WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEKEND   7.24.24

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEKEND 7.24.24

Welcome to the inaugural edition of "What I Learned This Weekend".


I launched this new weekly newsletter with how "It's remarkable what you can learn from your kids".


I shared how my 20-year-old is launching a startup 🚀. Currently, in stealth mode, I'm advising him and how amazing it is learning from him about color schemes, the centering of items in images, font sets, and other design elements that are part of his creative world.


I'll be sharing more of it in the coming weeks.


Let's begin with some of the content that I learned from:


Alex Lieberman , co-founder of Morning Brew and storyarb posted "a long @$$ post" about building a newsletter business from scratch. To appreciate Lieberman's post, you need to know the genesis story of The Morning Brew.

Started in 2014 as "The Market Corner" a business digest Alex initially sent out as a PDF to his friends. Austin Rief , a fellow business student, was one of the first subscribers. He reached out to Lieberman to offer his assistance. Rief, was brought on as a co-founder and COO by Lieberman, who launched Morning Brew before he graduated in 2015.

In late 2017, they raised $750,000 in a seed round from friends and family, and in January 2018, they had 125,000 followers. Morning Brew had 700,000 subscribers by the time Lieberman and Rief were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Media List in November.

5 years from launching, they would sell a majority of the Morning Brew for a valuation of around $75M. Today the Brew (to make Morning Brew sound evening cooler) has 4M+ subscribers and does over $70M in revenue.

Now that I've got your attention, check out Alex's post last week.




Kevin Jurovich , Co-founder and CEO at Circles a video-first platform that provides real-time insights into bars and restaurants before you arrive is consistently spewing out golden content for founders and startups.

In his post last week, pointed out a few investors that saw the potential of Uber and invested (see photo). These early believers saw their investments skyrocket.

When Uber went public in 2019 at a nearly $80 billion valuation, their stakes were worth millions. Uber will go down in history as one of the most lucrative venture capital investments of all-time.



My final post to share comes from John Lane - "Finding My Life’s Work". I love the opening:

At 62, I found my life’s work not by searching, but by being forced to adapt. My journey has been shaped by many helping hands along the way, and now my work life is structured in a way that I choose.

🚀 My office is a small glass box in a shared space. I love it.

🛴 My ride to work is a HiBoy e-scoorter. I love it.

👤 My title is me. My EA is me. My brand is me. I love it.

❤️ So many people have helped me along the way, and now it's my turn to pay it forward.

Check out the post to learn what John does.




Okay, one more.... I can't help myself. For some reason, my post:

"Imagine your company leader starting a presentation like this ( 🔊 sound ON)" took off 🚀and as of this morning hit 20,800+ impressions.

I can't stop watching this without 😊 smiling 😊.




In this section, I share who I recently followed this past week or a top previous profile I follow.


Tanya Dua - Technology Editor at LinkedIn covering AI and Tech Editor of LinkedIn News Tech Stack. News, insights, and trends involving the founders, investors, and companies on the cutting edge of technology. Tech Stack is one of my favorite Linkedin News ' newsletters. You can subscribe here.


Neal Sivadas - Global Product Marketing Manager at TikTok and LinkedIn Top Voice for Gen Z in the tech world, using the power of LinkedIn. If you want to keep on top of Gen Z trends Neal should be on top of your list.


Christina Garnett, EMBA 🦸♀️ - Chief Customer/Experience Officer and Advisor. I admire the LinkedIn members who selflessly share job opportunities with their network because they genuinely care. Follow Christina to witness her compassionate actions.


Zayd Syed Ali - Founder & CEO at Valley . I was introduced to "Zayd World" by Managing Partner of Antler , Jeff Becker 's Newsletter, "Monday Morning Meeting". (Fav newsletter of mine as well). Learning of Zayd's origin story and how he pivoted his business to what Valley focuses on now made me want to come along his journey and route for him to jump on his unicorn 🦄.


