We recently hosted a workshop where our portfolio founders had an opportunity to spend time refining their brands with @jbosborne and Marni Kane (https://t.co/chIjEnevR6) from legendary creative firm @redantler. Here are some of the insights we gleaned from the session:

1/🧵

👶 Showcase your flying baby!

“Branding is an exercise in prioritization” was the most common piece of feedback shared with our portfolio. The Red Antler team fashioned a great heuristic to aid in this process – “If your baby can fly, lead with that!”

2/20

The point is to focus on what you do better than anyone else.

The one thing that your customers would *love* about your product.

In short, a single differentiated message is better than half a dozen banal brand promises.

3/20

“Focus” sounds like incredibly simple advice, but it’s easy for founders (or VCs) to get attached to the many benefits they want to highlight and not focus on the single problem they are solving for customers. Ruthlessly simplify your story until it resonates with buyers.
4/20

😃 You sell to customers, not companies

B2B and B2C sales shouldn’t be all that different – at the end of the day, you are still selling to a human who is moved by aesthetics and branding. (Sadly, they likely just have lower expectations in their professional context.)

5/20

We need to do now what we should have done last Spring: shut it all down, provide funds to support people & businesses thru closure and—here’s the key—USE THE TIME TO IMPLEMENT GOOD RESPONSE. That means: better testing & vaccine logistics, ventilation in schools & workplaces...

...improved production & distribution of N95 masks for everyone, improve internet access to allow wfh & school from home for those who *can* continue with that, safe opening plans for every type of workplace, universal paid quarantine & sick leave, open up parks & beaches...

...public health educational campaigns that teach everyone the basics of how viruses work (and while we’re at it, lets add some bacterial info to combat overuse of antibiotics), extended eviction moratoriums, actual oversight & accountability for workplace safety...

...basic income + increased minimum wage, authorization for expanded roles for nurse practitioners, expanded authorization for vaccination delivery by dentists, authorize telemedicine across state borders so students & others can continue to access care while not on campus...

...national COVID information hotline to help combat misinformation, permanently expanded public health workforce at federal & state & local levels, a coordinated set of COVID research priorities to answer important unknowns and a rolling rapid COVID funding application system...

Dear online vendors,

I personally would like to address certain concerns as regards how you do business, your customer relations and interactions as I would also want to assume that many of you reading this have little to no business experience/ training whatsoever.

Frist, even the Bible in Luke 14:28 says

"New International Version"

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?

It is only sane that anyone venturing into business, first would

Sit and count its cost. Which includes capital, consumers needs, services needed, location e.t.c when it comes to offline businesses. However, I have noticed that a lot of people venture into online businesses (Buying and selling to be clear) without proper mentoring nor prior

Knowledge as to what it really entails; as time and time again I have had to address concerns which in most cases are amateur business concerns that shouldn't even be apart of the discussion to start with. Concerns like "Availablity" which is what I will focus this lecture on.

Yes! This is a lecture and you're my student. If you are offended feel free to leave the class now. It's free so I'm allowed to do shakara.

I would like to note that in business, 1 year - 2 year old businesses cannot be termed as "successful" until they exceed the 3year mark.

Are you on this list and backing @SMcPartland and @Royston_Smith's amendment to the Fire Safety Bill? Please support our campaign so leaseholders do not have to pay for historic defects. You are ruining lives:
@RobertJenrick @mhclg @ChrisPincher

#EndOurCladdingScandal

@AaronBell4NUL
@AdamAfriyie
@AlanMakMP
@AlbertoCostaMP
@AlecShelbrooke
@alexburghart
@AlexChalkChelt
@Alex_Stafford
@aliciakearns
@AlokSharma_RDG
@AlunCairns
@amandamilling
@ASollowayUK
@andreajenkyns
@andrealeadsom
@AndrewBowie_MP
@ABridgen
@griffitha
@AJonesMP
@ALewerMBE

Ten years ago, Dyn discontinued service for Wikileaks. It's incredible to think about how much time has past but also how similar the conversation is today on platforms and publishers. 1/

Dyn is a business and made decisions through a business lens. We sought to have many customers and run a SHARED platform where everyone would benefit from uptime and reliability we provided the Internet infrastructure. 2/

How spotify manipulates both its user as well as artists for more profit (a thread):

Spotify displays the monthly listeners of every single artist in their profile and ranks them based in it, for example justin bieber is at #2 right now with 76M monthly listeners

Lets be honest unless ur a part of stan twitter, u will think that justin bieber is the most popular artist right now, but that is where they trick you. Justin bieber is not even in top 10 most streamed artists of this year and not in top 5 most streamed artists of this month

So wats happening here? How he has 76M listeners then? Most of these listeners are passively listening to him from playlists, which means they play a playlist in general and one of those songs turn out to be a justin beiber song...

