Happy Saturday! Here are your 5 things from the mind of Miles for this week.
Doing: Join My Slack Group. Inspired in part by the Acquired podcast and their vibrant Slack discussion, I’m including a virtual community with my podcast Startups for Good. I’d love to have you as an early member. The community is for those that are interested in discussing both the podcast but also more broadly high-growth and high-values ventures. You can sign up here. See you on Slack!
Writing: 7 Things Every Fintech Founder Should Know about Regulation. I welcome your feedback on a Venture Patterns essay about regulation for fintech founders. I’ve tried to summarize what I wish someone had told me when we started Higher One. It has taken me some time to put together this piece as I worry about being misunderstood or criticized.
Learning: Duolingo. I’ve returned to Duolingo recently and can’t stop raving about the game mechanics. They pull out all the stops: points, streak tracking, competition, awards, social pressure, time limits, virtual currency gambling, virtual goods, fashion, animation, sounds, stories and more. The two things that have been really motivating for me are competitions and streaks. I have studied Spanish every day for 35 days. Now compare that to Fluent Forever. They claim to have a better process for learning by using research-based techniques like spaced repetition and testing recall. So, let’s give them that they have a better methodology for learning (but maybe not? Does Duolingo do that under the hood?) but it is definitely not as much fun. Is it better for me to have a higher probability of continuing a worse study technique? I’d love to see the retention curves for these two products. And I wonder what the outcomes are - how often to users learn a new language?
Creating: At home we’ve been playing around with stop motion animation. I remember enjoying it so much as a kid. And the tools have made it so much easier! It is fun to get to do it again and see the kids excitement.
Family: Weekly Rhythm. As we’ve settled into our new home, we have rededicated to our weekly family rhythm. I’m enjoying having a set time each week for key items. For example, one-on-one time with a kid, date night, family movie night and family meeting time. Inspired in part by this write up and also by the book Simplicity Parenting. I’d be curious what rituals or weekly rhythms you have in your household.
As a reminder, my work focuses are::
Startup investing with Purpose Built Ventures
A podcast called Startups for Good with associated virtual community and giving circle
My blog Venture Patterns
Until next week,
Miles
Great article on regulation. Honest and vulnerable. A dose of what startup founders need. I’d say this advice can be applied to Ed tech folks as well.
Thanks for reminding me of Duolingo as well. I stopped when I lost my 300+ day streak. I’m coming back today!