Category: Digest Archive
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The Shopify paradox
♛ 14.04.2026 The Shopify Paradox Read Time: 12 Minutes Hello When What You Sell Isn’t What You Operate Last week’s piece, The Verb Problem, made the case that Shopify describes itself in verbs (enable, simplify, arm the rebels) while its customers describe it with a noun they never name: becoming. The company talks about what it…
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The verb problem
♛ 07.04.2026 The Verb Problem Read Time: 8 Minutes Hello What Shopify Teaches Every Founder About Positioning I spent several weeks studying Shopify. Not the product. Not the stock price. The language. How the company describes itself. How customers describe it. And the distance between those two descriptions. That distance turns out to be the most…
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Stop doing this right now
♛ 31.03.2026 Stop packaging yourself Read Time: 6 Minutes Hello You don’t have a packaging problem. You have a framing problem. I was on a coaching call recently where the person spent the first fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to describe what they do. Better headline. Better bio. Better elevator pitch. The kind of…
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Palantir’s GTM Playbook
♛ 24.02.2026 Palantir’s GTM Playbook Read Time: 6 Minutes Hello TL;DR — Palantir didn’t sell software. It became infrastructure. A positioning masterclass hiding inside a GTM playbook. Most companies spend years perfecting their pitch. Palantir spent 17 years and $4 billion in losses perfecting its proof. And that’s the whole lesson. I spent the last week…
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Bumble’s path back
♛ 17.02.2026 How Bumble Gets Back to $13 Billion Read Time: 12 Minutes Hello Today, we’ll dive into how a $13 billion company destroyed 97% of its value by abandoning the one thing that made it worth $13 billion. The highlight reel, first. Bumble had one job: be the dating app where women go first. That…
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The $296 Billion Tumour Growing Between Marketing and Their Agencies
♛ 10.02.2026 The $296 Billion Tumour Read Time: 6 Minutes Hello There is a $296 billion tumour growing between marketing departments and the agencies they hire. It is fed by a $140 billion research industry that cannot see it, validated by a $35 billion consulting industry that will not name it, and sustained by a structural…
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What I’ve been building (and why)
♛ 03.02.2026 I read labels Read Time: 4 Minutes Hello A few of you have asked some version of this question lately: “Paul — what are you actually building? I see the posts, the Kit, Monopoly, and the GNYS stuff. How does it all connect?” Fair question. Let me try to answer it. There’s a thing…
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What is context?
♛ 13.01.2026 Context isn’t the preface. It’s the work. Read Time: 12 Minutes Hello Most bad decisions don’t come from a lack of intelligence. They come from skipping context. You’ve seen it. Someone asks a question that sounds clear: “Should we do product-led growth?” “Should we hire an enterprise seller?” “Should we ship faster?” “Can you…
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Lovable’s gravity report
— This week, I’m sharing something different. A full Gravity Report on Lovable. The fastest-growing software company in history. $100M ARR in eight months. $200M+ by month eighteen. 8 million users. $6.6 billion valuation. The business press calls it “vibe coding.” Investors call it the future. Customers call it magic. But what does Lovable actually…
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A gift to kick off 2026
Hello What I built while fighting the superflu I’ve been down for three weeks. The superflu caught me right before the finish line. Still shaking it off as I write this. But I didn’t want to close out 2025 without saying thank you and giving you something useful. So here’s both. First, the thank you.…
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Why “Just Do It” Actually Works
♛ 02.12.2025 Just do it Read Time: 8 Minutes Hello Why “Just Do It” Actually Works: The Neuroscience of Positioning Done Right Three words. Coined the night before a presentation. Inspired by a convicted murderer’s last words before a firing squad. “Just Do It” shouldn’t have worked. And yet, it’s become one of the most recognized…
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Distribution delusion
♛ 25.11.2025 Distribution Delusion Read Time: 8 Minutes Hello Why celebrity, distribution, and awareness don’t create business success Every founder has heard some version of this: “If only we had Elon’s reach…” or “We just need more awareness…” or “Once we get distribution, we’ll crush it.” It’s the most seductive lie in business. The story goes…
