Category: Your Business is Your Brand
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Bumble: When You Make Your Position Optional
A Note Before We Begin: I wrote this because I admire what Whitney Wolfe Herd and Bumble have built. Watching their journey (the social content, the advocacy work, the mission) has been genuinely inspiring. There’s something rare about a company that tries to change not just how we date, but how we connect. This analysis…
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What Brad Jacobs Is Actually Teaching (And Why You’re Missing It)
Before We Begin: Four Questions WHY does this matter to you? You’ve listened to successful founders describe their practices. You’ve made notes. You meditate now, or you tried for a week. You read the psychology books they mention. You ask better questions in meetings. But something’s off. You’re doing what they say they do, but…
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How GONG Owns Certainty While Selling Intelligence
A Note Before We Begin: I’ve been watching what you’ve built at Gong for a while now. The thought leadership you and your team put out. The way customers talk about what you’ve done for them. The trajectory from that “quarter from hell” at SiSense to defining an entire category and capturing 75% market share.…
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Why the best positions are never stated
Explicitly Implicit, Implicitly Explicit. The Burj Khalifa doesn’t say “we own eminence.” You feel it when you stand next to it. You feel it on the skyline. You feel it when someone mentions they went there. The position is implicit. Eminence is experienced, not claimed. And that’s precisely why it works. The positioning paradox Here’s…
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Why Your Tribal Signals Need Something to Signal
You can’t build a tribe around nothing. Black Flag tattoos work because Black Flag owns rebellion. Fair trade coffee signals because Fair Trade owns ethics. Supreme drops create frenzy because Supreme owns authentic streetwear culture. The moment you try to create tribal belonging without semantic content (the real concept or meaning behind something) underneath, the signal fails. Everyone wants…
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Perplexity: The Curiosity Machine That’s Actually a Trust Engine
A Note Before We Begin: I wrote this because I genuinely admire what Aravind Srinivas and the Perplexity team are building. I’ve been following their work closely, reading interviews, watching social media content, and tracking their product evolution. The technical execution is remarkable. The team is world-class. The growth trajectory speaks for itself. But I’m…
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37signals: The Company That Owns Control (And Doesn’t Know It)
A Note Before We Begin: I’ve been following Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s work for years. Their books changed how I think about business. Their writing is consistently sharp, honest, and useful. I watch Jason’s posts on X not because I’m looking for flaws, but because I’m fascinated by what makes certain businesses connect…
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When 95% Self-Awareness Meets 53% Stock Decline: The Chip Wilson Identity Crisis (Autopsy)
The Delusion Everyone Shares Tasha Eurich’s research team discovered something unsettling: 95% of people believe they’re self-aware. Only 10-15% actually are. This isn’t about people being stupid. It’s about the gap between what we think we know about ourselves and what’s actually true. Most of us walk around convinced we understand who we are, what…
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How Wynter Owns Clearance (And Why They Don’t Know It)
A Note Before We Begin: I’ve been watching Peep Laja’s work for a while now. The rigour he brings to marketing, the anti-BS stance, and the way Wynter has grown are impressive. His LinkedIn content consistently challenges lazy thinking, and I respect that deeply. This piece isn’t a critique. It’s an attempt to read Wynter’s…
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How Exit Five Accidentally Built the Institution B2B Marketing Never Had
A note before we dive in: I’ve been following Dave Gerhardt’s work for a while now. His LinkedIn content is excellent, and what he’s built with Exit Five is impressive. This analysis stems from genuine curiosity about why certain businesses connect to identity in ways that transcend their stated purpose. I’ve done my best to…
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Why is Tesla worth more than Toyota?
Market sentiment is the story your numbers are forced to play in. It’s not just your revenue, profit margin, or operational efficiency. It’s the collective emotion investors attach to what you represent. That emotion becomes the lens through which every metric gets interpreted. Here’s the proof. The 30:1 Paradox As of October 2025, two companies…
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Hampton: How Owning Kinship Built an $8M Business That Members Would Take Loans to Keep
A note before we begin: I’ve been following Sam Parr’s work for years and genuinely admire what he has built. His podcast conversations are among the most candid in the startup world. This piece stems from fascination, not criticism. I love exploring what drives businesses to connect with identity rather than solve problems. I’ve tried to…