3 Important Lessons I Learned This Week

Hey friends,

A few days ago I announced my new newsletter The Newsletter Nerd.

A few people asked whether I’d still be writing this weekly newsletter to you. The short answer: Yes. The long answer: The format will change a little bit.

For the new people on this list, hi, I’m Jay 👋🏻

• I’m a growth intern at beehiiv by day

• Run a creator business by night

• Workout six times a week

• And spend the rest with family

In other words, I’ve got a lot going on. But I don’t want this newsletter to be put on the back burner. So here’s what I propose (and don't be afraid to tell me if it’s a bad idea).

1) During the week, I live my life. You live your life.

2) We meet every Sunday, here, and I share what I’ve been working on, learning, and consuming.

So instead of our usual deep dive together. It’ll be a more conversational update + lessons. “How I’m doing X > How to do X”, because let’s be honest, you already have enough super expert gurus telling you what to do.

Sound fair enough?

(As always, the unsubscribe button is at the bottom of this newsletter if you’re so inclined).

Okay, let’s dive in…

This past week has been a whirlwind of activity. You could say I’m deep in the “Learning Phase” of my life.

It started with me asking questions like:

• What the heck IS a startup?

• What’s the difference between a Seed Series raise and a Series A raise?

• How do you design a product roadmap?

• Is there a process for prioritizing one feature over another?

• How do you infuse growth into the product?

• What’s a startup organization structure?

• What does a “Product Manager” even do?

• How do you assess market pull?

• What makes for a persuasive pitch deck?

• What do you look for in a potential employee candidate?

• What’s the best way to onboard new employees?

• How do you run meetings more efficiently?

• What’s company culture? How do you cultivate it?

As you can see, I had a lot of questions.

So I turned to my good ol’ pal Google Search.

I spent hours researching, taking vigorous notes, and trying to absorb every bit of knowledge as if my grade depended on it.

I’ll spare you ALL the details, but here’re 3 cool things I learned about startups (that can apply to your life & business):

1) Closed mouths don’t get fed

About a week ago, I sat down with my friend Noah Zender. For those who don’t know Noah, he had 6 internships before he graduated college, and is currently a product manager at an AI startup.

Initially, Noah was just going to walk me through a few tips on how to maximize my internship experience at beehiiv. But what started as a 20-minute call turned into an hour and a half of what I like to call, “A Golden Nugget Conversation”.

He sent me this article as well as a bunch of other resources.

Summary:

Find someone on the team and ask for 30 min with them
• 25 min - Ask them to tell you everything they think you should know
• 3 min - Ask about the biggest challenges the team has right now
• 2 min - Ask who else you should talk to

If you have a question — and you’ve done your own research but still don’t have an answer — don’t be afraid to ask someone.

Worst case, you’re told no. Best case, you get the answers you were looking for.

2) Focus

It sounds so basic, but focus is the foundation of everything you do. You can’t do everything all at once, no matter how badly you want to.

Instead, create a product roadmap. I read this great article on the Agile vs. Waterfall method for product development.

Summary:

1) Define your product vision and strategy

The Why & the What comes before the How.

2) Focus your team on what matters

• What will customers value most based on market research?
• How long does each team need to complete their tasks?
• What resources do they need to succeed?

3) Determine what to prioritize

Visualize your customer’s journey through your product to determine what needs to be built first. This is called Story Mapping.

4) Map out different initiatives into phases

Now, address the How.

• What features will you work on first?
• How long will they take to complete?
• How does this project fit into the work of other teams?

I know that summary was geared heavily towards startups. But think about how you can apply this strategy to your own brand or business.

Do you have a strategy for prioritizing tasks? Do you know what your customer journey looks like? What does the end vision look like for your business?

3) Learn foundational skills

I’ve always been a huge advocate of building foundational skills. Skills that will amplify everything else that you do. And guess what?

Foundational skills are essential if you’re looking to build a startup. Why? Because most VCs look for five things in founders:

1) Founder-market fit: Are the founders adept at the skills needed to make this idea work? Are they a force of nature?

Paul Graham, the founder of Y-Combinator likes to ask, "Can you describe this person as an animal?"

2) Are they premeditative? Do they know why historical attempts at their startup idea failed, what the learnings were, and where the landscape might go?

Your teacher was right: Do your homework.

3) Bias toward action: When the best decision is clear to the founders, do they pursue it without needlessly deferring?

4) Do the founders think and express themselves clearly?

Learn to speak and write. Nuff said.

5) Can the founders excite others to join the community? Can they “sell”?

Even if you’re not interested in starting your own startup — it’s a good idea to view your business through the lens of an investor.

Would you invest in your own business? Why or why not? What can you do to build an investable business?

So… whatcha think about this new format?

Do you like the “Here’s what I’ve got going on in my life + a few lessons” style?

That’s all for this week.

I’ll see you next Sunday,

Jay “Be a Learning Machine” Yang

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