Friday Fuel - September 18th, 2020
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Hi friends,
Here’s your weekly boost of Friday Fuel, a collection of things that I’ve been learning from or enjoying recently.
📕What I’ve Been Reading - It’s no secret that members of Generation Z are quickly becoming the change makers of our society. With a sincere passion for inclusivity and tolerance, we’ve already seen their impact in the world of politics and social justice. Now they’re taking on the tech industry. In a recent New York Times feature, the wildly talented Taylor Lorenz takes a deep dive into the Gen Z Mafia. Gen Z Mafia is an online community of teenagers and college students from around the country dedicated to building great technology products while breaking down barriers in the historically cutthroat and exclusive tech industry. Together, these individuals have collaborated on a wide range of projects while aiming for a complete upheaval of the Silicon Valley ecosystem that has been typically ruled by Ivy League-attending white males. Want to learn more about the community and some of the projects members have been working on? Check out the article here.
P.S. - Remember my post about eyemoutheye? This was a brainchild of Gen Z Mafia.
🎧What I’ve Been Listening To - If you’re new here, you’ll quickly learn how much I love How I Built This. In this week’s episode, Tope Awotona shares the story of how he founded and scaled Calendly, a popular meeting scheduling software, into a $60 million-a-year business.
Like many entrepreneurs, Tope struggled with numerous adversities and failures before landing on his big idea. These experiences played a crucial role in building the resilience required to take on enough risk to make your stomach turn in order to get his business off the ground.
Tope only raised a total of $550,000 of outside investment, $200,000 of which was precautionary. His story is a testament for how far bootstrapping can get you and serves as a timely lesson to avoid taking on unnecessary funding.
🤯What’s Blown My Mind - Kevin Ryan is a dark horse. One of the most overlooked, accomplished entrepreneurs in our lifetime, Kevin has successfully started and exited multiple multimillion (and billion) dollar companies.
The most impressive part? Kevin has found success in a wide range of industries from media and retail to tech and healthcare, each of which pose unique challenges and require specific skillsets for success.
Just look at this track record…
🤯What’s Blown My Mind Part Two - There has never been more competition for our eyeballs. Streaming services, social media platforms, and traditional media are only a few of the massive industries vying to get our frequently divided attention. With what seems like a new video streaming service launching every month, how does this affect the churn rate of the streaming behemoths?
Apparently for Netflix…not at all.
Despite a handful of formidable new entrants to the market and losing some of its most popular licensed shows, Netflix’s churn rate has remained surprisingly stable. Especially compared to other competitors who have all experienced sharp increases since the rise of Disney+.
While Netflix has had significantly more time to establish itself as the dominant player, this shows that it has now entered “staple” territory. For many families it seems as if a Netflix subscription is viewed as a necessary expense that no longer requires active decision making.
With the streaming wars taking new shape as a “spending war” on exclusive content, I’m curious to see if Netflix continues to hold strong.
What do you think? Let me know by replying to this email or leaving a comment below.
🧵A Thread I’ve Enjoyed - Over 50 percent of the world’s population will spend one-third of their adult life at work. It wasn’t until I entered the working world that I realized how important it is to find a job that you love. Deciding where to work is one of the most important decisions a person can make and one that should not be taken lightly.
This thread is a perfect culmination of insights and advice to guide you through your next career decision. Even if you aren’t actively on the job hunt, I’d highly recommend clicking in and reading this thread.
My two cents: Spend the your early professional years working for a start-up, preferably one that fulfills these criteria. The lessons you’ll learn and challenges you’ll face are invaluable to your personal and professional development. It might not pay as well compared to a large corporation, but damn is it worth it.
That’s it for this week. If you’re new here and want to catch up on some old editions, here are a couple of my favorites: Fast and Curious and Live From The Bubble.
If you like what you’ve been reading recently, I’d love it if you clicked the heart at the top of the page and shared this with your smartest friends, family, and co-workers.
You can also follow me on Twitter or check out randymginsburg.com for more content.
Thanks for reading,
Randy