The hottest Operations Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

A Midas Winning VC Playbook

The Generalist • 1401 implied HN points • 07 Mar 24
💼 Business Investing Venture Capital Startup Strategy Operations
  1. Primary Venture Partners focuses on being the best seed fund by sticking to their core ethos of 'Startups are hard, founders deserve better.'
  2. They prioritize selective investing, focusing on high-risk, high-reward opportunities in the early stages of startup funding.
  3. Using a substantial impact team and unique operational approach, Primary Venture Partners aims to differentiate themselves in the competitive venture capital landscape.

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY’S TOBACCO HISTORY PART VII - CONWOOD: A REMARKABLE COMPANY

Reflections on "Going Down Tobacco Road" and Investing • 452 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
💼 Business Management Finance Marketing Sales Operations
  1. Conwood was a unique and successful company acquired by Reynolds American in 2006.
  2. The management at Conwood had a dedicated leadership team that contributed to its success.
  3. Conwood's unique culture and focus on product quality and cost control made it a profitable venture.

Introducing our newest writer

The Generalist • 1421 implied HN points • 31 Aug 23
💼 Business Tech Startups Writing Operations Media
  1. The Generalist has welcomed a new writer, Ben Butler, who brings startup experience and a strong sense of taste to the publication.
  2. Ben Butler is a creative individual with a background in writing, stand-up comedy, and screenwriting, adding a fresh perspective to The Generalist.
  3. Ben Butler's addition to The Generalist is seen as a valuable enhancement that will push their thinking forward and improve the quality of written analysis.

Fintech: How Brex and other fintechs are streamlining their organizations

The Fintech Blueprint • 235 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
💼 Business Fintech Employment Investing Operations Digital
  1. Brex announced a 20% reduction in its workforce, aligning with a broader fintech trend of operational streamlining.
  2. Fintech industry is becoming leaner due to funding cuts and emphasis on profitability.
  3. Despite significant job cuts in tech, the general unemployment rate remains below 4%, indicating a luxury funding problem.
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Erika's quick-start guide to research nonprofits

Erika’s Newsletter • 491 implied HN points • 07 Dec 23
💼 Business Fundraising Philanthropy Operations Employment
  1. You can start a nonprofit research organization without needing permission from a university.
  2. Research nonprofits can be designed to fit scientific goals rather than fitting into academia or industry.
  3. To start a nonprofit, write a 'two-pager', get connected with potential funders, fundraise, manage money, hire people, get lab space, and manage intellectual property.

A Webhook Love Story

Sarah's Newsletter • 3 HN points • 17 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Automation APIs Workflow Integrations Operations
  1. Webhooks provide a plug-and-play interface for event-driven workflows, making automation in marketing efficient and scalable.
  2. Webhooks are useful when immediate automated responses are needed to events from the outside world, and relying on batch implementations would be inefficient.
  3. Effectively implementing webhooks requires observability through alerts, in-depth logs, centralized deployment, and proper scale to avoid operational challenges.

Elon Musk Book Review (Part 2 of 2): Operations Excellence

Mike Talks AI • 58 implied HN points • 05 Feb 24
💼 Business Operations Supply Chain Efficiency Product Design Cost reduction
  1. Operations excellence is key: Musk focused on improving efficiency and revolutionizing industries through operational excellence.
  2. Design the right factory: Musk emphasized the importance of well-designed factories and involvement of design engineers in manufacturing processes.
  3. The Algorithm for operations excellence: Musk's framework involves questioning requirements, deleting parts/processes, simplifying, accelerating cycle time, and automating last.

Recruiting Brainfood - Issue 345

Recruiting Brainfood • 589 implied HN points • 21 May 23
💼 Business Recruitment AI Marketing Work Operations
  1. Candidate experience is crucial for winning top talent in 2023, focusing on pillars like transparency, reciprocity, and unity.
  2. The WEF Future of Jobs report highlights regional variances in employment and the decline in real wages, impacting recruitment strategies.
  3. AI is transforming recruitment processes, from Google AI Search changing internet dynamics to AI assisting in automating hiring processes and message composition.

Vignettes: War #3

Myth Pilot • 628 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🌐 International War Military Investigation Operations
  1. Captain Price transformed a struggling company into a top-performing unit through rigorous training and leadership.
  2. Captain Price conducted unauthorized missions on deployment, sparking a major investigation.
  3. There were rumors that Captain Price's missions involved search patterns and interrogations, hinting at a secretive agenda.

Balancing Speed and Sustainability: The Operational Dilemma of Reusable Cups in Drive-Thrus

Gad’s Newsletter • 50 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
💼 Business Sustainability Operations Efficiency Customer Service Environmental Impact
  1. Introducing reusable cups in drive-thrus can slow down the service, leading to longer wait times and potential inefficiencies.
  2. Starbucks' focus on operational efficiency conflicts with the introduction of reusable cups, impacting speed and customer satisfaction.
  3. Visible queues in drive-thrus make operational inefficiencies more apparent, potentially affecting customer decisions and perception.

Potential U.S. Space Force Changes

Ill-Defined Space • 19 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Military Technology Training Operations Infrastructure
  1. The U.S. Space Force's missions, assets, and services are mostly about support to combat services like the Army and Navy.
  2. The Space Force relies on old systems which require specialized training, hindering transition to more modern, interoperable systems.
  3. The Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) will bring more capable and interconnected systems, requiring a shift in mindset and cooperation among space operators.

