In the news & behind the scenes: it’s the flywheel

Scott Galloway takes on the streaming wars in this week’s No Mercy/No Malice newsletter.

He writes

“My colleague Sonia Marciano teaches that to achieve success, the best strategy is to find the dimension with the greatest variance — the biggest delta between best and worst. In the streaming wars, both flywheel and distribution offer the greatest variance, and monopolies dominate those categories. 

“A flywheel is a disk that stores kinetic energy and then spins it out to a nearby engine. In the context of business, as the flywheel rotates it increases output or revenue without increasing input or cost. The ultimate flywheel is Amazon. Amazon Prime attracts shoppers who want a wide assortment of products with rapid fulfillment. These subscribers also enjoy the benefits of services like Amazon Prime Video, which increase the stickiness of Prime and time spent on the platform.” 

From “Land of the Undead” | No Mercy / No Malice from Scott ‘Prof’ Galloway

Here’s Galloway on how these flywheels, or feedback loops, can work in the world of video on demand, the world of 10 Block…the mobile streaming platform I’ve been running as chief operating officer for the past two years.

“In the context of the streaming wars, SVOD adds momentum to the flywheel. Movies and entertainment evoke powerful emotions. The connective tissue of the flywheel is increasingly emotion. The NPS score (consumers’ emotional connection to a company) is negative to zero for ecommerce and internet companies, but it’s strong for SVOD companies. Loving Fleabag means you’ll buy your next toaster from Amazon, not Target or Williams-Sonoma.” 

It was interesting to read Scott Galloway today talking about the winner-take-all effect of flywheels in the context of the streaming war macrocosm. As the cofounder of a mobile streaming platform, talking about the microcosm of the flywheel we built into the product fills my days. Those emotions that drive the flywheel in our patent-pending social discovery system drive viewers to share what they’re watching, what they think of it, and invite friends to view with them.

I took a peek back at some of my own shorthand sources and insights on flywheels and growth loops captured on a Trello card. (Trello is my favorite productivity tool at the moment, and for quite a while, BTW. <More on that later.)

Readers' reviews are a gift that keeps on giving. Thanks, Leyla!

“The book captures the essence of Turkey and especially Turkish women in a way I have never seen before- I got emotional almost every chapter’s end!”

You know, having a book in print that people keep passing on, and people keep finding on their own, is such a gift. I just ran across this recent review of Tales from the Expat Harem by Leyla Tural, and it’s so lovely.

Thanks, Leyla!

While we’re at it, here are some other fun ones.

“I have a feeling that in time this book will be seen as a classic, as it is a unique record and most unusual. Well done to the publishers for taking a chance on it!”

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts after reading, even Roseleen who writes “I've read it and it's over now.”

Translation by Amazon: “That's exactly what I expected: humorous, witty never boring. Dispel clichés on the Turkish mindset, sometimes sad, but never trivial. It is also a great exercise for anyone who wants to keep in training with English, as it is perfectly understandable for those who have a good level. Perfect delivery. See you soon”

Here's the venture team I sent to the finals at UC Berkeley's school of engineering entrepreneurship bootcamp

Flashback to celeb-spotting a seafood bar in Montmartre

Come see 10 BLOCK on Product Hunt today & let us know what you think

SXSW 2019 named us a top-10 cutting edge company this spring. Now come see our direct-to-consumer mobile streaming platform like no other at the early adopter emporium Product Hunt today, watch our movies for free, and tell us what you think.

Speaking on a panel at Digital Hollywood's Creativity Festival

Will you be at Digital Hollywood's Creativity Festival next week in Los Angeles? As 10 Block’s cofounder I will be speaking on a panel at the Women's Summit about content -- from film/TV, internet video and influencer campaigns to games -- Wednesday at 12:30.

Launched onstage in SXSW 2019's top 10 product launches

Selected! Top 10 Company To Release Cutting-Edge Product On Stage At SXSW

10 Block (formerly known as Second Screen) is on the 2019 SXSW homepage today.

We're top 10 finalists to release a new product on stage opening day at the premier interactive conference in Austin, Texas.

Congrats to our fellow finalists & good luck in March! See a full list below.

Ampl
Santa Monica, CA

Ampl is an article discovery & article sharing platform that enables users to easily create conversations within shared articles on mobile. You can highlight text & add comments within articles, so a focused conversation is waiting for whoever you share the article with. It makes article sharing fun & easy.

Dorsum
Portland, OR

Dorsum is a company solving the problem of back pain caused by spinal misalignment during repetitive motion activities. Our supportive spinal device inserts into apparel as part of an interchangeable back support system. Dorsum is committed to creating purposeful and dependable products that adapt to motion and the user’s needs.

