패트릭 매켄지
Software entrepreneur known as patio11; writer of Kalzumeus and Bits about Money
937 records in all
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27 basic records of 183
Episodes are real events from public sources, summarised by us.
Patrick used Popfile to categorize emails for his business, Bingo Card Creator. He trained the system to distinguish between genuine PayPal receipts, customer support queries, and spam.
LessonStatistical filters can learn to categorize business-specific emails accurately with a small amount of initial training.
Patrick realized his manual build and deployment process required roughly fifty mouse clicks and up to 30 minutes for even a single-character change. This friction caused him to delay releasing important bug fixes and new features for weeks.
LessonHigh-friction internal processes prevent rapid iteration and lead to poor customer experiences.
After paying off his loans, Patrick decided to invest his business profits into S&P 500 index funds rather than individual stocks. He chose this to hedge against his job in the Japanese tech sector and to avoid high management fees.
LessonPassive investing allows founders to focus on their business instead of failing at active market timing.
Patrick started his business in 2006 but did not begin using SVN for version control until October 2007. He later reflected on this delay as a mistake made during his early days as a founder.
LessonAdopt professional development tools like version control from day one to track progress and protect your work.
After releasing the web version of Bingo Card Creator, Patrick decided to spend his weekend improving his internal stats tracking. He planned to monitor daily signups, logins, and perform cohort analysis to better understand user behavior.
LessonBuilding custom internal tracking allows a founder to see specific user behaviors that generic tools might miss.
Starbucks launched an email promotion intended for employees to share with friends, but it went viral and was widely abused. Instead of honoring the coupons, Starbucks canceled the promotion and posted signs in stores refusing the free drinks.
LessonAbruptly canceling a viral promotion can cause significantly more damage to a brand's reputation than the cost of the free products.
Despite having no professional background in energy, Patrick became obsessed with the potential of geothermal heat extraction. He decided to do pro bono work for a nonprofit to learn the engineering reality and see if the technology could truly scale.
LessonFollow persistent intellectual obsessions even if they fall outside your current professional expertise.
After six months of operation, Patrick observed a 5% refund rate during unstable development periods, which dropped to under 2% for mature versions. He found that most customers requested refunds simply because the product didn't fit their specific needs.
LessonTracking refund rates helps identify product stability and understand customer expectations.
Patrick noticed that competitors bid up general terms like 'sight words' but ignored 'Dolch words,' a term specific to teachers. He was able to acquire highly targeted traffic for as little as 4 cents per click.
LessonUsing niche vocabulary can significantly lower customer acquisition costs.
Wingify initially struggled as a complex enterprise analytics tool. After realizing small businesses couldn't use existing complex tools like Google Website Optimizer, they pivoted to create a simple WYSIWYG A/B testing tool called VWO.
LessonObserving where customers get stuck with market leaders reveals massive opportunities for simpler alternatives.
Patrick decided to wind down his business Starfighter and was planning to start another small SaaS. Instead, he joined Stripe to work on Atlas because he believed simplifying incorporation could have a massive global economic impact.
LessonSometimes the chance to solve a systemic problem for millions is more compelling than running a solo business.
Ryan Carson of Dropsend publicly shared an abrasive email exchange where he refused a $5 refund to a rude customer. Patrick analyzed this and argued that the $5 was not worth the stress, potential chargeback, or lost future revenue.
LessonWinning a moral argument with a customer often results in a financial loss for the business.
Patrick realized his Google Analytics wasn't tracking conversions because of a typo in a regular expression. He had typed http::/ instead of http://, causing the data for those conversions to be lost forever.
LessonAlways verify your analytics setup early, as most platforms cannot retroactively recover data lost due to filter errors.
Patrick compared PayPal with 'real' registration providers like Avantage and Plimus. He found that specialized providers would have cost him hundreds of dollars more in fees on a small profit and offered a worse user experience.
LessonDon't assume more expensive, specialized services are better if they complicate the workflow and eat your margins.
Chris Ritke launched UploadThingy in a market crowded with VC-funded competitors. By offering an embeddable solution, he secured 100 paying customers and roughly $3,000 in monthly revenue.
LessonA unique selling point like embeddability can help a small player compete against well-funded giants.
Stripe announced a product using the stablecoin USDC, even though Patrick and his employer often have differing opinions on cryptocurrency. Patrick himself has used USDC in small amounts to explore technical interests and participate in prediction markets.
LessonPersonal intellectual curiosity and corporate strategy can coexist even when there are differences in opinion about a technology's importance.
Patrick updated a controller file to fix a sidebar bug but accidentally broke the split test for Windows downloads. This prevented users from downloading the free trial for four consecutive days before he noticed the error.
LessonEven small, routine updates can break core business funnels if dependencies are not carefully tracked.
Patrick McKenzie was invited by Andrew Warner to do a live interview about his business history. He used his blog to invite readers to participate in the live chat and suggest questions for the interviewer to ask.
LessonPublic interviews are an opportunity to deepen the relationship with your existing audience by involving them in the process.
Patrick McKenzie created a manga-inspired video game to explain the frustrating reality of Japanese bank transfer reconciliation. He wanted to make the excruciatingly work-like process of matching payments to invoices interactive for others to experience.
LessonGamification or interactive tools can be more effective than long-form writing for explaining complex, boring, or frustrating industry problems.
Three U.S. banks failed within a week due to extreme stress from rising interest rates. These banks were exposed to sudden liquidity demands while their long-term assets had lost significant value.
LessonLiquidity risk can make even high-quality assets unsurvivable if they must be sold at a loss during a bank run.
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