SaaS X-Ray and IPO Markets w/ Stan Zlotsky (Pendo.io)

Hard Mode by Breaking SaaS • 98 implied HN points • 09 Nov 23
💼 Business Technology Finance Investing Operations Management
  1. Investors seek a balance between growth and profitability in tech companies going public.
  2. Investors value companies that have shown a path to profitability and solid management teams.
  3. Understanding unit economics and aligning internal teams with investor metrics are crucial for SaaS companies navigating the IPO journey.

An algebra of orders

Infinitely More • 17 implied HN points • 04 Feb 24
🔬 Science Mathematics Algebra Operations
  1. There is a rich algebra of orders involving operations like addition and multiplication.
  2. The disjoint sum operation creates a combined order without interactions between the two parts.
  3. The ordered sum operation combines two orders by placing one above the other, creating new orders with distinct properties.

What is Operations?

Ways of Working • 196 implied HN points • 16 Mar 23
💼 Business Operations
  1. Operations is the internal operating system of a company, involving people, technology, and processes intersecting to get work done.
  2. Operations can involve customer impacting workflows delivered repeatedly at scale, impacting the customer experience.
  3. Operations can also refer to the physical component of product or service delivery in some tech companies.

Data Materialization is a Convergence Problem

Data People Etc. • 159 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Data Workflow Operations
  1. Data materialization is not just a workflow orchestration problem but also a convergence problem.
  2. In a convergence-based approach to data materialization, a materialization controller could continuously compare the state of the warehouse with the desired state of models to automate the materialization process.
  3. Challenges in implementing a materialization controller include explainability, managing over-eagerness, and dealing with drift in the system.

Starbucks’ Double Shot: Speed and Variety at the Expense of Quality

Gad’s Newsletter • 47 implied HN points • 16 Oct 23
💼 Business Operations Innovation Investment Market Share Technology
  1. Starbucks is focusing on speeding up their service and expanding variety due to advancements in technology.
  2. Online ordering at Starbucks emphasizes speed and customization, leading to more complex order customization.
  3. Starbucks is investing heavily in tech to offer faster service, more choices, and high personalization to customers.

I Invented Surge Pricing For Uber. Here’s Why it Wouldn’t Have Worked for Wendy’s.

Kevin’s Rackhouse Ramblings • 3 HN points • 07 Mar 24
💼 Business Operations Customer Behavior PR Restaurant Industry
  1. Dynamic pricing worked for Uber because it's a system where demand and supply can be influenced economically, leading to a surplus of trips and a big economic win.
  2. Fast food like Wendy's operates in a non-stochastic system, making the effectiveness of dynamic pricing more limited compared to a system like Uber's.
  3. Implementing dynamic pricing at Wendy's could help shape consumer behavior, improve operational efficiency, and line up customer demand with employee staffing, but may not have the same revolutionary impact as it did for Uber.

From DVDs to Streaming: Netflix’s Less Enduring Moat

Gad’s Newsletter • 56 implied HN points • 01 May 23
💼 Business Streaming Content Operations Competition
  1. Netflix's transition from DVD-by-mail to streaming marked the end of an era of innovation and disruption in the entertainment industry.
  2. Operational efficiency and supply chain management were crucial for Netflix's success in the DVD era, but content quality is now the primary focus in the competitive streaming landscape.
  3. Lasting competitive moats are built on human interactions, behaviors, and long-term dependencies, rather than just technology alone.

The Unbundling of Retail

Equal Ventures • 59 implied HN points • 23 Jan 23
💼 Business Retail E-commerce Startups Investment Operations
  1. Economic fundamentals in retail are shifting, highlighting the limitations of a direct-to-consumer-only strategy.
  2. Traditional principles like vertical integration may not always lead to better outcomes in the retail industry, as seen with several DTC brands.
  3. Outsourcing non-core functions and embracing the 'Great Unbundling' can help emerging brands achieve economies of scale and operational excellence in the retail sector.

Experiments in Speed Dating & Matchmaking

Dan's Stack • 2 HN points • 12 Feb 24
💼 Business Data Analysis Marketing Operations
  1. Speed dating events are optimal with around 20 attendees (10 men, 10 women), maintaining a balanced gender ratio is important for a successful event.
  2. Ticket prices for speed dating events vary based on demand and gender ratio, with average prices around $25.
  3. Marketing strategies for speed dating events focus on gender-specific ad campaigns to ensure equal attendance of men and women, with Instagram and Facebook ads being the most effective channels.

Sales and Marketing and Dev Ops, Oh My!

Sarah's Newsletter • 99 implied HN points • 26 Apr 22
💼 Business Sales Marketing Operations Efficiency Automation
  1. Efficiency in operational teams is crucial for the overall effectiveness of an organization. They play a vital role in supporting other departments to work faster and better.
  2. Operational teams like SalesOps, MOps, and DevOps have unique functions but share a common goal of increasing efficiency and saving time for the organization.
  3. Current tools and practices in operational teams can still involve manual tasks, hindering efficiency. Providing education and support for scale is essential for driving true efficiency across all operational areas.