14 August 2023
This week's additions focus on marketing, mindset, and leadership, with new digests from Brett Malinowski, Rob Walling, and TK Kader. Highlights include Faceless Snapchat shows earned mid-six figures monthly before age 18 A missing WHERE clause wiped every customer credit card token overnight.
Showing 33 digests for 14 August 2023.
What bad investor meetings teach founders about raising money
Y Combinator
August 17, 2023
Fundraising & VC
9
Pitching investors
7
Bad investor behavior is a signal, not a test to pass.
Believe the no — but never trust the investor's stated reason.
Your startup's validity is not determined by investor enthusiasm.
How to learn digital marketing from scratch efficiently
Ahrefs
August 16, 2023
SEO
9
Identity & self-belief
7
Communication
5
Pick one channel and go deep before expanding to others.
A shortcut backlink strategy wiped out a 7-figure business exit.
A cold email to a stranger led directly to a job at Ahrefs.
Leading remote teams and embracing technology as a competitive advantage
Cameron Herold
August 16, 2023
Remote teams
8
AI strategy & adoption
8
Vision & mission
5
Why a 25-year-old with tech skills beats 40 years of experience
In-person gatherings are the new off-sites for remote teams
COOs must now be technically competent, not just tech-adjacent
Product-market fit
YouTube
Building a healthcare benefits data platform from scratch
EO
August 16, 2023
Product-market fit
9
Culture building
8
B2B sales
7
Product market fit only exists when customers drag you in
Artemis replaced weeks-long analyst bottlenecks with instant self-service
Culture becomes the only real lever once you hire an exec team
How a founder's daily energy shapes company momentum
EOS Worldwide
August 16, 2023
Management
8
Motivation
6
Your personal energy sets the tone for the entire organisation.
Positive openness drives momentum; resistance visibly slows it.
Consistency across every meeting compounds into cultural impact.
Content marketing
YouTube
GaryVee Melbourne Q&A: Business, Parenting, and Mindset in 2023
GaryVee
August 16, 2023
Content marketing
9
Pivoting
7
Resilience & grit
6
Your choices already reveal your real priorities — stop rationalising
LinkedIn is the B2B goldmine most founders are still ignoring
Fear-driven parenting creates adults who can't survive the real world
How to match your client's brand voice in four steps
Joanna Wiebe
August 16, 2023
Copywriting
9
Processes & SOPs
5
Always use raw, unedited client writing — not polished copywriter work.
Three free tools objectively measure grade level, tone, and sentence style.
A simple keyword cheat sheet keeps voice consistent across every draft.
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Mental fitness, ego, and peak performance with coach Greg Harden
The Daily Stoic
August 16, 2023
Identity & self-belief
10
Resilience & grit
9
Management
5
Mental fitness is trainable — recovery speed is what separates elite performers.
Why your self-worth must never depend on your performance outcomes.
Ego becomes your enemy only when it needs external validation to function.
SparkToro's investor payback, Twitter's rebrand, and the VC funding debate
Startups For the Rest of Us
August 15, 2023
Fundraising & VC
9
Business models
7
Branding
5
SparkToro paid back investors via dividends — no VC, no exit required.
Twitter's X rebrand trades 15 years of brand equity for a super-app gamble.
Capital is a tool: raise only when a dollar reliably returns three.
Content marketing
YouTube
Five steps to rank number one on YouTube for business leads
Sunny Lenarduzzi
August 15, 2023
Content marketing
9
SEO
7
Retention above 40% matters far more than raw view counts
Long-tail, low-competition topics beat broad keywords every time
Design the thumbnail before filming to attract the right viewers
How to redeploy employees instead of laying them off
HR Party of One
August 15, 2023
Management
9
Outsourcing & delegation
5
Replacing a laid-off employee costs more than redeploying them
Small teams can't afford gaps when the market recovers
Script included: how to frame redeployment as a career opportunity
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Practical productivity for parents: balancing family, home, and business
Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life
August 14, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Work-life balance
8
Why the mental load of a profitable product can outweigh its income
Couples carry stress about home standards neither person actually holds
Self-knowledge, not better systems, is the real fuel for productivity
AI strategy & adoption
YouTube
How AI is reshaping content, marketing, and startup costs
Neil Patel
August 14, 2023
AI strategy & adoption
8
Bootstrapping
7
Automation & tools
6
Media companies are cutting teams by using AI for content at scale
A $580K analytics team replaced by Google Cloud AI at near-zero cost
Startups can now reach proof of concept without raising a dollar
Prospecting & outreach
YouTube
Building an affiliate marketing business on relationships, not just ads
Brett Malinowski
August 14, 2023
Prospecting & outreach
9
Paid ads
8
Outsourcing & delegation
6
The same lead paid 3x more — from relationship depth, not better ads
Go direct with advertisers: better rates, data access, and payment terms
Over-delivering and personal brand integrity compound across every deal
Productivity & habits
YouTube
How a high-output CEO structures a travel-heavy work week
Dan Martell
August 14, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Work-life balance
7
Outsourcing & delegation
6
Revenue ceilings hit at predictable multiples of three — buy back time first
Belief collecting reprograms the mind beyond default family and environment
Vision must be big enough for every team member's goals to fit inside