Plus: Disabling robotaxis, BRICS money, better user feedback & the US wants to help Eskom out of its misery.

Newsletter

July 13, 2023

Hi there,

Unhappy with autonomous cars? No worries, protestors show you can just disable Waymo’s robotaxis with nothing but a traffic cone.

In this Open Letter:

Gloves off: Did Zuck just cross the line?
TikTok vs Apple, US help for Eskom & that BRICS money.
Better user feedback: The art of non-leading questions.
Inside track: B2B Opportunities in employee wellness.

TRENDING NOW

How Threads Ups the Ante in the Zuck-Musk Saga

Did it just become a cage fight to the death…?

How do you get 100m users in just 4 days? Just leverage it off your other existing 1.6-billion-user-base products, of course.

Ask Zuck: In one of the biggest vanity metric moves ever, he boasted about his 100m users – which all turned out to be Instagram users, naturally – and continued to make fun of Elon Musk on his new Twitter clone, Threads.

You know, friendly banter ahead of the big one…

*The main ticket you never knew you wanted.*

But how do you ensure your totally new, built-from-scratch startup app adds value to its 100m first-week users?

Well, some say, you just hire all the employees the owner of the app you’re cloning is firing (‘member when Musk fired 50% of Twitter employees?) and then “allegedly” go and scrape that app’s userbase to inform your new product’s network and recommendations features.

Jip, the Twitter-Threads episode is likely a pretty big plot point in Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk’s “let’s have a cage fight” saga.

What the beef’s about this time

Well, let’s not mince words here, Meta is under a lot of pressure. Facebook has been steadily declining. Losing 1m European users and 2.8% of UK users in 2018, about 42% of US Facebook users between 18 and 29 say they don’t log in very often while 44% just deleted the app. Add a 20% drop in US teen usage in 2020, and you can see where it’s going.

And then there’s Zuck’s Metaverse…

*This will only take a few billion more.*

Not to mention lawmakers and lobbyists are having a field day with Meta’s user-information policies. The real reason Threads has not launched in Europe is a landmark EU court case blocking it from sharing info between its apps. The same court ruling says Meta generated 97% of its revenue illegally in Europe.

Long story short, Zucks and Meta needed to make moves, and Elon’s Twitter seemed like a weak target because of his takeover circus.

And that’s where it “allegedly” gets a bit underhanded…

In a supposedly leaked cease-and-desist letter last week, Twitter threatens to sue Meta for "systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation" of Twitter's trade secrets and IP. Broken down like this:

Twitter claims Meta hired ex-Twitter staff to not only help build Threads but to also gain access to trade secrets.
It also claims Meta scraped Twitter’s user data – info like who follows who, so that Threads can suggest you follow the same people as you did on Twitter – in doing so, you are likely to quickly build a following on Threads (and getting all your old followers to follow you as they join).

All are illegal according to Twitter’s usage license agreement. An Elon’s not happy….

The Twitter gold

Let’s be honest, there have been a lot of attempts to clone Twitter including Mastodon, Bluesky and Truth Social. In fact, the Twitter copies are so plentiful, even Twitter Founder and now backer of Bluesky, Jack Dorsey is making fun of it.

But most of them failed to make major inroads into Twitter’s user base.

Why? Well, because the Twitter magic doesn’t lie in the tech, it lies in the fact that people have spent 17 years building their Twitter followings – i.e. the user data (which Meta allegedly just scraped).

See, when Elon bought Twitter for $44 billion, you might have asked, why not just build your own app? Chuck a billy into app dev and 43 billy into marketing and surely you have a better Twitter, right? Nope, it’s not that easy.

The IP Twitter built up on the platform over a decade-and-a-half includes followers, connections and interactions. Think about it: Establishing yourself on Twitter took years of hard work, why on Earth would you just give it up and go start over on a new platform? It’s just not worth it.

And what’s more, those that built that following will fight for the platform they built it on.

Will this fly?

So, Twitter’s biggest defence? The years people have invested in building their Twitter profiles.

Will it go to court? Tough one, because those things drag on so long, the damage is likely to be done long before anyone even testifies.

Will Threads last? We are not convinced. As soon as people realise it's the same amount of effort to build and maintain a worthwhile following, they are likely to drop off. What’s more, it seems like Zuck and co are using the same level of censorship on Threads that's going down on Meta’s other apps. So, maybe it’ll kill itself quietly…?

Or maybe the world has moved on from wanting free speech? Perhaps the future world town hall truly is going to become Zuck’s for the taking.

