Issue 1 January 6th 2015

First issue of Founder's Cabin!

Hot diggity dog! It's the first issue of Founder's Cabin! Thank you so much for subscribing.

I'm Josh Pigford. I'm currently the Founder of Baremetrics, but have been building startups and businesses for over 10 years.

I hope these weekly emails are helpful to you and your business, and always feel free to respond and let me know your thoughts. I love talking shop!

-- Josh Pigford, @Shpigford

Articles

The limits of “unlimited” vacation

Many startups tout "unlimited" vacation as a perk, but that's dangerous. In reality, most people end up taking less vacation...not more. When there's not a defined set of expectations, most people undershoot what's acceptable and just work more.

At Baremetrics, instead of saying "unlimited" we say "loose" and tell them we expect everyone to take off at least 3-5 weeks per year with one or more week-long vacations. We then track it to make sure everyone is in fact taking time off.

The Two Keys to a Lasting Early Morning Routine

My morning routine (typically starting around 5AM) sets the tone for my entire day. Whenever I sleep in (on purpose or accidentally) I consistently feel off for the rest of the day. Respect the alarm!

How Our Side Project Generated $51,365 In 60 Days

This is a fascinating story about how a last-minute idea (emoji masks!) created over $50k in revenue in a couple of months. Lots of things that went wrong, but way more things went right. Who doesn't want to wear poop on their face?!?!

100 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Blogging

Neil Patel is an article writing machine. He's written thousands of articles and likely has more experience with producing content than all the people you know combined. Here he covers 100 lessons he's learned over the past decade of pumping stuff out.

Your Product Demo Sucks Because It's Focused on Your Product

Showing what your product does is an inevitable part of a higher-touch sales process. But as long as that product demo is focused on the product and not on a solution to the person's problems, you'll continue to fall flat. Sell solutions not products.

How to e-mail a busy person

Tobias van Schneider (Product Design Lead for Spotify), says the problem isn't e-mail itself...it's the sender (i.e...you). He outlines 10 ways to email people who get absurd amounts of email.

The big one for me is that if you're asking more than one thing, put those asks in a numbered list. So much easier to respond to.

How we scored Baremetrics.com for $616

After 11 months of work, we were able to snag Baremetrics.com for an entirely reasonable $616 from a squatter. Here’s how we got it and some tips for scoring the .com you've been itching for. That butterfly landing page! So classy!

Books

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

I'm a bit of a psychology nut and the stories in here are fascinating. The ways in which people overcame incredible, and many times debilitating, struggles and problems...all by putting a series of actions in motion to chat their habits...quite inspiring.

Videos

Jason Fried: Why work doesn't happen at work

Jason Fried posits that real work doesn't happen at work. It happens anywhere that there aren't managers or meetings.

Tools

Peek: Free usability testing

Peek is a free/quick way to get a random human to give you their gut reaction to your site or product. That's obviously not useful in every situation, but you've got nothing to lose since it's free. :)

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