Time: Passing. Connecting. Consuming

Author

John Hancock
November 02, 2023

We have a definite but unknown quantity of experience at our disposal. As soon as the hourglass is turned, the sand will begin to run out and once it starts, it cannot stop until it's all gone.

Pablo Picasso

Time and our mortality

Rather than viewing our lives through a frame of immortality (Which we all tend to do, day-to-day), we should visualize the passage of time as an hourglass that has a top that is shielded from view. It’s obvious to us that time is passing, but we have no idea how much is left.

This was an important takeaway for me from Stephen Bartlett’s interview with Brian Chesky (Founder & CEO of Airbnb).

If you’re reading this, I want you to be successful beyond your wildest dreams, I just don’t want you to forget that success won’t buy you any more time. The passing last week of Matthew Perry (at 54 years old) cemented this for me.

An idea 💡

As a startup founder, odds are pretty good that you’re not doing enough to nurture the relationships in your life that truly matter. It’s not an insult, I’ve been in the same boat for a decade.

Let’s all join the waitlist for Favs so that we can take back control of this vitally important area of our lives. This isn’t an ad or an affiliate link. Saba doesn’t know I’m doing this. Just like I said in the title of last week’s newsletter, I want you to be happy and healthy.

🚀 Startup Idea of the Week:

“Help me buy boring businesses”

Buying “Boring businesses” is becoming all the rage amongst millionaires today. From Laundromats to car washes, small businesses are all of a sudden being scrutinized by tech people (Ex Googlers, Meta Millionaires, and Twitter Threadbois) for purchase.

There are marketplaces for this kind of thing such as BizBuySell.

Someone needs to build an AI 3rd Party “Broker” for these deals. An impartial go-between to help the buyer and seller come to an agreement on terms (Earnout, seller financing, inventory purchase, etc).

Let me know if you’re going to start on this so I can stop losing sleep over it!

Short-Form Will Set You Free

Even Walker Sands (an old-school B2B marketing agency) knew in 2019 that the future of commerce would stem from short-form content. They couldn’t have known just HOW right they were.

Fun stats:

  • 73% of consumers prefer to watch a short-form video to learn about a product or service. 🤯 

  • Short-form video has rightfully seen the most growth among different marketing strategies in 2023, with marketers planning to invest more in it than any other formats or tactics. In particular, 21% of marketers plan to tap into short-form video for the first time in 2023.  

  • Never before could you make one piece of content and share it across ALL social media platforms without re-formatting, giving you about an extra 30% ROI on your time. Facts. Don’t think about it.

If you haven’t made a few videos that look like this for your product/service, why not?

An idea 💡 

Treat it like Paul Graham wants you to treat your launch. Film something quick today that you aren’t proud of and post it. Measure results, learn, and grow.

🤷 What’s the worst that could happen?

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Ideogram Promt: A sign that says “Founders Only” on an interesting-looking door.

Thank you so much for reading again, even though the “Unsubscribe” button is just RIGHT there 👇️ 😅 . I love you all.

Sincerely,

John Hancock

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