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Jim Huffman

A blog about Growth Marketing, Startup Struggles and the occasional 90s NBA reference.

11/24/2021 Newsletter: How a Navy SEAL Runs His Startup with Patrick Dossett

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How a Navy SEAL Runs His Startup with Patrick Dossett

What happens when a NAVY Seal and the TOMS founder launch a startup?

I spoke with Patrick Dossett, CEO of Madefor, about how he worked with SEALS, athletes, astronauts, and more to create a product that helps you reach your full potential.

This was a fun one! Here is what we cover:

  • How he got into the NAVY Seals
  • How important is Grit and the ability to endure for founders
  • How stress can actually be useful
  • How a good team can make the difference
  • The benefits of being a mission driven brand
  • What he learned working with Blake Mycoskie

Get the full episode right here.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

DID YOU MISS LAST WEEK’S EMAIL? Here are the top articles.

People enjoyed How to Take a Brand From Nothing to Household Name With This $87M Template and 34% of you want to learn more about GrowthHit’s $3M Challenge.

Here are the articles that caught my attention this week:

đź’° The Powerful, Predictive Metric That Made HubSpot Millions​

Focus is key for startups.

For Hubspot, that meant focusing on one metric to see how they were doing in the early days. There was one powerful, predictive metric that HubSpot used to guarantee happy customers and make millions.

The metric: The Happiness Index

Yes, they measured happiness. Watch the video to see how they pulled it off.

đź“ť Finding Product Market Fit with John Danner of Dunce Capital​

John Danner lends his Google Document that you can use to assess your current PMF. Here are the things to keep yourself honest about your traction:

  • Are you doing an experiment each day?
  • Do you go after only one metric at a time?
  • Are you worrying about monetizing too early?

Jane breaks down his process into the follow steps:

  1. Stage 0: Idea Validation
  2. Stage 1: Magic
  3. Stage 2: Habit
  4. Stage 3: Your First Channel
  5. Stage 4: Growth
  6. Stage 5: Activation
  7. Stage 6: Engagement
  8. Stage 7: Monetization
  9. Stage 8: Build a Company

🏅How Snappa Has Taken On Canva and Is Starting to Win​

First, let’s get some things straight… Does Snappa have more features than Canva? No.

Are they cheaper? Not really.

Better support? Canva has “Design School.” (This isn’t looking so good)

Yet Snappa uses these “shortcomings” as their springboard. See how they pull this off.

đź“… The Best Leaders are Feedback Magnets — Here’s How to Become One​

Getting actionable feedback is a skill, and the top performers have excelled largely because they’ve never stopped honing it.

Knowing what other people think about you can be life-changing. It’s the key to getting promoted faster and becoming the kind of leader people are excited to work with.

On the flip side, not getting this intel is a silent career killer. You get passed over for new roles or special assignments without ever understanding why, never getting an opportunity to develop and prove you can do better. Here are the main takeaways:

  • STEP 1: LEARN HOW TO MANAGE YOUR KNEE-JERK REACTION
    • Tip #1: Reframe feedback as an opportunity to grow.
    • Tip #2: Assume good intent and follow-up with gratitude.
    • Tip #3: Ask questions to avoid being defensive.
    • Tip #4: Reflect on the feedback you’ve received.
  • STEP 2: EMPOWER YOUR COLLEAGUES TO SHARE MORE
    • Tip #1: Narrow the question.
    • Tip #2: Swap “feedback” for “advice.”
    • Tip #3: Get people invested

⚒️ TOOL OF THE WEEK: How To Get Around Any Paywall​

12ft.io believes Google Adwords killed the web. Google Adwords incentivized sites to peddle SEO optimized garbage. Sites who aren’t are forced to optimize for email capture so they can market directly to you. Search results now show “news”, ads, and SEO spam instead of surfacing information.

You ought to be able to search something on Google and get an answer to your question without signing up for some newsletter. This is why 12ft.io was created.

THE $3M CHALLENGE
Our Growth Team Launched a Startup Studio

We launched a startup studio and we are growing 3 companies to $1M in sales each. Specifically, an agency, a D2C brand and a SaaS Company. As a bonus, we’re documenting every step along the way. We’re calling it The $3M Challenge. Follow the journey to $3M right here.

Here is our progress meter.

FOLLOW THE $3M CHALLENGE

Want more content like this? Join my email list or listen to my podcast, If I Was Starting Today. ​