Free Time with Jenny Blake
177: “Don’t scale too soon” — On Books and Mission-Based Business-Building with Readwise Cofounder Daniel Doyon
Episode guests
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- Focus on continuous improvement rather than relying solely on a single big break.
- Hire passionate individuals from your user base who share your company's mission.
Deep dives
The Value of the Free-Time Operations Dashboard
The podcast episode introduces the Free-Time Operations Dashboard, which is a comprehensive system for organizing business information, addressing team questions, and delegating work. The speaker emphasizes the benefits of using this dashboard, which is built on the Notion software platform. By consolidating various tools and documents into one place, it streamlines operations and saves time. The speaker also mentions a special offer for podcast listeners.
Considerations When Building a Reading Tool
The podcast guest, Daniel Doyon, co-founder of ReadWise, discusses the challenges of developing a reading tool. He explains that a fine balance must be struck between motivating users to establish reading habits and potentially making them feel guilty or overwhelmed. He also shares the story of how ReadWise gained significant attention after being mentioned by Tim Ferriss, leading to a surge in user activity. Daniel reflects on the importance of preparing for unexpected bursts of growth but highlights the necessity of focusing on continuous improvement rather than relying solely on a single big break.
The Evolution of ReadWise and Hiring from the User Base
The podcast delves into the evolution of ReadWise as a company. Daniel explains that ReadWise initially focused on helping users extract value from their book highlights, but gradually expanded its vision to include building its own reading application. He discusses the challenge of solving the problem of fragmented digital reading, where individuals consume content from various sources. Additionally, Daniel shares a hiring secret of the company, which involves tapping into its user base to find passionate and knowledgeable individuals who share the company's mission.
Maintaining Focus and Planning for Growth
The podcast explores challenges related to attention span and maintaining focus in a fast-paced digital environment. Daniel acknowledges the impact of the current media landscape and personal devices on concentration, both in his own reading habits and in the development of the ReadWise app. He expresses the desire to create solutions that help people reclaim their attention span and engage in immersive reading experiences. Additionally, he discusses the need for work-life balance and the ongoing process of fine-tuning management processes as ReadWise continues to grow.
I’m delighted to welcome Daniel Doyon to the pod this week, co-founder of one of my favorite software services, Readwise. Every morning while I have my coffee, I look forward to checking out the daily email roll-up of five serendipitous snippets pulled from my entire library of Kindle highlights.
In this conversation, we cover: how Dan and his cofounder handled the famous “hug of death” from Tim Ferriss recommending their service in his 5-Bullet Friday newsletter; the perils of premature optimization and why you should do things that don’t scale; what to do when you do slam against a scale ceiling; the benefits of running a mission-oriented business; how we’re handling the progressive atrophying of our attention for reading books, and our favorite page-turners that spark joy and as Dan says, “whisk you to the end.”
More About Daniel: Daniel Doyon is the cofounder of Readwise, a reading tool that helps readers revisit the highlights from their ebooks by synchronizing and then sending a daily email resurfacing the best highlights from Kindle, Instapaper, iBooks, and more. He is also an expert in creative real estate acquisitions and partnerships, bibliophile, oenophile, and sailor.
🌟 3 Key Takeaways
- Be wary of premature optimization: Do things that don’t scale without trying to predict how your systems will break. Only once you “slam” against a ceiling should you work on solving for the next level of scale.
- Hire from your user base: You’ll find the most passionate, mission-based people to work with from your own community, people who already love what you’re creating and what you stand for.
- Minimize meetings by taking a page from Readwise’s playbook: No more than 1.5 recurring meetings per person per week. That means one weekly, and one bi-weekly—that’s it!
📝 Permission: Reset the expectations around whether or not you reply to inbound messages, and the amount of time it takes you to do so.
✅ Do (or Delegate) This Next: Sign-up for Readwise if you haven’t already! It’s a game-changer for carrying your favorite highlights forward from the books you read. Every day you’ll get a round-up email of five random highlights and a sixth suggestion from an adjacent book that you haven’t read yet.
🔗 Resources Mentioned
- Daniel on the web, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
- Dan’s “whisk you to the end” book recs: Trader Joe’s Book, Doctor Dealer
- Jenny’s favorite true story page-turners about large-scale drug ops: American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (on the DPR/Silk Road build-up and bust), The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff (verticalized prescription drug and arms kingpin), Dreamland by Sam Quinones (decentralized drug trade, “Uber of heroin”)
📚 Books Mentioned
- Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
- Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
- Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
🎧 Related Episodes
- RadReads x Pivot & Free Time
- 111: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte
- 084: Sprinkling the First 1,000 Serendipity Seeds of a Launch
- 017: Serendipity as Business Strategy with Leanne Hughes
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