Clik here to view.
I Have Insomnia
this is part 3 of a series on mental disabilities – for more, check out i have Tourette’s and my OCD. Insomnia is my pillow’s greatest enemy. history nerds recognize: “One man’s terrorist is another...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How MoviePass Will Control Hollywood
i joined MoviePass in 2013 and over the next few years watched 6-10 movies [in theaters] per month for just $35 bucks. MoviePass is like ClassPass for movies, except they didn’t fail and it’s a lot...
View ArticleThe Creator’s Dilemma
with over 30 active side projects, it’s safe to say i’m a maker. i enjoy ideating –> developing –> launching –> iterating new products. sometimes they make money, sometimes they just make a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Acquire a Niche Ecommerce Store
last week my fund acquired Color My Slime, an ecommerce store that sells powdered pigments for coloring slime. there are 43 SKUs; colors cost $1.99 – $5.99, clear slime and starter packs are $9.99 –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Doing Right by Investors
in 2013 i started a company — ArtSpot. our platform connected indie artists in New York City with local venues who displayed their work. from appearing on my first podcast interviews to raising money,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
the best post ever written on learning to code
prologue in case we haven’t met: i’m a marketer, musician, and developer in New York City. i grew up outside Atlanta, attended public schools, scored bad grades, was rejected by a state university,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I’m in the Flower Business
this month my fund acquired Lobiloo, a software platform that helps florists visualize estimates and quotes for their clients. i met the original founder Emily through FE International, an excellent...
View ArticleOn Ambition
several well-intentioned founder friends have warned me with some version of “Ryan, you need to raise money or else XYZ competitor will beat you.” this is a reasonable concern; here are my...
View ArticleDeep Work
i hate all my friends, i miss the days when i pretended with you. –Patrick Stump last month i read Cal Newport’s Deep Work and it confirmed a few things: we do our best work ONLY while free of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Practitioner Defense
when I was 12 years old I got a Playstation 2. at some point it stopped working or i was bored, so i took it apart. as I unscrewed the case’s exterior panels case i noticed even more screws, varied in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Competition
an Amazon query for books about competition yields 2(!) relevant results: these books, written 10 years ago, advise traditional enterprises on global expansion and positioning. what about tech...
View ArticleGrowth DNA Master Course
how do i operate 3 bootstrapped businesses with 8,000+ paying customers and $1.5mm in annual subscription sales? here goes: who is your customer? where is your customer? companies fail when they can’t...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I’m Quitting Indie Hackers
Summer Sixteen. Drake’s single by the same name dropped while i was living in San Francisco. i moved out west from New York City just 8 months earlier, a pilgrimage to the startup capital / Mecca /...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For-Profit Regulation
The Europeans’ latest insufferable maneuver, GDPR, forced 10s of 1000s of tech companies to scramble toward “compliance” in mere weeks. at Fomo we published a 20 page DPA and modified our T&C to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How to Negotiate a Domain
startups are obsessed with good domains, they’re the entry point to your brand. when my company negotiated the purchase of Fomo.com a few weeks ago, we had to ask ourselves critical questions about...
View ArticleHow to be grateful
an intellectual is someone who maintains two opposing ideas at the same time. idea #1 all technological advancements can be explained in a word: discontentment. idea #2 if we lack gratitude,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How I Produce
i’ve read a lot of “how to be productive” porn on Medium, mostly written by digital nomads who make $1,200 /month and spend 30 minutes a day on DuoLingo learning Thai. these are not winners, they are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seva is just a Word
let’s have a quick chat about Seva, err, ConvertKit. who knows? company names are a social construct. firstly, they’re bootstrapped and kicking ass: but last month they made a mistake. after rebranding...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fear is Fake News
after a several month hiatus i joined an episode of Everyone Hates Marketers. when the show host asked my advice on handling fear, i said it’s fake news. could this be true? maybe i misspoke. here’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Flexibility
being described as “laid back” is one the greatest compliments an adult can receive. these are the fun people at parties. but there is an inclination to grow bitter as we age. as children we have...
View Article