnout and building a sustainable creative career
Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life
April 10, 2023
Work-life balance
9
Time management
7
Asking 'am I burned out?' means you already are
You can't set a boundary until you have a clear goal
Guardrails are non-negotiables — boundaries are just preferences
Content marketing
YouTube
How small businesses can build an online presence and get customer feedback
Neil Patel
April 10, 2023
Content marketing
7
Customer discovery
7
MVP & prototyping
5
A one-page site plus directory listings beats a dozen microsites.
Feedback loops — not traffic — are what make a business improve.
Ignore new tactics while what you're doing is still growing.
Building a great business by growing people, not managing them
Cameron Herold
April 10, 2023
Management
9
Vision & mission
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Why most leaders fail: they lack core skills, not market awareness
The Vivid Vision: a written 3-year picture every employee can act on
Hire motivated people — then grow skills and confidence in parallel
How Phil M. Jones built a scalable personal brand and speaking business
Dan Martell
April 10, 2023
Public speaking
9
Branding
8
Business models
7
Be brilliant at every fee level before raising your speaking price.
One flagship book, campaigned forever, beats a new book every two years.
Be the hot sauce — indispensable to partners without stealing the show.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
Cal Newport answers productivity, career, and deep life questions
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
April 10, 2023
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Long-term planning
6
Ideas are cheap — the notebook fallacy traps people in organisation over execution.
VBLCP: build a resonant lifestyle image first, then work backwards to career.
Deep life is a practice, not a destination — resist the addiction to replanning.