Building Businesses, Changing Yourself, and Sometimes Both

Happy Sunday!

Before we get started, a quick programming note: the whole Every team is taking next week off for July 4th, so we won’t be publishing new stuff. 

Our writers and editors are going to take some time to recharge, and get fresh perspectives so we can keep writing writing great stuff for you through the rest of the year.

Going to miss us? You can always take a tour through our archives. A few oldies but goodies to get you started: 

• How to Make Yourself Into a Learning Machine 
• Complexity Convection
• Product-Led Growth’s Failure
• The CEO With an Empty Calendar
• Caught in the Study Web

Now, on to this week’s posts!

What kind of company do you want to build? 

Nathan’s back from paternity leave, and he’s feeling reflective. Specifically, he’s reflecting on what he wants out of building a company, and how it’s changed over the past several years. In this post, he takes us on that journey: from his early days as a young startup founder chasing venture capital and speed at all costs, to now, when he’d have to think long and hard about taking on venture capital again, and he’s more interested in freedom than speed. 

Read.

Changing the world to change yourself  

Dan has a theory: most people who are trying to change the world—that is, build world-changing companies—are actually trying to change themselves. Either they’re looking for respect, or they’re looking for love and connection. Sometimes, it’s a combination of both. 

Why does Dan think this? Well, because it’s been true for him. In this post, Dan unpacks how his startup journey intertwines with his quest for respect, love, and connection—and where he stands on that quest now. 

Read.

Look On My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair

Sometimes, ideas come to Evan fully formed and ready to be turned into a 3,000-5,000 word article. Other times, they come in snippets: interesting, but maybe not enough to justify a full post—yet. 

In this compilation post, Evan shares a couple of snippets that have been bouncing around in his head lately, including: What matters more for investment purposes: access or information? Why does it feel like we’ve lost the thread on what it means to be a tech startup? And what are people actually looking for out of a media company? 

Read.

Oh Shit, You’re Going Through a Reorg

The word “reorg” can strike fear into even the most seasoned professional and leave ambitious achievers wondering: Was all my hard work for nothing? Do I have to start over? What does this mean for my career? There are no easy answers to these questions, but one thing’s for certain: the change and uncertainty of a reorg calls for a resilient mindset.

In this second edition of our ongoing series Rethinking Resilience, Jason applies his resilience framework to the dreaded reorg and shows how, by thinking in terms of responding, restoring, rebuilding, and reflecting, you can navigate a reorg with courage, acumen, and empathy. 

Read.

Good Crypto Investing Decisions (‘20-’22) 

Last week, Nat wrote a post reflecting on lessons and mistakes from the last year and a half in crypto. This week, he’s taking a look at the other side of the proverbial coin. It hasn’t all been doom and gloom, after all: Nat sees plenty to be proud of. In this post, he shares lessons from those good decisions, including why working on stuff and waiting is a better bet than trading, the value of starting small, and the importance of strategic information consumption.  

Read.

Decentralized Autonomous Cities

If you spend any amount of time in the crypto sphere, you’re familiar with the concept of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). But if you think the potential applications of DAOs stop at a new way to build companies, you’re not thinking big enough. 

This week on Tokens, But How? Joey and Sari are joined by Cabin DAO founder Jon Hillis to talk about how DAOs can be used to coordinate, not just resources, but entire virtual communities, complete with a shared culture, economy, and governance structure. 

Read.

A Few More Recommendations

Personalization | The Rebooting

As you can probably tell, building a sustainable media business is something we care a lot about at Every, and it’s something Brian Morrissey at The Rebooting thinks a lot about, too. So much so, he writes a whole newsletter about it. In this post, he takes on the thorny question of personalization, and why so many media companies get it wrong. 

Above the Fold | Demand Curve

What's the most important part of your landing page? Your "above the fold" (ATF) section—the part of your site that's immediately visible before scrolling. When visitors see this, they decide to either keep scrolling or bounce. Demand Curve has written several hundred above-the-fold sections. They have data on what works, and they turned those learnings into a playbook. Read Demand Curve’s full landing page playbook here. 

Foster: a better way to write 

Our friends over at Foster just launched their newest product for writers. It's a button that lives inside Google Docs that writers can tap to get collaborative support on their writing. Behind the scenes, they've built a collective of writers, editors, and experts who enjoy helping to transform first drafts. You learn more on their Product Hunt launch page or give it a spin for free here.

That’s all for this week!