Sam Liebeskind

Ads or No Ads?

In the early days of the newsletter, we were approached on several occasions with offers of money in exchange for advertising. Some people felt very strongly that this was a no-brainer—we needed money for various things, and this was a straightforward way to get it. I resisted. My concerns were twofold: one, I was worried readers... See more

But long before the internet, philosophers and religious leaders theorized a global connectivity, or collective consciousness. In 1922, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin coined the term “Noosphere”, or the “thinking layer” of the earth, networking all human thought. In the internet era, his predictions have become surprisingly accurate, now starting to... See more

“Force a choice, not a comparison

“Startups need to force a choice, not a comparison.” That’s something that Mike Maples told me recently. If a startup forces a comparison, it will inevitably lose because the incumbent can just RFP you to death with incremental features.

You can’t come in and say, “Hey I’m building a CRM with a more elegant

... See more

moving from theory to practice will cost you status