Stealing Signs - Issue 08
TikTok, Push Notifications, Social Gaming, Draft Day, and the Em dash
Worth Reading
Can TikTok Stay Weird?
Alyssa Bereznak, The Ringer
“It took just one of Caleb Natale’s signature special effects videos to grow his TikTok following from about 100 users to 300,000. It was at that moment he realized TikTok was different from Instagram in one fundamental way: ‘Every video has a chance to go viral on its own, regardless of how big your platform is, based off their algorithm,’”
I think so! One of the best features imo is the TikTok creator marketplace, where brands can search for influencers and creators to partner with. Absolutely brilliant. Not only does TikTok have a desirable creator network, but they also built the infrastructure to help them make more money and increase reach. This means brands can both discover and leverage TikTok creators, all within the TikTok app. The model has huge potential. One of our portfolio companies at Founder Equity built a similar platform for live events and they have legitimate traction from many top brands.
When looking back on the product in the context of the creator marketplace, the marketplace feature makes perfect sense. It’s common for marketplace businesses to build the “supply” side of the marketplace before the demand side. Examples of this include Uber, OpenTable, GrubHub, AngelList, and Thumbtack. TikTok effectively built the supply, content creators, and then opened it up to the demand, the brands. It’s very logical in retrospect and the strategy was likely informed by Vine’s biggest mistake: failing to recognize and provide for their stars.
Designing an Org that can Optimize and Innovate
Andy Johns, Unusual Ventures
The problem with [this] org chart… is that it’s almost exclusively aligned with producing value for the business— so much so that very little attention is being given to satisfying the needs of the customer… it also pushes the company deep into optimization territory. To be specific, it’s the design of the product teams (those highlighted in green) that is most worrisome.
Andy breaks down how org structure and team focus can dramatically alter company trajectory by comparing a startup org chart he saw at Unusual Ventures (above) with the org structure he developed at Wealthfront, where he was previously President. As Andy notes, org design and is often a huge hurdle for startups and can become an existential risk for the company over time. People matter. Incentives matter. Focus matters.
Push Notifications at Reddit
Reddit Team
“Our initial approach was to use a process called “explore/exploit,” in which we collected an array of recently posted Reddit content each morning that passed a certain threshold of upvotes and engagement, and sent a notification from that pool to a small set of users (20%).”
An effective push notification strategy can result in an up to 88% increase in app usage. However, users are highly sensitive to these notifications and they can easily become overwhelming. We developed an Android mobile app at Digital Intent a few years ago and Google’s recent OS system update, Android 10, limited a few core features of the app. We turned to push notifications as a potential work around and thought first about our users: How often do they use the app? Where does it fit in their daily routine? What information warrants a push notification? What other apps might our users have that also leverage push notifications and how do we compare? We’re still thinking a lot about this, but the better we understand where this app fits in our users’ lives, the better our notification strategy will be.
Stepping back, push notifications have such a high potential to positively impact user engagement that I think they deserve significant resources and attention from any mobile software company. The best push notification strategy I’ve seen is from the alcohol delivery app, Saucey. They’re differentiating on both content and cadence - very funny writing and perfectly timed notifications on Friday at 4ish pm:
Saucey push notification. Lightly edited.
The absolute worst push notification strategy is the digital lock company my office building uses, Kastle. They send a notification every time I close the app. Every. Time. The security aspect only somewhat justifies their strategy, but it’s incredibly annoying. I quickly disabled notifications :).
Kastle push notification
Why Gaming will Take Over
Matthew Ball, VC and Essayist
“Gaming used to have a singular function – immersive entertainment. Not only has the degree of immersion diversified, so too has the purpose. Many games, such as Fortnite, have become about participating in culture conversation, spending time with friends, and accessing shared live experiences”
A very compelling case for why gaming will become a dominant media channel. I’m most excited about the evolution of gaming’s ‘function’ from entertainment experience to shared, social experience (quoted above) because it created a new social media product.
