I would *pay* to hear the conversations inside Wealthsimple when the tagline “Get rich slow” was proposed. It’s brilliant for a couple of reasons:

1. The tagline is funny. Fintech brands aren’t, and rarely have the opportunity to be, funny. It’s a surprise to the reader and a key differentiator for Wealthsimple.

2. The tagline also creates a point of positive friction. Users who want to invest a few hundred dollars in the hope of a quick return will definitely think twice about signing up for Wealthsimple. By “encouraging the wrong users *not* to sign up” — my words, not theirs — Wealthsimple increases retention (even in the face of lower acquisition) while lightening future customer service burden. The “wrong customers” are always service-needy and rarely pay for themselves in the time they require from customer service.

Just started Frances Frei and Anne Morriss’s new book Unleashed and it’s off to a great start.

…we discovered that the daily work of leading is much quieter and less dramatic than the leadership stories that had captivated us as children.

[…]

The practice of leadership almost always asks you to risk something, but it only sometimes requires a midnight ride or a clutch, buzzer-beating jump shot. And there’s rarely a crowd that goes wild when you get it right.

Frances lead the culture turnaround at Uber in 2017 and she’s a professor at Harvard Business School. I highly recommend listening to this 2017 interview and this June 2020 interview with Kara Swisher.

Love this portion of the Blendle onboarding…

TikTok reached 1 billion users faster than any other social network.

I continue to be fascinated by TikTok due to its incredible consistency in delivering entertainment customized to each individual user in a manner that requires very little from each user.

TikTok’s artificial intelligence enables it to rapidly learn what you like without explicit input.

Zhang, ByteDance’s founder and CEO, has stated his primary strategy is to eliminate the need for search – how Google and Amazon serve their very profitable advertising products – and immediately serve users exactly what they want.

Josh Constine has some thoughts and an interesting story here on ‘Why influencers are replacing fans with cults’.

The fast feedback loops of micro-entertainment apps like TikTok let leaders quickly turn community input into fresh content that makes their cults feel seen. And by fostering a sense of fellowship through peer-to-peer communities, influencers can keep their cults satiated even when they’re not churning out videos.

I also recommend this wonderful, long piece by Turner Novak: The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company, ByteDance

Amazon is now the 4th-largest delivery network in the United States.

Love this product advice from Ryan Singer at Basecamp…

Next time somebody comes to you with a feature request, try this: ‘Can you tell me a story about a time that you wanted to do that and what you had to do instead?’ The first part of the question gives you proper context. The second lets you evaluate the loss.

I love (love) working in an office, but I’ve also had the luxury of working remotely for two years with the option to go into an office whenever, however I please.

Offices are necessary for some, preferred for many, required for most.

From Matt Mullenweg:

The salespeople who will win during lockdown/quarantine are those with the most empathy.

Your prospective customers are stuck at home, working from home (most for the first time), many with children (who need quality time and attention), and all concerned with simply trying to stay caught-up in their responsibilities.

They are attempting to balance personal and professional responsibilities and stress during a pandemic and record unemployment.

“Circling back” to “see if you received my last email” isn’t empathy. Take an other-centered approach and throw out most of your old playbook and process.

Facebook surveyed 86,000 people who own or work at SMBs on the effect of Covid-19 on their operations.

31% of SMBs have stopped operating in the last three months

52% of personal businesses have shut down

36% of SMBs reported conducting all of their business online (which is something Shopify and others have seen)

74% of surveyed employees said they did not have paid sick leave, but that number jumps to 93% for hotel, cafe, and restaurant industries

45% of owners/managers at small businesses said they’ll rehire the same staff when they reopen (yikes)

11% of operating businesses predict they’ll fail in the next three months given current conditions (this seems unreasonably optimistic)