“Optimizing the Human Experience with Chris Schelzi from AppSumo” is locked Optimizing the Human Experience with Chris Schelzi from AppSumo
Hacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
Release Date: 03/29/2017
Hacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
“When asking for help, appeal to self interest over mercy or gratitude” I met Chris Schelzi in early 2015. He was working at Black Rock at the time. Then we poached him to work with us on a startup. Chris helped that startup raise more than a quarter of a million dollars in a crowdfunding campaign. Now, he's working at AppSumo, bringing you great deals on cool tools for your company. In our conversation, Chris and I dive deep into: Coffee Hedonism Diet and Exercise Ideas for the next great health tech startup How AppSumo is empowering entrepreneurs Please enjoy this episode of Hacker...
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You know those people that everybody seems to like? They have charisma. They're affable. Like Jeff Daniels on the Newsroom. That's Matt Javitch. Matt has been taking a barbell-approach to investing in Boston real estate and startups. He's my go-to resource for investment advice because, unlike some advisors who try to sell me their advice, he makes a living off his investment thesis. Also, he's never tried to sell me a thing. I invited Matt on the show to give me a deep dive into real estate investing fundamentals, quitting corporate life for startup investing and more. We talk about The...
info_outlineHacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
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Do you know somebody who loves to argue? I'm one of those people. So is Julia Kelly. We're great together. Julia is the most renowned caricature artist west of the Mississippi. She built her business from scratch and is currently starting business #2. I guess I caught her at a good time. When I asked her to do an interview with me. She made an interesting request: "Let's wing it!" She's been on some pretty awesome podcasts including: , , and . She says: the less scripted the show, the more fun the interview. My old college buddies would agree: Justus loves "doing it live". So I...
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Building products from scratch is hard. Building a business is at least as difficult. A lot of young founders and entrepreneurs lose their minds trying to grapple with the interwoven complexities of these disciplines. Chris Michaud has figured them both out. Chris is a rising phenom in the world of industrial design and manufacturing. In 2015 he left a full-time gig and started First Summit Design, a product consulting group with a focus on industrial design for cool products. He's since become involved with a number of other design-focused companies that we discuss in some depth. We had a...
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info_outlineHacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
Naf Visser is the CEO of Humans Working, an executive coaching firm that I worked with last year when I was managing the innovation department at Boston’s fastest growing tech agency and trying to get a nut butter company off the ground at the same time. He helped me manage that non-trivial workload through a mindfulness practice that I call the Art of No Thought. He’s also the founder of the Holocaust Kindness Project which we’ll talk about. I’m so glad to welcome one of my closest friends to the show: Naphtali Visser, but we call him Naf. LINKS: FIND: [3.00] Why reading ...
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David Wang is a genius-level engineer and computer scientist. He got a PhD at MIT focusing on planning for autonomous systems. He also holds degrees in techniques for improving software reliability, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Electrical Engineering, & Computer Science from MIT. His work experience includes time at JPL, Draper Labs, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Boeing, and DARPA. At MIT, he helped teach a variety of courses including one in Principles of Autonomy and Decision Making. . Since graduating, he’s helped found a school in Boston that has no courses, no subjects,...
info_outlineHacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
Diana Yuan is helping to lead the AI revolution. She is the COO of Boston’s scrappiest Machine Learning startup. Her, and her team of Olin Engineering dropouts, are democratizing machine learning tools for hackers all round the world. Startup founders have an earned reputation for nonsensical over-confidence. Often, they're impossible to spend time with socially due to a complete lack of self-awareness and social graces. Diana is not one of those people. As far as early-stage executives go, Diana has more self-awareness than most entrepreneurs twice her age. She's bright and cheerful and a...
info_outlineHacker Practice: GROWTH, SYSTEMS, and RISK for Startups and SMB
Andrew Dodson is one of the smartest hackers I know. Our conversations typically happen over coffee and Go (the ancient board game). We talk about physics and simulation theory. In fact, he once loaned me Simulation by Jean Baudrillard and I never returned it (sorry!). In episode 5 of Hacker Practice, I get the real scoop from Andrew. I am deeply interested in sustainable technology. At the moment of writing I live on a small organic farm. My hands are literally dirty from playing in the greenhouse. No lie. That's why I spent most of this episode talking with Andrew about small-scale...
