Pete's January 2021 update
Experiments, creative side hustle, Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
This is my monthly update experiment in doing a monthly update on me as a “product”. Subscribe here or send it to someone who might be interested.
Wow, January really flew by! Here’s the good stuff:
Highlights and insights
Founder mentoring / advising: First Giants mentoring session this week, with a founder who is making Indian spice pastes and prepared ingredients. We had a great chat about next steps and getting into specialty stores, and it reminded me how much I’d learned about the foodie world while blogging back in the day.
Experiments: I’ve been playing around with organic marketing via social media, which means spending time in Reddit and Twitter adding value to entrepreneurs who need help starting their business. Also content marketing, which gives me the opportunity to publish guest blog posts from some of my startup class. Win-win!
The unintended benefit of creating work-based social profiles is that I can remove those topics from my personal account. There’s a much cleaner line between hustling and browsing, which makes the experience more pleasant. (I wish I could do the same for Medium — my feed there is a mess.)
Creative side-hustle: Collaborating with Lucy on some wordplay-based silliness. We’re still just getting started, but as a sneak preview our social media bio reads: This is the Insta of our pun content.
Requests
Nothing right now, thanks.
Coming up
Startup pitch coaching for Startup Dunedin: Tuesday 2 Feb
Pitching for BlueChilli at Meet the Australia Startup Community Leaders (Online Event): Tuesday 2 Feb, 6pm
How to Pitch: Thursday 4 Feb (private workshop for Zip Co). I spent the weekend coming up with a new way to impress the importance of context and story, using a Star Wars scenario (preview below). I’m excited to see how it goes.
One day intensive startup class for University of Sydney Business School: Saturday 27 February. I’ll be experimenting with Catembe for some online activities, too.
Read / watch / listen
Read: Tom Stoppard’s script doctoring of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The article is a great side-by-side analysis of the original script vs what Stoppard sent back, calling out dramatic elements. A lot of these elements would be applicable to pitching -- simplification, tightening, tone -- but I really love this line from the comic reversals section:
“Change is the essence of comedy (and drama) and one may recall the old acting advice: If the script requires that you answer a phone and it’s good news, then start out the scene in a bad mood (or vice-versa)… the sudden emotional change will magnify the impact of the news.”
Read: Why I’ve tracked every single piece of clothing I’ve worn for three years. Tag this “things I wish I’d done”. A really interesting data collection of clothing wear, and an even more interesting data analysis. A highly recommended read for nerds like me. (And I imagine startups like Rent The Runway do this x1000.)
Listen: Phoebe Bridgers covers Neutral Milk Hotel’s Two-Headed Boy (Part 2). If you like that, follow it up with her cover of Fake Plastic Trees.
Watch / listen: Adam Savage answering questions about Mythbusters. I’m a big fan of the show, and Adam reflects and shares some really cool insights. I like this one:
"There is no formula for success. There is a formula for failure though, and it involves thinking you know the formula for success." - Adam Savage