Napkin Math

Profit and power in technology.

Mar 26, 2024

How to Make Millions on Discord

A new distribution channel has opened

Jul 11, 2024

Searching for Signal

When building a startup gets hard, where should we turn?

Apr 16, 2024

Distribution Is King

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

Apr 28, 2022

Cash—Kingmaker or Killer?

A examination of when cash can anoint a market winner

Mar 21, 2024

Why Polarity Pays

The complicated social and financial incentives at the heart of online publishing

Aug 5, 2020

Intangible Assets: The Invisible Value Driver

Book review of The End of Accounting: there are four problems with current financial statements and intangible assets are the biggest reason why.

Nov 10, 2022

Pinterest Has a Chance

The first full-stack shopping platform

Jun 27, 2023

Shopping for AI Shovels: The MosaicML Acquisition

Why would Databricks spend $1.3B?

Feb 25, 2022

Joe Rogan: The Platform-Proof Creator

Spotify’s No-Win Predicament

Dec 1, 2022

The House of the Bloody Mouse

Where does Disney go from here?

Dec 1, 2021

Investing on Instinct

Why the best deals are done with no data at all

Feb 6, 2024

Profit, Power, and the Vision Pro

Will Apple’s new headset change everything?

Sep 19, 2024

Live Fuller, Not Bigger

You must escape the shallow joy of more

Sep 22, 2022

The AI Writer

How tech is changing what it means to be an author

Jul 20, 2023

Of Course You Can Beat the Market

Free your mind from the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Jun 24, 2020

Why Software is More Profitable Than Content

Written by... a content company

Nov 24, 2021

How Do You Compete with Free?

Notion: The Embattled Artist

Aug 24, 2023

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

Triller's S1 raises questions about its numbers

Jan 6, 2022

What the hell is going on with Lambda School?

The complicated business of selling social good

Dec 7, 2023

The Impossibility of Being Charlie

RIP to nerd Jesus

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

Nov 16, 2023

COGS: How I Bankrupted MoviePass

An intuitive explainer for how to lose money and win anyway

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

Jul 16, 2021

How Free to Play Video Games are Forced to Make Addicts

A Case Study on Market Structures and Harm