sari

In the Influencer 2.0 era, anyone will be able to launch a brand.

For these sorts of e-commerce brands, what’s being sold isn’t just some product with utility. It’s a feeling, a community, an identity. Shopify, being the blank canvas it is, is much more suitable for this kind of projection than Amazon, which, by virtue of being Amazon, effectively eclipses individual brands on its site.

In today's world, capital is not scarce; ambitious visions for the public's benefit are.

Here's another cold email from a stranger -> job at @stripe. 📧🌟 This one is extra special because it has the twist that we *created a new role* for this great person and they took @faderp's Applied probability models in marketing course. These facts are highly correlated!

brands are about trust and signaling. They’re a substitute for incomplete information. When information is scarce and asymmetric, consumers flock to trusted brands. But in many parts of the economy, when consumers have reviews at their fingertips, they no longer defer to brands when they make a purchasing decision.

But the aesthetic has become so saturated and manufactured, that a new generation of consumers are painting an entirely new canvas. And it ain't pretty. I've personally been referring to the aesthetic as "intentional ugly"

Now, as I talk to Founders, one of the first questions I ask is: “Have you set up a Discord group yet? Do you have anyone in your community?” I don’t think that there is a point that is too early, because you’re going to learn so much and maybe the product that you wanted to build isn’t what your customers wanted.