31 July 2023
This week's additions focus on strategy, finance, and marketing, with new digests from Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth, Rob Walling, and TK Kader. Highlights include Ramp hit $100M ARR with 50 people — here's the operating system behind it Three bootstrapping paths exist — only one direction of travel is possible.
Showing 35 digests for 31 July 2023.
Business operating systems
Podcast
How Ramp built the fastest-growing SaaS company with radical velocity
Lenny's Podcast Product Career Growth
August 6, 2023
Business operating systems
10
Processes & SOPs
8
Management
7
Ramp hit $100M ARR with 50 people — here's the operating system behind it
Single-threaded teams, zero status meetings, and no bug backlogs
Why empowering engineers — not managing them — is the real velocity lever
What type of SaaS business do you actually want to build?
Rob Walling
August 6, 2023
Business models
9
Fundraising & VC
6
Bootstrapping
5
Three bootstrapping paths exist — only one direction of travel is possible.
Raising venture capital is a one-way door you cannot walk back through.
Ask 'What if it works?' before committing to any business model.
Three SaaS pricing strategies to increase MRR
TK Kader
August 6, 2023
Pricing strategy
10
Pricing psychology
6
Being the cheapest option actively loses deals in B2B SaaS.
Annual contracts cut churn and front-load cash for reinvestment.
Pro tiers and paid onboarding raise ACV without changing win rates.
Product ecosystems make money, not individual products
KeyPersonOfInfluence
August 6, 2023
Business models
9
Funnels
7
Ecosystems beat individual products — copying one product is easy, copying a whole ecosystem is not.
Running a free intro workshop every week can generate a £1M annual run rate.
Scorecards convert leads 65% better than any other form of marketing.
Conversion rate optimisation
YouTube
Ad quality score still matters, but it's only one piece
Neil Patel
August 5, 2023
Conversion rate optimisation
9
Paid ads
7
A quality score of 10 means nothing if no one converts.
Landing page mismatch kills campaigns that look fine in-platform.
Optimise the full funnel — checkout, upsells, and follow-ups included.
Pitching investors
YouTube
How to build a business case and sell ideas to executives
Dr. Grace Lee
August 5, 2023
Pitching investors
8
Communication
6
Business models
5
Executives fund ideas framed as business outcomes, not projects
Every business runs on four functions: acquire, convert, deliver, retain
Match your idea to the function your leadership is struggling with most
How a presenter's tone creates genuine community vulnerability
EOS Worldwide
August 4, 2023
Communication
8
Community building
6
Identity & self-belief
5
Presenter tone drives group vulnerability more than any facilitation tactic.
Room agreements and buy-in exercises only go so far.
Authentic facilitator tone lets real community form over time.
Content marketing
YouTube
Building a content strategy: self-honesty, pillars, and team
GaryVee
August 4, 2023
Content marketing
9
Business models
7
Hiring & recruitment
6
Lying to yourself about what you'll do kills most content strategies.
Modern spirituality has more demand than supply — especially for men.
Hire a creative director first; measure views and resonance, not followers.
Automation & tools
YouTube
How to build a department budget template in SmartSuite
Layla at ProcessDriven
August 4, 2023
Automation & tools
9
Cash flow management
6
Spreadsheet budgets fail because teams never actually use them
SmartSuite's free template replaces Excel with a live, collaborative budget
Conditional spotlights replace manual cell-by-cell colour formatting
Old-school SEO and proven channels still deliver outsized ROI
Neil Patel
August 3, 2023
SEO
9
Email marketing
5
AI strategy & adoption
5
Google's $30B AdSense payout gives it a financial incentive to protect organic traffic.
Brand citations in AI answers drive revenue even without clicks, like display ads.
Spend 90–95% on proven SEO; reserve 5% to experiment with AI search changes.
Long-term planning
YouTube
How exponential technology is outpacing human intuition and corporate strategy
EO
August 3, 2023
Long-term planning
9
Business operating systems
7
Goal setting
5
S&P 500 company lifespan has collapsed from 60 years to 12
Being 3–8 years early is a feature, not a flaw — technology catches up
Solve one problem you're passionate about; forget building an empire
Founder interviews
YouTube
How reading Traction transformed a COO's team and personal life
EOS Worldwide
August 3, 2023
Founder interviews
9
Business operating systems
6
Self-implementing EOS reshaped team culture beyond the numbers
Reading Traction together sparked an immediate, total conviction
EOS made the team better humans, not just a better business
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Identity, addiction, and the coffee bean mindset
GaryVee
August 3, 2023
Identity & self-belief
9
Resilience & grit
8
Management
5
Attaching identity to external things guarantees collapse when they disappear
From 65-year prison sentence to keynote speaker via one mindset shift
Why helping an addict often turns the helper into an addict too
How to build communication pathways in your organization
HR Party of One
August 3, 2023
Communication
9
Culture building
7
Match method, reason, and timing to eliminate communication friction
HR should own communication norms — they belong in the culture guide
Five-step process from leadership buy-in to manager follow-up
Pricing psychology
YouTube
How to double your freelance income by saying no
Joanna Wiebe
August 3, 2023
Pricing psychology
9
Prospecting & outreach
8
Pricing strategy
6
Saying no to low-budget clients is how you double income
Many prospect budgets are guesses — not fixed limits
Explaining your process beats negotiating on price