Business Building

“If you want to get to the truth about what makes us different, it’s this: We are genuinely customer-centric, we are genuinely long-term oriented, and we genuinely like to invent. Most companies are not those things. They are focused on the competitor, rather than the customer. They prefer to be close followers rather than inventors, because it’s... See more

Or take HEY. HEY has tens of thousands of paying customers. For us that's a win. For Google/Gmail it would be a huge failure. They need a whole lot more to make something worth it. We need a whole lot less to make it a spectacular success. HEY has tens of thousands of users. Gmail has a billion. So are we "losing" to Gmail? Or are HEY and Gmail... See more

1) All businesses are loosely functioning disasters.

2) Operating a small business feels like a daily knife fight where you get out of bed, try not to get stabbed, get back in bed, and do it all over again.

3) Small businesses don't stay small on purpose.

4) Most companies don't make much money.

5) What money they make is almost always reinvested back... See more

Birkenstock IPO’d today at a ~$8B valuation. Its CEO Oliver Reichert did a massive turnaround in the past decade: sales 5x’d from $125m in 2012 to $1.3B in 2022. The wildest part: he has zero background in footwear or fashion. Prior to taking over the top job... See more