...so now though this person didnt intentionally listen to Justin bieber, he/ she is counted as a monthly listener for justin. So these monthly listeners are just a reflection of most playlisted artists right now not the most popular ones.

Life & Business Advice from LegacyFuel

a Collection of Tweets that will change ur life

don't enter 2021 without it

1 RT = 1 obscure business insight

i'll start......

the dilemma that most young Entrepreneurs have

they want the Clout of a Personal Brand without the Track Record of Multiple Successful Businesses

that's how you fade into obscurity, because the quality of your content can only be as good as your Knowledge Base

every dude should strive to have $50K in the bank

that amount will allow you to bootstrap in most USA states & countries with $2k a month for up to 2 years

having that Runway will give you the Freedom to build businesses that U really want instead of ones out of Desperation

i spent a good chunk of my 20's "uninstalling" Toxic Ideas about Money, Wealth, Life

if ur a Rich Kid, u have a Sick Advantage from the Get-Go because u already have the Software installed

if ur a Broke Kid on $ Twitter, ur already in the Best Place to get ur Software Updated

noobs always ask

"what's a GoOd OnLiNe BuSiNeSs?"

as if theres some corner of the internet where everybody is making trillions and everywhere else is Dry

U can sell ANYTHING

the question is "what do you enjoy thinking about or doing?"

then u build a Business around THAT

Thread on The Congregation in the a Secular Age:

Pastors and ministers, I know that the pandemic as been no joke. It has taken a pound of flesh. I’m hopeful that The Congregation in a Secular Age can speak to some of this burden.

It was written before the pandemic, but I think will offer some insights on why the 2nd half of the pandemic has been a hellscape to do ministry in. And it may help you rethink what your congregation is for and how it should be in the world.

The post-pandemic risks being even harder on pastors. As vaccines are given & the world revs its engines like never before to race back to speed, I think the book could help give some insight into the phenomena within the pandemic,

but more so it offers points of reflection as we move toward a post-pandemic horizon. It’s a book written pre-pandemic that I think will really help post-pandemic. It will help resist the calls for your congregation to accelerate and race for change.

1/n Reliance Industries Ltd announces results for Q3 & 9m FY2020-21. Details follow… #RILresults

2/n Q3 FY2020-21 Reliance reports strong sequential rebound across all the businesses #RILresults

3/n Reliance posts highest ever consolidated quarterly Net Profit; Q3 FY2020-21 PAT at Rs 15,015 crore, up 24.9% (Excluding EO) #RILresults

4/n Q3 FY2020-21 Consolidated quarterly EBITDA up 12.0% Q-o-Q to a record Rs 26,094 crore #RILresults

5/n Q3 FY2020-21 Strong 38.2% sequential jump in quarterly EPS to Rs 20.5 per share (Excluding EO) #RILresults

I’m not going to litigate the SEC’s unproven allegations on Twitter, and as you can imagine, there are new considerations to what can / should be said publicly after the litigation process starts. However, I would like to address 5 key questions I’ve seen. 1/10

Q: Why didn’t Ripple settle with the SEC?

Can’t get into specifics, but know we tried - and will continue to try w/ the new administration - to resolve this in a way so the XRP community can continue innovating, consumers are protected and orderly markets are preserved. 2/10

Q: Did you pay exchanges to list XRP? When will it be relisted?

XRP is one of the most liquid (top 3-5) digital assets globally, and 95% is traded outside the US. Ripple has no control over where XRP is listed, who owns it, etc. It’s open-source and decentralized. 3/10

Delisting and halting are 2 separate things - most are halting trading. With 8 different govt agencies, each with their own (and sometimes opposing) views of crypto, U.S. market participants are facing conflicting policies and no surprise, some act conservatively. 4/10

We’ve moved from lack of regulatory clarity to regulatory chaos in the U.S. This is why regulation by enforcement is such bad public policy. With the new administration, we expect #DCEA to be reintroduced - common-sense legislation providing clarity to the entire industry. 5/10

Just finished reading The Ride of a Lifetime by @RobertIger.

Incredible life and work advice from his perspective on @Disney distilled into 250+ pages.

Here's a thread of my top 10 takeaways:

1. Performance

It is a delicate matter to find the balance between demanding that your people perform at their best and not instilling in them the fear of failure.

