Per My Last E-mail #11
Natively Integrated Education, Prediction, Product-Market Fit, Cable, Beer
Hi Friends 👋,
Happy Tuesday! I have to admit, I cheated a little bit here. In my last e-mail, I said that I would send my latest post on Natively Integrated Education in this week’s newsletter. So I gave myself an extra day to keep my promise 😎
Natively Integrated Education
Why There Isn’t a Dominant Aggregator in Online Education by me
If you’ve been reading along for the past 10 e-mails, you know that two of the topics that most fascinate me are Natively Integrated Companies and online education. Part I in this two-part series on Natively Integrated Education brings those two passions together.
Education and Healthcare are the only two of the top 10 consumer spending categories that have not been dominated by an Aggregator. In this post, a continuation of my Natively Integrated Companies series, I explore why that’s the case for Education and propose that Natively Integrated is the right approach for modern educators.
In Part II, coming later this week, I’ll discuss one particular Natively Integrated Educator, Lambda School.
Give it a read - I would love to hear your honest thoughts and feedback.
Links & Listens
I’m going to try something new here this week: keeping it simple. One sentence for each link. Read the ones that interest you, and I’m always excited to discuss the articles if you want to go deeper.
🔮 The Psychology of Prediction by Morgan Housel
The stories that we tell others, and ourselves, have an outsized influence on the predictions that we make.
🔎 How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product-Market Fit by Rahul Vohra in FirstRound Review
Founder of buzzy e-mail startup puts an analytical framework around a crucial, but previously fuzzy, business concept popular with startups: product-market fit.
💰 How Income Share Agreements Can Help Rebuild the Middle Class on Venture Stories
This pairs well with the Natively Integrated Education posts, diving into the history, mechanics, and future of Income Share Agreements and the educational institutions that offer them to their students.
🙈 The Most Gullible Man in Cambridge by Kera Bolonik in The Cut
Some people are crazy, others are gullible, and bad things happen when they mix.
👨👩👧👦 Bad Metaphors: Community by David A. Banks and Britney Gil in Real Life Mag
“Community” is seen as an unassailable good, but brands, social media platforms and governments abuse and weaponize the word to manufacture belonging without doing the hard work of dealing with internal strife or messy dynamics among individuals.
What I’m Reading
I’m on a strong business history book kick.
📺 Last week, I finished Cable Cowboy, the story of John Malone and the rise of the cable industry. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but Malone was so successful growing TCI and Liberty Media that he is now the largest landowner in the United States, with 2.2 million acres.
🍺 Now I’m on to Bitter Brew, a 2014 book about the rise and fall of Anheuser-Busch. I have tried A-B’s products on a couple of occasions, and it’s been fascinating to learn more about the family behind the brand.
Two quick takeaways from reading these two back-to-back:
Malone built TCI and Liberty through a series of aggressive acquisitions with little-to-no focus on product quality. In contrast, the Busch family focused on product quality, but likely doomed the company by being too conservative in its approach to acquisitions.
There’s something I really enjoy about hitting the point in a historical book after which I remember some of the events in the story happening in my lifetime. In Cable Cowboy, which started in the 1950’s, that moment was reading about the introduction of DishNetwork in 1997. In Bitter Brew, that moment was the release of the Budweiser “Frogs” commercial at the 1995 Super Bowl.
What’s Next?
Next week, I’ll share Part II of my 2-parter on Natively Integrated Education, exploring explore why Natively Integrated is the right approach for a challenger educator, how Lambda School is Natively Integrated, the challenges they might face, and a path to overcoming them.
As always - if you’re enjoying Per My Last E-mail, spread the word!
Thanks for reading,
Packy
P.S.
NYC Debate Club’s first debate is happening in September (doodle going out to lock down a firm date this week)! Sign up here to get involved.