11 September 2023
This week's additions focus on strategy, marketing, and mindset, with new digests from Rob Walling, TK Kader, and KeyPersonOfInfluence. Highlights include Replicate a $2,400/yr sponsor lead list for other ad channels. Only 4% of SaaS companies reach $1M — here's why.
Showing 28 digests for 11 September 2023.
Four tips to improve email open rates
Joanna Wiebe
September 13, 2023
Tuesday and Thursday outperform Saturday for open rates
Triggered emails tied to user actions stay relevant longer
Shorter sequences under three days drive higher engagement
Identity & self-belief
YouTube
Why famous founders give advice they never followed themselves
Y Combinator
September 13, 2023
Identity & self-belief
8
Case studies
7
Long-term planning
5
Sam, Elon, and Thiel all took conventional paths before going big
Skipping step one is impossible without the wealth step one created
Founder advice often reflects what they'd tell their younger selves, not you
How Beehiiv reached $500k MRR in 19 months building the newsletter OS
Brett Malinowski
September 12, 2023
Case studies
10
Iteration & feedback loops
8
Growth hacking
7
Why the 'powered by Beehiiv' footer was too valuable to remove despite complaints
The ad network is the real business — programmatic ads across thousands of newsletters
Zero paid growth for 12 months: how strategic investors became early viral users
Founder interviews
YouTube
Asking Californian Millionaires how they made their first million
Noah Kagan
September 12, 2023
Founder interviews
10
Niche selection
5
Noah Kagan door-knocks $15–24M Newport Beach homes to find how residents built wealth.
Every success story: one unglamorous niche, decades of consistency, then a big exit or passive income.
Recurring advice — follow passion, be honest, own the asset, write the book before worrying about publishing.
Founder interviews
YouTube
Life lessons from poverty and tragedy to tech leadership
EO
September 12, 2023
Founder interviews
10
Resilience & grit
8
Delegation
5
Childhood tragedy and extreme poverty shaped a tech leadership career.
Hard times are stepping stones, not tombstones — seasons always pass.
Gratitude, intentionality, and small-task faithfulness unlock bigger opportunities.
Selling unfinished SaaS, phased launches, bookkeeping, and marketing frameworks
Startups For the Rest of Us
September 12, 2023
Growth hacking
8
Pricing strategy
6
Prospecting & outreach
6
A SaaS with no revenue has almost no resale value.
Release to batches of 50 first — mass launches kill retention.
Evaluate every marketing channel on speed, scalability, and cost.
Three secrets to building a million-dollar online course business
Sunny Lenarduzzi
September 12, 2023
Niche selection
9
MVP & prototyping
7
Content marketing
6
Your lived story, not your skill, is what makes a course sell.
Building before selling wastes years on an unvalidated product.
Targeting a tight niche beats posting volume content to everyone.
Compliance & regulation
YouTube
Form I-9 compliance: E-Verify enrollment and remote document review
HR Party of One
September 12, 2023
Compliance & regulation
10
Remote I-9 review is only legal if you're enrolled in E-Verify.
Once you enroll in E-Verify, every new hire must go through it.
Remote review requires a photo ID from List B — no exceptions.
Identity & self-belief
Podcast
Ten Stoic rules for life and leading with grace
The Daily Stoic
September 12, 2023
Identity & self-belief
9
Productivity & habits
8
Management
5
Great leaders pair high standards with grace, not just discipline.
Worrying about imagined troubles adds suffering without changing outcomes.
Every situation has two handles — always grab the empowering one.
Deep work & focus
Podcast
How poker teaches decision-making and high-performance skills
Beyond the To-Do List - Productivity for Work and Life
September 11, 2023
Deep work & focus
8
Resilience & grit
7
Long-term planning
5
Probabilistic thinking and expected value unlock better decisions under uncertainty
Reframe business as cooperative, not competitive, to access high-value networks
Calibrate intuition through experimentation and feedback loops, not guesswork
Deep work & focus
YouTube
Managing ADHD without medication: four daily focus areas
Dan Martell
September 11, 2023
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Processes & SOPs
5
Exhausting the body daily keeps an ADHD mind calm and focused
Batching tasks is 20x more efficient than multitasking
Delegating energy-draining work turns ADHD into a structural advantage
Productivity & habits
Podcast
Eight key ideas from influential productivity books
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
September 11, 2023
Productivity & habits
9
Deep work & focus
8
Goal setting
6
Productivity without purpose is just optimization for its own sake.
Saying no — and doing fewer things — can get you promoted.
Open loops in your mind, not workload, are the real source of stress.
Social media attention is free — most businesses aren't using it
GaryVee
September 11, 2023
Social media
10
Vision & mission
8
Identity & self-belief
6
Posting on every major social platform costs zero — yet most ignore it.
AI search is eroding Google AdWords the way Google killed the Yellow Pages.
Fear of negative comments — not lack of time — is why most people under-post.