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10-80-10, SparkLoop, and Rush-ing eCommerce

10-80-10, SparkLoop, and Rush-ing eCommerce

June 28, 2023

Now that's what I call an exciting week! Why?

I formally took over Rush as a CEO after several months on the advisory board! Aiming to onboard thousands of new Shopify stores this year.
My WordPress retainer agency DevriX turns 13 today! Party is due next Thursday, but we've got some celebrations going on at the office today, too.
Over 500 new subscribers from our SparkLoop partner program participation!

That mixed up with a couple of podcast recordings, press releases, case studies with clients, and more to come.All in all, the summer started slower early in June, but then accelerated later this month.And with vacations and trips in the stars, delegation skills make all the difference.Enter the 10-80-10 framework.When you want to delegate an activity (besides traditional SoP documents), allocate the time this way:

10% of the time training your staff how to do it
80% they spend on executing
10% in reviews, calibration, and launching

A pretty simply paradigm to explain, let them execute, and finish. In a couple of iterations, you can offload that completely.Here's what else impacted the economy and business turn of events this week:

Business activity in the US grew with the slowest pace in 3 months this June. Manufacturing did contract further, S&P paused its growth curve, central banks won't be easing the process anytime soon.
Biden revealed a plan to enable high-speed Internet access in every single US household by 2030. While companies execute "return to the office" heavily this year, it's not over yet. The US president making fast speed communication and collaboration possible from home will provide new opportunities - and possibilities to counter the returns.
How to monetize a free newsletter? Emanuel Cinca uncovers that in this thread.
Using AI to solve a 40-hour problem in 40 seconds in the architecture field. Begs the question of billable hours and the outcome delivered.
Flippa turns 14! The largest digital marketplace for acquiring properties celebrates a 14th birthday.

As a wrap up, here's my take on why agencies will thrive in the coming months.

Let me know what you like in the coming newsletter. Anything you want to see more or less of? Don't miss the investment opportunities and stock stats further below.

Mario

My Take

✍️Rush.app - It is my absolute pleasure to announce that I'm joining Rush as a Chief Executive Officer. But why did I join Rush? In 2022, our innovative digital strategies resulted in a stellar $400,000,000 in GMV, facilitating over 13 million purchases across eCommerce stores, affiliate publishers, and hardware startups. With seamless integration into Shopify stores, Rush not only saves customer support time but also boosts revenue, generating an additional 7% monthly from order tracking page upsells.✍️Effective Leadership - Both of the previous announcements made me remember one of my personal favourite pieces I've written regarding improving your leadership skills. In a managerial role, embodying exceptional leadership qualities is essential for fostering organizational growth. The hallmarks of effective managers can be an array of subtle leadership traits, often challenging to discern unless one knows the specific characteristics to identify. Here are 22 of them:

Business Strategy 📄 Private Equity 4 year low - Private equity deal volumes have declined significantly due to high interest rates, recession concerns, and a weak outlook for corporate earnings. Unfavorable market conditions for IPOs and reduced funding opportunities have further complicated the financing environment, while private credit has helped mitigate some risks for equity investments.📄 IBM to buy Apptio for $5 Billion - IBM is reportedly nearing a deal to acquire Apptio, a cloud-based business software company, from Vista Equity Partners for around $5 billion. This potential acquisition comes after IBM's previous major purchase of Red Hat Inc. and its strategy to expand its consulting business through various acquisitions, including Octo in late 2022.📄 Coffee shops as Amazon package hubs - Amazon aims to enlist local establishments such as vintage shops, cafes, and flower boutiques as compact distribution centers, offering them compensation for providing delivery services within their communities.📄 Playable Games in YouTube - Google plans to introduce a functionality called 'Playables' on both desktop and mobile platforms. The company is actively seeking internal testers to evaluate this feature.📄 $42 Billion in Broadband funding - President Joe Biden is nearing the distribution of over $40 billion in funding for nationwide broadband expansion, aiming to connect all Americans to high-speed internet by 2030. The funding will be allocated to states based on their needs, with each state receiving at least $100 million, as part of Biden's broader effort to bring investments and opportunities to working and middle-class families across the country.

Global News😢 The layoff-verse seems to be calm this week, with larger layoffs seen in Robinhood, Uber, and Payoneer

2023 Companies with layoffs: 806
Employees were laid off in 2023: 211,363

📈

The global economy waves green flags today. Call your ex.

DOW: 33,926(+0.62%)
NASDAQ: 13,555(+1.64%)
S&P: 4,387(+1.14%)

📈

For better context on the IBM purchase of Apptio:

IBM: 132.34(+2.21%) in the past month
Apptio IT data worth: $450B

📈

US Broadband connection has seen a steep increase over the years:

Broadband Subscribers 2010: 73 Million
Broadband Subscribers 2016: 92 Million
Broadband Subscribers 2022: 112.05 Million

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US Broadband connection has seen a steep increase over the years:

Broadband Subscribers 2010: 73 Million
Broadband Subscribers 2016: 92 Million
Broadband Subscribers 2022: 112.05 Million

📰

Eastern Europe had quite the weekend. Especially decade-old regimes:

Wagner leader Yevgeny Prizogozhin accused the Russian Government of attacking his troops. That led to allegedly 25,00 forces retreating and advancing into Moscow
However, not even 24 hours after returning to Russia's borders, a deal was struck between Putin and Wagner forces, which avoided Civil war.
Whatever happened, history is being written before our very eyes

Investing Updates

With the announcement of Nimity as Seedblink's new product to help entrepreneurs ane private investors, let's look at the latest investment opportunities:

Weavy - Recently gaining the support of Atlassian Ventures, Weavy is raising nearly 3 Million in order to empower tens of millions of developers.

Nuumi - If you want to be a part of a company that helps people quit their addictions like smoking, join Nuumi's 1.5M round.

ADASTEC - A business that helps deliver pipeline contracts. If you're interested in joining, they are raising a $20M round.

Note: Got a round going that you want to feature - your own business or a portfolio company? Get in touch

Need my Help? I'm involved with a number of initiatives - here's what I can do to help you:

🌐

Scalable and secure WordPress?

DevriX

provides WordPress retainers to SMEs, publishers, eCommerce, SaaS, and more. Our plans start from $1,200/mo to $40K/mo for anything from support through engineering, CRO, performance, security, to fractional CXO services and managing the data stacks of large corps.

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Running on Shopify? Set up

Rush

now and increase your revenue with post-purchase orders automatically!

🚀

Want to scale and optimize your business?

Growth Shuttle

offers personalized advisory plans starting at $350/hr. Tap into my personal pool of business know-how and my data warehouse of industry data.

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Want access to my blueprints/books and a weekly Slack planning session? Join my

Community

and grab my