We must instill in our people a fail fast and learn faster mentality.

2. Humility

At work and in life, you will earn the respect and trust of the people around you if you sincerely acknowledge your mistakes.

There's nothing bad in being wrong, but an error becomes a mistake unless you refuse to correct it.

3. Awareness

Be aware of what you don't know and trust what you do.

There is nothing that inspires less confidence than a person who pretends to know something they don't. True leadership and authority come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be someone you are not.

4. Leadership

We all like to believe that we are indispensable. You have to be realistic enough not to cling to the idea that you are the only person who can do the job.

Great leadership is not about being indispensable, but about helping others to be ready to take your place.

I'm in the later stages of purchasing a niche sub-contractor in the SE US. I'm now working with the sellers on the nitty gritty handover items that need to be transitioned. Here is a summary of my working list:

Insurance: (Staying with current provider)
- auto coverage on fleet of 40+ vehicles.
- General liability policy.
- Workers Comp policy.
- Bonding, done on a job by job basis, for a minority of their work. (I got a backup quote from another bonding agent for a fall back).

Benefits:
- I'm doing an asset purchase, so retirement benefits will likely have to start fresh under new entity. Will keep the same provider.
- Health Insurance will remain with incumbent, but have to migrate and re-enroll everyone under new LLC.
- Exhaustive list of emp perks.

Payroll:
- Currently done in-house, and paid weekly. Will keep the same, but need to get everything lined up based on timing of close and bank account. (See below).

Bank Accounts:
- Goal is to keep the same bank account for now, to reduce number of changes- less to go wrong. Built in a true-up with sellers for any payments post-close that shouldn't have carried over. MAKE SURE to change authorized signers.

The Board Meeting

The Board of Directors was caught in a deadlock situation. A secessionist state, called Freedom's Charter by its hard-bitten inhabitants, had somehow spawned almost overnight the month before.

It was causing the Societal Protectorate's Board of Directors no end of problems. The Board was still attempting to determine just how it had happened, but even more important was that it be ended.

And so they met, for the fourth time that month, in their dimly-lit conference room, with the various Directors seated around it, the walls lined with aides and functionaries of various levels.

The Board members had been deliberating for a little over four hours now, with no discernible progress.

One of the more junior functionaries started, almost imperceptibly, as his implant pinged, information scrolling up his vision.

Trained to rapidly assimilate such, the young man read and understood before stepping forward.

"We do have Marshall," offered the junior functionary. His voice was quiet, his tone a clear indicator of how well he knew the suggestion would be taken.

Truly terrible takes you can expect to hear a lot more of over the next 2 months based on painful experience of the climate discourse - a thread.

1. 'Hospitals are not actually being overwhelmed - look at this cherry picked data point I found.'

2. Hospitals are being overwhelmed, but it is OK because they are not being overwhelmed everywhere.

3. Hospitals are being overwhelmed, but we couldn't have possibly known this would happen or done to stop it.

4. Hospitals are being overwhelmed, we could have taken action to stop it, but that action would have cost too much - here look at my economic modelling (which is much better than your economic modelling).

There were a few interesting Epstein stories this past October most haven’t heard of. Notable as they involve B Gætes

🧖🏻‍♀️How YOU can Build a 7 Figure Business in the next 3 Months by Copying this Thread

(FREE PRODUCT CASE STUDY)

//THREAD//

🧖🏻‍♀️Product:

Orthopaedic Pillow

Benefits: ultra soft & comfy, neck support, massaging effect on head, keeps your head cool, makes it easier to fall into a deep sleep, improves posture

AliExpress Price: $23.73 (free shipping)

Selling Price: $49.99 (free shipping)

🧖🏻‍♀️Potential Marketing Angles you could use:

⭐️ Help pregnant women to have their first good night’s sleep in months

⭐️ Quickly solves agonising neck pain

⭐️ Help people who live in super warm countries to sleep easier due to having a cooling pillow

⭐️ Improve Gamer’s Posture

🧖🏻‍♀️Brand tone:

Aim to portray a “Luxury” brand tone

This means you can have a high perceived value, and charge more for your products

Have congruency across your whole funnel to portray trust by having your
emails, social media & website all giving off this “boutique” vibe

🧖🏻‍♀️Store Design:

Soft & professional colours (white, creme, light blue)

Fancy “luxurious” fonts

Clean layout (nothing spammy, no popups)

High Quality images with white backgrounds

Not crammed together- make everything spaced out, lots of white space (adds to the luxury vibe)