💡 Business Brainstorms 💡- My favorite ideas of the week
#1 💡
“When I've worked for organizations without QA teams, I introduce the concept of "sniff tests". This is a short (typically 1 hour) test session where anybody in the company / department is encouraged to come and bash on the new feature. The feature is supposed to be complete, but it always turns out that the edge cases just don't work. I've been in these test session where we have generated 100 bug tickets in an hour (many are duplicates). I like putting "" into every field and pressing submit. I like trying to just use the keyboard to navigate the UI. I run my system with larger fonts by default. I sometime run my browser at 110% zoom. It used to be surprising how often these simple tests would lead to problems. I'm not surprised any more!” - HN comment
Most companies are too busy adding more shiny features when what they really need is more sniff tests.
At my agency we’ve definitely also fallen into that trap. We put most of our energy into executing elaborate sales plays, when it would be better spent on QA.
Clients never churn because we didn’t execute some sophisticated play. It’s always because we fuck up or don’t executive the absolute basics well.
To quote Charlie Munger: “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
#2 💡
Sam Kriss writes about an interesting pattern:
Around the turn of the century, the world contained around 50 exabytes of data […] Today, there’s around 65 zettabytes. A zettabyte is a thousand exabytes; an exabyte is a billion gigabytes. […] The hipster was an information-sorting algorithm: its job was to always have good taste. The hipster listened to bands you’d never heard of. The hipster drank beers brewed by Paraguayan Jesuits in the 1750s. […] That was the theory, at least. In fact, the hipsters were generally very bad at their job. Most of the stuff they liked was awful. They flourished in a brief gap: after we started producing impossible volumes of information, but before we had the technological means of efficiently processing it. In the 2000s, the best tool available was keyword search, the utility of which drops in line with the size of the data set. We still needed people to like things manually. But in the 2010s, we developed algorithmic processes capable of efficiently discerning patterns in the ungodly excess of human cultural production and sorting it appropriately. […]
In the post-hipster era, you listened to what Spotify told you to listen to. If you read a book, it was because the precise pattern of blobby pastel-coloured shapes on its cover contained coded instructions to TikTok’s algorithm that sent it zooming to the top of your feed. Your tastes and preferences were decided for you by vast crystalline machines coiling and uncoiling in the livid molten core of the earth. But these algorithms tend to work in a very particular way. At best, they present you with a caricature of yourself that you then have to conform to. At worst, their processes of cumulative reinforcement serve you up the exact same bilge as everyone else, but shrouded in the aura of individuality. […] And since the nerds gravitate towards homogeneity and popularity, their extinction will be total. Soon, very soon, every single one of them will be dead. […] The regime of the hipster was an inefficient way of sorting it; it died. The regime of the nerd was an overefficient way of sorting it; it is dying.
The obvious question is: what’s next?
Sam, as usual, goes for the weirdest prediction: “The last remaining option is mal d’archive, the Kang solution: you ease the weight of all this cultural stuff by simply destroying it all. […] What comes after the nerds might be a descent into pure and infinite barbarism. We might finally become humans without any culture at all.” I mean, Quentin Tarantino has announced that he will stop after his next movie. So maybe? But probably not.
What seems much more likely is that this is a pendulum that will swing back soon. I at least already gravitate strongly away from algorithms towards people with good taste. Most of the content I consume I discover through people whose taste. Case in point: I discovered Sam Kriss’ Substack through a comment by Scott Alexander.
At the same time, this feels incredibly inefficient. Most of the people whose taste I trust don’t recommend much.
On solution could be AI agents trained on your personal taste could be a solution. Your personal hipster AI friend constantly scouring the internet for anything worth recommending to you. The Browser proves that there is a market.
#3 💡
Andrew Swiler shared a brilliant sales play:
We created a sales process that gets a ridiculous response rate (something like 30% on cold messages). It's helped us increase revenue from $1.55 million to over $2 million in a bit more than a year.
Here's what we do:
- Create a list of target leads in our niche (HR leaders)
- SDR researches them on LinkedIn. We identify the ones who are actively posting and commenting on LinkedIn.
- Send a cold email mentioning a topic they wrote about, asking if we can do a 15-20 min podcast interview to dive deeper on that topic
- I post the recorded interview on my social media
- Many times, the prospect takes interest in our company and software and asks for a demo
Response rate is so high we can’t even do many of these because we don’t have time to run the interviews. Been a goldmine for making connections and getting the players in our niche to know our company.
#4 💡
Helpful reminder that most information you find online is a massive distraction.
The winning tactic is usual the most obvious, simplest one.
#5 💡
#6 💡
I coded an AI agent that continuously scours the internet for trends and paint points, then brainstorms opportunities at the intersection of them, and categories and ranks them. A few examples below. Will share more in the coming weeks. You can get lifetime access to the full dataset here.
Time Perception + Neurological Disorders. Create a wearable device that assists people with neurological disorders affecting time perception by providing gentle, non-invasive cues throughout the day to help them maintain a sense of time and routine.
Software Engineering Abstractions + AI in Code Testing and Debugging. Develop an AI-driven platform that abstracts complex coding tasks into simple visual interfaces, enabling non-programmers to create software. Integrate with smart debugging tools that predict errors and optimize code.
Scam prevention + AI customer service automation. Develop an AI-powered platform that simulates scam scenarios for training purposes, helping customer service representatives identify and prevent fraud in real-time.
Food Safety + Lead Detection. A startup developing a simple, affordable home testing kit for detecting lead and other heavy metals in spices and other food products. Target health-conscious consumers and provide an easy-to-use app that interprets results and offers safer purchasing suggestions.
AI Regulation + Voice Interaction. Offer consulting services to companies navigating AI regulations, specializing in integrating compliant voice interaction features into their products.
Exercise and sleep + Decaf alternatives. Launch an online platform or app that combines workout programs with decaf beverage subscriptions designed to enhance sleep quality and general well-being.
Dark sky tourism + Environmental awareness. Develop an eco-friendly travel platform focusing on dark sky destinations with minimal environmental impact. Offer guided stargazing tours, night photography workshops, and accommodation in eco-lodges.
Government inefficiency and waste + Automation of business processes. Create an AI-powered audit service that identifies inefficiencies in government spending and suggests automated solutions to cut waste, streamlining budget usage.
End Note
As always, if you’re enjoying this brainstorm, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up.
Have a great week,
Jakob