This edition is brought to you by Seed

Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Wednesday edition of Faster Than Normal, exploring one short story about a person, a company, a high-performance tool, a trend I’m watching closely, and curated media to help you build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself. 

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Today’s edition:

Cheers,
Alex

P.S. Send me feedback on how we can improve. I respond to every email.

Stories of Excellence

Person: Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, the brilliant mathematician and writer, is widely recognized as the world's first computer programmer, having written the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. Born in 1815 in London, England, Lovelace was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and his wife, Anne Isabella Milbanke. Despite her father's absence and her mother's strict upbringing, Lovelace's intellect and curiosity flourished, leading her to pursue studies in mathematics and science.

Key Lessons from Ada Lovelace:

• On imagination: "Imagination is the discovering faculty, pre-eminently. It is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us, the worlds of Science."

• On understanding: "I never am really satisfied that I understand anything; because, understand it well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand."

• On self-belief: "That brain of mine is something more than merely mortal; as time will show."

Read more.

Company: Qualtrics

Qualtrics was founded in 2002 in the basement of the Smith family home in Provo, Utah. Scott Smith, a BYU marketing professor, had developed online survey software to speed up his own research. His sons Ryan and Jared, along with Stuart Orgill, saw the potential and started selling it to academia and businesses. They bootstrapped for a decade, reaching $50 million in revenue by 2012 before taking $70 million from Accel and Sequoia in their first outside funding. Qualtrics grew rapidly, turning down a $500 million acquisition offer in 2012. In 2018, days before a planned IPO, they were acquired by SAP for $8 billion in the largest ever acquisition of a private SaaS company at the time.

Key Lessons from Qualtrics

• On focus: "Don't talk to me about anything other than 250 school." - Jared Smith hammered home focus in the early days when Ryan would call him at Google to discuss ideas.

• On bootstrapping: By 2004 they had 20-people and there were so many cars on their street that neighbors complained and the garbage trucks couldn't get through. Qualtrics bootstrapped to $100,000/month in revenue working from the family basement.

• On culture: "Culture is something that lives in every one of us. Great companies carefully define their culture through their core values. Once you do that, you hire people who express those values long before they join your company." - Russ Laraway, VP of People Operations

Read More.

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Accelerants

High-performance tool

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Oasis

Every few weeks, I’ll share a tool or hack I’ve been trying that’s improved some aspect of my life. I have no affiliation with these and will always clearly share when that’s false.

This week, it’s Oasis for ideas. Oasis helps you record, transcribe and clean your voice memos.

My largest use case is sharing messages with friends or tasks with my assistant. The ROI for the sender is less time spent writing out a message, while the receiver gets a clean summary and transcription allowing them to process the information faster, too!

A trend I’m watching

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With over 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day, more seniors than ever are looking to age gracefully in the comfort of their own homes. In fact, 93% of older adults say aging-in-place is a top priority. But to make this a reality, many homes need to be retrofitted with senior-friendly features like grab bars, walk-in tubs and stairlifts. The home modification market is expected to reach $30B by 2030 as families invest in upgrades to help loved ones maintain independence.

A few promising business opportunities in this space:

• Turnkey "age-proofing" services that handle design, product selection and installation of home mods. Imagine an end-to-end concierge like Curbio, but focused on accessibility upgrades vs general remodeling.

• Modular, pre-fabricated ADUs (accessory dwelling units) designed specifically for aging relatives. Companies like Abodu are making backyard homes sleek and affordable. An "ElderCottage" product line could be a hit.

• AI-based tools to predict mobility challenges and recommend personalized home modifications. Startups like SafelyYou already use computer vision to detect falls. Similar tech could suggest bespoke upgrades to prevent accidents altogether.

• Marketplaces and comparison tools to find vetted contractors specializing in aging-in-place remodels. Imagine an "Angi for Accessibility" that makes it easy to locate trustworthy pros and compare quotes.

Read More.

Tactical reads

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> When you need to onboard new employees
The 22 Item Onboarding Checklist to Get Great Work From New Employees (Read it here)

> When learning to be a great investor
Charlie Munger on learning to be a great investor (Read it here)

> When you need a new reading strategy
Modern Day Reading Strategy (Read it here)

> When understanding the future of work
AI is coming for your (services) job (Read it here)

> When understanding wealth building strategy
How to Build Generational Wealth (Read it here)

1 question

That’s all for today, folks. As always, please give me your feedback. Which section is your favourite? What do you want to see more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.

Have a wonderful rest of week, all.

Recommendation Zone

⎯

Hire remote employees with confidence

Two years ago, I hired an offshore assistant for the first time. Since then, I’ve recommended many people do the same. It’s been one of the highest leverage things I’ve done, helping with everything marketing and customer support (for The Intelligence Age) and personal matters and email management.

Athyna is a service that quickly (<5 days!) finds remote employees across 150+ countries for you or your team. They cover roles from sales and marketing to creative and product, and have worked with companies like Facebook, Zoom, Uber, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Amazon.

I’ve personally used Athyna and recommended them to my Brother, Will, who runs a fashion label, and several close friends running their own businesses. To date, they’ve all had very positive experiences.

If you’re in the market for talent, visit their website to explore options and cover all your hiring needs.

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Alex Brogan

Find me on X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok

Offshore Talent: Where to find the best offshore talent. Powered by Athyna.

Why Faster Than Normal? Our mission is to be a friend to the ambitious, a mentor to the becoming, and a partner to the bold. We achieve this by sharing the stories, ideas, and frameworks of the world's most prolific people and companies—and how you can apply them to build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself.

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