Michael Mayer – Pseudonymous Social Capital and Bottomless Coffee Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

My guest this week is unique and so requires a short story.
I met our guest Michael Mayer because of twitter. I followed and enjoyed one of several pseudonymous accounts that he maintains to experiment with ideas. His various accounts have wide followings.
I think many of the best accounts on twitter are anonymous or pseudonymous, and I’ve always made a point to get to know the ones I like best. As it turns out, Michael was also an entrepreneur. He’d been building a new company and was raising a small amount of outside capital.
I didn’t invest personally, in part because he raised it so quickly after I spoke with him. Ever since, I’ve gotten to know him better and followed his company, Bottomless, with interest. You know that I am always hyper transparent about any potential conflicts of interest, so it’s worth noting that while I am not an investor in this company, I expect to be at some point in the future.
The topic of our conversation is both his social media activity and his company. I am a coffee fanatic, and the problem he is solving is one I live. I order a weekly bag of coffee beans, but I often have too much coffee or run out. Bottomless solves this by shipping you a simple scale which you keep wherever you store your coffee, connect to your Wi-Fi, and set your bag of coffee on. It automatically orders new coffee for you at the right time. Thus the name: Bottomless. If you like the conversation, check out bottomless.com 
With this podcast, all I’m really trying to do is find, meet, and learn from interesting people. Michael certainly qualifies. I hope you enjoy this unique episode.
 
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub.
Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag
 
Show Notes
2:06 - (First Question) – Why he writes under a pseudonym online
2:58 – Positive impacts of writing this way
3:45 – His background
5:02 – Habits he improved upon
7:03 – Where did his exploration into technology and start-ups come from
            7:33 – Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
10:32 – Elements of business that interest him most
13:26 – Building social capital vs the current state of education
17:06 – What information does he like to consume
            18:17 – Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
            18:34 – Jerry Neumann blog Reaction Wheel | Podcast episode
            18:39 – Kevin Simler’s blog  Melting Asphalt| Podcast Episode
21:01 – Why the current education system is busted
22:54 – Formation of his business
24:04 – Importance of making things legible
25:54 – On demand delivery vs subscription business models
30:16 – Early day in developing the scale for his business
33:50 – What he learned about coffee roasters
35:29 – thoughts on supplier power
36:17 – The customer relationship
39:50 – Best objections to his business
41:58 – Biggest operational/emotional challenges
42:56 – Best moment
44:39 – Time at Y combinator
46:28 – His unique co-founder story
49:47 – Marketing strategies and acquisition costs
51:37 – The idea of a commercial loop
53:27 – Discarded ideas, such as spaced repetition social networks
57:38 – Having a long-term plan vs reformatting a business into success
1:00:35 – What works on twitter based on his experience
1:03:09 – Most controversial opinion
1:05:59 – Kindest thing anyone has done
 
Learn More
For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. 
Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub
Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag