Founders shouldn’t be hireable As GreenMellen has grown over the years, one of the challenges that Ali and I have faced is figuring out what our roles should be at various stages. Early on it was easy; she was the designer and I was the developer. Once those roles were filled by others, where did that leave us? It’s a question that has no simple answer, and we’ve done different things over the years. In a recent episode of the “Founders” podcast, host David Senra shared this regarding Thomas ...

Founders shouldn’t be hireable As GreenMellen has grown over the years, one of the challenges that Ali and I have faced is figuring out what our roles should be at various stages. Early on it was easy; she was the designer and I was the developer. Once those roles were filled by others, where did that leave us? It’s a question that has no simple answer, and we’ve done different things over the years. In a recent episode of the “Founders” podcast, host David Senra shared this regarding Thomas ...

The Sunday Summary: Rising standards, big egos, and accumulating little notes In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 29: Our standards are rising It’s easy to think that the world is falling apart, and while there are certainly many things we need to improve, things are really going pretty well. Crime is down, medical care is always improving, and even things like sex trafficking are far less pe...

The Sunday Summary: Rising standards, big egos, and accumulating little notes In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 29: Our standards are rising It’s easy to think that the world is falling apart, and while there are certainly many things we need to improve, things are really going pretty well. Crime is down, medical care is always improving, and even things like sex trafficking are far less pe...

Accumulating little notes I recently shared the question of whether meta work is worth the effort. It’s certainly situational, but I’m finding that it often can pay off quite well in the long run. In that previous post, part of the thought was around tracking books from lists that people suggest. Similar to the list that I shared last time, I’ve started adding the books mentioned in the new podcast from Adam Walker and Jeff Hilimire called “Who as time to read?” to my database as well. I resp...

Accumulating little notes I recently shared the question of whether meta work is worth the effort. It’s certainly situational, but I’m finding that it often can pay off quite well in the long run. In that previous post, part of the thought was around tracking books from lists that people suggest. Similar to the list that I shared last time, I’ve started adding the books mentioned in the new podcast from Adam Walker and Jeff Hilimire called “Who as time to read?” to my database as well. I resp...

What will AI collide with? I was at a recent event where Rich Beaudrie posed an interesting question: what will AI collide with? There are many examples of collisions from the past. At one point 15 years ago, we had cell phones with large screens + 3G networks + compact GPS chips and Google Maps was born. Or you can look at things like early social networks, which combined the fact that everyone had a computer at school + the internet really taking off.So what's next?Rich talked a good b...

What will AI collide with? I was at a recent event where Rich Beaudrie posed an interesting question: what will AI collide with? There are many examples of collisions from the past. At one point 15 years ago, we had cell phones with large screens + 3G networks + compact GPS chips and Google Maps was born. Or you can look at things like early social networks, which combined the fact that everyone had a computer at school + the internet really taking off.So what's next?Rich talked a good b...

Our standards are rising It’s easy to think that the world is falling apart, and while there are certainly many things we need to improve, things are really going pretty well. Crime is down, medical care is always improving, and even things like sex trafficking are far less pervasive than we’re led to believe. The problem is our standards. Crime shouldn’t exist, medical care should be better, and sex trafficking is horrific at any scale. It just feels like things should be better than they ar...

Our standards are rising It’s easy to think that the world is falling apart, and while there are certainly many things we need to improve, things are really going pretty well. Crime is down, medical care is always improving, and even things like sex trafficking are far less pervasive than we’re led to believe. The problem is our standards. Crime shouldn’t exist, medical care should be better, and sex trafficking is horrific at any scale. It just feels like things should be better than they ar...

The algorithm can make social media really weird While it seems the digital world is becoming more real-time, traditional social media is becoming more algorithm-driven and can lead to some weird posts. For example, here is a post from a friend that I saw earlier this year. The post appeared for me a few days after it was posted, and I have literally no idea what it was referring to.More recently was this one from another friend. It feels Olympics-related, but it was from a few days prior to ...

The algorithm can make social media really weird While it seems the digital world is becoming more real-time, traditional social media is becoming more algorithm-driven and can lead to some weird posts. For example, here is a post from a friend that I saw earlier this year. The post appeared for me a few days after it was posted, and I have literally no idea what it was referring to.More recently was this one from another friend. It feels Olympics-related, but it was from a few days prior to ...

Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...

Creating “zero click” content As I mentioned a few weeks ago, a growing problem with Google is the number of “zero click” searches on there — searches that don’t lead to another click, because Google answered the question for you. It’s generally a good thing for users, but it’s a bad thing for companies wanting to get more website traffic. In the case of Google, there’s not much you can do. In other cases, though, it might be best to just lean into this trend. Most social media sites quietly ...

Know, respect, trust We’ve all heard the saying that we buy things from people that we “know, like and trust”, and I agree with that. I’d much rather purchase something from someone that I know, who I find likable, and who I trust. In recently reading the book “How Clients Buy“, the authors worded it slightly differently every time they said it, by saying “know, respect, trust” instead. It was clearly an intentional choice of words, so it got me thinking about why they chose to make the switc...

Know, respect, trust We’ve all heard the saying that we buy things from people that we “know, like and trust”, and I agree with that. I’d much rather purchase something from someone that I know, who I find likable, and who I trust. In recently reading the book “How Clients Buy“, the authors worded it slightly differently every time they said it, by saying “know, respect, trust” instead. It was clearly an intentional choice of words, so it got me thinking about why they chose to make the switc...

Make decisions before circumstances force them to be made March 2020 was a scary time to be a business owner. Things were still going well for us, but the future was very uncertain — for everyone! Ali and I took some time that month to plot out two sets of scenarios for our business.Determining how long could we sustain the company if we lost x clients, or if recurring revenue dropped by a certain percent, or various other potential situations that COVID might cause.Setting “triggers” for var...

Make decisions before circumstances force them to be made March 2020 was a scary time to be a business owner. Things were still going well for us, but the future was very uncertain — for everyone! Ali and I took some time that month to plot out two sets of scenarios for our business.Determining how long could we sustain the company if we lost x clients, or if recurring revenue dropped by a certain percent, or various other potential situations that COVID might cause.Setting “triggers” for var...

Be willing to look bad Being willing to look bad, admit defeat, or answer a question with “I don’t know” are all difficult things to do, but they all ultimately can make you a better person. As a “five” on the enneagram, this hits particularly close to home (here is more about the enneagram if you’re not familiar with it). In describing what a “five” tends to be like, I found this quote:Fives collect knowledge. Knowledge and information of almost any kind (even the strangest information) prov...

Be willing to look bad Being willing to look bad, admit defeat, or answer a question with “I don’t know” are all difficult things to do, but they all ultimately can make you a better person. As a “five” on the enneagram, this hits particularly close to home (here is more about the enneagram if you’re not familiar with it). In describing what a “five” tends to be like, I found this quote:Fives collect knowledge. Knowledge and information of almost any kind (even the strangest information) prov...

The Sunday Summary: Sunk costs, meta work, and attention spans aren’t really getting shorter In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 22: Movie tickets are sunk costs “If you purchase a movie ticket, you have the ability to occupy a seat in the theater, but you don’t have to if a better opportunity presents itself. When you purchase the ticket, all you’re purchasing is the right to exercise the op...

The Sunday Summary: Sunk costs, meta work, and attention spans aren’t really getting shorter In an effort to help me keep up with everything I post each week, here is my latest “Sunday Summary” of my posts from the week. Mon, July 22: Movie tickets are sunk costs “If you purchase a movie ticket, you have the ability to occupy a seat in the theater, but you don’t have to if a better opportunity presents itself. When you purchase the ticket, all you’re purchasing is the right to exercise the op...

Big egos that look small can be super valuable It take a big ego to run a big company, but most people aren’t fans of those with big egos. The solution? Keep your ego in check. In an episode of the Passion & Pain podcast, they had David Senra on as a guest and David put it this way:“I don’t think that you can build a great company without a giant ego. However, your ego should drive you, but should not be on public display.”He was loosely quoting Walmart founder Sam Walton, who famously said:“...

Big egos that look small can be super valuable It take a big ego to run a big company, but most people aren’t fans of those with big egos. The solution? Keep your ego in check. In an episode of the Passion & Pain podcast, they had David Senra on as a guest and David put it this way:“I don’t think that you can build a great company without a giant ego. However, your ego should drive you, but should not be on public display.”He was loosely quoting Walmart founder Sam Walton, who famously said:“...