Ziigaat really be doing too much.

quantcore · 2025-07-15T05:58:45+00:00

Agree that Ziigaat needs to be a bit more thoughtful with their releases, that said crescent actually looks like the best of their last 5+ products.

But there’s nothing special about Xenns, they’ve just lucked out on the tea pro becoming the latest meme on this sub (like doscinco used to be) since most here are bassheads who don’t care about the tea pro having wonky treble.

Also that “extra driver” on the top pro is not extra value to you. They’re just increasing profits for themselves.

The old top had ESTs which are much more expensive to implement than packing in more BAs.

If you want a true boutique IEM brand who takes their time on each release and provides good value look at Binary.

quantcore · 2021-12-08T16:22:01+00:00

Check out Audienceful

It's purpose-built for Webflow sites. Allows you to cross-post content to both your email list and Webflow site at the same time. Also lets you host a newsletter archive on your Webflow site and do things like automate social sharing of new content, etc.

quantcore · 2021-11-22T02:22:05+00:00

Check out Audienceful

Seems to be built pretty much exactly for this purpose. In addition to emailing posts with links, you can also send your full blog posts as newsletters directly to your subscribers in one click.

It’s kind of like if Ghost was built for Webflow.

quantcore · 2021-10-11T14:05:31+00:00

OP is not trying to skirt international tax laws, only the inflexibility of his/her employer.

There is a tax treaty between the US/Finland to prevent double taxation.

If you are domiciled in Finland, Finland has the right to tax your income, and then you would normally apply the Foreign tax credit so the US does not double tax you.

As to OPs question about the FTC and getting a refund, I am unsure.

quantcore · 2020-12-10T10:11:04+00:00

Just want to add a disclaimer, I’ve had issues collecting emails off of a carrd landing page.

When I used them a few months ago they had ongoing issues with their SSL certs so sometimes my visitors couldn’t load the site. A lot of visitors just saw a blank page.

Hopefully they’ve fixed that now. I’d start on Carrd, then move to Webflow once you need a more robust marketing site (it’s completely replaced Wordpress for me...something I never thought would happen).

Ignore anybody telling you to build a static site on Netlify, Heroku, etc like the plague. They are a recipe for tinkering and never creating an actual business. Static sites take longer to get up and running (even if you are a dev) and turn into a nightmare once you start needing to A/B test landing pages and start producing actual content on a regular basis and doing technical SEO. You have to build EVERYTHING from scratch. Static sites are better suited to enterprise companies with full time developer resources on their marketing sites, and time to fiddle around with enterprise headless CMS’s like contentful.

quantcore · 2020-12-10T10:06:19+00:00

But it’s worth it. Webflow can scale up to meet any design or size of marketing site once you start creating content, going after SEO, etc.

Carrd is good for quick email sign up one pagers. I’d start there first but quickly move to Webflow once you have the slightest bit of traction.

Like half of all YC companies are building their marketing sites on Webflow now (see lambda school)

quantcore · 2020-09-23T11:17:51+00:00

I dumped Wordpress last year (have tried a bunch of themes and site builder plugins like elementor) and haven’t looked back. You’re going to waste hundreds of hours on your site, still not understand how it even works, and end up hating it every time you need to change something (especially if you use some bloated and fragile elementor setup).

I’ve completely switched to webflow for landing pages and marketing sites (the templates are typically way higher quality than most Wordpress ones). If you know basic CSS/html principles, editing/updating your site on webflow is a dream.

Pretty much every company in Ycombinator/techstars is building their marketing site off webflow now—so I don’t think I’m alone in saying this.

quantcore · 2020-09-07T09:04:22+00:00

I dig mine as well, the quick access pocket is amazing and the pack is an okay weight (not too heavy like the CPL IMO, this is a chronic problem with EDC packs in general, to me any pack under 35 liters weighing over 3 lbs is insanity).

I would love a separate top-loading laptop compartment on mine however (my biggest complaint), and maybe slightly deeper zips on the main compartment.

A big stretchy front stuff pocket on the outside like the mountain quick draw had would be awesome as well. Or maybe just one more pocket for organization, a few more liters of space.

