STEAL MY MARKETING. 1st ISSUE + MASTER SPREADSHEET
Paul Buchheit - Gmail (18th May)
Paul Buchheit is the creator of Gmail and a significant contributor to Y combinator. His interview reaffirmed the views of talking to customers and doing things that don't scale. In this series he talks about how Mark Zuckerberg rejected $1 billion from Yahoo at age 22 and then built a social era monopoly. Since watching this interview I've come across talks of Paul where he adds more value and I'll be posting some of the clips from the Y combinator classes he takes for entrepreneurs. Those lessons, although invaluable to tech entrepreneurs, are also very relevant to any kind of business and I'd love to explore more of his knowledge and expertise.
Lessons → Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Link to full Interview → The Path to the $100B by Paul Buchheit
Nathan Barry - ConvertKit (19th May)
Lockdown in the UK has enabled me to explore things I would not have otherwise. For one, I came across Pat Flynn, whose podcast is a goldmine for anybody starting in entrepreneurship. He interviews everyday entrepreneurs who’ve built online businesses, starting from their bedrooms into successful ventures. After listening to his podcast, I read his book - Superfans, then read Find Your Yellow Tux after listening to an episode of his podcast featuring Jesse Cole and then came across Nathan Barry of ConvertKit. I knew ConvertKit from my random explorations but only came to know of the wild success they’ve had due to Pat. My desire to know more led me to this interview of Nathan with Alex Becker. Although in this clip he talks about how empowering employees to explore their own side hustles has helped ConvertKit improve their own product significantly, the most important take from this interview was talking to customers. One of the lessons I posted a while back was on how they got product market fit by talking to customers and how word of mouth pushed their sales significantly. When all you hear is advertising on facebook to grow your brand, this lesson was a reminder on how word of mouth still matters. Maybe more than likes and swipes.
Lesson → https://www.tiktok.com/@stealmymarketing/video/6828592019921718533
Link to Full Interview → Bootstrapping to 20+ Million ARR
Lesson on talking to customers, from Nathan → Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Brian Smith - UGG Boots (20th May)
Omar Elattar is someone who brings in unique guests in his shows and whenever I feel like exploring an entrepreneur outside of the media hype circles I go to his channel. I knew the UGG Boots brand but I did not know the story. And the story is as good as the boots themselves. Brian Smith talks about his journey from Australia to America in search of a product to sell in Australia. Instead he realises that he could sell a product from his country to Americans - Uggs. He’s a hustler at heart and makes things happen. He’s also an amatuer at business so much of what he learnt was from trial and error. In this case, it was why making your customers use your products before you ask them to buy can be a game changer. I recommend this interview to anyone craving to listen to good stories of hustle, boots and the American dream.
Link to full interview → How UGG Boots went from $0-$1.8 Billion
Wolfgang Puck - Spago, Chinois, CUT (21st May)
I did not know Wolfgang Puck until recently when I came across his interview with Patrick David on Valuetainment. He talks about his childhood and his journey into food and America and how Spago became successful. I instantly fell in love with his stories, more so because he talks about America in the 70s. There’s something wild and exotic about those times and good food makes it even better. I’ve posted a number of videos of Puck and have got a few more to post in the coming weeks. In this video he talks about how being located on Sunset Boulevard, and constantly innovating pulled a Hollywood crowd into the restaurant and how his empire took off. One of the many good moments from the interview.
Link to full interview → Wolfgang Puck - From Chef to $100 Million Entrepreneur
Brian Chesky - Airbnb (22nd, 26th and 28th May)
22nd May - I’ve always admired Brian Chesky for his business acumen and have only come to respect him more after how he handled the recent layoffs due to the coronavirus crisis. His letter to the company was heartfelt and honest and they’ve kept their promises. Something I appreciated. This week I also came across this interview of Brian where he talks at length about the early days of Airbnb and his inspirations. I used to watch PandoMonthly when I was in college and loved the interview series. As I’ve gone through 1000s of interviews of founders, I’ve come to appreciate Pando a little bit more. Few interviews are so full of information. The internet misses those gems. Brian tells this amazing story of when he met Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference and asked Jeff the biggest lesson he learnt from Warren. Jeff Bezos once asked Buffett why people were not just copying his investment thesis? To which Buffett replied “Because nobody wants to get rich slow.” Loved it.https://buffett.cnbc.com/ is a good start for anyone looking into the insights of the iconic investor.
