I wanted to get this message out to you all sooner, rather than later. As mentioned in Feb 6th’s post, I’ve made the decision to end the publishing of the Case Studies.
There are three reasons why I am ceasing their publication:
The original hope was that by providing more in-depth information about startups beyond what is covered in the average TechCrunch or Verge article, potential early-stage employees looking for a startup to join could make a more informed decision during their interview process. However, after the past 2.5 years of running this newsletter, I hadn’t really seen the user adoption I’d hoped for. That’s okay, as I’ve learned a lot about how startup candidates learn about companies as well as the important questions to ask a startup when considering joining them.
It’s hard to build a community around covering individual companies in great detail. It’s unlikely that a person interested in Company A, a pre-seed B2B SaaS data science vendor, will also be interested in Company B, a Series C B2C social platform. Contextually, there may be relevant lessons shared between the two, but for a reader reading Case Studies on each, it’s going to take a lot of time to be able to divine the two.
On the other hand, there are topics that cut across all founders, regardless of their stage or industry. Writing about such topics lay the foundation for discourse, which in turn attracts and grows a community over time.
The most important reason of all is that my relationships with founders have grown over time. Instead of being a journalist-subject relationship, I’m proud to consider many of the founders I’ve written about as friends. Talking about the things that affect them not just as founders but as people is important too. As my friendships expand and deepen with them, so should my writing. (This rationale also extends to early-stage employees I’ve covered on LinkedIn as well!)
The hope is that my original writing on topics that affect all founders will replace the Case Studies in due time. For that to happen successfully, I need to know what my audience, founders and employees, want me to write about!
It will take time to figure this out. While I am doing so, I’m implementing these changes in effect:
I am pausing paid subscriber subscriptions for the foreseeable future. I will give advance two-week notice when I will turn them on again, so there are no surprises for those who choose to stick around. (Thank you!)
I will be publishing content here on an ad-hoc basis going forward, or not on a regular cadence, for the foreseeable future. I need time to experiment with the features of these new original articles I plan to publish. Once I settle into content that I like and is repeatable to create, I will update you all with the updated frequency of when you should expect articles in your inbox.
The last Case Study will come out next Monday. A big thank you once again to all the founders who participated in them - you’re a rare breed and will always have my gratitude.
Thank you for reading this far and continuing to stick with Founder to Founder!
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Sunsetting The Case Studies
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Hello Founders,
I wanted to get this message out to you all sooner, rather than later. As mentioned in Feb 6th’s post, I’ve made the decision to end the publishing of the Case Studies.
There are three reasons why I am ceasing their publication:
The original hope was that by providing more in-depth information about startups beyond what is covered in the average TechCrunch or Verge article, potential early-stage employees looking for a startup to join could make a more informed decision during their interview process. However, after the past 2.5 years of running this newsletter, I hadn’t really seen the user adoption I’d hoped for. That’s okay, as I’ve learned a lot about how startup candidates learn about companies as well as the important questions to ask a startup when considering joining them.
It’s hard to build a community around covering individual companies in great detail. It’s unlikely that a person interested in Company A, a pre-seed B2B SaaS data science vendor, will also be interested in Company B, a Series C B2C social platform. Contextually, there may be relevant lessons shared between the two, but for a reader reading Case Studies on each, it’s going to take a lot of time to be able to divine the two.
On the other hand, there are topics that cut across all founders, regardless of their stage or industry. Writing about such topics lay the foundation for discourse, which in turn attracts and grows a community over time.
The most important reason of all is that my relationships with founders have grown over time. Instead of being a journalist-subject relationship, I’m proud to consider many of the founders I’ve written about as friends. Talking about the things that affect them not just as founders but as people is important too. As my friendships expand and deepen with them, so should my writing. (This rationale also extends to early-stage employees I’ve covered on LinkedIn as well!)
The hope is that my original writing on topics that affect all founders will replace the Case Studies in due time. For that to happen successfully, I need to know what my audience, founders and employees, want me to write about!
It will take time to figure this out. While I am doing so, I’m implementing these changes in effect:
I am pausing paid subscriber subscriptions for the foreseeable future. I will give advance two-week notice when I will turn them on again, so there are no surprises for those who choose to stick around. (Thank you!)
I will be publishing content here on an ad-hoc basis going forward, or not on a regular cadence, for the foreseeable future. I need time to experiment with the features of these new original articles I plan to publish. Once I settle into content that I like and is repeatable to create, I will update you all with the updated frequency of when you should expect articles in your inbox.
The last Case Study will come out next Monday. A big thank you once again to all the founders who participated in them - you’re a rare breed and will always have my gratitude.
Thank you for reading this far and continuing to stick with Founder to Founder!
Soda