Sam Liebeskind

“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

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That is: A person — often a founder, or someone similarly empowered — needs to have compelling ideas, establish a voice and perspective, and use it. Tools like brand books and style guides are important so agencies and partners know how to speak the same language. But the actual opinions and values can’t be algorithmically generated or offloaded to... See more

This research looks at the influence of three commonly cited features on the success of digital local news outlets: the background of the publisher, experimentation with different revenue streams, and the wealth of the surrounding community. Of the three, only the wealth of the community is statistically correlated with “success” (which we define... See more

But we’re not the only element — perhaps not even the most important element — in the public information ecosystem. And it’s important to ensure we distinguish between two discussions — one on the survival of journalism, and one on ensuring a healthy public information landscape.

Just as medicine is only one part of a functioning public health... See more

Sometimes it can feel like the online spaces you spend time in are working against you, pushing you toward things that their owners value instead of what you value—and harnessing your energy to fuel the very things you hate. Like me, you probably know the feeling of spending too much time gorging on digital junk food, wasting precious moments of... See more