How We Beat the Algorithm, Studied a Billionaire Founder, and Deleted Half Our Tools

🔍 FUNNEL VISION:

Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.

We live in a world of oversaturation.

More information is not better.

The right information is better.

• For pros: Look over all your email flows, funnels and ads. Ask yourself, “Do I need all of these?”

• For beginners: Don’t try to do too much at once. Start simple and get things right. Then scale from there.

🥡 THIS WEEK'S FUNNEL FEED

What we tested: We added inline promotional messaging to our weekly menu page, testing two different value proposition approaches: "Complete Nutrition" vs "Power-Packed" positioning, building on our successful GN37 referral promo test.

What happened: V1 ("Complete Nutrition") won decisively with subscriptions up 9%, add-to-cart up 8%, mobile conversion jumping from 18.66% to 21.21%, and more users progressing deeper into the funnel across all devices.

Why it worked: The hypothesis proved correct across three key principles:

1. Message reinforcement: Carrying over the winning referral messaging into the core menu experience created consistency

2. Value positioning: "Complete Nutrition" messaging outperformed "Power-Packed" by appealing to health-conscious decision-making

3. Context integration: Placing promotional messaging directly in the meal selection flow captured users at peak purchase intent

How to try it:

FOR $10M+ BRANDS: 

• Test your winning campaign messaging directly in your core product experience

• Segment results by device and traffic source (mobile vs desktop showed different preferences)

• Measure downstream metrics beyond just initial conversion (plan page progression, LTV impact)

• Implement the winning variant while preparing your next iteration test

STARTING OUT? TRY THIS: 

• Take your best-performing ad copy and test it as inline messaging on product pages

• Start with simple overlay badges or text treatments before complex design changes

• Focus on one clear value proposition per variant to isolate what resonates

• Track the full funnel impact, not just immediate clicks or adds-to-cart

🍱 THIS WEEK'S CONTENT BUFFET

These are some pieces of content that I felt inspired to write about.

This is a pretty crazy stat.

I think it depends on the couple or the family dynamic.

You hear a lot of family horror stories of greed.

When money comes in… people change.

But I personally would love to do this one day.

I know my girlfriend Jes reads this so she’ll be pitching business ideas tonight.

We’d be a killer team ngl 👀.

It’s really this simple.

Stop overcomplicating shit.

🍟 SWIPE OF THE WEEK

What it is: One of the best Ads I’ve ever seen.

Why it's smart: 

• Leverages social proof to the MAX

• A+ Storytelling

Steal this idea: 

Find ways you can use real customer testimonials and bring those stories to life.

🧪 AI SECRET SAUCE

Tool/Prompt I'm Using: Notebook LM to create a comprehensive research notebook on Jason Fried, Basecamp founder. I'm using this to extract insights from his business philosophy and decision-making approach.

Step 1: Document Collection & Organization:

• Create a new Notebook titled "Jason Fried: Basecamp Leadership Philosophy"

• Import key articles from Signal v. Noise blog

• Add excerpts from books "Rework" and "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work"

• Include transcripts from key podcasts (Rework, The Tim Ferriss Show)

• Gather tweets and LinkedIn posts showing real-time decisions

Step 2: Ask Notebook LM these analytical questions:

1. "What recurring themes appear across Jason Fried's writing about company culture?"

2. "Compare Jason's approach to meetings with conventional wisdom in tech companies"

3. "Extract the top 5 principles Jason uses for product design decisions"

4. "Identify how Jason's thinking about remote work evolved from 2010 to 2023"

5. "What are the key disagreements between Jason and mainstream tech/VC perspectives?"

Step 3: Create practical frameworks from the insights:

• Develop a "Basecamp Decision-Making Matrix" based on their principles

• Create a "Work Calm Assessment" to evaluate your own company culture

• Build a "Product Simplicity Scorecard" using Fried's minimalist approach

• Outline a "Meeting Necessity Flowchart" based on Basecamp's communication philosophy

• Document a "Customer-First Feature Evaluation" process from their product strategy

How to use this approach:

• Replace Jason Fried with any leader/founder you want to study deeply

• Focus on collecting primary sources (their actual words) rather than interpretations

• Use Notebook LM's conversational ability to find connections across different sources

• Create a time-ordered collection to see how their thinking evolved

• Test their principles against your own business challenges for practical application

Pro tip: Add this instruction to Notebook LM to get even better analysis: "Identify contradictions or evolutions in Jason's thinking over time. When has he changed his mind about business principles, and what triggered these shifts? Compare his stated principles with actual Basecamp/Hey product decisions."

🧂 UNDERRATED TACTIC

Getting rid of software.

I love software.

But I hate bloat.

Take time to really ask yourself...

Will I use this?

Thank me later.

🧩 FUNDAMENTALS TO MASTER

ONE THING newer marketers often get wrong about testing: Assuming that running multiple experiments simultaneously will accelerate learning and results.

INSTEAD, DO THIS: Develop a disciplined testing queue where you focus on one primary variable at a time, giving each test sufficient time and traffic to reach statistical significance before moving to the next experiment.

WHY THIS MATTERS EVEN AT SCALE: Even $50M+ brands fall into the trap of running 15+ concurrent tests, making it impossible to identify which changes actually drove results and creating a chaotic optimization process that wastes budget and slows real growth.

🧃 FOUNDER FUEL

🍽️ WHAT'S COOKING

We’re starting an internal podcast at Nutre.

The goal is to give more insight and education into what we’re doing with the goal of building a stronger community.

It’s an authentic way to market.

✌️ That’s All For This Week

Hope you guys got value out of this email.

If you have any specific questions or want me to cover any topics, just respond to this email and I'll do my best to get to them.

See you next week!