Ben Thompson

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Real world marginal costs

  “The reality is, as you get more into the real world, those marginal costs become more and more difficult to escape.”

  Our noteBen notes that moving beyond pure software introduces sticky real-world costs.

• Willingness to fail

  “It goes to this willingness to let people do crazy stuff, most of which is going to fail, and some of it will succeed. To have that willingness to say, "I don't know. I don't know if it's going to succeed, but sure, give it a shot.”

  Our noteBen describes the cultural driver behind Silicon Valley's success.

• Selling consistency

  “What I'm selling to my subscribers is consistency and, yes, certainly a quality bar.”

  Our noteBen defines the core value proposition of his subscription model.

• Corporate dynamics

  “The reality is it hits thousands and thousands of people. There are massive coordination problems. Everyone has a different take different opinion, which is why the culture stuff is so interesting”

  Our noteBen reflects on how large organizations function and why culture is a critical factor in their success or failure.

• Culture and Data

  “The reality is, culture comes from doing, and it doesn't come from saying. There's an issue. If you make decisions based on data, it's inherently backwards looking because the data has to be generated first.”

  Our noteDiscussing the limitations of data-driven decisions and the true source of company culture.

• Defining Culture

  “Culture is probably the process that can't be written down to some extent, because it's just an understanding of this is how we do it.”

  Our noteDefining culture as an unwritten but shared understanding of operational methods.

• Visual brand identity

  “I did want the site to be visually distinct. I did like a custom font, which back then was very rare.”

  Our noteBen explains why he chose unique design elements for Stratechery.

• Awareness as bottleneck

  “I knew my limiting factor on subscribers was awareness of who I was.”

  Our noteBen reflects on the correlation between his Twitter followers and paid subscribers.

• Internal conflict

  “I felt really guilty. I'm really devoting all my energy and time to Stratechery, and I'm getting paid by Automattic. That was internally very stressful to me. That wasn't the idea.”

  Our noteBen discusses the guilt of working on his side project while being employed full-time.

• Artificial deadlines

  “I had this stupid artificial deadline that made zero difference other than stroking my ego. It was awful. It was a horrible experience.”

  Our noteBen reflects on the stress of setting a public launch date for his subscription service.