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Steph Smith Profile picture
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19 Apr, 7 tweets, 6 min read
Success is never as straightforward as it seems.

A thread on the early days of founders that look successful today, but have felt just as lost as the rest of us.

🧵...
Gusto's CTO, @edawerd on his project mygrub.net:

"2 weeks after launch, and no real traffic. What should I do?

...I applied to YCombinator with this, but was rejected. Maybe for good reason =("

Years later, he founded Gusto, worth $3.8B.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22959
Coinbase CEO, @brian_armstrong iterated (and failed) his way through...

- BuyersVote.com
- Ribbot.com
- Blockchain.com

"Took me more than 2 years to get 200 paying customers for my Web App"

He's now is worth $20B+.

news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=b…
Segment's CEO @reinpk could also be found around Show HN, incl. launches of:

- A tool measuring classroom confusion
- The Clip
- TheReelBox
- Markdown + LaTeX math in the browser

And then... Analytics Academy (AKA Segment), acquired by Twilio for $3.2B.

news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=p…
Early on, GitLab CEO @sytses shared their product on HN.

Like the infamous Dropbox launch, he was met with:

"Not able to compete with Github or BitBucket"
"It's ridiculous to charge so much"
"Or you could just use BitBucket"

GitLab is now worth $Bs.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4428278
Airbnb was no different. It took time to convince ppl of the vision.

In fact, @bchesky's first post on HN was:

"Ask YC: Anyone still need housing for YC interviews this weekend?"

Guess how many comments? Zero.

We all know how Airbnb is doing today. 😉

news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=b…
If you're curious, here's how I found these:

1. Started with top YC startups

2. Hunted down their HN launches (first instance of the URL)

3. Browsed the founder's posting history

Their story was almost always more non-linear than you'd expect.

Who else has a similar story?

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Steph Smith Profile picture
7 Apr
It's so interesting to me that ppl ask what work will look like post-pandemic, as if working remotely never existed before.

Once restrictions subside, I think many of the same, very human dynamics will re-emerge.

As one of many long-term nomads, here's my take:

🧵 thread time!
THE OFFICE

An initial rush back will die out quickly.

Offices will exist, but far fewer and they'll become the watering hole. Ie: communal areas used fractionally.

Existing real estate will turn into part-time offices: cafes, clubs during the day, etc.

AKA anywhere with wifi.
WORK RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships are built off of who you spend the most time with. This is human nature.

Coworker relationships can still be healthy, but your closest relationships will be with those you're physically around.

Culture will benefit from semi-frequent offsites.
Read 10 tweets
Steph Smith Profile picture
9 Mar
If you watched the Meg & Harry doc, you may have been surprised to hear this name: @tylerperry

The man that offered his home to the pair has an incredible story of going from "poor as hell" to "billionaire"

How did he do it?

As Perry says, "ownership changes everything"

🧵...
1/ Who is Tyler Perry?

You might recognize him in few films, but his on-screen performances are only a piece of the puzzle.

He built his empire as a screenwriter, director, equity-holder, author, real estate mogul... the list goes on.

And he's made sure to own every step.
2/ Tyler's net worth is $1B.

He's one of only ~3k billionaires and was listed by Forbes as "the highest-paid man in entertainment"

Comparative net worth:
- Taylor Swift: $365m
- DiCaprio: $260m
- Serena Williams: $225m

So how did he outperform these household names?

Ownership
Read 19 tweets
Steph Smith Profile picture
2 Mar
There's a lot of hype around NFTs and very little nuance around them.

I tend to see 2 arguments:

1. This is the future
2. This is worthless

The world is not black & white.

NFTs are not useless, nor are they that useful intrinsically. But so are many other things in life.

🧵
1/ Let's first agree on a definition:

NFTS are unique, digital assets. You may liken them to a trading card or art.

Scarcity is built into the asset, so is often worth more than its inherent utility.

In buying an NFT, you are betting that ppl will care about it in the future.
2/ Now let's address whether "NFTs are worthless"

NFTs = tech, allowing you to monetize & track ownership of the underlying asset.

Ex: An artist can sell X to A, but also get a cut when A sells that asset to B.

This tracking mechanism is worth something. How much? It depends.
Read 16 tweets
Steph Smith Profile picture
1 Mar
Companies often make $ in ways that you may not expect.

People learning that Robinhood monetizes via PFOF is just one case.

Decoding companies & their biz models equips you to build more creatively, with more tools in your toolbox.

A few examples... 🧵

1/ Amazon: they just sell stuff online, right?

Yes... and no. Their profit center is AWS, making 50%+ of all profits ($Bs) for the giant.

Another sneaky tidbit about AMZN: their advertising business outperformed Twitter's last decade in 2020 alone.

2/ Airlines just sell flights, right?

No. In fact, their mileage programs are worth billions.

An appraisal of the U.S. part of the AAdvantage program was between $19.5-$31.5B... MORE than American is worth, total.

Airlines used these programs to secure $Bs in pandemic loans.
Read 7 tweets
Steph Smith Profile picture
17 Feb
After covering numerous companies at Trends, I've noticed: people think of competition too narrowly.

This is indicative of not understanding the root problem being solved.

Competition != products w the same features
Competition = anything overlapping w core value provided

🧵
Ex 1: Quibi died quickly. Some blame it on COVID. Others on frivolous spending.

But their oversight was thinking that they were competing with Netflix or Disney Plus.

Their competition was Twitter, TikTok, or your #1 podcast. Free, on-demand entertainment.
Ex 2: Neflix has fared much better.

Why? They understand the complexity of their competition graph.

Reed Hastings has astutely noted that it's not just Disney+ or HBO. They also compete with... sleep.

Their goal is to get more of your overall entertainment timeshare.
Read 7 tweets

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