What I watched, listened, and read this week. Another experiment on note taking.
Business Breakdowns, Basic Fit. Through controlling costs (no pool, economies of scale for equipment, low payroll thanks to technology), Basic Fit serves the fitness JTBD. The company also has psychological advantages: not going to the gym is different than cancelling and some members don’t churn because the membership is like an ‘option’ to workout.
Tyler Cowen’s conversation with Chuck Klosterman. A visit to the ’90s. An answer to the question: Is the United States the best counter-cyclical asset? And, moving the goalposts after a lifetime of work.
The Science of Change: Netflix. In the DVD days customer satisfaction was driven bytaste and selection. Do you have what I want and how fast can I get it? Netflix addressed this two ways. One, create many distribution centers which reduced shipping times. Two, showcase (aka framing) DVD titles available at the nearby centers. Netflix’s internal question: Does this delight customers in hard to copy margin enhancing ways?
Wharton Moneyball 2/16/22. In a talk about transgender athlete the hosts note that at the extremes men and women are not competitive but on average they are. Another case of average ‘meanings‘.
Acquisitions Anonymous. Selling $9mm of golf clubs in year? DTC brands are best to begin, not buy.
The Indicator, How Hollywood changed the wine industry. Did the 2004 film Sideways lead to more Pinot production? Apparently yes, 75% more.
ILTB, Peter Chernin. Some businesses have more advantages than others and one way to notice them is merchandise. Another may be: will people stand in a line for this?
The making of Wordle, an interview with Josh Wardle on Spectacular Vernacular. Wardle, like the iPhone engineers, built a game prototype for his partner to play which led to the database of words. He also iterated with sharing and watched users. 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
The Waiter's Pad 