ETS Consultant

Strange decision making at Pocket FM-layoffs coming!!!

Breaking (and honestly, heartbreaking): Pocket TV — the same charter that hit $20M ARR in just 6 months and was on the verge of profitability — has been shut down How do you even make sense of that? A vertical that scaled faster than anything else in the company, found amazing product-market fit, and was finally on the path to self-sustenance… gone overnight. People are saying it’s because of “focus” or “funding conditions.” But let’s be real — macro funding hasn’t changed in the last 6 months. What has changed is the internal dynamic at the top. Somewhere between chasing valuations and fighting over credit, the bigger picture seems to have completely disappeared. It’s wild to see how ego and dissonance between founders can burn down something that was actually working. The company once talked about being the “Netflix of audio,” but now it’s shutting every experiment that shows real potential — except one random vertical that no one internally even believes in. At this point, it’s not even about strategy. It’s about fragile egos, politics, and people forgetting why they started in the first place. Maybe that’s the real reason Pocket can’t become the Netflix of audio. Because as Reed Hastings said — Culture eats strategy for breakfast. And let’s be honest — there’s no culture left to eat anything

How Peter Thiel built the PayPal mafia

The success of the PayPal Mafia (founders who went on to create LinkedIn, SpaceX, YouTube, etc.) wasn't due to hiring, it was due to Thiel's unique management philosophy. Here are the four core principles: 1. **Extreme Focus** - Employees were directed to concentrate solely on their #1 priority - Initially seen as rigid but later embraced by tech leaders like Musk, Bezos, and Altman 2. **Individual Achievement Over Team Structure** - Individual contributions were celebrated as the main drivers of innovation - Teams were considered secondary - Major innovations were typically championed by single individuals 3. **Refuse to Accept Constraints** - Employees were encouraged to pursue priorities aggressively - Thiel's motto: "Come to work every day willing to be fired to pursue your dream" - Dissenting voices were actively celebrated 4. **Extreme Bias Toward Action** - Consistently shipped high-quality software at impressive speed - Thiel's quote: "Strategy is often a euphemism for procrastination" - Aligned with Reed Hastings' view that companies rarely die from moving too fast, but often die from moving too slowly The results speak for themselves: PayPal Mafia companies are now worth hundreds of billions of dollars, suggesting these principles helped create one of the most successful talent incubators in tech history.

Best book you read in 2023

As the year draws to a close what are some of the best books you have read in 2023. Mine is No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings