A Big Milestone and a New Experiment
Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #233
Just hit a big milestones on Medium: 100k+ followers. As I look at that number, it makes me want to share two thoughts.
Thought #1: Thank you. When I originally started posting articles about entrepreneurship on Medium nearly five years ago, I never would have guessed those articles would reach millions of people and that they’d amass so many regular readers. Again, thanks for all your support. As I like to tell the people who reach out every week with kind emails or nice comments appreciating my articles, you all are the best. I’m not always as great as I wish I could be about responding, but know that I see everything and, as long as you all feel like the things I’m publishing provide value, I’ll keep writing.
Thought #2: For anyone out there who’s just getting started creating something meaningful — whether it’s content on a platform like medium or a new startup or anything else that’s a creative endeavor — I want to take a moment to emphasize the “five years of writing” I just mentioned.
For five years I’ve been publishing two articles every week. For the past three years, I’ve also been publishing this weekly (and sometimes twice-weekly) newsletter. Five years is a loooooooong time to be consistently writing and publishing two articles every week plus a newsletter. At an average of 1,000 words and three hours of work per article/newsletter, that’s 2,250 hours of work and 750,000 words — roughly 10 Hemingway novels.
To be clear, I’m no Hemingway, nor am I trying to be. Instead, the point I’m trying to make is that meaningful accomplishments always — ALWAYS — take time and effort.
Whatever you want to accomplish in life, you’re going to have to do hard work to get there. It’s going to be a grind each and every day, and the journey is never going to be smooth.
Some days, it’s going to feel like nothing is working. Heck, some months it’s going to feel like nothing is working. But, if you believe in what you’re building, and if you get personal fulfillment from the work you’re doing, that’s what matters.
Keep working hard. I guarantee it’ll lead to success. And the reason I can guarantee success for you is because success is never in the outcome. Success is always in the journey.
-Aaron
This week’s new articles…
Getting Your Startup’s First Customers Gets Easier When You Target the Right People
Do you know who you should be selling to the day you launch your startup? You need to, otherwise you’re not going to get very far.
My Refrigerator Repairman Taught Me an Expensive Lesson About Entrepreneurship
The best entrepreneurial strategies sometimes come from the places where you least expect them.
3 Things to Consider in Startups & Tech
I realize this is the spot in Entrepreneur Office Hours where I usually answer reader questions, but I wanted to experiment with something a little different.
When I was building companies, I always felt like there weren’t enough hours in the day to know the important news going on in startups and tech while also having enough time to get my own work done. Since I’m guessing other entrepreneurs are in a similar situation, I figured I’d take a shot at adding a simple “3 Things to Consider in Startups & Tech” section. If you like it, I’ll make it a more permanent feature of these weekly newsletters.
Take a read and let me know your thoughts via the poll at the end. Thanks!
1. Overall Venture Funding Declines, but Crypto Funding Increases
Summary: Global startup funding in the first quarter of 2024 has declined, but funding for Crypto startups is up 40%.
More Info: Crypto News
Why I’m Mentioning It: Forget whether or not crypto is a good investment. Instead, let’s think about market lifecycles. A few years ago, crypto was the technology that was going to revolutionize the world. But the boom ended and everyone moved onto the next big thing (AI). However, that doesn’t mean crypto went away. It’s going through the normal product lifecycle of every “revolutionary” technology:
Massive hype → Can’t Live Up to Hype → Crashes → People Forget About It → Slowly Builds Back Toward Achieving its Original Promise
This matters for two important reasons:
#1. Many of the reasons people were so excited about crypto are still valid. It’s going to dramatically change the world. Those changes are just going to take longer than people thought.
#2. AI is going to experience the same cycle.
2. OpenAI Gains Access to Reddit Data
Summary: OpenAI has struck a deal with Reddit to mine its content in order to train AI models.
More Info: The Tech Portal
Why I’m Mentioning It: Lots of reasons this matters from a business and markets perspective, but, for entrepreneurs, it has me thinking about the fundamental importance of data in relation to AI technologies. Simply put, AI is nothing without data. Right now, AI companies are mining online data resources since — duh — that’s where the data is. But I find myself wondering if there are other sources of data that can be mined. For example, how much “conversational data” gets created every day through people talking? Is “conversational data” something that’s capture-able at scale? And, if so, could it be monetized?
3. Tech Layoffs Are Still a Big Thing
Summary: Title says it all… lots of layoffs are still happening in the tech industry. Apparently it wasn’t just a 2022 thing. Or a 2023 thing.
More Info: TechCrunch
Why I’m Mentioning It: The fact that so many companies are still laying off employees is a helpful reminder that hiring people isn’t the best way to solve a problem.
Simply put, too many entrepreneurs think having big teams is “the answer” to scale. Honestly, the best entrepreneurs I know are the ones who figure out how to scale with the least number of employees. All the layoffs — and continued massive revenue increases for many of the companies doing the layoffs — seems to underscore this reality.
If/when you raise new capital or start generating good revenue, don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that the next step is “hire more people.” Chances are you can continue scaling by focusing on creating more efficiencies in your processes. Hiring people should be a last resort.
Congrats on the 100k! :)