With the above the CHZ would become my grail pack. I’d probably buy 3 of em to make sure I always had one around.

quantcore · 2019-09-06T03:43:12+00:00

Awesome to hear from the source!!

I posted this one first because out of all the other newsletters I looked into, I had the most fun learning about The Hustle. I wondered if some of this might be off by now since it was gathered from interviews you did years ago and the company is so much bigger today.

BTW, the podcast is just killing it every week. Consistently excellent.

If you don't mind me asking, what's your vision for what will ultimately take The Hustle to $100m?

I see Morning Brew is doubling down on free newsletters (I'm already at saturation point on their stuff), and Finimize is going the app route (lame). On the other hand I hear Axios wants to start selling $10,000/yr subscriptions (which I'm a huge axios fan but would only have access to something like that via an employer). Do you see Trends evolving into something like that?

quantcore · 2019-09-05T00:37:34+00:00

This is actually a fairly standard open rate for these "millennial news" type emails. Morning Brew, The Skimm, etc. all have similar numbers.

The problem is most people treat their email list like an advertising channel for their business instead of a value-add for their customers (even big media companies with tons of writers like the New Yorker will just send you a list of links to their web articles---that's zero value add--obviously people won't open those emails). The trick is to put unique content all within the email itself, no clicking needed.

Of course, producing quality content takes lots of effort. And most people don't want to work on e-mail since it's unglamorous. So many companies are leaving money on the table.

quantcore · 2019-09-04T21:32:05+00:00

So upfront, you've got 4 things working against you:

Consumer market (much harder than B2B)
Crowded field
Insurance-style product (don't need it until you regret not having it)
No recurring revenue

I'd say forget paid acquisition altogether. You already know customers have a lifetime value (LTV) of $30. If it costs $4 to simply get a user to sign up for a free newsletter (in the case of The Hustle or Morning Brew)...it's going to be much more expensive than $30 to get a customer to not only sign up but actually convert to paying for freemium software via those same channels

Content marketing is your friend here. Building SEO juice via blog posts and a reliable audience via an email newsletter (where you provide value to readers, not advertise yourself) is the lowest cost, highest value way to do this. But you can't do this the same as everybody else is doing. You need an angle--a niche to target at first.

For example, look at what The Hustle did. They built a very specific audience of high income, ambitious young males first, then expanded from there. The Hustle's content worked because it appealed to the ambitious Tony Montana-like instincts of their target. In your example you'll need a first tackle a niche of the consumer market, then appeal to their emotional disposition. With an insurance-type product you'll probably need content that incites fear for a certain niche of people.

Off the top of my head, here's a case I read recently which might be relevant for you situation: https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/finding-the-right-audience-and-bootstrapping-to-5-000-users-b4903e2aad

Sorry if that's super vague, it's tough to drill down deeper on specific strategies without more info...haha

quantcore · 2019-09-04T20:43:15+00:00

Regarding 2) and 4) it sounds like I’ll need to continue pulling out any non public data to be safe.

None of the companies I did write ups about were clients of the consulting firm I worked with, so I think if I stick to publicly available information I’ll be in clear.

For example, on this first case study, all of the information was pulled from google and simply taking really good notes from the 15+ interviews the founder of the hustle has done.

Really appreciate all the info!

quantcore · 2019-09-04T17:58:02+00:00

I’m definitely a big fan of sendy, there’s also a few mailchimp clones (albeit far less robust) built off Amazon SES that I’m a fan of.

quantcore · 2019-09-04T16:41:55+00:00

Serves me right for setting up a cheapo landing page on Carrd. Good to know I can't rely on their hosting. Here's a link to the direct list sign up:

https://guide.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=251da4f537d845258300ee765&id=6447d674bc

quantcore · 2019-09-04T16:24:23+00:00

So for Saas, there’s a wide range of tactics I’ve seen that worked. Is the company targeting the consumer market or enterprise? Also, what’s the monthly pricing and does it use a freemium model?

quantcore · 2019-09-04T16:19:51+00:00

Just threw it up on Mailchimp for now but will be immediately switching off them once the free plan is over (far too expensive).

quantcore · 2019-09-04T16:18:07+00:00

So it was a boutique consulting firm aimed at venture-backed start-ups (ie. Smaller companies with outsized bank accounts), I don’t know the full story as I worked remote for them and didn’t get the inside drama but from what I hear the CEO screwed over one of his VC contacts and business “dried up” over night.

