Unconventional Companies That'll Inspire You
Disrupt & Conquer #2
Hey, friends! 👋
Welcome to the second edition of my monthly newsletter, “Disrupt and Conquer”! I know it's not-so-August anymore (sorry for the delay!), but better late than never!
I was thinking about this the other day, remember back during COVID when every email started with “I hope you are well during these difficult times”? It’s actually wild to think how much has changed since then. It feels like a different world, but hey, we made it through and we should be grateful!
The takeaway? Life is good, so let’s savor it, enjoy the moment, and make the most of the present.
Benji
Doshi launch with Yorkshire Building Society
It’s been a pretty busy month with Doshi we recently launched a product with the 2nd biggest building society in the UK, Yorkshire Building Society. The hypothesis we’re testing with them is whether:
Gamified content leads to higher customer conversions vs traditional blog content
We’re launching pilots with Santander, TSB and 2 others in September taking our total customers up to 11 with already 30k users onboarded to the app.
Something I’m really proud of this month is the acceleration in my technical understanding and abilities. I’ve been working with my development team using tools like Firebase, Retool, and FlutterFlow to play an active and helpful role in the development cycle.
At the beginning of the year, I set out to become more technical, learn to code, and contribute to building products. I truly feel like I’ve made significant strides in achieving this goal.
In my opinion, while many people say this, I believe that with the right environment, attitude, and patience, it has been easier than ever to become technical and learn to code.
“You’re one of us now” - Venky (our lead engineer) 😹
Unconventional companies that inspire me
Zappos: Zappos offers employees $2,000 to quit after their initial training period. This "Pay to Quit" policy is designed to ensure that only those who are truly committed to the company stay.
Pixar: Pixar created an internal program called "Pixar University," where employees can take classes in a variety of subjects, from painting to sculpting, encouraging continuous learning and creativity across all departments.
Basecamp: Basecamp inspires me with their commitment to simplicity and work-life balance, they operate on a four-day workweek during the summer, believing that less time at work encourages better productivity, creativity, and work-life balance.
ROMA: A talk on BD operations
Over the last 6 months, Bruno Genovese has become a close mentor of mine. His influencer agency MGEmpower recently exited to DXG and I began advising him on his new start up Glyn AI, a sandbox for content creators to validate and prioritise the most optimal content to post that aligns with your audience’s unmet needs.
His new venture called ROMA alongside Luciano Biscaro is an exclusive club of executives from major financial institutions and consultancies and it was an honour to speak to them about new AI tooling that I’ve found useful in accelerating my work
.
Congratulations to…
- , who’s just launched preorders for his AI device called The Ark, it’s off-grid & solar-powered meaning you don’t need external power sources or the internet to use it!
The guys at BTRT have just crossed 10 customers, they are building an AI User Interviewer. Set up your AI agent with a list of questions, send your participants the link and let the AI conversational assistant conduct the interviews at times that suit everyone best.
I know I mentioned them in the last issue but Robert & Wordware are on a roll…. going viral on Twitter & Product Hunt the other week and signing up >4M users.
Check out Schmooze, a new event marketing platform developed by Elan Kawesch and an amazing team, which predicts, measures, and calculates the return on investment for the vast amounts of money spent on events and conferences.
Fantasy Fund spotlight
Spotlighting companies I'd invest in with a hypothetical £100M fund, including valuations, stake goals, portfolio updates, and investment reasons. My friend Daniel Hardoon is leading their growth strategy in Europe, check them out for the new Premier League season!
Name: Sleeper
Description: Next generation sports platform primarily focused on fantasy leagues.
Raised: $67M
Assumed Valuation: $118M (Typically, around 10-15% dilution at Series C)
How Much I’d Invest: $3M
Why I’d Invest:
Every month, I'll update this table so you can track my investments, and each year, we'll reassess to see if my stakes have changed.
This is a fantasy fund and does not account for liquidation preferences, voting rights, dilution clauses, or whether I'd even be accepted on the cap table. It's just for fun to see if any of my fantasy investments would pay off!
Have a great week everyone.
I’ll be back in your inbox next month.
Thanks for reading
Benji