My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
Standard Setting Through Allowance
The quality standard of any business becomes whatever level of work the leadership allows to pass without correction or feedback
Decision Rule
If you allow suboptimal work without pushback, you have implicitly set that as your new quality standard
How It Works
Teams interpret lack of feedback as acceptance, creating downward drift in quality unless actively managed
Failure Modes
Avoiding difficult conversations about quality
Assuming people know standards without explicit communication
Allowing 'good enough' to become the standard
Example Decision
“Crossing out half the words in newsletter drafts and comparing to competitor examples to maintain writing standards even when it creates tension”
Related Knowledge
Having an enemy (real or imagined) is essential for startup motivation and focus
Founders should identify or create competitive threats to maintain urgency and drive performance
IQ Arbitrage Strategy
Moving talented people from highly competitive, intellectually demanding industries into underoptimized industries where
Content-First Newsletter Economics
Building newsletter businesses by obsessing over content quality first, then layering on growth and monetization rather
Launch and scale a newsletter to 7-figure revenue
100K+ engaged subscribers generating $18+ annual revenue per subscriber through advertising and products
You're totally right, but you can be right and not be an asshole
Being factually correct doesn't justify poor communication or relationship management
The news business will see massive disruption opportunities despite historically poor economics due
General distrust of traditional news creates openings for upstart news organizations to capture audience and advertiser