Leaf Tyme
Chicago, IL

The Leaf Tyme mobile app is a directory for the cannabis industry that connects consumers and patients to licensed dispensaries, brands, and clinics in their area. The platform allows users to find cannabis laws and regulations by state and learn how cannabis can help with common health conditions.

Lumous Helmet
Los Angeles, CA

Lumos is a next generation bicycle helmet that features integrated lights, brake, and turn signals. Lumos started as a Kickstarter campaign, and has gone on to be featured as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things and TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2018. Lumos is also the first and only bike helmet to be sold in over 300 Apple Stores worldwide.

Nori Health
Nieuwegein, Utrecht

AI-driven chatbot coach for chronic disease patients. Nori helps them through regular conversations to discover and change lifestyle factors that make symptoms worse. To find an optimal quality of life with positive relationships.

Reviver Auto-mWebb
Foster City, CA

Reviver Auto created the Rplate, the world’s first and only digital license plate, transforming the 125 year-old metal license plate into a multi-functional, bi-stable high definition digital display, and customizable, connected vehicle platform. It enables virtually any legacy vehicle to transform itself into a connected smart vehicle taking advantage of today’s and tomorrow’s technology including smart cities, AI, autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, various vehicle ownership business models and much more.

Riteband
Stockholm, CA

Riteband is a stock exchange for music that empowers artists by bringing them cash when they need it; from fans and other investors who buy their future music copyright revenues. Backers can make a profit through secondary trading, just like on the stock exchange. Find the hit. Make money.

10 Block
Venice, CA

10 Block transforms high quality feature films & TV series into an experience the mobile generation loves by making great stories into bite-size blocks you can discover, binge and share on your phone. Their platform helps content owners reach today’s mobile viewers in an addictive social community.

The Labz
Atlanta, GA

The Labz’ is a music collaboration platform that frees music creators from the complex burden of song ownership data collection, ownership splits and song registration. We do this by integrating into the music creator’s current music sharing and songwriting digital workflow, collect data while creators collaborate, take that data to instantly register their ownership on a Blockchain database platform, and auto-generate simple forms such as a copyright and a split-sheets.

Thisten
Winnipeg, Canada

Thisten is an audio to text platform that transcribes the world’s information – in real time. Backed by Google Creative Lab, Thisten was founded by Liz Jackson and members of SkipTheDishes’ startup team – Rui Melo, Ben Grynol and Sudeep Sidhu.

Judging winning venture ideas at UC Berkeley: how about a toothpaste that fills in your cavities?

Called it! Congratulations to UJU for winning best of the Berkeley-based teams at BMOE Summer 2018.

And, an algorithm called it too?

Good time at Jason Calacanis's Founder University

Got a lot out of this mini accelerator experience from Jason Calacanis, the founder of Silicon Alley Reporter (a fellow dotcom industry pub to the one I was once an editor at!) among other things, like the LAUNCH startup conference, festival, podcast This Week In Startups and LAUNCH Incubator.

I was among the 60 founders chosen from 300 applicants, and I was representing Second Screen, Inc. where I've been COO since January (icymi!). Founder University is a three-day curriculum for founders who have launched their product but haven't raised Series A. 

The Wrap's Power Women Breakfast for Girls Who Code

Good morning at TheWrap’s #PowerWomen2018 breakfast benefit for #GirlsWhoCode at Dolby Laboratories. Heard from #femalefounders of entertainment and technology ventures as well as the mayors of Oakland and Compton. #enttech #startups #wrapwomen

Second Screen featured in Europe's leading magazine for media & entertainment industry

In January I took a cofounder & COO role in Second Screen, a mobile startup in LA's Silicon Beach that aims to become the Netflix of bite-size series. Europe's magazine for the media & entertainment industry interviewed us for their May issue when they took a look at the adoption of second screen technology and other rapidly growing areas of mobile content.

Today they made the Second Screen app their cover star. Thanks to TVB editor Jenny Priestley for the interview of Second Screen's founder & CEO Estella Gabriel.

"Wouldn't the clever idea be to create an app where viewers can watch content but also comment about it?" asks TVB Europe's editor in her note prefacing the magazine.

Estella talks about social discovery: "Instead of an algorithm like Netflix has, we use a referral system. You can see what your friends are watching."

You can read the whole issue here.

Tracking the real-time reaction to Beyonce's Lemonade, TBT

I'm a big fan of the second screen experience of major cultural events.

"Never embark on last minute opportunistic adventures": ancient time management

Today the "Bad Feminist" author Roxane Gay on Twitter reminded me of this note on a website contact form I saw when requesting a blurb for the Expat Harem book: ancient self governance planning from Dr. Fatema Mernissi, shown in a screenshot of her site below.

Media & publishing pros 'running with the ball', TBT