What I read/listened-to this week (week of 10/10/2022)
What I read this week
How much should a B2B software startup spend on marketing?
The role of marketing changes depending on the stage of the company. But early on it exists to fulfill two key roles:
- Simplify and communicate
What does the company do? What is its value proposition? What sets it apart from the competition? This becomes even more important if the company is offering something that hasn’t been seen before.
- Fill up the pipeline
To make sales easier and more effective, the marketing team needs to generate opportunities for the sales team to then close.
Meta’s Abandoned Shopping Cart: How Mark Zuckerberg’s Commerce Plans Went Wrong
Meat reverse back is now scaling back its ambitious after setbacks. In contrast:
TikTok US fulfillment center ambitions
Maybe built in Seattle?
The great post Covid shopping bet
“It seems the consumer mindset right now is: ‘I want to get out of my house’”
What I listened to this week
Besides this one, lots of other resources on her, who's probably the best of CEO of our time. for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amBe2bofVas
Interesting time now to listen to the history of semiconductors and economic cycles it follows.
All-in podcast on big tech making cuts
The end of an era for big tech and the four big bosses talked about the opportunities it brings for startups.
Tiny thoughts (from fs.blog)
Where you focus can hold you back.
Focusing on the outcome makes the gap between now and the finish line seem larger than it is.
Yesterday I wanted to go for a long run. That little voice in my head said "Imagine running for 90 minutes. Dude, you didn't sleep well, and that's a lot of effort. Let's save our energy and check Twitter instead."
Taking the first step seems impossible when the gap between now and your desired outcome seems large.
Changing your focus changes the size of the gap between now and achievement. When you shrink the gap, doing what you know you want to do becomes easier. I was focused on the gap between now and 90 minutes from now. The gap I needed to focus on was between me putting my shoes on and running to the end of the block.
This happens with my kids all the time too. They often come home with a boatload of homework that takes them hours. When they focus on the gap between getting home and being done, getting started is hard. "I'll never get all this homework done." When they focus on doing the first exercise, action becomes inevitable.
Don't focus on writing a book. Focus on writing a good sentence.
Don't focus on getting healthy. Focus on cooking a healthy meal tonight.
Focus on the next step.
Enjoy the weekend, happy autumn!