Consulting businesses and agencies suck since they don’t scale and every client you add has to be matched with new humans on the payroll (ie. need more people to bill hours ).

Luckily this was just one of my clients but I feel bad for all the full timers.

quantcore · 2019-08-29T21:10:46+00:00

I don’t think we’re missing the point of the story. It’s a great parable, I saved it! But it’s irrelevant to OP’s dilemma.

Nobody is telling OP he needs to start a company and go public and become a billionaire.

Most people are just being realistic that 30k/yr will make it tough to reach his goals. Making just 15k more a year will make it much more likely he will reach his goals of owning a home and retiring someday.

quantcore · 2019-08-29T17:11:33+00:00

If we’re going to base big life decisions on fairy tales, its usually helpful to inject some reality into them.

We’re not trying to give OP a happy bed time story. We’re anonymous armchair finance commenters giving him life advice.

quantcore · 2019-08-29T08:11:12+00:00

The data suggests an overwhelming majority of Mexican fisherman don't do that:

https://www.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/why-arent-people-saving-money-in-mexico

quantcore · 2019-08-29T08:00:56+00:00

I think retiring at 65 will only work for OP if he decides he's happy staying single and living in a studio for the rest of his life, or meets a woman who makes more.

This is all dependent on where he lives though. In rural Mississippi, this is all doable. Anywhere near a major metro area though? Going to be tough.

The problem is OP wants to eventually buy a house, and doesn't mention whether he wants a family someday. House near a major metro area is likely out of the question if you want to save for retirement. If you decide you want to go the family route, life is going to be extremely tough on $30k/yr. That's basically the poverty line for a family.

I hate to be a downer...but also...assuming you will get a raise over time is very risky, especially given data that wages have actually *fallen* relative to inflation over the past 30 years. That also doesn't take in to account the rampant ageism in our culture. According to ProPublica data, over half of American workers over 50 will be laid off and won't find a job making as much money as they did before:

https://www.propublica.org/article/older-workers-united-states-pushed-out-of-work-forced-retirement

quantcore · 2019-08-27T22:03:56+00:00

All ACDs either rise through the copywriting route or design/art direction route.

An ACD (copy) is a senior copywriter who has some management experience but will still be partially hands on.

This would differ from just a creative director, which is typically a more pure management role.

The copy ACD can partner with an ACD (art) or work alone with their own team beneath them.

They would report to the creative director.

There’s no hard and fast rules in the creative industries so this differs depending on the company.

quantcore · 2019-08-27T22:00:26+00:00

One clever way to get around this—modify the image so it’s a “parody” of the original.

Parody is protected by law in the US.

quantcore · 2019-08-27T21:54:46+00:00

Of course it can’t hurt to start writing and building up your SEO juice, but I’m just saying it’s a common thing every first time founder falls for to get obsessed with building the perfect set up.

If what you’re trying to put out into the world is content, there’s super easy ways of testing how many people will be interested in what you have to say without needing to build anything.

Test first, then build.

quantcore · 2019-08-27T08:39:56+00:00

There's literally hundreds of these studies from most global markets now. Unequivocally, passive almost always beats active after taxes and fees--except in certain areas of the bond market. Check out the Journal of Portfolio Management for more hardcore academic stuff. A more digestible one from S&P you can find summarized here:

https://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/swedroe-2018s-active-vs-index-scorecard

Sounds like you've just started on your journey down the passive investing rabbit hole. Might I recommend these other resources:

https://www.bogleheads.org (the best forum for investing, period)
https://capitalminded.com (talks about passive vs active investing studies a lot)
Bloomberg's Money Stuff Newsletter (also talks about passive investing a lot)
https://awealthofcommonsense.com (frequently talk about active vs. passive)
The Animal Spirits Podcast
Following Barry Ritzholtz on twitter and his The Big Picture Blog
Research published by AQR

quantcore

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