Young people spend a ton of time in video games and, as Fortnite has shown us, the share of that time spent on socializing and non-gameplay events (Marshmello concert in Fortnite) is increasing rapidly. This suggests players are developing relationships, reputations, and communities inside of video games, just like they do on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And how do those social media products make money? Ads. The shift from video games as an entertainment experience to an interactive community created a new advertisement channel with unique monetization opportunities, like digital goods.
I’ve mentioned the concept of ‘digital goods’ before, but I’m very bullish on the concept because it’s unique to video games and a form of expression in a community where young people spend a lot of time. One could argue it’s as cool to have a Louis Vuitton skin in League of Legends as it is a bag or hoodie in real life. That’s powerful. And it’s a brand new phenomenon in the earliest stages of monetization. Imagine a world where Nike has a shoe and apparel line for Fortnite avatars. It’s not as far off as you might think.
B2B and Enterprise Product Ideas
Aashay Sanghvi, Haystack VC
Aashay is one of the most thoughtful young investors in VC imo. I was lucky enough to chat with him a few months ago after he responded to a Twitter DM. I think he’ll become a great investor and someone that entrepreneur’s will line up to work with - and that’s just from one convo...and his tweets! Now to the article, my favorite ideas are:
Collaborative Enterprise Search - “the search software should create and update company knowledge stores based on relevant searches”
Talent Intelligence and Enablement - “People.ai* (reliable data cleansing), Seismic (content management), and Outreach (engagement platform). They take the software a step further.”
Next Gen Data Warehouse - “A data warehouse that couples itself with Kafka (Confluent) or other event streaming platforms feels like an opportunity”
<stuff> Weekly!
LOL Weekly - The Em dash
lol I’m an em dash power-user. My average email has 3 em dashes and 1 period. It’s effective in expressing an informal stream of consciousness, which is what many of my emails are, ha. It just feels more appropriate than periods or semicolons and is definitely better than commas (except the Oxford comma).
Funding Weekly - Female eSports Organization
“Callisto Gaming, a Singapore-based women eSports organization, raised US$500k in funding.”
I think I’m one of the few investors left that is bullish on esports team investments. imo, there is a big opportunity to disrupt the current capital intensive team model with a focus on revenue channels beyond sponsorships like merchandise and player scouting. We’ve already seen startup teams begin to develop this model!
I didn’t know of any all-female esports teams prior to my research on the space over the past 2-3 months, but wow is there some really cool stuff happening here. Gen.G’s female team, Team Bumble, is sponsored by the dating app, Bumble, where women “make the first move.” Users can add a ‘Team Bumble’ badge to their profile and filter matches for other gamers. As far as I can tell, Gen.G is leading the charge here so kudos to them. Also, pretty cool on Bumble’s side, going all in on full integration with the esports culture and audience.
Baseball Weekly - Stealing Signs, ha!
Hayden Bird, Boston.com
“a Red Sox employee would reportedly figure out the opposing pitcher’s sign sequence in the video room before relaying it to a player. That player, in turn, would tell a Boston baserunner, who could then relay signs as he saw them to the hitter.”
And right on cue, more teams accused of stealing signs. I’m not shocked. As I understand it, it’s common knowledge around the league that almost everyone does this. I think part of the reason the Astro’s sign stealing scandal got so much coverage is because it was extremely blatant and we all missed it. The video evidence is damning. It seems impossible that we all missed this for so long. The Red Sox allegations don’t appear to be as ridiculous as this so we’ll see where it goes.
Video Weekly - DK Metcalf on Draft Day
This is exactly how I’d want to be welcomed to a new organization. 1-on-1 time and support from the Head Coach and loud, vocal support from the entire staff. How invigorating. As employee perks become more commoditized and insane, this approach may be an easy win for startups in recruiting top talent. Super simple but really powerful imo. Leader and team support on one call. Pretty clear they’re excited to have him. And pretty sure Google and Facebook aren’t doing this...
Art Weekly - Ontogenisis
Jean Dubuffet
