Linda Lebrun | Company culture, evangelism, and the value of a private life online | Ep. #2

Volition

Show Notes:

(0:53) The most interesting Substack you’ve never heard of

(2:58) Why the serial format is experiencing a renaissance on Substack

(5:29) How conventional investing is like Groundhog Day

(7:08) How tech avoids the Groundhog Day problem and how Linda ended up jumping ship

(10:52) The journey from wood panelled Bay Street to remote Slack channels

(13:11) The age divide on tools and how people struggle between MS Office and GDocs

(18:43) Why good advice should always be controversial

(21:11) Substack’s experimental posture

(24:45) The role of a company evangelist and what thoughtful outreach looks like

(29:55) How to walk the line between a Mission Statement and evangelising the product

(33:19) Creating a better future for writer’s through financial independence

(38:06) The secret life of Linda on Twitter

References made in this episode:
- Substack, the only place to write online
- SMIRK, Christie Smythe’s serialised memoir of what happened with Martin Shkreli
- Hardcore Software, Steven Sinofsky’s stories from the PC revoloution
- TechTO, Toronto’s top tech events organiser
- Ben Horowitz’s Books on Management, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, and What You Do is How You Do
- Successories, Whenever you need the reminder to be “Working, Growing, Succeeding, Together” ;)
- Alex Danco, Patio11, Ana Lorena Fabrega, whenever I listen to what these folks say about their companies I'm always convinced there’s no better product or place to work. Masterclass in company evangelism.
- Lenny Rachitsky (Lenny's Newsletter), Lenny writes about some great stories of companies doing unscalable things in this essay. If you haven't read it before, and have any interest the world of startups, the original Paul Graham essay the newsletter references is also essential reading
- Linda's Twitter, if you’re looking for good follows and a window into a great Twitter network you could do a lot worse than perusing the list of accounts that Linda has interacted with