Ivana Todorovic - Founder of AuthoredUp . I haven't had the chance to test her product yet, but if it's anything like the content she shares, I should have signed up months ago. Ivana's posts cover overall growth on LinkedIn, including the latest on algorithms, post reach, and the benefits of comments. My favorite post was a few weeks ago on how engagement pods are worthless.




🎵 Want to Go Viral? Tell Your Story in 22 Parts - By Madison Malone Kircher at The New York Times . 3 min

TL;DR:

A new trend on TikTok involves creators breaking long stories into short, engaging video series to maximize viewer retention and algorithmic reach. This format, reminiscent of serialized fiction, has gained popularity with personal stories and dramatic tell-alls.

Examples include Reesa Teesa's viral "Who TF Did I Marry?!?" series and similar content from other influencers. The trend capitalizes on short attention spans and the platform's monetization structure, where longer view times can lead to greater earnings and algorithmic favor. This storytelling approach echoes historical serialized fiction and adapts to the current attention economy of social media.



Here’s the full list of 28 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024 - Rebecca Szkutak at TechCrunch . 5 min

TL;DR:

Despite some AI fatigue, venture capital investment in AI startups remains strong. In the first half of 2024, over $35.5 billion was invested globally in AI companies. U.S.-based AI startups raised numerous mega-rounds ($100M+) across various sectors including robotics, healthcare, data analysis, and drug discovery. Notable investments include:

  1. xAI (Elon Musk's company): $6 billion
  2. Scale AI: $1 billion
  3. CoreWeave: $1.1 billion
  4. Xaira Therapeutics: $1 billion

The article lists multiple U.S. AI companies that raised significant funding rounds, highlighting continued investor confidence in the AI sector despite market challenges.



💭 AI Investors Are Starting to Wonder: Is This Just a Bubble? - John Herrman at New York Magazine . 6 min

TL;DR:

The AI boom has primarily benefited Nvidia, with tech giants investing heavily in their chips. However, questions are arising about the sustainability and purpose of this massive AI infrastructure investment:

  1. Venture capitalist David Cahn highlights a growing gap between AI infrastructure investments and actual revenue growth.
  2. Barclays analysts estimate the industry is preparing for an unrealistic number of AI queries by 2026.
  3. Goldman Sachs' Jim Covello compares the AI boom to the dot-com bubble, warning of over-building without clear use cases.
  4. The tech industry's vague promises about AGI and increased productivity may no longer satisfy investors.
  5. If investor confidence falters, the AI industry could face a rapid reality check, forcing companies to justify their investments with concrete results and applications.




Instagram - entreprenuersonig - Andy Miller sold his mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless, to Apple for $275 million and later assumed the title of Vice President of Mobile Advertising for Apple.Initially, Andy was offered $325 million, but then Steve Jobs later changed the offer to $275 million towards the finalization of the deal.



Instagram - Jeff Fenster - Jeff On Instagram - From pitching on Shark Tank to working both sides of the business...In 2012, Morri Chowaiki stepped into Sony Studios with just a pitch and determination. Early on Morri realized that the opportunity for 8 minutes of airtime was only part of the value. He wanted to find out how to insert himself into this world of business moguls... and then how he did it...



Instagram - howtobeanentrepreneur - Mark Zuckerberg on how big did he think Facebook will be, back in 2004. "How big do you think 'the' Facebook will be?" A very young Zuck being interviewed by CNBC with 100,000 users at the time.




I live my life with this mantra:

"If you can't laugh or learn at least one thing a day, at work or at home, something has got to change."

I hope you've learned or laughed at least once reading "What I've Learned This Weekend". If you have, please let me know in the comments.

If you have someone to follow, posts you found interesting, articles you've read, or found something you enjoyed from social media this past week, share it in the comments.


Subscribe to the weekly "What I've Learned This Weekend" newsletter by clicking here. 👈

Christina Garnett, EMBA

CCO + CX Advocate | Building Brand Affinity at the Intersection of CX, Social Media, & Community | Award-Winning | Featured in Adweek, Forbes, The Next Web, PR Daily, Entrepreneur, Campaign US, and Digiday

7mo

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