I wanted to make a product and sell it directly to people who’d care about its quality. There’s an incredible connection possible when you align your financial motivations with the service of your users. It’s an entirely different category of work than if you’re simply trying to capture eyeballs and sell their attention, privacy, and dignity in bulk to the highest bidder.
Saved by phoebe and
As I prepare to transition from my “heads down building a product” era to “I’ve worked so hard to build this thing, get over yourself and engage in some cringey self-promotion” era I need to fully embrace Austin Kleon’s mantra: “it’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.”
Along those lines, this quote stopped me in my
... See moreCharlie, for example, has always been focused on creating products of true quality, so his company works hard to showcase that aspect of its personality.
One of the driving insights that led me to leave my job in 2021 at Reddit, because of my interest in the crypto industry, because of my fascination with decentralization, and because of my, you know, belief that the ability to own and control and create and have access to all of the data that we as individuals create online. I didn't believe that I
... See moreThe easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use.
Many people would view this approach as advice for building a charity or aiming a business only at your close friends — it couldn’t possibly be applied to a business that makes enough money to put clothes on the children, keep food on the table, and pay the rent. But this is precisely how I built a business that, for over a decade, has had a waitin
... See moreSean feels that his job as a business owner is not to endlessly increase profits, or even to defeat the competition, but instead to create better and better products and services that his customers benefit from in their lives and work.
“By putting things out there, consistently, you can form a relationship with your customers. It allows them to see the person behind the products.” Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they, too, long to be creative and part of the creative process. By letting go of our egos and sharing our process, we allow for the possibility
... See moreI think we are trying to build a company that serves the people that use it rather than serves the company that we founded.