Patrick Prothe

Your positioning context sets off a really powerful set of assumptions about who your product competes with, what features your product should have, who the product is intended for, and even things like what the product should cost.

In a world where copies and fakes and phonies and phoning-it-in to do as little as possible are so common, doing something truly different that’s true to who we are and makes a meaningful difference in the world remains a special thing.

Of course the thing about beginning again — about starting over midway through is that you have to be willing to watch yourself die.

I learned that from writing this newsletter.

Next week, it will be three years since I launched the cereal aisle, and I think the most important thing I have learned in the time since is that rebirth is on the other... See more

Not giving a fuck if you look cringe is a superpower for the great online game. Like Peter Parker getting bit by a spider, I had my superhero moment with the druggie days. And I’m glad it happened. But you don’t need to go down that path to realize this: internet embarrassment isn’t that bad. Stop living in fear of being called cringe. The fear is... See more

This increase in revenue comes at the cost of long-term customer satisfaction, but nobody knows how to really measure that, so investors don’t care.