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Find Michael online:
Other links:
Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology
Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin Whitepaper
Shownotes
2:05 The inspiration behind Bottomless. How Michael reformulated coffee supply and demand as an information problem. How advances in computing and the internet are really advances in legibility.
08:18 The original vision Michael brought to Y Combinator. Bottomless’ marketing plan. Why to buy fresh coffee and grind yourself.
15:50- How Michael’s tech and coffee journey are connected. How to find luxury in inexpensive packages. How many luxuries are just resource intensive.
22:23- What surprised Michael about working with Y Combinator. How the thinking needed in a company gets baked in with the first vector, but extreme execution is what makes success.
26:57- How execution informs Michael’s strategy. Why Bottomless and David strategize on Sunday and execute the rest of the week. How making more decisions more quickly is better than making perfect decisions slowly.
30:30 Michael’s 10-minute interview to get into Y Combinator. When to think, and when to act in your business. Why mistakes are penalized in school, but some of the best things that can happen in life.
37:09 Why to write pseudonymously. What Michael has learned from Paul Graham. Why Bottomless has outsourced a lot of marketing recently. Michael’s experience watching product development while working at Nike.
46:35 Why Michael believes the best people to be doing product development are also doing the operations and customer support. Why status and hierarchy get in the way of running a good business. Why market research should be satisfied by your customer service.
