THREAD: Today is @MorningBrew's 6th birthday.

It has been an incredible journey and I am even more excited for what is to come.

Here are 5 things I've learned so far about running a start-up:
Growth is uncomfortable.

Learn to embrace being uncomfortable - it will make you better.

This goes for both personal and company growth.

If you don't feel uncomfortable from time to time, you probably aren't challenging yourself to grow fast enough.
Increase hiring standards as you grow

In the early days, you often don't have a wide choice of who you can hire, but that changes with time. Take advantage of it

I have never regretted waiting an extra week to find the right candidate, but I have regretted hiring too quickly
Don't worry about competition.

What you see from a competitor is normally inflated through PR and marketing language.

It is like evaluating someone's life through their IG: of course it is going to look good.

Spend your time talking to customers and making your company better
Increase your luck surface area.

Luck is 100% part of success. But successful people increase their chances of getting lucky by:

1. Being prepared
2. Increase the number of swings they take
3. Identifying and capitalizing on luck
Have hard conversations early.

Be transparent. With colleagues and friends, it's always better to tell people how you feel directly.

Early openness and expectations setting is imperative in growing your business and your relationships.

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More from @austin_rief

25 Feb
Alright Alright Alright. Twitter is launching "Super Follow".

Who would pay for my tweets?
Would you pay?
Thaaats what i thought.
Read 4 tweets
9 Feb
1/ THREAD: @HubSpot's acquisition of @TheHustle is a great example of a niche, vertical media business acquisition.

Here is what that means, why it makes sense, and why it doesn't happen more often.
2/ First off, this trend isn't new. There are a ton of great examples of this:

- Penn x Barstool Sports
- Stripe x Indie Hackers
- Robinhood x Market Snacks
3/ So, why would a software business acquire a media business? 2 main reasons:

1. Owning a top of funnel with a trusted audience
2. Multiple arbitrage
Read 9 tweets
23 Jan
THREAD: Here are 3 common hiring mistakes I've seen when building an early-stage startup.

👇
When hiring early execs, you must ensure they are willing to get in the weeds.

While their title may be CMO, they will have to perform the job of a junior marketer

Too many execs think they're too good to get in the weeds.

Make sure you don't hire someone with that mindset
At launch, you want generalists who can wear many hats.

As you scale, you want specialists who are best in class.

Founders are often too slow to transition from the early generalists to industry-leading specialists

This transition is painful but necessary for future success
Read 6 tweets
18 Jan
THREAD: Here are 10 insights I've learned over the last 5 years from cofounding and selling business.

On startups, investing, marketing, and career advice:

👇👇
"I learn more from speaking with others than reading" is complete nonsense.

The smartest people in the history of the world have distilled their life's work into a few hundred pages.

No, a 30 minute convo with your buddy won't teach you more.
The best businesses in the world expand their target market

-Nike convinced the world that everyone is an athlete
-Apple convinced the world that everyone is a creator
-Shopify is convincing the world that everyone is an entrepreneur

Champion customers and they will reward you
Read 12 tweets
15 Jan
People find motivation is different places.

Many find theirs by proving others wrong. Here is a story that put a chip on my shoulder in the early days.

[thread]
2/ During the first year of @MorningBrew, a *very* well known media exec (you would know him by name) reached out to us.

He mentioned wanting to invest, or even buying @MorningBrew.

We told him every single thing we knew about our company, our readership, and the industry.
3/ After @businessbarista and I spoke with him, he made it clear he was interested.

We were very excited, and thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

However, we didn't hear from him for a few weeks.
Read 7 tweets
6 Jan
1/ "Why didn't @morningbrew raise VC money?" is a question I answer a lot.

So I thought I'd answer it here for everyone.

This is why we didn't raise VC money, and what I learned about raising capital.

[thread]
2/ Morning Brew started as a college side project in 2015.

In 2015, media was BOOMING.

Here were some headlines from the time.
3/ We had very well known media execs (whom you would know by name) telling @businessbarista and I that we *need* to raise capital.

They insist we raised $10s of millions of dollars to "pivot to video".

We had no idea what we'd even do with $10s of millions.
Read 14 tweets

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