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“When asking for help, appeal to self interest over mercy or gratitude”
I met Chris Schelzi in early 2015. He was working at Black Rock at the time. Then we poached him to work with us on a startup.
Chris helped that startup raise more than a quarter of a million dollars in a crowdfunding campaign.
Now, he's working at AppSumo, bringing you great deals on cool tools for your company.
In our conversation, Chris and I dive deep into:
- Coffee
- Hedonism
- Diet and Exercise
- Ideas for the next great health tech startup
- How AppSumo is empowering entrepreneurs
Please enjoy this episode of Hacker Practice with my good friend Chris Schelzi
Notes
[02:00] French Press vs Chemex
- French Press = Full immersion, full body
- Chemex filters do a lot of heavy lifting
[06:00] Justus's favorite cup of coffee
- French Press + Heavy Cream @ 4 AM
- Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony
[07:20] BOOKS
- How books and can be an indulgence
- Owning books vs going to the library
- Aristotle's Golden Mean
- Plutarch's How to Profit by One's Enemies
- Histories by Herodotus
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
- "The non-fiction, black Catcher in the Rye"
- Recidivism - noun the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend.
[16:00] Coffee as a vice. How to best enjoy vices in general.
[17:30] Why you shouldn't be afraid to return things to the store
[18:30] Zen Roaster. Roasting your own coffee. Moving meditation. Coffee rituals. Chris built himself a side-table.
- Designing and building things by hand is zen af.
[23:30] We talk about axes and camping for a bit
[26:30] Our mutual interest in health and physiology
- Diet - How to get shredded like Chris?
- Low carb, high fat.
- Exercise recommendations?
Frozen Fatty Coffee Drink
[39:00] How to teach anti-science people a better way.
"Show them a cleaner glass of water".
Bullet Proof Coffee gets mentioned about a hundred times.
[43:00] Intermittent fasting. Strength training + Tabata Sprints
Diet scheduling. Fasting from protein can improve protein utilization. Lift heavy things and sprint. Keep it simple.
Eat a lot of vegetables. Mostly vegetables.
[46:00] Isometrics workouts to build strength without putting stress on joints. On grass or in the pool. "Jack your heart rate up".
[49:00] Chris's $10,000 offer for a health technology product for monitoring various biological markers
- The state of health monitoring is abysmal for the average or even extraordinary consumer
- Idea - Implant that continually measures important biomarkers. Measure in real time.
- Dutch testing for cortisol and other hormones
- This idea could change the way we interact with dieting and health in general
- What would a version one of this tech look like? Measuring the following:
- Sex Hormones
- Stress Hormones
- Cholesterol
- Fat Soluble Vitamins (A, E, D, K)
- Glucose and Ketones
[1:02:30] What is Chris working on now?
- AppSumo - Groupon for Geeks
- DesignBold - Design made easy
- SerpStat - All in one SEO tooling
- The cult of the "Sumoling"
[1:05:30] What kind of company works with App Sumo
- GREAT tools for small businesses
- Validated by some users
- Startups that have Product Market Fit and are looking to scale to the next level
[1:10:00] Chris's role at Appsumo
- Operations and Marketing
- Focusing on retention in 2017
[1:13:00] Final requests
- Build that health monitoring
- @chrisschelzi on instagram
- Read The Righteous Mind by Johnathan Haidt and Everything by Robert Greene
- Landmark Series of Herodotus
Conclusion
This conversation could have easily been three times as long. I'll certainly have Chris on the show again.
If you enjoyed today's episode please subscribe to the show and leave a review on iTunes.