Morning Walk #6
Notes from "The Minimalist Entrepreneur" books and interesting things I found online this week.
Hello to 15 subscribers of this newsletter. Last week’s issue received 28 views, and 1 new person signed up.
This week I decided not to promote the new issue on my social media channels as I usually do just to see how it’d perform. Hence this considerable drop in the number of views. In addition to that, I’m on vacation until next week, so this issue will be shorter than usual.
In this issue
Notes from “The Minimalist Entrepreneur” book by Sahil Lavignia.
Some interesting things I read/watched/listened to lately
Notes from “The Minimalist Entrepreneur” book by Sahil Lavignia.
You might have heard about Sahil Lavignia from his viral Medium essay “Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company.”
Here is a summary if you haven’t: Sahil was the second employee at Pinterest, left it at age 19 to build his own company. Raised a lot of VC money, burned out, had to let go 2/3 of his employees, moved out of Silicon Valley. Then became at peace with doing things slower and gradually started making his company better and better.
His book expands on this post and offers another way to become an entrepreneur these days. He calls it “The Minimalist Entepreneur.” Making something people want without VC money, without working 24/7, without stress, and chasing the unicorn. By building something for your customers, not your investors or stakeholders, by building it with your customers and by actually being a builder in the first place rather than a business person.
I recommend you buy his book but here are a few of my favorite bits from it.
Which businesses are easier to turn to minimalist’s ones:
Some business models lend themselves more easily to the pathway of minimalist entrepreneurship. These include almost any kind of business-to-consumer or business-to-business enterprise that has fast customer feedback loops and ample opportunities for iteration.
There are also businesses that aren’t necessarily suited for this framework because of the slow pace of customer feedback. For example, any business that requires a heavy investment in research and development or that relies on sales to large, bureaucratized corporations or institutions.
Great framework on defining the value of your product:
The are only four different types of utility:
Place utility: Make something inaccessible accessible
Form utility: Make something more valuable by rearranging existing parts
Time utility: Make something slow go fast
Possession utility: Remove a middleman
On becoming okay at selling stuff to people:
Selling is a discovery process, and minimalist entrepreneurs use sales as an opportunity to talk to potential customers one by one about their products while simultaneously educating themselves about the problem they are trying to solve for them. Selling this way is a long game built on relationships and vulnerability, not a one-day grand opening extravaganza followed by selling to strangers”
Things I've been reading/watching/enjoying
Can YOU Fix Climate Change?
Kurzgesagt is a wonderful YouTube channel exploring big science topics, but I especially liked this one on climate change since it resonated with me a lot. They are trying to explore ways everyone can truly contribute to fighting climate change, and we are not talking about using paper strolls or sorting your trash. Disclaimer: vote in elections and vote with your pocket.
You can now get a job at Gumroad without talking to a human
There isn’t much you can read here; it’s just a tweet, but boy. Gumroad (from the same Sahil Lavignia) went all-in on async work and made it possible to get a job there fully async. No phone calls, no talking to a human. I’m curious to learn how their process is structured and whether or not it would affect long-term turnover charts.
The 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
I’ve been catching up on Paul Graham’s essays, and this one especially hit home for me. The points he mentioned might seem evident at moments, but I highly recommend you read the full explanations to reflect on them thoroughly.
Thanks for reading. Until next week 👋🏻