Articles
Posts, tutorials and musings that have helped me in the world of startups and investing.
5 Key UX Design Principles - How to Make Products User Friendly
January 18, 2021 | 6 minute read
Learn the 5 Ways to Make Your Products User Friendly: 1) Affordances, 2) Signifiers, 3) Mapping, 4) Feedback, 5) Conceptual Model. Recognize deliberate design from the hugely popular YouTube mobile app.
How Much is YouTube Worth? $170bn in 2020
November 22, 2020 | 15 minute read
Google acquired YouTube for US$1.6bn in 2006. In 2020, YouTube could be worth US$170bn achieving a +100x return. Compare YouTube valuation and metrics against industry peers. Download a free YouTube financial and valuation model.
Second Order Thinking: Unintended Consequences
May 31, 2020 | 3 minute read
Tips to help you examine the second and nth order consequences of your actions. Apply the principles of Chesterton’s Fence to be a proactive planner vs reactive responder.
3 Decision Making Frameworks Startups can use to Navigate Uncertainty
April 12, 2020 | 7 minute read
3 useful decision making frameworks startups leaders and boards can use to tackle uncertainty in startups: 1) Peer Plus One Framework; 2) Incident Response Framework; 3) Risk Assessment Framework.
What are the Fiduciary Duties of a Director?
April 11, 2020 | 5 minute read
Five basic fiduciary duties of a Board member with breach examples. What are the consequences of a breach of Directors' duties and laws? How can Directors best protect themselves against liability?
How to Get Through the Coronavirus?
April 7, 2020 | 1 minute read
How can you support yourself and others during the current Coronavirus pandemic?
How to Deploy a Node App to AWS EC2
January 13, 2020 | 7 minute read
Walkthrough to deploy an Express.js app to AWS EC2 with HTTPS and custom domain using Express, Docker, AWS EC2, AWS Route53, Namecheap, Nnginx and Let's Encrypt.
The Role and Functions of Board of Directors
December 27, 2019 | 3 minute read
What is the role of the Board? What are their functions and responsibilities? What are the differences between Governance and Management? Understanding the role of the Board of Directors and their interplay with Management can help you as an Executive make better strategic decisions.
4 Types of Bias Affecting Your Decision Making
December 26, 2019 | 4 minute read
Cognitive biases can negatively impact your ability to think critically and make informed decisions. Here is an explanation of the 4 main types of cognitive bias, some examples and how you can navigate them.
Learn React - A Visual Explanation
August 31, 2019 | 3 minute read
How to structure your next web project using React and Redux principles. A visual framework template you can use.
Clean Architecture Node.js - Build a REST API
July 30, 2019 | 15 minute read
Writing Clean Architecture in Node.js. REST API Tutorial using MongoDB, Express and other best practices. How to write software that lasts and can be independent of technology choice.
Express Validation and Error Handling
June 22, 2019 | 10 minute read
Learn how to validate requests and handle errors using Node Express.js with Joi validation library. Validate API requests and display HTML form errors using custom middleware.
Node.js Authentication Tutorial with Passport
June 2, 2019 | 15 minute read
Learn how to handle web authentication and authorization in Node using Passport.js. Create signup and login page, different types of users and handle authentication for specific pages.
The Basics of Valuation
May 5, 2019 | 4 minute read
Understand the principles of intrinsic valuation. How to explain WACC to anyone. What are the most important factors when valuing a company.
How to Rank Without Backlinks [Free Template]
May 1, 2019 | 9 minute read
What are backlinks? Do you need SEO backlinks to rank? The answer is no. Here is a framework to show you how. Without creating backlinks, we built SEO to be our largest acquisition channel for a world class SaaS company.
SQL Basics
April 28, 2019 | 7 minute read
SQL basic boilerplate using starcraft relational data model based on races, planets and heroes