Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
Crypto’s Crown Prince Survived ‘The Craziest Bubble Ever.’ Now He’s Ready For a Second Act Fortune (reading time: 12 minutes)
Would you invest in a cryptocurrency hedge fund? This post in Fortune covers Polychain Capital and its founder Carlson-Wee. His fund has attracted some big investors but also many critics. It’s a fascinating read in the embryonic world of crypto investing.
The One Who Defines the Category Wins the Category David Sacks, Craft Ventures (reading time: 8 minutes)
Life is much easier for the category leader, that’s where you want to be. David Sacks explains in this post what it takes to a define and win a category. He provides some interesting tidbits on how to compete especially in the early days of a SAAS company. Many of these insights on competitive strategy are applicable beyond the world of software.
11 Lessons from the Success of Disney+ Matthew Ball (reading time: 13 minutes)
Disney announced that 10 million people signed up for their streaming service, Disney+. To put that number in context, it took Netflix 7 years to hit that number. Disney hit that number in 1 day. Matthew Ball shares his thoughts on how Disney pulled this off. Ultimately, what impresses me the most is the hard choice the company had to make. Hundreds of millions of dollars in the form of licensing were ignored in order to launch this service. It takes a lot of courage to do this for a public company.
The Basecamp Employee Handbook Basecamp (reading time: 15 minutes)
I love it when great companies share their internal documents. Basecamp (formerly known as 37 signals) posted their employee handbook and it’s well worth the read. The handbook acts as the company’s operating manual for its team. If you manage a team, I highly recommend going through the sections you find relevant.
Sequencing Business Models: Can That SAAS Business Turn Into a Marketplace? Casey Winters, Eventbrite (reading time: 14 minutes)
What does it take to build a SAAS marketplace? There are a few very known examples such as OpenTable or Slack. Casey Winters provides a questions an executive team should be asking. Making this transition to a marketplace is hard and the biggest barrier is overcoming the culture.
