Evan Armstrong

Evan Armstrong is the lead writer at Every. He explores profit and power in technology in his column, Napkin Math.

Jan 6, 2022

What the hell is going on with Lambda School?

The complicated business of selling social good

Nov 24, 2021

How Do You Compete with Free?

Notion: The Embattled Artist

Jun 27, 2023

Shopping for AI Shovels: The MosaicML Acquisition

Why would Databricks spend $1.3B?

Apr 16, 2024

Distribution Is King

What video games can teach us about building billion-dollar companies

Mar 10, 2022

How To Get Leverage On Your Ideas

The Power Output Equation

Dec 1, 2022

The House of the Bloody Mouse

Where does Disney go from here?

Jul 16, 2021

How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts

A Case Study on Market Structures and Harm

Nov 16, 2023

COGS: How I Bankrupted MoviePass

An intuitive explainer for how to lose money and win anyway

Feb 6, 2024

Profit, Power, and the Vision Pro

Will Apple’s new headset change everything?

Sep 28, 2023

The Double Bind Theory—Or Why Sensationalism (Unfortunately) Works

If you want to win, you gotta spike

Jul 9, 2024

Paramount’s Dilemma: Content Isn’t King—Distribution Is

Half a century removed from its glory days, the Hollywood giant has a new rescue plan

Feb 27, 2024

What the Media Is Getting Wrong About AI

The future must be built on truth

Jul 22, 2021

Snowflake: How a Revenue Retention Behemoth was Built

TL;DRThis is the second post on a deep dive in GTM metrics with a focus today on Revenue RetentionSnowflake is a software Dracula. It latche

Jan 9, 2025

More Output, Less Effort

8 pieces of technology that have dramatically improved my life

Dec 5, 2023

Death of a Flywheel

Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway got really big. Here’s why it might kill them.

Aug 24, 2023

A TikTok Competitor Is About to IPO—And It’s Deeply Suspicious

Triller's S1 raises questions about its numbers

Sep 9, 2021

Tech stocks’ favorite lie to investors

How the LTV/CAC ratio is manipulated to take advantage of retail investors

Dec 8, 2022

The Primary Trends I’m Investing In Next Year

China, boring AI, vertical SaaS, and Apple's power

Apr 13, 2021

Announcing Napkin Math Fiscal Year 2021

After a short break, Napkin Math returns with a new writer

Jun 13, 2024

The AGI-in-2027 Thesis

Some researchers are convinced that we are on the cusp of superintelligence. Are they right?

Jul 13, 2023

OpenAI’s Code Interpreter Is About to Remake Finance

Get in, loser—we’re disrupting Oracle

May 28, 2021

ITDA: The Gamification of Financial Statements

How governments and companies are engaged in mutual manipulation

Feb 22, 2024

AI and the Vision Pro Don’t Need a Killer App

Software that drives hardware adoption is rarer than you think

Jan 16, 2025

God Is in the Bubbles

The politics of progress has a new manual