What You Need to Know Today: March 17
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
The unlikely story behind the app that runs March Madness. When Zach Maurides was a freshmen at Duke University, he struggled to balance school with football. To solve this problem, Zach used a computer science class assignment as an excuse to build an app that would organize his life. After successfully solving his own problem, Zach’s dad posed a great question, “If Duke has this problem,” he said to his son, “then every school in the country has this problem.” This prompted Zach to turn his app into a service he could sell to other schools. Was it an easy sell? Up until this point, the logistics for March Madness have been handled through email and paper (ew). Fast-forward to today and Zach’s app is in the hands of all 68 teams, their coaches, players and staff — literally running the March Madness show. Boom goes the dynamite.
+ Nike unveiled its new self-lacing sneakers. These look dope.
The next frontier in digital media. Ladies have I got a treat for you. MashableCEO, Pete “McDreamy” Cashmore, just did an interview with Ad Age, talking about linking up with Bravo to create four short-form video series. While this might not sound as tantalizing as promised, let me tell you that Mashable is on to something here. Right now, TV production is slow, expensive, and clunky. How Mashable is able to consistently produce shareable and viral content on the Web is how Mashable plans to revamp TV. “We use [proprietary technology, Velocity] to find out what’s going to be big on the Web. We then produce a blog post. We then see if that works. If that works, we create a video pilot. If that goes viral too, we then serialize. And we build the audience as we go,” says Cashmore. Read the full interview here. I predict you’ll see a lot more digital media companies selling mini series to both mainstream TV networks and streaming platforms like Netflix in the future. BuzzFeed, your move.
CAREER
How to land top tier job offers without sending a resume. “I’m 6’0”, 170 lb, in great shape, good looking, full head of hair, make $100K a year, am intelligent and fun to be around, but I can’t even get a match on Tinder or a date in real life.” — Anonymous Redditor. Can you tell why this guy isn’t getting any dates? C’mon, it’s sooo obvious ;)… Landing a top tier job offer is a lot like dating. What looks good on paper is irrelevant. All that matters is trust. To prove to a company you are trustworthy then you need to become sophisticated. Don’t read smart. In Eugene Schwartz classic book Breakthrough Advertising he talks about a concept called market sophistication. This is the kind of sophistication you need to work on. Quartzwriter Raghav Haran explains a simple two-step process that will help you become a more sophisticated job candidate. If you read just one essay today, read this one.
How to run a billion $$$ company with no offices or email. If you’re reading this on the ETR website, then you’re experiencing what Matt Mullenweg, creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, has built. “WordPress — an open-source content management system — powers an astonishing 25 percent of all websites today,” says Glenn Leibowitz, author of the blog Write With Impact. Leibowitz interviewed Matt Mullenweg, who shares how Automattic plans to capture the remaining 75 percent of the Internet, as well as how Mullenweg manages his remote team. Click here to read the shortened transcript.
LIFESTYLE
One skill every entrepreneur needs in college. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur in college, you need to be good at making friends. That’s it. Jason Li, the founder of UProspie, a company Jason started in college and featured on Shark Tank says, “Once you become a real person (aka exit the college bubble) you have SO many real obligations. Mortgage, a partner, kids… As a student, you don’t have any of that. Instead, your school is like an incubator. With UProspie, for example, my co-founder lives on the floor above me. The promo video maker lives across the hall. College is great because there are always people around who will have the technical skills that can assist you in creating a company.” For more advice from Jason on college and entrepreneurship, read his latest Medium post.
Donald Trump — con man. Scott Adams is back at it again with his Trump Persuasion series. In this essay, Adams explains why Trump doesn’t lose sleep over trying to memorize the names of foreign leaders or any of the FACTS. This essay nicely complements the essay above on landing top tier job offers with no resume.
#NOWYOUKNOW
How to Properly Pour a Guinness
From Chubbies
[Video: This is how you’re supposed to pour a Guinness]
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Daily Brief readers!
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