I had several podcast and team speaking activities lined up this month around different areas of expertise (or topics of interest by the audience) in addition to my regular advisory sessions:
- Marketing channels and funnels working in 2024
- Leadership lessons and strategies
- Motivational speech (the type of “from rags to riches” story)
- MVP build outs and infrastructural decisions
- Standard advisory conversations – business strategy, roadmaps, budgeting, investing
- Moving from demand gen to ABM channels
- AI (different flavors – integrating, future of work, promising startups)
Each and every one of them revolved deeply around the macro environment and the current business trends.
What once worked no longer does; and everything new is well-forgotten old.
I’m a strong supporter of foundational knowledge – or as Elon popularized the “first principles”. Combined with the global news and market trends, you get a forecast of the next 12 to 60 months ahead worth of decision-making and strategic thinking.
Some practical examples here:
- A healthy economy, 0-interest rate policy lead to tons of funding and growth in R&D. Innovation and easy money for startups.
- A down economy is about preservation and optimization. Some industries and race-to-the-bottom vendors can shine in these times.
- Global uncertainty in given regions shifts trading relationships toward other regions. China manifacturing is moving into India or Taiwan or other countries. Developing relationships with local vendors and partners can beat time to market and build competitive advantage early on.
- Self-build tools and AI reduce the cost of go to market from a product side, therefore tech budgets go down. Shifting a higher investment into marketing or PPC makes more sense in the next year.
- Investing patterns shift between stock, angel investments, bonds, other segments depending on ZIRP and the Fed’s decision, along with recession news in different countries.
Bitcoin is crushing it over the past week despite the market news and the downside of many crypto exchanges. All major tech players beat expectations in Q4. What does that tell you?
Layoffs are less of a financial problem and more about optimizing efficiency and leveraging good PR times for making radical changes without boycotts and ruining brands.
Understanding relevant trends will help you navigate where and what to push, whether money is over or just relocated, and what categories are in demand and growing right now.
Use it at your own risk… And if you are aligned, share the Growth Blueprint with other peers at work or other industry peers you want to help in 2024.
Yours,
Mario
My Take
Meta and Marketing ROI – Meta continuously outranks other social networks in terms of marketing ROI. The usual explanation is: B2C marketers are more, and B2C social spend exceeds B2B. That’s accurate in most cases, but it doesn’t invalidate what we keep seeing in a B2B environment.
B2B Marketing Research process – Over 900 B2B buyers who spent over $10K in one batch leaned in on the harsh truth in B2B marketing and sales. Vendors who haven’t been present in the research process have 16% chance to win a deal. If you’re running a stealth solutions provider dependent on PPC or lack visibility in the industry journals that matter, you’re missing out on over 80% of all deals.
Newsletter Recommendations
Stacked Marketer – One of my go-to newsletters and a business that we’ve worked with a while ago on the DevriX front. It is loved by marketers who get hands-on with campaigns, who need to stay up-to-date with frequently changing platforms., who need to get an edge, and who need to achieve outsized results with limited resources, aka performance-focused marketers.
Boldpush – А special newsletter for those interested in marketing intelligence and strategy to the most ambitious brands. Props to Julius Solaris for creating one of my top newsletter reads for GTM strategies and actionable content.
Morning Brew – Аn absolute classic, the Morning Brew delivers top news from a business-minded angle, and deliver it in a short, easy-to-read, actionable, and entertaining way.
Business Strategy
Nvidia Overtakes Amazon in Market Value – Nvidia briefly overtook Amazon.com in market value on Monday, the latest milestone in a stunning rally over the past year fueled by soaring demand for its chips used in artificial intelligence computing.
Microsoft enables measurement of AI effectiveness – Microsoft unveiled new resources to improve the adoption and measurement of its AI assistant, Copilot, within organizations. These resources include new survey templates and a planned integration with the Microsoft Copilot Dashboard powered by Viva Insights.
Coca-Cola sales beat estimates – Coca Cola posted quarterly earnings that met expectations and sales that topped estimates, as higher prices helped the beverage maker overcome a volume decline in North America.