26th May - I came across the term ‘Newsjacking’ when I read Trust me, I’m Lying by Ryan Holiday and then The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott. And loved the stories - Taylor guitars, The London Fire Brigade, PETA, American Apparel. Wish I could read those stories again and again. Catapulting themselves to national and international media exposure without a budget. Couple of years back I also did a course on Newsjacking by Ryan. I used to think that only a subset of companies or people used this technique but I've come to the realization that almost all startups that are successful, hustled themselves to success much like Taylor and others.
28th May - There is always a tension between strategy and vision. This is pure vision. Building a fairytale experience. Walt Disney is really one of those titans you think you know a lot about, but you really don't. This anecdote reminded me I got to learn a lot about this man. Recommend me a few books if you; the reader, will.
Lessons → When Airbnb’s Brian Chesky asked Jeff Bezos what he learnt from Warren Buffett
How Airbnb used small blogs to get themselves featured on National News - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
How Airbnb’s founders used Walt Disney’s idea to build their Empire - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Link to full interview → PandoMonthly: Fireside chat with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
Bill Gates(Microsoft) / Warren Buffett(Berkshire Hathaway) (23rd May)
Anyone who knows Bill or Warren knows that both of them are voracious readers. Bill shares his favorite books on his personal blog regularly and Warren reads 500 pages every day. They talk about one of their favourite books - Business Adventures by John Brooks. I’ve recently started reading this, so hopefully by the next edition I’ll have completed it and have my own thoughts to share on the book. If any of you have already it please do share your insights on the book with me. Drop me an email at stealmymarketing@gmail.com
Lessons → Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Link to full interview → Bill Gates’s favourite Business Book (posted the entire video in lessons)
Steve Jobs - Apple, NeXT, Pixar (24th, 27th and 29th May)
So much has been said about Steve that it is difficult to say something which none of us have ever heard before. But I also think that there has been too much focus on the iPhone era and not much on the NeXT/Pixar era when he actually evolved his business and creative thinking. I came across this MIT talk where he talks about the biggest lesson he learnt from getting fired at Apple; which was reflected in his Pixar days as I was reading Ed Catmull’s Creativity, Inc. Then he talks about his management style and in another lesson series from a 1995 interview, he goes deep into why he was always trying hard to hire only ‘A’ players. Very insightful. Deeply admire this legend. Once upon a time in the valley.
Lessons → The most important lesson Steve Jobs learnt after being fired. Part 1 Part 2
How Steve Jobs resolved Management conflicts at NeXT. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Why Steve Jobs was hell-bent on hiring only ‘A’ players for Apple. Part 1 Part 2
Link to full interview → Steve Jobs lost 1995 interview and Steve Jobs very rare MIT Speech
Dave Heath - Bombas (25th May)
There was a time when I was deeply into reading Shopify entrepreneurship stuff and I remember being fascinated by Bombas’s success story and how they’d literally exploded into the scene out of nowhere. Until i came across this interview. Dave spent 2 years just researching the product to come across the most affordable, premium quality socks and then marketed it to anybody who’d listen to him for even before he had a sample. The story also emphasizes building a pre-launch email list and why marketing starts with making a great product first. That's how you raise $150,000 in a month.
Link to full interview → Dave Heath shows Bombas’ 400% growth strategy
I’d really love your opinion on this edition - good or bad. And if you have any suggestions or just want to talk, please reach out at stealmymarketing@gmail.com
Here’s a link to the master spreadsheet where I’ve categorized all the lesson series’ with links along with the full interviews related to those lessons. I’ll update this spreadsheet daily. → Master Spreadsheet
Sincerely,
Abhishek.