aanwar-blog

[aanwar-blog]

“Existing customers are cheaper than new customers. This isn’t news. But it’s important to truly understand how much of a difference these costs can make to your bottom line and your growth. Emphasizing expansion revenue, lean revenue, within your company will allow you to not only grow faster and increase revenue, but it will be on the back of making your current customers more successful. 

This in turn will lead to reduced costs for new customers through referrals and easier sales.This positive feedback loop is built on committed customer success and sales teams, that are partnering to bring the most out of customers, making them successful, and making them want your product more and more each day.”

#saas

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“The best executive teams encourage debate and even conflict. They take sides and dig in. They get passionate. They argue. They may even need to take a break to cool down. This is all part of the plan. Yes, it can be uncomfortable but it’s a useful process for getting all the ideas and points of view on the table. It’s called healthy conflict. Don’t cringe, engage.”

[aanwar-blog]

I then asked him the question that had been on my mind for months. Why was he doing all this? He was already worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and more than a billion on paper. He was only 39, with a whole life ahead of him. Most people are more than content to run one public company, but he wanted to oversee two—including a significant turnaround effort.

Dorsey replied that his work wasn’t done on the product he had helped start. Indeed, he now spends a large portion of his day trying to pitch people—investors, new recruits, current employees who might be on the verge of quitting, the board—a narrative of what Twitter can still be. “I want people to wake up every day and the first thing they check is Twitter in order to see what’s happening in the world,” he said between bites of his first crispy beef taco. “It’s a metaphor for checking the weather. Twitter has a similar potential.”

True sign of someone with ambition and commitment to see it through.  

#jack dorsey #twitter #square #startups

[aanwar-blog]

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.

Muhammad Ali, RIP.  (via bijan)

[aanwar-blog]

Artificial Intelligence

Computers will get smarter, but with humans in charge

[aanwar-blog]

If I make you overwork, I have stolen your soul.

Brunello Cucinelli, the fashion magnate, on why he insists his employees not send emails once work is over for the day. (via parislemon)

[aanwar-blog]

Jason Calacanis once asked Peter Thiel why Paypal produced so many great founders. What was it about Paypal? I loved Peter’s answer — Most people’s experiences with startups fall into one of two categories. Many work for startups that fail and learn that startups are impossible so they never try. Others work for startups like Google or Facebook and learn that startups are easy so they quit when it gets hard. Paypal was “just hard enough”. Early Paypal employees learned that startups are really hard, but it is still possible to succeed.

Henry Ward (via bijan)

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Two feminist geniuses are saving thousands of newborns

The developing world sees as many as 99% of newborn and maternal deaths worldwide. Baby Hero, a company which sells baby products, is trying to lower the odds: For every product sold, they send a neonatal survival kit, compact enough to fit in a ziplock bag, to poor mothers in need. Their plan takes Toms Shoes and Warby Parker a step further.

Follow stylemic

[aanwar-blog]

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” - Michael Jordan

[aanwar-blog]

Everything is clearer when you’re in love

John Lennon (via bijan)

[aanwar-blog]

More high-quality entrepreneurs are starting mission-driven businesses. At the same time, a new generation of consumers cares more about who is involved in making products and how a company makes a product or service they pay for.

Yep (via brycedotvc)

[aanwar-blog]

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our day-to-day activities that we forget how interesting our jobs are to people outside of our industry…umm…like our clients! Take a look at your company from a different perspective. Perhaps you’ll find that your story is more interesting than you think. I mean, if denim guy can command attention about fabric manufacturing, I bet that you can to do the same thing in your ‘boring’ industry.

The Accidental Storyteller  (via unionmetrics)

[aanwar-blog]

If you were at Apple, nobody would say, ‘Let’s relaunch the iPhone 6.’ People would laugh, and say that’s crazy. But that’s what happens in the fashion industry. If you keep competing with generic products, and a higher and higher discount, you’re going to lose. If Apple doesn’t continuously refresh its products and make them current, they’re dead. And that would happen here as well.

Stefan Larsson, the head of Old Navy, on turning the retailer around. (via parislemon)

[aanwar-blog]

Bill Gates got it immediately. It took Andy Grove 10 years to figure it out, and 20 years for Steve Jobs.

David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School, on the importance of building platforms, not just products. (via parislemon)

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It will be like the Yankees and the Red Sox. I predict HBO will do the best creative work of their lives in the next 10 years because they are on war footing. They haven’t really had a challenge for a long time, and now they do. It’s going to spur us both on to incredible work.

Reed Hastings, on Netflix’s competition with HBO.  (via parislemon)

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One lesson learned is you’ve got to finish the scenario with excellence. You just cannot stop. You have to complete this, and I think that’s where Apple has taught us all what experience excellence means in the creation of categories.

Satya Nadella, in an interview full of praise for Apple. (via parislemon)

[aanwar-blog]

“The road to success is always under construction.” - Lily Tomlin