Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share 177: “Don’t scale too soon” — On Books and Mission-Based Business-Building with Readwise Cofounder Daniel Doyon
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
177: “Don’t scale too soon” — On Books and Mission-Based Business-Building with Readwise Cofounder Daniel Doyon
I’m delighted to welcome Daniel Doyon to the pod this week, co-founder of one of my favorite software services, Readwise. Every morning while I have my coffee, I look forward to checking out the daily email roll-up of five serendipitous snippets pulled from my entire library of Kindle highlights.
In this conversation, we cover: how Dan and his cofounder handled the famous “hug of death” from Tim Ferriss recommending their service in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter; the perils of premature optimization and why you should do things that don’t scale; what to do when you do slam against a scale ceiling; the benefits of running a mission-oriented business; how we’re handling the progressive atrophying of our attention for reading books, and our favorite page-turners that spark joy and as Dan says, “whisk you to the end.”
More About Daniel: Daniel Doyon is the cofounder of Readwise, a reading tool that helps readers revisit the highlights from their ebooks by synchronizing and then sending a daily email resurfacing the best highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, iBooks, and more. He is also an expert in creative real estate acquisitions and partnerships, bibliophile, oenophile, and sailor.
Be wary of premature optimization: Do things that don’t scale without trying to predict how your systems will break. Only once you “slam” against a ceiling should you work on solving for the next level of scale.
Hire from your user base: You’ll find the most passionate, mission-based people to work with from your own community, people who already love what you’re creating and what you stand for.
Minimize meetings by taking a page from Readwise’s playbook: No more than 1.5 recurring meetings per person per week. That means one weekly, and one bi-weekly—that’s it!
📝 Permission: Reset the expectations around whether or not you reply to inbound messages, and the amount of time it takes you to do so.
✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Sign-up for Readwise if you haven’t already! It’s a game-changer for carrying your favorite highlights forward from the books you read. Every day you’ll get a round-up email of five random highlights and a sixth suggestion from an adjacent book that you haven’t read yet.
Daniel on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Dan’s “whisk you to the end” book recs: Trader Joe’s Book, Doctor Dealer
Jenny’s favorite true story page-turners about large-scale drug ops: American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (on the DPR/Silk Road build-up and bust), The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff (verticalized prescription drug and arms kingpin), Dreamland by Sam Quinones (decentralized drug trade, “Uber of heroin”)
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
🎧 Related Episodes
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »
🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
❤️ Join Jenny’s private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/177
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
By Jenny Blake
4.9
4949 ratings
I’m delighted to welcome Daniel Doyon to the pod this week, co-founder of one of my favorite software services, Readwise. Every morning while I have my coffee, I look forward to checking out the daily email roll-up of five serendipitous snippets pulled from my entire library of Kindle highlights.
In this conversation, we cover: how Dan and his cofounder handled the famous “hug of death” from Tim Ferriss recommending their service in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter; the perils of premature optimization and why you should do things that don’t scale; what to do when you do slam against a scale ceiling; the benefits of running a mission-oriented business; how we’re handling the progressive atrophying of our attention for reading books, and our favorite page-turners that spark joy and as Dan says, “whisk you to the end.”
More About Daniel: Daniel Doyon is the cofounder of Readwise, a reading tool that helps readers revisit the highlights from their ebooks by synchronizing and then sending a daily email resurfacing the best highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, iBooks, and more. He is also an expert in creative real estate acquisitions and partnerships, bibliophile, oenophile, and sailor.
Be wary of premature optimization: Do things that don’t scale without trying to predict how your systems will break. Only once you “slam” against a ceiling should you work on solving for the next level of scale.
Hire from your user base: You’ll find the most passionate, mission-based people to work with from your own community, people who already love what you’re creating and what you stand for.
Minimize meetings by taking a page from Readwise’s playbook: No more than 1.5 recurring meetings per person per week. That means one weekly, and one bi-weekly—that’s it!
📝 Permission: Reset the expectations around whether or not you reply to inbound messages, and the amount of time it takes you to do so.
✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Sign-up for Readwise if you haven’t already! It’s a game-changer for carrying your favorite highlights forward from the books you read. Every day you’ll get a round-up email of five random highlights and a sixth suggestion from an adjacent book that you haven’t read yet.
Daniel on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Dan’s “whisk you to the end” book recs: Trader Joe’s Book, Doctor Dealer
Jenny’s favorite true story page-turners about large-scale drug ops: American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (on the DPR/Silk Road build-up and bust), The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff (verticalized prescription drug and arms kingpin), Dreamland by Sam Quinones (decentralized drug trade, “Uber of heroin”)
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
🎧 Related Episodes
💻 Access Free Time episode transcripts on Podscribe »
🌟Enjoying the show? The best way to thank us is by leaving a rating or review.
❤️ Join Jenny’s private BFF community for access to a monthly Q&A call, a private podcast feed with bonus content, and a community forum to exchange ideas and feedback with fellow Heart-Based Business owners.
💌 Subscribe to the Time Well Spent newsletter: http://itsfreetime.com/join
🛠 Get instant access to the Free Time Toolkit: http://itsfreetime.com/toolkit
💬 I’d love to hear what’s on your mind! Take the Free Time listener survey
☎️ Submit a voice question or comment for future episodes: http://itsfreetime.com/ask
🎧 Make sure you’re subscribed wherever you listen to podcasts
📝 Check out full show notes from this episode and share it with a friend: https://itsfreetime.com/episodes/177
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Free Time with Jenny Blake
View all
The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers
605 Listeners
The Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging Podcast
3,447 Listeners
Good Life Project
3,325 Listeners
Afford Anything
3,539 Listeners
Side Hustle School
3,310 Listeners
The Marie Forleo Podcast
1,647 Listeners
The Daily
110,822 Listeners
Best of Both Worlds Podcast
759 Listeners
Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel
1,020 Listeners
The Next Big Idea
1,274 Listeners
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
1,306 Listeners
Kelly Corrigan Wonders
3,318 Listeners
The Gathering Room Podcast
659 Listeners
A Slight Change of Plans
2,056 Listeners
Get Hired with Andrew Seaman
142 Listeners