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- 2/1/24
2/1/24
Troy Gasnier
February 01, 2024
Howdy,
January sure flew by!
If you stick to the end, I hope you’ll check out the Thought this month.
Photo:
This month I learned that surf tournament start times aren’t set in stone.
Waiting for the swell in Nazaré
Clip:
Quick take on what distinguishes a Saas business from tech-enable business and other real world businesses.
The gist is just to look at the COGS (cost of goods sold) and how physical or digital the goods are.
There’s also some interesting speculation in this episode that with the rise of AI and the cost of producing software declining, eventually Saas margins will get competed away to more traditional business operating percentages.
Thought:
What I’m working on.
Epiphany, my ‘scratch-your-own-itch’ iPhone app project has come long way, and I’ll be releasing it to the app store in the next few months.
Today I wanted to share a bit about its origin.
The problem I started with was that all of my best ideas come when I’m away from the computer.
And having an idea is like waking up and remembering a dream. Every movement you make brings you closer to forgetting it.
No existing tool worked for me.
Opening the Notes app? Too slow.
Using Siri? Unreliable and cumbersome.
Messaging myself? Distracting.
So I created the fastest way possible to capture fleeting thoughts and ideas.
But capturing alone is worthless if they are never seen again or actioned.
That’s why Epiphany’s buttons route transcriptions to the tools I already use every day.
Delegations are sent directly to my assistant.
Personal tasks funnel into my to-do list.
Ideas and reflections route to my note-taking app.
The entire app is meant to be used in two clicks. One click to open and record. One click to finish, route the transcription, and close the app.
The majority of my 'Epiphanies' are brief, about 5-10 seconds: a tool or company mentioned over coffee, a new approach to app positioning, an effective golf swing thought, or even an idea for a section of this newsletter. 🤯
Today I spent 4 minutes talking about education for our future children while I was driving to the golf course, but that’s a topic for another time…
It’s very much been a labor of love, and I’m really loving using it.
This app definitely won’t be for everyone. To get value, you already have to have efficient systems and tools in place. Otherwise the captures will never be surfaced.
But if it does sound like you, I hope you’ll check it out.
Bonus thought:
Why don’t cars also have brake lights on the front so you can see whether or not the car is likely to hit you a crosswalk?
I guess it’s not as common in the US, but here in Portugal there are a lot of crosswalks where pedestrians have right of way, but the driver still has to stop.
See ya next month!
-Troy