This edition is brought to you by Athyna

Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Wednesday edition of Faster Than Normal, exploring one short story about a person, a company, a high-performance tool, a trend I’m watching closely, and curated media to help you build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself. 

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Today’s edition:

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. Send me feedback on how we can improve. I respond to every email.

Stories of Excellence

Person: Miuccia Prada

Miuccia Prada, the head designer and co-CEO of the luxury fashion house Prada, has redefined the world of fashion with her intellectual approach and avant-garde designs. Born in 1949 in Milan, Italy, Prada's early life was steeped in political activism and academic pursuits, earning a Ph.D. in political science before joining the family business in 1978. Under her creative leadership, Prada has become synonymous with innovation, craftsmanship, and a subversive take on luxury. "What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language."

Key Lessons from Miuccia Prada:

• On intellectual curiosity: "I am always interested in the world, in the culture, in the time in which I live."

• On leadership: "I don't want to be a leader. I want to be a collaborator."

• On legacy: "I want to be remembered as someone who was able to create something that was meaningful, that was not just about selling products, but about creating a vision, a point of view, a culture."

Read more.

Company: Mojang

Mojang, the Swedish video game studio behind the global phenomenon Minecraft, was founded in 2009 by Markus "Notch" Persson. Persson, a self-taught programmer, began developing Minecraft as a side project while working at Jalbum. The game's unique blend of creativity, exploration and survival quickly gained a cult following. In 2010, Persson quit his day job to focus on Minecraft full-time, bringing on Carl Manneh as CEO and Jakob Porser to work on a new game called Scrolls. Mojang's early success allowed it to remain fiercely independent - a point of pride for Persson. In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang for a staggering $2.5 billion, though Persson and other founders departed the company shortly after.

Key Lessons from Mojang:

• On staying true to your vision: "I make games because it's fun, and because I love games and I love to program, but I don't make games with the intention of them becoming huge hits." - Markus Persson

• On organic growth: Mojang spent nothing on advertising in the early days, instead letting passionate fans spread the word about Minecraft. "Minecraft certainly became a huge hit, and people are telling me it's changed games. I never meant for it to do either." - Persson

• On empowering employees: Mojang instituted "Gaming Fridays" where the team could play games or work on passion projects. "We have pretty much all the freedom in the world. We could hire even more aggressively if we wanted to, but we want to keep the team small." - Carl Manneh, CEO

• On creating a playful culture: Mojang's offices were modeled after an English gentlemen's club, with gaming rooms, Chesterfield sofas, and oil portraits of employees. This environment kept the team inspired between intense work sessions.

• On being player-focused: "If you base your game on reality, you don't have to design - you can just copy." Persson's desire to let players explore, rather than follow a set path, was key to Minecraft's enduring appeal.

Read More.

Hire remote employees with confidence

Two years ago, I hired an offshore assistant for the first time. Since then, I’ve recommended many people do the same. It’s been one of the highest leverage things I’ve done, helping with everything from marketing and customer support (for The Intelligence Age) to personal matters and email management.

Athyna is a service that quickly (<5 days!) finds remote employees across 150+ countries for you or your team. They cover roles from sales and marketing to creative and product, and have worked with companies like Facebook, Zoom, Uber, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon.

I’ve personally used Athyna and recommended them to my Brother, Will, who runs a fashion label, and several close friends running their own businesses. To date, they’ve all had very positive experiences.

If you’re in the market for talent, visit their website to explore options and cover all your hiring needs.

Accelerants

High-performance tool

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Songhurst Matrix

The Songhurst Matrix is a framework developed by Charlie Songhurst, former Head of Strategy at Microsoft, for categorizing business opportunities based on their level of boredom and complexity. The key insight: "You want highly boring and highly complex. Because everything in the universe is a supply and demand curve, and you just get insufficient supply of entrepreneurs in the highly boring but highly complex space. And therefore you get elevated return."

Why does it work? Boring-but-complex businesses have less competition. Most entrepreneurs flock to sexy-and-simple ideas. But that leads to commoditization. You can't differentiate. In contrast, boring-complex fields — like accounting software or sewage systems — are intellectually challenging puzzles that improve the world in underappreciated ways. "Sometimes the joy of those can be missed," Songhurst notes. But that's where the opportunity lies.

Sustainable advantages and monopolies are built in the boring-complex quadrant. "If you hang out in audit software, accounting software, just sitting in an area that's complex, but no one wants to boast they do it at a dinner party...you just get less entrepreneurs. Therefore, the chance of having entrepreneurs succeeding is significantly higher."

A trend I’m watching

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B2B marketplaces are experiencing explosive growth, with online sales increasing 17.8% to $1.63 trillion in 2021 alone. Experts predict the number of B2B marketplaces will exceed 750 in the U.S. within two years. This shift is driven by the convenience and efficiency of connecting buyers and sellers on a single platform. B2B giants like Alibaba and Amazon Business have proven the model, while a diverse array of niche marketplaces are emerging to serve specific verticals like cannabis LeafLink, industrial supplies Packhelp, and scientific products Zageno.

Potential opportunities in the B2B marketplace space include:

• Developing a marketplace platform tailored to an underserved niche or region. Focus on streamlining transactions and offering value-add services.

• Providing SaaS tools to help B2B marketplaces and their vendors manage operations, such as inventory, fulfillment, personalization and analytics. BigCommerce is one example of an ecommerce platform targeting this need.

• Offering fintech and payment processing solutions geared towards high-value B2B purchases, with features like net terms, lines of credit, and invoice factoring.

The B2B ecommerce market is evolving rapidly, with 65% of B2B companies now transacting fully online. Marketplaces that can deliver an efficient, transparent and flexible procurement experience—while accommodating the complex requirements of B2B buyers and suppliers—will be well-positioned to ride this wave of digital transformation.

Read More.

If you’re interested in more trends and business ideas, check out Capital Ideas—Faster Than Normal’s paid sister publication (Subscribe with one click).

Tactical reads

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> When you need to run effective board meetings
How to run an Effective Board Meeting and make an Effective Board Deck (Read it here)

> When evaluating price
The most important thing (Read it here)

> When you need to improve your output
Six productivity hacks Elon Musk sent to his staff (Read it here)

> When thinking about obsolete industries
Why Dying Industries Can Make Great Investments (Read it here)

> When creating wealth with real estate
How to Grow Your Wealth Like the Real Estate Moguls Do (Read it here)

1 question

That’s all for today, folks. As always, please give me your feedback. Which section is your favourite? What do you want to see more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.

Have a wonderful rest of week, all.

Recommendation Zone

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If you’re interested in more trends and business ideas, check out Capital Ideas—Faster Than Normal’s paid sister publication (Subscribe with one click).

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