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Adam Hayes

Follow @Adam_Ha_Yes

5 May, 11 tweets, 2 min read

The story of the controversial 1 click checkout and how it gave Amazon a billion dollar advantage.

👇 THREAD

In 1998, eCommerce was still fringe.

Consumers weren't convinced and there was a lot of friction when buying online.

Jeff Bezos knew in order to succeed, Amazon had to change this.

Checking out was horrendous.

Each question had its own screen
- Name
- Last name
- Street address
- Zip code
- State
- etc...

The checkout took several minutes and Amazon noticed people were not completing their purchases.

So Jeff set out on the goal - make ordering easy.

Amazon spent month after month on this problem.

They tried to make it easier to enter information.

They designed more intuitive layouts

But it wasn't working...

The team had a eureka moment.

If you save customers information, you can check them out in one click.

In 1999, Amazon filed the 1 click checkout patent.

Amazon's biggest competitor at the time copied their button.

That company was Barnes & Nobel.

Barnes & Nobel launched the "Express Lane".

Amazon fired back.

During the highest-volume season of the year, Barnes & Nobel was forced to take their site down.

The momentum shifted.

Apple saw the genius in Amazon's solution.

Remember when we used to buy a song for $.99?

That's because in 2000 Apple leased the 1 click button for the Apple iTunes store for $1,000,000.

Many people question whether Amazon should have had a patent.

The Free Software Foundation held a boycott on Amazon for years.

In order to have a patent, your innovation has to be non-obvious.

At the time, the 1 click checkout wasn't obvious...

Or was it?

Either way, in 2017 the patent expired.

Now, anyone can use it - and everyone does.

What's fascinates me about the legacy is this:

What seems obvious now was not obvious then.

If you want to disrupt a market, look at industries with a lot of friction and figure out how to make them "1 click"...

- Travel
- Insurnace
- Financial
- You name it

Create "1 click" solutions that will seem obvious later.

@Adam_Ha_Yes

While the 1 click checkout was amazing, you can follow me in just 2 clicks.

Just click @Adam_Ha_Yes and then follow 😂

I tweet every week about product and growth for startups.

Thanks for reading my friend!

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More from @Adam_Ha_Yes

Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

4 May

@alexvermeer

Have you been procrastinating?

Candidly, finding motivation while working from home has been tough.

I found this equation for motivation from @alexvermeer and it has helped me get the most important things done everyday.

Here's the formula to increase your motivation.
🧵👇

So, the formula is pretty simple.

Motivation = (high expectancy X high reward) / (distractions X delay)

You want to increase your expectancy and value while decreasing your impulsiveness and delay.

Here's how.

Expectancy = What you expect to happen.

Increase positive expectancy by:
- Being optimistic
- Setting goals that have a real impact

If you can't see a positive outcome, you won't take action.

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Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

6 Apr

@ycombinator

With a 1.5% acceptance rate, @ycombinator is the world's most revered startup accelerator for a reason.

How can you stand out from 10,000+ applications?

Here's what YC is looking for when you apply: 🧵👇

The Application

1. Be matter of fact
- No 'marketing-speak'
- Be narrow in your descriptions

2. Use data
- Numbers > superlatives

3. Show that you can become a huge business
- They are looking for 100x opportunities

Your #1 priority is for them to understand what you're doing

The Team

They want:
- Industry leaders
- Unique insights
- Those who go against the system

The most important question:
"Please tell us in one or two sentences about something impressive that each founder has built or achieved."

Extraordinary people do extraordinary things.

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Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

2 Apr

Have you ever thought about running ads on Twitter?

I've spent thousands of dollars on Twitter ads.

Twitter can be a breakthrough platform if you're looking for a new way to acquire customers.

Here are 12 best practices for running Twitter ads
👇🧵

#1 Campaign structure

Start with two campaigns.

One for cold targeting and one for retargeting.

#2 When setting bids

Use automatic in most cases.

If your ads aren't serving, then try target.

If it still isn’t serving then use maximum.

Read 15 tweets

Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

31 Mar

@Apple

"Innovation is saying no to a thousand things.” - Steve Jobs

Here are 7 products ideas @Apple should and should not do 🧵

Smart Mirrors = No

If you've ever seen a movie based in the future, smart mirrors seem like an obvious innovation right?

But this isn't Apple's space to innovate because it isn't empowering creators.

Plus, this next innovation would make smart mirrors useless.

Smart Glasses = Yes

Google wasn't the right company to make smart glasses a thing.

We need Apple to show us what cool AR glasses look like and then bring early adopters to the new technology.

Then, Google can come out with a cheaper alternative for the mass market.

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Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

31 Mar

@YouTube

15 years ago this startup had 9 employees working for free.

Today it's the 2nd most visited site in the world.

There are a few strategies that seperate remarkable companies from the rest.

Here are 9 insights from @YouTube's pitch deck that led to their $1.65B acquisition👇

Tip #1: Make your vision actionable

I love a grand vision, but if it can't be measured it can't be achieved.

They want to be:
✅ The primary outlet of user-generated video
✅ Allow anyone to upload, share and browse this content

Create a compelling and measurable vision.

Tip #2: Solve your own problems

Steve Chen, the co-founder, took a video of a birthday party.

They wanted to email the video to guests but the file was too large.

That's when they thought of YouTube.

Solving your own problem gives you unique insights. Focus there.

Read 12 tweets

Adam Hayes

@Adam_Ha_Yes

29 Mar

90% of decision making comes from emotion NOT logic.

So, why aren't more people integrating emotional design into their marketing and products?

Here's how you can use Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions to create remarkable experiences:
👇

Plutchik's Wheel of Emotion is a framework used by psychologists.

Think of it like you're climbing a staircase.

You need to be in a state of serenity before you reach a higher emotion of joy.

What's super interesting about that is it follows the exact path of AIDA.

@theSamParr

AIDA is the framework @theSamParr taught me to create ads.

Attention: Grab attention
Interest: Cultivate interest
Desire: Increase desire
Action: Give a specific call to action

If you're reading this, the AIDA framework works because it's what I used on my first tweet.

Read 8 tweets

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