Insights
Building companies with friends teaches you things you can't learn any other way. You learn what actually matters versus what sounds good in a pitch deck. You learn that technology should serve people—not steal from people. You learn that attention should be earned, not taken. Here are a few insights from late night conversations with some really smart co-founders. See if any of them resonate.
My bank statements are private. My health records are protected by HIPAA. My tax returns are confidential. But somewhere along the way, we've been conditioned to accept that everything else about our personal lives is fair game for technology companies.
Read ArticleWhen we were building The Jump, we made a decision that seemed counterintuitive: we weren't going to steal people's attention. Most social platforms are built on a simple model. Get users. Keep them scrolling. Sell ads against the time they spend.
Read Article03Here's something people forget about The Lego Movie: it was a commercial. The entire film was, at its core, an advertisement for Lego products. And it made $468 million at the box office.
Read Article04I've been a founder in five companies. None of them have made me rich. I could have stayed in corporate. By my early 30s, I was a VP at UnitedHealth Group. So why keep doing it?
Read Article05Google and Meta absorb over 56% of global digital ad spend. That number keeps growing. So what would it take for that to change? I kept coming back to one thing: niche community fragmentation.
Read Article0697% of creators make less than 10% of the revenue. If a creator makes $3.50 per 1,000 views, the revenue on 400,000 views is only $1,400. That's a lot of work for very little money.
Read Article07Large organizations struggle to connect with local members and volunteers. This seems like it should be a solved problem by now. It's not. This is the problem Team Scout actually solves.
Read Article08In technology, the business model is the product. When your revenue comes from attention, you optimize for addiction—not experience. The model is the experience.
Read Article09Back in 2003, when I joined UnitedHealth Group, the world saw us as a massive insurance consolidator. But inside the walls, the reality was different: We were a technology company investing $1B+ annually.
Read ArticleWant to discuss these ideas or explore working together?
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