What do you think? Hit reply and let us know.

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IN SHORT

👍 Thumbs Up. Beware of using the “Thumbs Up” emoji, especially as a response to a legal document sent to you in Canada. A court in Canada forced a grain buyer to honour a contract in full after he responded to receiving it with the emoji, which the court says is as good as signing.

🏖️ Life’s a Beach. Not one, but two South African beaches have made the Top 20 most beautiful beaches in the world by Betway. Camps Beach and Hout Bay Beach clocked in at number 15 and number 20 on the 100 beach list.

🤑 Show me the Money. The BRICS nations are apparently in talks to establish a new currency – and with approximately 80 other countries keen to join, it could be the start of some interesting geopolitical shifts. Don't burn up your Randelas just yet, though – a move like this could take a long time to bring about.

⚡ ‘Murca Power. The US Trade and Development Agency announced a $1.3 million grant to assess the economic, technical, commercial and financial viability of new technologies to improve South Africa’s transmission grid.

🎵 Sound of Music. TikTok to launch music streaming service TikTok Music to compete with dominant players Apple Music and Spotify. It provides song recommendations and personalised curation to help users find viral songs from TikTok videos.

BUILDER’S CORNER

The Lost Art of the Non-Leading Question

We can all agree on one thing – building something substantial and meaningful is no walk in the park. It's a journey laden with obstacles, complications, and inevitable setbacks.

And a simple "Hey, I like your product" skyrockets your morale so much, it can often lead you astray (we’re all human) and into posing leading questions. You know, those Qs that steer people towards giving you the answers you want to hear.

*No better way to guarantee “success” than to control the feedback*

The thing is, it’s the hard ones, the answers you don’t want to hear, that you really need to grow.

What magic can non-leading questions work for you?

They might not always give you the praise you crave, but they can offer far richer rewards:

💡 Firstly, they can give you actionable insights that reach far beyond your current scope. Insights can guide your future tweaks, revamps, or even entirely new features. In other words, they can help you shape the future of your product.

🎯 Secondly, non-leading questions can bring you closer to that golden nugget we call the “truth”. If you're hunting for product-market fit, you need authentic and useful insights. That means feedback directly from users, without any subtle (or not-so-subtle) nudges from your end.

🌱 Lastly, they can keep you grounded. In the early days, you'll likely find that honest feedback can smash some of your cherished assumptions and elaborate ideas. But remember – this is a good thing! It's these reality checks that keep us humble, and more importantly, keep us innovating and improving.

So let's dive in and discover the art of asking non-leading questions…

Let them share their unique application or use case

Leading: "This tool can be used for your work right?"
vs
Non-Leading: "How would you use this?"

Prompt them with new information

Leading: "Would you share this information with your team?"
vs
Non-Leading: "What would you do with this information?"

Try to understand their process

Leading: "And then you would use your card to pay, right?"
vs
Non-Leading: "What would you do next?" or "What's next?"

Allow them to express their feelings/thoughts

Leading: "You're excited about your current task, aren't you?"
vs
Non-Leading: "How do you feel about what you're doing there?"

Direct attention without presumption

Leading: "We really wanted that button to stand out, does it?"
vs
Non-Leading: "Go clockwise around this area and tell me what each piece means"

Invite them to elaborate on their own points

Leading: "That strategy you mentioned earlier would increase profits, wouldn't it?"
vs
Non-Leading: "Expand on [that thing] you just mentioned"

Ask neutral questions

Leading: "It looks like you had a good time?"
vs
Non-Leading: "What were your thoughts about the event?"

Avoid emotionally charged language

Leading: "Wasn't it terrible when that situation occurred?"
vs
Non-Leading: "Can you describe your response to the situation?"

Break down complex questions

Leading: "The movie and popcorn were great, weren't they?"
vs
Non-Leading: "Did you like the movie?" and "Did you like the popcorn?"

Now some leading questions might have their place, especially when you’re iterating with your team internally.

But practising how to ask non-leading questions in our own specific startup or business context can help us get the right types of insights, bring us closer to the truth, and keep us grounded.

Got a pet-peeve question to share? Or maybe some more insights on getting good-quality feedback? Hit reply and let us know.

THE THREAD

Providing health and wellness to employees became significantly more important since 2020. Many companies, whether working in-office or remotely, have had to find ways to ensure their staff are looked after while adding culture.

This is a massive opportunity that Chris Bruchhausen from Strove explained to us in this week's episode of How Would You Build It.