I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society.
Increasingly popular strategy – but is it... good?
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Do you have thoughts on any of this? Some things I've been contemplating lately: ------- ⛪ Popular marketing strategy: start a cult I can't stop thinking about this post by Evan Armstrong: One increasingly popular marketing strategy is to found a cult.
Founders have spent the last ten years learning from the successful cults (Tesla, Anduril, Stripe, Palantir, and Airbnb) and the destruction of multiple unsuccessful ones (Theranos, WeWork, Fast, Quibi, and FTX).
There is a new playbook of cult formation that is almost entirely distribution focused. Our world is one where software is increasingly free and distribution is expensive, so perhaps belief can be priceless.
In tech, we've idolized so many key figures (Jobs, Musk, DHH) – too much blind veneration/loyalty can corrupt our judgment. Read Evan's post | Reply on Bluesky ------- 📉 Every marketing channel sucks right now This is related to the previous essay. Why are founders increasingly becoming cult-like? Well, there aren't many good marketing channels anymore. How can new startups break through the noise? ------- You spent $100k on ads in 2025. Sales jumped by 50%. "What a great campaign!" you said. But then you took a time machine back and spent $0 on ads. Suprise! Sales still increased by 50%. It's so easy for us business owners to make this mistake. You take actions, see results, and assume causation. But those results might have happened anyway. Not every input drives the outcome. Read my post | Reply on Bluesky ------- 🧑🎨 "Making art is so good it should be illegal" I love this line from Steve Silver, a painter who lives in the Bronx: “The satisfactions of painting are so great that it seems like it must be some illegal activity. I mean, it seems too good to be true.” I highly recommend you watch the video: Reminds me of this quote from Jay Clouse: “Creators are equal parts artist and entrepreneur.” ------- I like it when readers reply to these newsletters. If you have a thought on anything here, let me know! Cheers, PS: Brian Casel and I are hitting our groove on The Panel podcast. Listen here: |
Justin's newsletter
I'm the co-founder of Transistor.fm (podcast hosting and analytics). I write about SaaS marketing, bootstrapping startups, pursuing a good life, building calm companies, business ethics, and creating a better society.
Here are a few things I've been contemplating lately: ------- ⛈️ What kills motivation? Aaron Francis wrote about this in his newsletter, and I can’t stop thinking about it: “Maybe, working hard doesn’t lead to burnout, but the lack of hope leads to burnout. If you're working really hard for something that you don't believe will pay off, it's easy to lose motivation. But if you believe that the thing you're working on will have a payoff, the amount of work almost doesn’t matter.” Working on...
Hey friends, This should be fun. Ian Landsman (founder of HelpSpot and "Business Dad" to founders everywhere) is going to hop on the call with Brian and Justin today. You can join us (live) at 12:15pm Pacific: On today's topic list: Can burnout be a lack of motivation? When the reward no longer feels worth pursuing, is that when you lose steam? "What if this doesn't work? What's the backup plan?" Come join us in the chat! Cheers,Justin Jackson – BlueskyBrian Casel – Bluesky | Twitter PS:...
I think it's wild that the same amount of effort can produce wildly different results (across different endeavours). For example, you might work on a project for weeks and months, only to have it receive a tepid response. Then, a different piece of work (that you whipped together in an afternoon) takes off and gets a much bigger reaction. (You can read this article online) Anything worth doing will require a fair amount of effort and work. But it's also possible to invest a fair amount of...