Strava learnt early on to harness differentiated utility, decentralized, frictionless payments need to be the future and is Web3 changing our digital identities?
Strava’s Inch-Wide Mile-Deep market
From First 1000, by Ali Abouelatta
Strava didn’t have social elements at the beginning of their product journey. First, they had to create a differentiated utility.
Their Inch-Wide Mile-Deep go to market strategy was them going after a small niche—building a product that a small number of people found very great.
How niche? Strava became the #1 player within an 18-24 months timeframe, where 1-2 killer features were game-changing for a tiny cohort.
In a small pond, every customer matters. Their product could not afford churn with small numbers—an early singular focus on engagement (through competitions) was crucial to their success.
Micropayments are the future
From The Pomp Letter, by Anthony Pompliano
Strike held a hackathon recently during which PlebPay was created, a product allowing anyone in the world to create a paywall, for any piece of content, instantaneously and with no payment processing fee.
With only the scan of a QR code, you can pay $0.01 and immediately watch the video of young Jack Mallers 👆 YouTube did not need to create paywall support.
This is the future: decentralized, digital payment systems built on open-source software, continuously improving global, frictionless, free payments.
Web3 fixes for 2022
From Platformer, by Casey Newton
Make crypto transactions safe, reliable, and approachable to normal people. It’s time for Web3 to prove it can create comprehensive solutions here.
Make a moderately efficient blockchain “computer”. If Web3 wants to be accessible, it can’t be nearly as slow, expensive, and wasteful as it currently is.
Develop technologies for mitigating harassment and abuse. Transactions are public, immutable and regaining access is as simple as creating a new wallet.
Identity used to be rigid, now it’s fluid
From Digital Native, by Rex Woodbury
American adults spend over 11 hours interacting with digital media every day and the pandemic has advanced our evolution to a digital species.
Today, in Web3, your digital identity lives inside your wallet, becoming portable and composable while our isolated identities come together into one single identity.
The rise of digital identity corresponds with a shift of trust and power toward the person: “we place trust in ourselves and in our abilities, rather than in the promises of an institution or corporation.”
Instant commerce goes global
From Consumer Startups, by Leo Luo
Instant commerce sales in 2021 were estimated to be around $20-25B in the US, equating to a 10-13% share of US online CPG sales.
The secret sauce: micro fulfillment center (MFC) within proximity and demand, the number of deliveries/hour dwarfs most other delivery businesses while the inventory they store is dynamic and flexible based on local demand.
Demand prediction is key—to have a systematic approach to product expansion by considering consumer preference, order frequency and complexity of holding that inventory.
Extra Reading
The Psychology of Strategy (Divinations, Nathan Baschez)
Spotify’s quest to own your ear (Trapital Production with Napkin Math)
The disrupting, and disturbing, nature of crypto (the mesha tribe)
State of Chinese unicorns 2021 (Chinese Characteristics, Lillian Li)
Will Tokens Replace Equity? (Napkin Math, Evan Armstrong)
Why are we paying for things? (The Sociology of Business, Ana Andjelic)