Bitcoin crosses $50K for the first time since 2021 – Bitcoin has surged above the $50,000 mark for the first time in more than two years, propelled by optimism surrounding potential interest rate cuts later in the year and recent regulatory approval for US exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to its price.
Diamondback Energy Acquires Rival – Texas oil and natural gas firm Diamondback Energy announced Monday it will buy its privately held competitor Endeavor Energy in an agreement valuing the latter at roughly $26 billion, the latest massive energy deal amid an otherwise quiet time for dealmaking.
Global News
Much of Wall Street expects easing inflation, but an overshoot could dash hopes of a May rate cut, curtailing the S&P 500’s SPX waltz with 5,000, warn some.
- S&P 500: $4,987(+0.69%)
Mortgage rates could gradually come down this year, according to Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate chief financial analyst. Rates drifted downward in November and December of 2023 as the Federal Reserve held off on raising rates further. At its Jan. 31 meeting, the central bank announced it would hold off changing rates and hinted at the potential for three rate cuts in 2024. Rate hikes and cuts affect many areas of the economy, including the 10-year Treasury, a key benchmark for fixed-rate mortgages.
- 30-year mortgage rate: 7.14%(+0.03)
- 15-year mortgage rate: 6.52%(-0.03)
Consumer price index data for January showed that core inflation ran hotter than expected, with services prices rising at the fastest pace since September 2022. After the CPI inflation data, the S&P 500 opened sharply lower in Tuesday stock market action. Markets came close to pricing away one quarter-point Federal Reserve rate cut after the data.
This week we saw Former President Trump’s last requests at the supreme court, more Israeli strikes, and US aid bills signed.
- Former President Trump files last-ditch request at the Supreme Court seeking to prevent his prosecution for attempting to overturn the 2020 election from moving closer to trial.
- Israel leads strikes on Rafah, killing 67 civilians and rescuing 2 hostages.
- Senate passes a $95 billion foreign aid bill with assistance for Ukraine and Israel, setting up a showdown with the House and Speaker Johnson
Investing Updates
- Vestinda – raising €375,000 to help investors automate and grow their portfolios using technology. Backed by TechStars & Banca Sella.
- Atmos UAV – raising €800,000 to scale its land surveying drone solution.
- CONTENTS – the marketing content generator, is extending its €16M Series B after Thomson Reuters Ventures and Alkemia Capital joined the round.
Note: Got a round going that you want to feature – your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch.
Now let’s have a look at the latest top Flippa offers, including their newest feature – being able to buy and sell Newsletters!
Patented Drinkware Products – This business sells custom-designed drinkware products through three channels, including TikTok, Shopify, and Amazon.
- Monthly profit: $36.7K
- Monthly page views: 130,396
- Business age: 2 years
Temporary Phone Number SaaS – This business provides free and paid temporary phone numbers, and generates revenue through renting phone numbers, display advertising, and affiliate partnerships.
- Monthly profit: $9.3K
- Monthly page views: 2,261,986
- Business age: 5 years
Digital Marketing Subscription w/ 90%+ Client Retention – This business has stable revenue, a lifetime customer value of $1.3K and a profit margin of 49%.
- Monthly profit: $13.4K
- Client retention rate: 90%
- Business age: 6 years
Need my Help?
I’m involved with a number of initiatives – here’s what I can do to help you:
Scalable and secure WordPress? DevriX provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.
Want to scale and optimize your business? Growth Shuttle offers personalized advisory plans starting at $600/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.
Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my Community and grab my Entrepreneurship book.
Looking to start a US company? Check out doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Suitable for both foreigners and US citizens and both for residents and non-residents.
Have you tried buying and selling digital property? Have a look at Flippa’s marketplace. They offer a vast variety of online businesses for any buyer’s interests. Or if you’re ready for an exit, Flippa provides you with the necessary tools to list your business and close the deal.
Looking for investment opportunities? Check out SeedBlink and use Nimity to manage it.
Eager to incorporate my recommended solutions? Track my angel investments. Sharing, applying for open roles, or writing reviews helps a ton. And anything else I try to publish on my blog and my courses here!