Ben Mann Monthly November: more startup sprints, cuddlebot post, 3 day silent meditation retreat, early startup content
Purpose
An index for my memory
An menu of topics for my next conversation with you
A faster way to share what I’m excited about without the barrier of writing a complete blog entry on it
A way to spread content I found valuable
It’s meant to be skimmable. If there’s anything you want to see more or less of, please let me know!
Experiments and experiences
Throat singing
Only caught the first 15 minutes of this class, but excited to try it again! Turns out there’s a strong spiritual component to it.
Pull-quote: How do we fool our sleeping brain into thinking that the pillow is a person? The answer might include weight, a heartbeat, breathing, and regulated temperature. Or maybe that’s the answer to, “How do you make a pillow creepy?”
3 day silent meditation retreat
I promised myself I’d never do a 10 day again, but my loophole is that this was only 3 days. I really enjoyed it, despite the Camp Fire making the outdoor air unbreathable. It made me realize that the things I learned in the 10 day stuck. I might write a post on this. Let me know if you’re interested.
Salvia (20x concentration, smoked)
I’d describe it as a roller coaster for the mind. It’s legal in California. Some people say it should be its own class of hallucinogen due to its unique set of effects. Due to its intensity, most people don’t like it.
Annual Project Baseline visit
They’re looking for high risk individuals, so if you know anyone who smokes, send them to Baseline!
Life updates
Continuing ~2 week sprints with Austin
Launched Scribe for Android on the Play Store
Launched internet commenting system (4.5k ad views, 150 clicks), failed to get any user engagement. In-person user tests were uniformly negative.
Evaluated an idea to connect professional chefs with people who wanted to learn a specific dish or technique over Skype. Users weren't interested. Built about half the app in parallel, which was a waste.
Destination Thanksgiving in Austin, TX with my family
Launched remychef.com and started serving paying customers, reached ~$30k ARR. Paused by handing off business to our chef.
Currently working on automating image analysis for semiconductors
Content
5 point Likert ratings for “I would recommend this content to a friend"
Drones with no moving parts powered by ion drive 5/5
This tech is incredibly cool, though my fear is that the only benefit of ion drive is silence, and therefore only of interest to military applications.
A book summary that hits the important points of shipping as an emotional experience. I found it extremely relevant to the early startup experience.
Working in kitchens sucks.
Teespring’s Meteoric Rise And What Happened After They Raised $65 Million, with Evan Stites-Clayton 4/5
Don’t grow too fast. Product/market fit feels like people beating your door down for the product. Facebook is an incredible distribution channel. Silicon Valley is the place to build a startup.
What matters (and doesn’t) when getting press for your startup 4/5
My housemate/CEO of Hitlist explains how press can make the difference in distribution.
How 22 Successful Companies Fought For Their First Customers 4/5
It was useful to see all these different stories in one place, but it still doesn’t talk about the first 100 customers for most of these. My impression from reading other articles and asking people is that’s usually friends and family.
Ikkyu-san 4/5
Catchy beats, nonsensical lyrics, great costumes, creative cinematography
Never Split the Difference 4/5
Nothing really new here, but told from the fascinating perspective of one of the foremost hostage negotiators in the world.
How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit 5/5
Everyone says NPS is a poor measure of PMF, but they don’t say what to use instead. Measure how many users would be “very disappointed” if they could no longer use your product. Target 40% or better. Ignore users who are neutral; they’re not worth saving.