Is Taylor Swift Our Last Hope Against AI?

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Welcome back to The Startup Podcast’s community newsletter - we’re excited that you’ve joined us as we provide a guide through the unique mindset and approach that drives Silicon Valley style disruption at scale.

This week, we welcome special guest Matt Holme to discuss B2C vs B2B2C and the insiders return to discuss Fundraising in 2024 and Taylor Swift’s Deep Fakes.

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Edu: B2C vs B2B2C - Driving Direct Disruption w/ Matt Holme

There’s a fair bit of sentiment in the startup community at the moment purporting that B2B2C is better. Chris believes it is not.

Joining Chris Saad and Yaniv Bernstein on The Startup Podcast to discuss their startup as a case-study is special guest Matt Holme, CEO and Founder of YouPay.

YouPay is an ecommerce payment platform that pivoted from B2B to B2C over its lifetime.

Together they discuss:

🚀 YouPay's Evolution

💡 B2C Pivot and Realizations

🔄 Overcoming Objections

📈 Success through Marketing and Product Focus

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Reacts: Fundraising in 2024 & Taylor Swift Deep Fakes

Taylor Swift on a startup podcast?

It’s not for her ERAS tour, nor is it for the Kansas City Chiefs upcoming Super Bowl game.

Listen to the insiders discuss the biggest developing stories this week:

🚀 Navigating the Volatile Fundraising Landscape

👤 Deepfake Controversies

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Using Your Budget As A Weapon

Do you use your budget as a weapon?

As it relates to alignment and budget, great leadership and team dynamics looks like...

1. Giving your team a headcount and operational budget at the start of the cycle
2. Giving the company a clear business strategy at the start of the cycle
3. Reviewing each team strategy (in response to the business strategy)
4. Trusting them to execute using the budget/headcount however they see fit throughout the cycle
5. Reviewing their progress every 1-2 weeks + end of cycle

Bad leadership looks like...

1. Giving them a budget
2. Reviewing every spending decision to proxy-control and micromanage all their choices

The former empowers leaders at the edge to make appropriate decisions with maximum buy-in, responsibility, and accountability.

The latter slows everything down, creates perverse incentives & outcomes, and demoralizes your best people.

Hire great people, trust them, and hold them accountable for their outcomes.

Get Better At Giving And Receiving Feedback

Get better at giving AND receiving feedback with this one insight:

“Feedback is a gift” 🙄🙄🙄

Wait, don't go!

This sounds like one of those motherhood-and-apple-pie statements at which you may safely roll your eyes before getting on with your day.

But wait! If you do that, you’re missing out on the hidden depth in that statement. Feedback is like a gift in some surprising ways.

Let me break it down for you 👇

** For the giver **

The act of giving somebody a gift is by definition well intentioned. You hope that the gift you have given will provide the recipient with some pleasure, or utility, or both.

I could send you a sack of horse droppings (or a lethal nerve agent) on the occasion of your birthday and although I have given you something, it is certainly NOT a gift*! The good intentions are what make a gift, a gift.

Same with feedback. If you give somebody feedback and that feedback is not delivered with the intention to help the recipient—to help them grow, to get better—that’s not feedback. This sort of "feedback" is either meaningless praise (if positive) or a nasty insult (if negative).

The most important thing to do when giving feedback is to make sure you're approaching it with the intention of helping.

** For the receiver **

There is also a protocol for receiving a gift.

When receiving a gift, the first thing you must do is receive it graciously. Somebody has just tried to do something nice for you! Irrespective of what the gift is or turns out to be, you respond graciously and with gratitude for the act itself.

Again, it’s the same with receiving feedback. Somebody has just tried to do something nice for you! Leave aside for the moment the substance of the feedback: you should be grateful for the act. It’s nearly always easier not to give feedback than to give it, so show gratitude to the person for making a well-intentioned effort.

OK, so you’ve unwrapped the gift and it turns out the gift itself is useless to you. Perhaps it’s the wrong size, it doesn’t match your home decor… the reason doesn’t matter. Do you express the uselessness of the gift to the giver? Do you argue with them about it? Do you chastise them for giving you such a useless gift?

Not unless you’re a psychopath.

You say “thank you” (and you mean it!) and make discreet plans to dispose of the unnecessary object.

So why do so many people think it’s OK to argue with the feedback they’ve been given? Or even to take offence at the fact they have received feedback? Somebody has just tried to help you by giving you something they hope will be of value. There is only one appropriate response to that:

You thank them.

You consider the feedback, and stow it away. And then if you believe the feedback is useful to you, you act on it. If it’s not useful, fine. You are not obligated to agree with or act on the feedback.


*those who speak a bit of German might enjoy the bilingual pun, which was definitely intended!

Community Highlights:

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Until next week,

Chris and Yaniv