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Hello there!

Lots to unpack this week 🙌 

• Podcast: Fundraising & Future Trends: Nathan Beckord's Insights

• Success Story: Marques Brownlee, Before Becoming the Best Tech Reviewer on the Planet

• Bizz Hack: Some Strategies to Help You Overcome Perfectionism-Related Procrastination

• Weekly Business Challenge: The Tech Giant Who Bought Vine 🤔

But first, a tour of the headlines…

Weekly Catchups

News | Industry Insights | Trends

• 💸 Bombay’s Billionaire Club

  Mumbai (colloquially Bombay) now boasts 92 billionaires, edging past Beijing's 91, according to the Hurun Rich List. This makes India's financial hub the new billionaire capital of Asia. While China still holds the overall lead with more billionaires, India's growth is impressive. Mumbai even ranks 3rd globally, behind New York and London.

• 🤖 Fight for AI Talent Intensifies

  Million-dollar-a-year compensation packages accelerated stock-vesting schedules and offers to poach entire engineering teams are on the table amid a shortage of candidates with generative AI expertise. The juicy payment packages come when other tech sectors are laying off workers.

• 🍫 Cocoa Prices Are Surging

  Cocoa prices briefly surged to all-time highs on Tuesday, touching as high as $10,000 per ton following disappointing harvests in key cocoa-producing in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Cameroon, another cocoa-producing nation, has also witnessed the same conditions.

Uncharted Horizons

Personal Development | Success Story

Lessons From A YouTuber

What lessons can YouTubers possibly teach CEOs, you’d think. To most Businessmen, they are attention-seeking solopreneurs rather than company builders. But Marques Brownlee is different. For starters, Brownlee’s YouTube channel, posting content on everything technology, has over 17.7 million subscribers. If that number doesn’t quite convince you to believe he is a thought leader in the tech space, consider this: in 2013—way before influencers had made their big splash on the internet—Google’s then VP of engineering Vic Gundota declared Brownlee “the best technology reviewer on the planet.”

When he began shooting videos in his suburban New Jersey home at age 15, childishly naming his first review MKBHD for ‘Marques Keith Brownlee and high definition,’ he would never have imagined swarms of reporters taking note about his thoughts on the latest Apple event, better still receiving a shout out from Tim Cook himself. A YouTuber of Brownlee’s worth can reap as much as $5,000 per million views from YouTube Ad Sales.

Strategies | Tools | Marketing Tips

The Perfection Myth

Perfection-related procrastination is a real thing. Are your perfectionist tendencies holding you back at work? Here are a few strategies that may help you manage them, adapted from “Don’t let perfectionism slow you down” by Rajani Katta.

 Strategy #1: Allow Yourself Messy First Drafts

Author Anne Lamott is famous for her advice to writers. In her book Bird by Bird, she writes: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. Start by getting something, anything, down on paper. Take a break from your work, return to it with a clear head and then polish your writing.

Strategy #2: Counteract the Cold Start

Mark out time in your schedule for creative thinking. This could be a long walk or a conversation with a colleague. Then, dictate any ideas you have in a stream-of-consciousness fashion. This can help warm your thinking, giving you a place to start.

Strategy #3: Use the Effort-to-Benefit-Ratio

Before starting any assignment, figure out how much effort you need to exert to reap potential benefits. For example, say you’re tasked with taking notes in a meeting. Instead of writing things down verbatim, ask your colleagues what would prove to be most helpful. You may discover that they only want to review the action items discussed, saving you significant time and effort.

Strategy #4: Learning When to Ship

Eric Ries, the author of the book The Lean Startup, states that “instead of spending years perfecting our technology, we build a minimum viable product, an early product that is terrible, full of bugs…Then we ship it to customers way before it’s ready.” Sometimes releasing an imperfect product is acceptable.

Strategy #5: Incorporating Late Feedback 

The last 20% of a project can be incredibly frustrating, as you’re trying to fine-tune every aspect. This is where feedback late in a project can be so helpful. Ask for feedback, specifically, “How close to done is this?”

Don’t Miss It!

Networking | Business Development | Entrepreneurship

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