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Edition 27: Crash & šŸ”„
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Edition 27: Crash & šŸ”„

DTC Bubble - Politics & the Human Condition

Kamil Rextin
Jan 13, 2020
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Here’s a great story of $40,000 & a failed startup idea. There’s lot of gold in here but the key point for me was creating value for all stakeholders aka the ecosystem.

Twitter avatar for @bramkBram Kanstein @bramk
I don’t know who wrote this, but this might me the best startup post-mortem I have ever read šŸ‘šŸ‘šŸ‘
tjcx.me/posts/i-wasted…I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup ideaWhen good ideas make bad businesstjcx.me

January 8th 2020

9 Retweets70 Likes

I have a few of my own crashes & burns under my belt but here’s one that was published back in 2013. The actual company crashed & burned a few years before that.


Twitter avatar for @naynerzRanee Soundara @naynerz
Nothing pisses me off more than Lowest Common Denominator (LCD) Marketing: +tactics over strategy +lazy branding +minimal comms +ads without optimization +no real conversion goals +vanity metrics +too much content, no ROI +hours spent on low ROI activities list goes on...

January 8th 2020

15 Retweets119 Likes

I think this is the marketing playbook now - everyone is looking for the quick wins to justify their jobs / marketing spend without taking into consideration the longer term benefits of investing in marketing. It’s not marketers at fault all the time. There’s lots of bad marketers but also there’s a lack of understanding what marketing actually fucking does!


I usually pay attention to what DHH says. He’s a smart man. But ads as a business model are not evil. There’s still some caution and fear-mongering around using ā€˜targetted’ ads post FB/elections. But let’s be honest, without ads, a lot of the internet as it is won’t exist today. Ads let people blog, keep the services running that we rely on (free email, search, blogs, newspapers, music, videos, etc) - how many folks out of the billions who use the internet can / would or could afford to pay $5/mo for 100’s of services. I know for a fact that a lot of folks in Pakistan (rural like where I am originally from) would not have access to nearly the information they can if the internet was paywalled. Ads let us have a free & democratized internet.

Are ads themselves evil? No. Is Facebook using 2FA via phone number then using that to target folks with ads a shady practice? Yes. Is it downright evil? No. But I can’t point fingers because I make my living on the internet & 20% of it is running ads on the internet. It’s become the cultural zeitgeist to talk about privacy.

In some ways, I feel like by taking away ads & putting the internet behind the paywall - we are enforcing elitism on what otherwise should be free (via ads) & available to everyone.

Twitter avatar for @dhhDHH @dhh
If you're a podcast listener, you can do better than Spotify as your player. No need to reward a company that's doubling down hard on targeted ads with your ears. For iOS, checkout @OvercastFM. For Android, @pocketcasts. And if you're making a podcast, @TransistorFM āœŒļøā¤ļø

January 9th 2020

164 Retweets1,028 Likes

Here is the Spotify podcast article.

Spotify also hinted at taking this technology and applying it outside of its exclusive shows. ā€œThis is just the beginning,ā€ says Dawn Ostroff, Spotify chief content officer. That means it’s possible the company will take on big ad networks, like Midroll, to sell ads for other shows and share in the revenue

I did cover this before it became official in a previous edition.

How can I end without talking about DTC & Casper's IPO?

Yes, the biz model is lopsided & there’s probably a handful of factories churning out these mattresses in a box and other DTC products. I still think DTC itself is a bubble - but is all Commerce over the internet DTC? Is this the same ā€˜bubble’ as drop shipping with better branding? Send me your thoughts or twitter!!

But I am guilty of arm analysis. The fact is, its incredibly hard to build a company & take it public & I have never done it ever & likely never will (who takes an agency public right?) but here’s some commentary from Twitter (LinkedIn was very quiet or I don’t follow the right folks):

Twitter avatar for @jrichliveJeff Richards @jrichlive
Evergreen tweet on IPOs: I’m not a Casper investor. And it’s 🤪 to read the hot takes. But - I personally applaud any company that can get to an IPO. It’s really, really f’ing hard to do. Investors can decide whether they want to own your stock, but thank you for taking a shot...

January 11th 2020

61 Retweets670 Likes
Twitter avatar for @jstofferJason Stoffer @jstoffer
S-1 drops from @Casper - interesting positioning as a sleep economy business v a mattress business. Includes CPAP machines, medical diagnostics and pet sleep in that definition. Notes to follow

January 10th 2020

17 Retweets136 Likes
Twitter avatar for @Post_MarketPost M. @Post_Market
The internet has both created and destroyed vast profit pools for B2C businesses. Mattresses are a solid case study: the industry has been squeezed by a) price transparency & b) lowered barriers to entry. Tuft & Needle was founded in ā€˜12, w/ $6k and grew to $100M w/ no VC funding

January 11th 2020

143 Retweets1,055 Likes

Some interesting listens/ reads:

Sales / Sales Ops:

Twitter avatar for @AmritaMathurAmrita @AmritaMathur
'Prospect has been unresponsive' an unacceptable reason for losing deals. Frequently seeing this as a lost reason alludes to the rep being unable to create a sense of credibility, urgency, challenge the prospect or position product as a strategic solution. Agree or disagree?

January 10th 2020

2 Likes

Facebook & Commerce:

Twitter avatar for @jlaxJon Lax @jlax
@michaelmiraflor Marketplace and Pages have been working on commerce since 2015. Shopify are a partner with the ability to connect Shopify catalogs to Fb pages. The headline is click bait worthy but not accurate.

January 12th 2020

3 Likes

Twitter avatar for @JeffChang30Jeff ChangšŸ“ˆ @JeffChang30
CAC is not a constant. It’s a function of: 1. Time 2. Spend amount 3. Competition 4. Market saturation And more

January 12th 2020

25 Retweets210 Likes

Biggest takeaway

Sales is about Customer value creation not revenue. 


Preorder Susan’s book! If you don’t who who Susan is - she wrote the blog post that triggered the changes at Uber & around the tech industry among other places

Twitter avatar for @susanthesquarkSusan Fowler @susanthesquark
LESS THAN 40 DAYS TO GO! I’m not Donald Trump Jr which means the RNC ain’t bulk ordering my book. I need YOUR help to get my story out and share it with the world! Please pre-order, retweet, or even just say nice things like ā€œgood luck, kid!ā€
Whistleblower by Susan Fowler: 9780525560128 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: BooksNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by Vogue and Cosmopolitan The unbelievable true story of the young woman who faced down one of the most valuable startups in Silicon Valley history--and what came...penguinrandomhouse.com

January 12th 2020

104 Retweets278 Likes

And some politics & the human condition that are incredibly moving:

Twitter avatar for @kawalpreetduKawalpreet Kaur @kawalpreetdu
#ShaheenBaghProtest is one the most consistent and non-violent protest of recent times. It is being led by Muslim women. They have shown us the path of how to protest in Gandhi's India with Ambedkar's constitution. Picture of today's gathering. #IndiaAgainstCAA_NPR_NRC
Image

January 12th 2020

3,170 Retweets9,303 Likes

Twitter avatar for @MapleLeafFoodsMaple Leaf Foods @MapleLeafFoods
I’m Michael McCain, CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, and these are personal reflections. I am very angry, and time isn’t making me less angry. A MLF colleague of mine lost his wife and family this week to a needless, irresponsible series of events in Iran...

January 13th 2020

15,750 Retweets55,812 Likes

Till next time.

Soundtrack: Top 40 Pop / 70’s Rock.

Kamil

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