Newsletter Archives

It’s been an eventful week once again - and it looks like the economy is restoring back to pre-2020 levels. But before we dive into the macro details… I’ve opened up 10 seats for my individual coaching program starting in 2024 (already 2 seats booked). It’s a long-term advisory proposition for businesses generating $1M to $20M a year, with quarterly planning, goal-setting, a monthly call and email/voice/DM exchanges throughout the month. After 400+ consulted clients over the pas...

Here’s what the macro environment looks early in December: The Fed keeps the interest rates in place. I covered the past 20 years of inflation rates and while results vary, there’s a tendency for elevated rates in Q4 during the shopping season. Whether we’ll sustain this quarter or not, we’re yet to see - but we’re not out of the danger zone yet. Layoffs are still ongoing. Spotify slashed 1,500 jobs, Twilio another 400, Bill.com some 378 members - and that’s just the beginning...

We’re finally past the busiest and most hardcore commerce weekend of the year! Amazon dubbed that weekend “Turkey 5” back in 2018 - the continuation of Thanksgiving shopping ramp up through Black Friday, the following hardcore deals weekend, ending with Cyber Monday. And it’s true - all indicators show that this is the most densely packaged period of the year with consistently high average deal size or GMV. And unlike other key events like Prime Day, Valentine’s Day, or 4th of Ju...

It’s been a VERY busy week in digital - somewhat expected with Black Friday coming up this week, but some added twists along the way. OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman got kicked out on Friday, quickly hired by Microsoft on Monday, and back in his old seat today, after replacing most of OpenAI’s original board. This brought a major and extremely quick shift in the AI-sphere - Microsoft inviting OpenAI staff to join forces (after legitimately hiring 2 executives), Salesforce extending quick offers...

Before we start, I want to remind everyone diving into building a personal brand or regular content production that it’s a lonely journey (oftentimes for years). That’s especially valid for high-ticket B2Bs. Many of you here are 7-8 figure entrepreneurs, angel investors (some VC/PE/M&As I know, too), serial founders, reputable consultants, high-level managers and directors at SMEs, successful solopreneurs. And this crowd is tough to beat! Unlike our business ventures targeting star...

About time for New Year’s resolutions? Personally, I try to get planning sorted ASAP. In fact, I’ve started my high-level 2024 planning back in September, opening up most of Q4 for strategy and roadmap development along with my two business coaches. (Which seems to befuddle some of my peers. As a business advisor and an executive, I need to step up my game and stay accountable to others, too - just like my Growth Shuttle team needs to “walk the walk” by running weekly campaigns ...

Happy belated Halloween to 14,300+ email subscribers! I’m thrilled to be kicking off November and pushing further with the original Q4 plan. Don’t want to sound like a broken record, but October was depressing, looking from a macro standpoint. Some data is publicly available (Q3 earnings, S&P or inflation rates), but some isn’t - which is one of the reasons this newsletter exists. Plus, Eurozone numbers came up - and they aren’t pretty either. Great entrepreneurs pay atte...

Here’s a trip down memory lane - the green passage of late 2019 and the early 2020.Startups blooming, with VCs pouring money over the top. Practically negative interest rates. Three of my banks were charging me excess fees worth many hundreds of dollars (if not over a thousand) for cash sitting around. That’s when deposits were yielding like 0.05% interest rate or something and investing in them was dumb at best. No wars in sight for decades (unless you were deeply entrenched into the ...

It’s been an eventful week with a lot to unpack! Before we dive in, we crossed 13,200 email subscribers and 2,400 LinkedIn newsletter subscribers for this edition. I’m grateful for the active crowd keeping a close eye on the macro news and shifting business and investing decisions accordingly. A personal thanks to each and every one of you who replied back or DM’d me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Slack, Telegram with positive feedback, success stories derived from the weekly emails, and inve...

First and foremost, I want to send my condolences to all parents, family members, friends, colleagues of the victims of the wars going on at the time - especially the one that spiked in Israel and Gaza over the weekend. Our HQ is in Bulgaria, which is almost geographically between Ukraine and Israel (same time zone). Israel is ~1,500km away from here (900 miles) and Ukraine is 768km (477 miles) away. Far enough from the premise of the rockets, but close enough to follow the impact closely, we...