Total case study in expectation-setting by @JeffBezos.

If you want to understand how to communicate directly & candidly with employees, customers, partners, just read this...

Introducing The 50.

Where I share the story and lessons of a top 50 largest company in the world.

Time for #3.

What started as a failing textile business became the 6th largest company in the world.

Let's dive in 🧵

Berkshire Hathaway is a multinational conglomerate that owns 60+ well-known businesses like Geico, Duracell, Kraft Heinz, and Dairy Queen.

It's also a highly coveted stock with one Class A share priced in at $430,000.

And it all began with Warren Edward Buffett...

• The Greatest Investor of All Time

• The Oracle of Omaha

• The Dumbledore of Investing (my personal fav)

Warren Buffett is a value investing legend and is responsible for growing Berkshire Hathaway into the $655 bn behemoth that it is today.

Born during the height of the Depression, Buffett watched his parents struggle to make ends meet in their hometown of Omaha, NE.

One night, a young Warren declared that he would make $1 million by the age of 35 or throw himself off the tallest building he could find in Omaha.

Buffet had a passion for numbers from a young age.

He collected bottle caps left outside of soda machines and analyzed for which brands and flavors customers preferred most.

This soon turned into tracking and recording stock prices that he would see in his father’s newspapers.

Who you surround yourself with is who you become.

9 steps for optimizing your circle 🧵

Step 1: grab 2 sheets of paper and a pen/pencil/sharpie

Step 2: on first sheet, make a list of your 10-20 closest personal connections

For me, this includes:

- Mom
- Girlfriend
- @austin_rief (co-founder)
- @SahilBloom (friend)

I get to 17 connections on my list.

Introducing The 50.

Where I share the story and lessons of a top 50 largest company in the world.

Time for #1.

This company went from 0 to $200bn in 5.5 years...

Let's dive in👇

Pinduoduo is the 50th largest company in the world.

If Costco & Disneyland had a baby, you'd get Pinduoduo.

A discount online shopping experience littered with contests & coupons.

490 million MAUs.
$8.5 billion in 2020 revenue.
14% of China's e-commerce market.

What's most fascinating isn't its size. It's its speed.

Pinduoduo was founded in 2015!

It IPOd in 2018.

The company 119x'ed its revenue in just 6 years.

This is where my fascination lies.

And to understand Pinduoduo, we must understand its fascinating founder.

Meet Colin Huang.

Probably haven't heard of him, but absolutely worth knowing.

The 41-year-old internet entrepreneur is the Founder & CEO of Pinduoduo.

He's #28 on the world's richest list ($50bn).

The Hangzhou native loved math & science early, earning him a spot at a top foreign language school & an internship at Microsoft.

He attended Wisconsin for college and joined a small tech co after graduation called...Google.

Audience Building 101

Every company in the world is an audience company.

Whether it's a Media, VC, or DTC business, if you're not building audience Day 1, you're not prioritizing the right things.

Here's my framework for thinking about & building a killer audience 👇

I call it the Audience Funnel.

The concept is simple, but it allows you to...

1) Think strategically about building your own audience

2) Analyze the relative strength of other companies' audiences

3) Understand the similarities & differences of different audience channels

The Audience Funnel is divided into three tiers, which include:

1) Rented Audience

2) Owned Audience

3) Monetized Audience

Tier 1: Rented Audience

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁: This is your top of funnel. It allows you to build mass awareness & is key for developing a relationship with your audience.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘀: High shareability, high discoverability

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀: You don't own your audience

Examples of Rented Audiences

- Social networks (IG, FB, Twitter, TikTok)
- Video platforms (Twitch, YouTube)
- Search engines (Web content)

Examples of Businesses with Big Rented Audiences

- @BuzzFeed (Instagram)
- @GoPro (YouTube)
- @charlidamelio (TikTok)