Ben Thompson
Founder of Stratechery
Discussion
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
Hi! I’m Ben Thompson, the author and founder of Stratechery. I write (and occasionally consult) about technology with a specific focus on strategy and business. I am based in Taipei, Taiwan, and am fully supported by my work at Stratechery.
I’ve worked previously at Apple, Microsoft, and Automattic, where I focused on strategy, developer relations, and marketing for Apple University, Windows, and WordPress.com. I attended undergrad at the University of Wisconsin, received an MBA from Kellogg School of Management with a focus on strategy and marketing, and an MEM from McCormick Engineering school in Design and Innovation with a focus on human-centered design. Ask Away!
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Welcome, Ben! As a Taipei resident and deep thinker on tech, what's the biggest difference in the way people use technology in the U.S. and Taiwan?
Anand Rajaram
@anandrajaram · Product Manager, join.me
@rrhoover I'd love to expand that a bit too, and think of U.S and Asia, and possibly think of Asia as three buckets: 1.) Developed - Japan, South Korea etc. 2.) Developing - India, Indonesia etc. and 3.) China (Cos it is so unique)
Erik Torenberg
@eriktorenberg · Former Product Hunt
Hey Ben! What' s something you used to fervently believe that you now see as misguided?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@eriktorenberg I actually really try to not fervently believe anything. I know it sounds cliche but I truly try to abide by the idea of "strong ideas weakly held". Companies I've changed my mind about publicly on Stratechery are Facebook (I'm glad I switched early on that one) and Amazon -- twice!
Nicki Friis
@nickifriisw · Ideanote
Hi Ben! What advice do you give to larger corporations about staying competitive against startups?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@nickifriisw Acquire actively and for more than you think they're worth
Arjun Narayan
@narayanarjun
Benedict Evans recently released a chart of his traffic numbers (http://ben-evans.com/benedicteva...) and it makes for sobering reading. Something like two years hovering around hundreds of pageviews before taking off.
How long did it take you to get Stratechery off the ground? What were those days in early 2013 like, blogging for a tiny audience? What sort of legwork did you do to grow it, and what were the most valuable things you did early on?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@narayanarjun the Gruber post I mentioned earlier helped, but the most important thing was keeping at it week after week and (hopefully) making sure they were really high quality. Beyond that one post I really haven't had any big leaps. Just very steady growth from the beginning
Eric Metelka
@eric3000 · Product Manager, PowerReviews
It seems like you write late at night. What's your daily routine look like?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@eric3000 I don't! That's one of the advantages of living in Taiwan. I work during the day and try to post by 6pm or so, which means my Daily Updates are in people's inboxes when they wake up (at least for those in the US). Sometimes the free posts run a bit late, but I try to have it done by them.
Traveling actually does make things harder, because I try to keep on the same schedule, so then I do stay up late. I pulled an all-nighter for this one, for example: https://stratechery.com/2015/fro...
Melissa Joy Kong
@melissajoykong · Content, Product Hunt
I am absolutely fascinated by the blogger subscription model. For someone who is starting to build a small audience and writes frequently, but wants to build toward making a sustainable living off of it, what specific next steps (and time expected for each one) would you encourage given your own experience?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@melissajoykong I expanded on my thinking a bit in this podcast: http://exponent.fm/episode-034-t...
The number one thing I'd say is have your business model in mind sooner rather than later. I had the subscription and "get more" model in mind from the beginning, so I kept myself to around 2 posts a week while building my audience, and then offered the daily for pay. It was, at least I hope, seen as a value add, as opposed to my taking stuff away.
Jon
@_jonleach
Hey Ben! What do you look back on as your greatest professional failure? How would you have changed the situation (if you would have).
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@_jonleach heh, I'd honestly say managing English teachers across two different schools the first time I came to Taiwan. I was also working full time and had no ability to let anything slide, prioritize what mattered, or understand that not everyone cared as much as I do. I burned out in six months.
Bored Elon Musk
@boredelonmusk
Your podcasts with James always sound so natural. How much time do you usually spend editing episodes? Also, would you want to be one of the first 10,000 humans to live on Mars?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@boredelonmusk Sometimes we don't edit at all, sometimes it takes hours. It depends on how big of an argument we get into ;)
I do appreciate you saying that though -- I think we've worked really hard on our tone and cutting down edges, and the fact of the matter is we both love talking about this stuff so we just get lost in it.
Arjun Narayan
@narayanarjun
You and Benedict Evans (and Filloux and Gassée) are probably the most publicly prominent "strategy" bloggers today. Given your experience at Microsoft, and Apple, how common are people like that in the upper levels of management at large companies today? How much of what you're writing is also being written there (e.g. modern-day Myhrvold memos), except for private internal consumption?
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Ben Thompson
@benthompson · Stratechery
@narayanarjun there are some very, very sharp strategic thinkers not just at big companies but at many smaller ones too. I can't discount the effect the desire to live in Taiwan had on my career choices -- many people who are smarter than me are currently being paid a whole lot more to write this stuff internally :)