Napkin Math

Profit and power in technology.

Jul 21, 2022

Crypto Has A Use Case

How Braintrust Used Tokens to Kickstart a Market

Aug 5, 2020

Intangible Assets: The Invisible Value Driver

Book review of The End of Accounting: there are four problems with current financial statements and intangible assets are the biggest reason why.

Oct 6, 2022

The Face That AI Built

My explorations in image generation

Sep 19, 2024

Live Fuller, Not Bigger

You must escape the shallow joy of more

Sep 4, 2020

The Investment Opportunity in School Bus Operators

Many schools have closed, representing a unique opportunity to buy school bus operators. With a strong moat, now might be the right time to buy.

Sep 30, 2021

NFT Projects are just MLMs for Tech Elites

A somewhat impartial review of current NFT business models

Jul 18, 2024

A New Book of the Startup Bible

It’s the rare business book that you should actually read

May 4, 2023

7 Reasons Media Is a No-Good, Horrible, Rotten Business That I Love Anyways

Plus a few things that bring me hope

Jul 11, 2024

Searching for Signal

When building a startup gets hard, where should we turn?

Dec 1, 2021

Investing on Instinct

Why the best deals are done with no data at all

Apr 16, 2024

Distribution Is King

What video games can teach us about building billion-dollar companies

Jul 20, 2023

Of Course You Can Beat the Market

Free your mind from the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Nov 12, 2020

Cash Conversion Cycle: Bridging the Gap Between Profitability & Cash Flow

What is the Cash Conversion Cycle and why is it useful? In this post, we discuss the Cash Conversion Cycle formula, an example calculation, and a comparison of public retailer IPOs.

Mar 7, 2024

Ads in the Age of AI

Weirder, different, and new

Aug 13, 2021

Is Facebook Fixable

A Review of An Ugly Truth

Nov 24, 2021

How Do You Compete with Free?

Notion: The Embattled Artist

Mar 21, 2024

Why Polarity Pays

The complicated social and financial incentives at the heart of online publishing

Jul 22, 2021

Snowflake: How a Revenue Retention Behemoth was Built

TL;DRThis is the second post on a deep dive in GTM metrics with a focus today on Revenue RetentionSnowflake is a software Dracula. It latche

Mar 10, 2022

How To Get Leverage On Your Ideas

The Power Output Equation

Feb 25, 2022

Joe Rogan: The Platform-Proof Creator

Spotify’s No-Win Predicament

Jan 6, 2022

What the hell is going on with Lambda School?

The complicated business of selling social good

Jun 27, 2023

Shopping for AI Shovels: The MosaicML Acquisition

Why would Databricks spend $1.3B?

Jun 24, 2020

Why Software is More Profitable Than Content

Written by... a content company

Jul 16, 2021

How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts

A Case Study on Market Structures and Harm